OXFORD, Mich. – The board of education for Oxford Community Schools has unanimously voted to appoint a new superintendent three months after a deadly mass shooting at Oxford High School that has kept the district in the public eye.
During a special meeting on Friday, March 4, that the district’s board of education unanimously voted to elect Ken Weaver as the new superintendent of Oxford Community Schools. Formal appointment of the new superintendent is expected to take place during the March 14 board meeting, pending a contract agreement.
Oxford Community Schools Board of Education is pleased to announce it has unanimously selected Ken Weaver as the next...
Posted by Oxford Community Schools on Friday, March 4, 2022
Officials said Friday that the search for a new superintendent for Oxford Community Schools began last October.
“The selection of the Superintendent came at the end of a deliberate and thorough process that began in October of 2021 facilitated by John Silveri, Regional President of the Michigan Leadership Institute,” the district wrote Friday on Facebook. “The Board of Education initially interviewed five highly qualified candidates before narrowing its focus to two finalists and ultimately selecting Mr. Weaver. The Board is grateful for the active engagement of students, staff members, parents and community members throughout the process.”
The new superintendent is expected to officially take over the role on March 15.
Weaver currently works as the deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the district. He joined Oxford Community Schools in 2003, and has worked as the assistant principal for Oxford High School for three years, and as principal for Oxford Middle School for eight years.
Current OCS Superintendent Tim Throne was slated to retire in January, but delayed his retirement amid the Oxford High School shooting and the district’s response to it. In a letter from December, Throne wrote that it was “simply not the right time” for him to leave his position, and that he remained “solely focused on responding” to the tragic shooting.
Throne is named as one of several administrators and staffed in a federal civil lawsuit filed by the parents of survivors of the mass school shooting. The $100 million lawsuit alleges that district administrators and staff members ignored warning signs and disturbing behavior of the suspected teen shooter. The district has maintained that school staff and administrators were not negligent.
Related: Oxford schools superintendent ‘clarifies’ incidents before, after mass shooting
New evidence was recently revealed during a court hearing for the suspected shooter’s parents, who are also being accused of being negligent and failing to take steps to prevent the mass shooting that killed four students and injured seven other people. A counselor for the high school shared his perspective about the day of the shooting and conversations he had with the accused shooter, Ethan Crumbley.
That counselor is among a number of staff who have been named in a new civil lawsuit connected to the shooting.
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