OXFORD — Superintendent Rick Colpitts announced to the Oxford Hills School District board members Monday night that the district failed to received a $3 million federal grant, but he believes it will be in the running for next year’s distribution.

The four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education was distributed to schools to boost science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.

The district did not place in the top 20 schools, but is waiting to see what score it had compared to the other applications, Colpitts said.

The grant would have been used for professional development and curriculum. District Health Coordinator Pat Carson presented the grant application to Board of Directors at its meeting two weeks ago. At that time he said the district was one of 117 nationwide and the only one in New England invited to apply.

Carson and other members of the staff, including PEP grant director Lance Belanger, Physical Education Director Jen Cash and two students, presented an update on  a $1.2 million PEP grant the district was awarded a year ago.

The district has used some of the money to create a high school  fitness center with 45 pieces of new equipment, a middle school fitness center with a rock climbing walk and fitness equipment, a revised kindergarten through grade 12 physical education curriculum that focuses on cardiovascular fitness, a farm to school program, professional development and a host of other items.

This year, the grant will provide about $400,000 to expand the programs and create new ones.

“We rally came up with something we aspired to,” Carson said in explaining how the staff decided to use the grant money.

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