Waterford Elementary School sixth-graders Katherine Simmons, left, and Elise Dekutoski try to decipher a mathemetics problem at the Oxford Hills School District math meet Wednesday at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris.

PARIS — More than 100 fifth- and sixth-graders from the Oxford Hills School District competed in a mathematics meet Wednesday as an alternative to traveling to the statewide event in Portland, which was deemed too costly.

Although the students have been participating in the Southern Maine Elementary Math League meets three or four times a year, coach David Stearns said, school officials said the district’s budget just could not accommodate the more than 100-mile round trip.

“This is a budget issue. We came up with our own idea,” Curriculum Coordinator Kathy Elkins said.

A total of 116
fifth- and sixth-graders from eight schools were bused to Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School. They were divided into 22 teams, each with a name, and seated at tables. Each team was given the same questions used in the statewide competition in Portland last November and a time limit to answer them. They were not allowed to use calculators, Stearns said.

“This is new for us,” Stearns said of the district-wide event.

Each of the eight schools has math teams, which is an after-school elective open to all fifth- and sixth-graders, he explained.

“They don’t have to be mathematically inclined. They just have to like math,” he said.

Awards were presented to the top three teams and the top three individuals in each grade, Stearns said Wednesday night, but those names were not immediately available.

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Fifth and sixth grade students from eight elementary schools in Oxford Hills competed at a districtwide math meet Wednesday at the high school in Paris. The meet was an alternative to attending a statewide meet in Portland, which was deemed too costly travelwise.