SALEM TOWNSHIP – An eighth-grade student from Freeman Township will not be permitted to play soccer on the Strong Elementary School team in September unless SAD 58 board members can solve a conundrum.

Toby Logan wants to be home-schooled this year rather than attend Strong Elementary School, but he still wants to play soccer with his friends there. The issue stems from the fact that Logan lives in an unorganized township, which means there is no school board to authorize payment of partial tuition to cover the costs of his participation.

SAD 58 Superintendent Quenten Clark said state law mandates that a home-schooled student living in one of the five towns served by the school district may participate in extracurricular activities. However, there are no laws regulating students from unorganized territories who pay tuition to go to the school of their choice.

A similar issue arose in the past when two home-schooled students were permitted to participate in school sports, but those students were from Carrabassett Valley and Coplin Plantation, organized towns with school boards that approved payment of fees for the children’s participation. The district’s high school is in Salem Township, where the board met Tuesday night.

The issue is complicated. The superintendent and board members attempted to generate a solution at their meeting Tuesday night but were unable come to a satisfactory conclusion and tabled the discussion until their next meeting in September.

Several suggestions were considered but were quickly rejected.

Enrolling Logan for the soccer season was not acceptable because he would not be attending school and would hurt the district’s attendance rate mandated to be 95 percent by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Allowing him to play by charging the student’s parents for the cost was another idea. The cost for the other two students was about one-sixth of the tuition charged to attending students.

But Clark was not comfortable charging the family. Though Jim Logan, the boy’s father, was amenable to a “reasonable” charge, Clark thought that setting this precedent might exclude a future student whose family could not afford the cost.

And precedent was the major concern of the board members. Whatever is decided for Logan, whom they characterized as a good fit for the soccer program, would be the reigning rule for future requests of this nature.

Adding to the complexity, Logan said his son had recently mentioned possibly wanting to attend art class at the elementary school. Home-schooled children are permitted to attend specific classes if their school boards approve to pay the partial tuition but, again, the issue of the unorganized territory came up.

The school board’s next meeting is Sept. 14. Soccer season begins Aug. 31. Logan will not be allowed to play unless the board can solve the issue before the season starts.

Mike Pond, president of the school board, suggested that Logan contact his state legislators saying that it is really an issue for the state. Clark agreed saying Logan should also contact Dick Moreau, director of education for the unorganized territories.

Clark also pointed out that SAD 58 is unique in that 20 percent of the students attending school in the district pay tuition, meaning they are not from the five towns of Phillips, Eustis, Avon, Kingfield and Strong served by the district but rather choose to go to school there. Clark said he believed there has not been a precedent set in another school district with regard to this issue to guide them.

Many students who are home-schooled in the state are educated in this manner because they live too far from schools precluding them from participating in the programs.