The Oxford Area School District is the K-12 public school district for the town of Oxford in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The school’s new location was opened in September 2005.
he Community of Oxford is located in southwestern Chester County, one of Pennsylvania’s three original counties established in 1682 by William Penn, and the fastest growing county in the state according to the 2010 census. When pioneering Scotch-Irish settlers arrived in the region of gently rolling hills, verdant forests, and rushing streams in the first decades of the 18th century, they quickly cleared the fields, planted crops and established homesteads.
By 1767, when the Mason Dixon line finally determined our region’s southern border, several small villages had emerged among the farms and water-powered mills that dotted the countryside. Most prominent of these was the hamlet of Oxford, located at the intersection of three major roads: the old post road from Philadelphia to Baltimore, a former Indian pathway leading from the Chesapeake Bay north to Pennsylvania’s mountains, and a major east-west route connecting Delaware with Lancaster and beyond.
Oxford Area School District is approximately 90 square miles in area and is bounded by Avon Grove School District to the east, Octorara School District to the northeast, Solanco School District, Lancaster County, to the west and northwest, and the state of Maryland to the south. The Borough of Oxford, centrally located within the district, is the largest population center. The school district also encompasses the townships of Upper and Lower Oxford, East and West Nottingham, and Elk. Agriculture remains the primary industry and major land use activity in the district. Herr Foods, Inc. is a snack company located in the community of Nottingham, one of the larger commercial employers in the district.
