SALEM — A small group of school board members who were tasked with looking into the future of sports within MSAD #58 announced last Thursday that funds raised recently for the program as well as those that may be raised in the future would be refocused. Their announcement along with recent contributions from the business community may help the district sports program get back on track.

Directors Sarah Strunk of Eustis, Kim Jordan of Kingfield, Ellen James of Avon and athletic director Jeff Pillsbury have been meeting since the school board made significant cuts to sports programs earlier this year. Due to the need to cut nearly $500,000 from the district budget, half of the middle school coaches were cut. The expenditure for all junior varsity coaches was eliminated as well as the stipend for an athletic trainer. Lastly, a line item for uniforms was also eliminated. A year earlier, the costs associated with official officials for baseball and softball during middle school contests were also eliminated.

Recently, Poland Spring donated the $12,400 needed to restore the middle school sports programs. The Franklin County Health Network also donated costs to restore the trainer position.

Pay-to-participate in high school sports was a concept developed to help restore junior varsity programming. At $35 per high school athlete per season, there was concern that the pay-to-participate fees would fall short of the JV costs.

Before the announcements of the donations from the hospital and Poland Spring, the committee started reaching out to the communities for fundraising efforts.

With the corporate donations now in place, Strunk said that her group has decided that there’s a new focus for raising funds. She explained that money raised in the past and the future would go to the following:

Up to $1,000 would go to help pay the unofficial officials for middle school baseball and softball games. The balance would then go to help balance costs for junior varsity sports. Any money leftover would roll into the following fiscal year.

After significant discussion concerning who administers the funds, it was agreed to keep the account with the central administration office business manager.