Medford School District signals it might withdraw from SOESD


Medford, Or.- The Medford School District voted to submit a notice of intent to withdraw from the Southern Oregon Education Service District Monday night.

“We have to do what’s best for the district and always looking at student achievement,” Dr. Brian Shumate, Medford School District superintendent said. “We’re a large enough district that we can do that in most cases and it’s certainly an assessment process that we are going through.”

Shumate says that many of the functions the service district provides the Medford School District can do on its own.

“We look at it as can we do things better if the services were closer to us,” he said.

The change would save the district money.

“The one thing that I believe is that by bringing services in house we have closer control on how those services are delivered,” he said.

Regardless of the decision, Shumate says their priorities are with the staff members and students.

“We have to do what’s best for the school district,” he said. “If we think this is the right thing to do then we’ll make that call.”

The district will notify SOESD by Nov. 1 but won’t make their final decision until March.

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