NEW SWEDEN (AP) – The community where 16 people were poisoned by arsenic-tainted coffee at a church gathering got some good news Wednesday when its tiny, rural school was honored by the state.

The Maine Department of Education announced that the New Sweden Consolidated School has been designated as Maine’s Title IA Distinguished School for fiscal 2003.

The designation was based on standardized test scores in reading and math at the fourth and eighth grade levels.

“The New Sweden school has always set high student learner expectations for all children,” said Rebecca Haskell, superintendent of School Union 122, which includes New Sweden.