Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — SAD 1 directors OK’d a new policy last Wednesday night outlining the board’s position regarding school-sponsored events being held on Sundays.
The approved document states, “It is the policy of SAD 1 that no school-sponsored activities will be held on a Sunday. In unusual or extenuating circumstances, the superintendent may approve requests that, due to scheduling conflicts, cannot be held on a day other than Sunday.”
“With the last sentence, I was attempting to reflect some of the discussion that was held at the August meeting that there might be some occasions when exceptions could be made when one scheduled event is conflicting with another,” said Superintendent Gehrig Johnson.
The issue resurfaced recently when Johnson received a request from drama director Leslee Mahon to hold a Sunday performance of the upcoming Presque Isle High School fall play production to accommodate a scheduling conflict with the All-Aroostook Music Festival.
Johnson said he does not envision the policy to include practices for athletic events. Any events to be approved would be scheduled for afternoon or evening, and students who could not attend would be excused.
“On the athletic side, I don’t see our present Sunday policy changing. We’ve typically had no requests from our athletic program to schedule Sunday activities,” he said. “Our requests come from the arts and music departments, and other non-sports activities.”
Typically Johnson receives a handful of requests each year to hold Sunday events.
In the weeks following the August meeting, two directors said they have only heard from people who did not support allowing Sunday events.
“I went out of town for a few days right after our last meeting and when I got back my answering machine had calls on it and all of them — uniformly — essentially said the same thing … that parents did not want school activities on Sunday,” said director Terry Sandusky. “The primary reason being they believe that kids are already over scheduled. By allowing Sunday events, it would increase the pressure on the kids.
“I didn’t get a call saying it was a good idea,” he said, “but I got a few saying, ‘Keep it like it is.’”
Brent Buck agreed.
“I had several calls starting the day after it came out in the paper. I heard from five or six different people and there was nobody in favor of any school activities on Sundays,” he said. “Nobody said, ‘I think we need an extra day.’ Instead people felt that Sundays were for families, church and other activities. That seemed to be the resounding theme of everybody that called.”
After additional discussion by the board, the policy was approved 11-2.
