NEW SWEDEN, Maine — The New Sweden School Board held their regular monthly meeting on Thursday in the library of the New Sweden Consolidated School.
During the meeting, New Sweden Principal Laurie Spooner gave her monthly principal’s report, in which she congratulated New Sweden and their fellow Union 122 schools for their achievements during this year’s fall sports season. Particularly, Spooner congratulated the soccer and cross country teams for their outstanding performances in their respective sports.
“Our soccer season ended a little bit earlier than our cross country one did,” said Spooner. We did have a few students who actually participated on both teams, and our boys’ cross country team earned second place for the entire year, which is pretty remarkable and says an awful lot for the future of the Caribou High School boys team, since the first place team was Caribou and Union 122 came in second. Clearly, there’s some strength coming up there.”
As for the future of New Sweden’s basketball program, the news wasn’t quite as hopeful, but the school has been flexible in finding a way for those students from New Sweden who would like to play basketball during the upcoming season to do so.
“We went back and forth and all around about basketball, but ultimately, we’ve decided that the best thing for the school is to provide those students who would like to participate in basketball the opportunity to do so, without making it a discouraging experience,” said Spooner. “Speaking with Lee Thompson, who has previously been the coach, we discussed some of our options and we agreed that having a team sponsored by New Sweden probably wasn’t going to be in our best interest this year, just based on numbers.”
Spooner added that when she asked how many students would be interested in playing basketball this year, she had nine students who originally came forward.
“Before the end of the day, I had two students come to me and say they had changed their mind, and with the consideration of grades and attendance, I knew we would likely lose two more, so that didn’t leave us with much of a team,” said Spooner. “Even with the possibility of home-schooled students, there wasn’t enough interest for us to feel comfortable creating a co-ed team.”
Spooner explained that she then approached the Woodland Consolidated School, and they did agree to take on any students who wanted to play.
“When I went back to the class and asked again who wanted to play, there was only one remaining student who was interested,” said Spooner. “Again, I spoke with Lee Thompson and we discussed the numbers. We really didn’t want to see the program disappear completely, so what we decided to do, is to offer more of a rec ball clinic style basketball to students, a couple days a week during the season, and at least give them the option to play basketball, just not competitively. That was the compromise we came up to in order to make sure everyone who wanted to play got the chance.”
Spooner added that for the majority of the students, this was an idea they welcomed.
“The ones who want to play are mostly younger students to begin with,” said Spooner. “The older students were actually rather pleased with the outcome, since this type of program wasn’t going to be quite the commitment a school sponsored team would be. They will still be able to participate, but without the strict commitment.”
Spooner added that both the students and their parents seemed happy with the decision. She also explained that Woodland has already started practicing, so the one student who did decide to play for Woodland’s school team has been riding the high school bus at the end of the day in order to make it to Woodland for practice.
Spooner also reminded the board of some upcoming events that will be taking place at the New Sweden School. On Monday, Nov. 10 at 9 a.m. the school will hold a Veteran’s Day Assembly in the New Sweden School’s gymnasium. On Thursday, Nov. 20 the school will host a community luncheon at 11:15 a.m. Those who would like to attend must RVSP the school prior to the luncheon. Last but certainly not least, this year’s annual St. Lucia’s celebration will take place on Friday, Dec. 12 at 6:30 p.m.
The next regular meeting for the New Sweden school board will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the New Sweden Consolidated School.
