Oxbow Elementary

School Spirit

Oxbow's mascot is the Owl, its colors are blue and white, oddly similar to the Lakeland High School mascot (Eagle) and the same colors, although a slightly different shade of blue. As an Elementary School, it has no interscholastic sports programs, as those are not allowed to any student who has not yet reached the 7th grade (second year of middle school/junior high). Oxbow has a school anthem and it is sung every day after the national anthem. The lyrics are very simple, just repeating two lines 2-3 times, as you would expect from an Elementary School anthem. The anthem is-

Oxbow Students are the best, We outshine all the rest [Repeat 2-3 times]

It has taken on other forms as well, originally the anthem was-

Oxbow Owls are the best, We outshine all the rest [Repeat 2-3 times]

However, because few people know, what the Oxbow mascot is, the lyrics were changed to their current form. The anthem has been in place since the 1999-2000 school year.

Quality

Oxbow, is a part of the Huron Valley School District, a public school and currently sorely underfunded. Recent cuts in budgets throughout the state of Michigan have been devastating to small schools like Oxbow. Oxbow has an exemplary staff of teachers and administrators. One of Oxbow's 5th grade teachers recently received the Walter P. Chrysler "Closing the Technology Gap in Education" award, which carried with it a $15,000 award for his school [1]. He was also awarded the prestigious Milken Educator Award by the Milken Family Foundation. Oxbow has an above average MEAP (Michigan Education Assessment Program) testing scores [2], and an A rating by the state of Michigan. However, the last MEAP testing (in Fall of 2005), almost 40% of those tested did not meet the state requirements in Writing, over 25% did not meet requirements in Math, and over 23% did not meet requirements in Science. Furthermore, it is falling behind the district average in many areas [3]. Oxbow has average teacher to student ratios for the state of Michigan, about 1 teacher to every 20 students as of 2002 [4]. However, if funding does not increase, cutbacks may raise this ratio and Oxbow could fall behind the state average.

Diversity

Oxbow Elementary is a diverse school, but not in the ethnic area. 91.5% of Oxbow's students are of European-American (White) descent. The remaining 8.5% is split among many ethnic groups, the most prevalent being American Indian [5]. The diversity within Oxbow is instead socio-economic. The entire Huron Valley district has this same type of diversity [6]. The area which Oxbow is located brings this about and there is a huge gap between the poorest students and the wealthiest students. There is a strong middle class in the Oxbow Elementary area and a prevalent upper class who mainly live on lake-front homes as there are many lakes in the region. And there is also a very high population of poverty stricten people, mainly living in the many apartment complexes and trailer parks that are scattered throughout the landscape of the White Lake area. In 2005 25% of Oxbow students were given free or reduced lunch prices due to economic status [7]. And even with this, the people who attend Oxbow Elementary have an average household income of just over $62,000 per year. Obviously some people are very well off in order to bring that figure up so dramatically, even with 25% of the school requiring free or reduced lunch prices.

Budget and monetary matters

Oxbow received some reconstruction in 2003 with money from a large grant the school received due to a local vote on a spending proposal. The school was completely repainted, new carpetting was put in, a new gym floor was built, a few new play structures replaced the old ones in the playground, new computers were bought, and overall the school was improved dramatically.