Newtown Middle School Principal Thomas Einhorn and district Athletic Director Matt Memoli spoke to the Board of Education at its March 7 meeting about some of the potential for expanded athletic programs at NMS.

Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, introduced the topic saying it was the beginning of a conversation for the district to look at the conceptual design of the middle school's athletic program. The discussion of looking at the potential to add different sports at NMS, Dr Erardi said, began during budget deliberations, and the update on Tuesday was made to share progress with the school board.

Einhorn said a group effort began by looking at surrounding towns "to see what kind of teams that they offer so that we would have a better appreciation of what we could potentially offer and what schools we could play against. So that was a great starting point."

Seventh grade students were also surveyed to see what sports they would be interested in playing.

"We're really pleased to see that we had a lot of strong support for cross country, which would be a fall sport; for field hockey, which additionally would be a fall sport; for track in the spring; and then for Unified soccer," Einhorn said.

Einhorn reminded the school board NMS began a Unified Sports basketball team this school year, "with great success."

The group that has been looking at expanding the athletic offerings, according to Einhorn, also looked at potential grants with the district's grant writer.

"We wanted to see if there were any grant opportunities out there to help fund this venture, at least for seed money to get it started," Einhorn said.

Some sports are more expensive than others, with equipment and coaches to fund, Einhorn added.

"We are very interested in the track aspect, but the middle school currently does not have a track, so that would require us to travel," said Einhorn, adding the high school track is used "quite often during the season."

One of the next steps, Einhorn shared, includes speaking to staff to find potential coaches.

Overall, Einhorn told the school board, there has been "some good progress is looking at the possibility of bringing some additional sports to the middle school."

Memoli said the meetings the group has had have been positive and focused on creating more opportunities for Newtown's students.

After board member Rebekah Harriman-Stites asked about track and cross country options, Memoli said a cross country program, with a potential 3.2-mile course created at NMS, would make the "most sense" financially. Track, he said in comparison, would not be feasible to have NMS and NHS students participating on the NHS track, as track has a large number of high school participants already.

Dr Erardi said the group is primarily first looking at the potential of expanding the athletic programs at NMS with two questions in mind.

"Does it make sense, and if it does is there an interest in expanding the middle school opportunities?" Dr Erardi said.

Right now, the superintendent said the student opportunities are narrow.

"Our conversation was really around is there anything that is not offered either through [Newtown Parks & Recreation] or through a private entity that could be offered?" Dr Erardi shared.

The superintendent said the district also sees participation in any after school programs as a support for social and emotional student growth, which is why, he said, the group is looking for potential grant support in funding potential athletic programs.

Board member Andrew Clure thanked Einhorn and Memoli for the group's work and said he is excited to see the results of the rest of the group's efforts.