TRENTON — Concerned about the disappearance of some elementary school athletic teams, the Mount Desert Island Regional School System Board is discussing the possibility of an islandwide amalgamation of grammar-school athletic teams.

“I’m pretty certain that next year there won’t be a girls’ basketball team at Trenton Elementary. I don’t know where those kids are going to go,” said board member Charlie Farley during a recent meeting.

Currently, Pemetic in Southwest Harbor, and Tremont schools are already regularly combining students from the two schools onto various athletic teams. Meanwhile, Connors-Emerson in Bar Harbor frequently finds itself in the opposite position, turning students away from athletics because of high demand for participation in certain sports.

During the MDIRSS discussion, Bunky Dow, athletic director at Mount Desert Island High School, spoke on behalf of the athletics department.

His concerns are logistical problems like travel distance and time and potential difficulties in allowing fifth-graders to play on small-enrollment teams.

“Quality of play and safety issues are concerns,” said Dow.

According to Scott McFarland, principal of Mount Desert Elementary, plans to restructure elementary athletics programs with more community involvement are in the works.

“We are in the planning stages to have some sort of islandwide forum, to which we invite all the stakeholders and policymakers on the island (and Trenton) such as the YMCA, Camp Beech Cliff, the schools,” he said. “It is an opportunity to take a look at everything we’re doing and see if we could be doing it differently – and see what kinds of opportunities exist out there. Because there are changing demographics, and I think it’s time to take a fresh look at things.”

For more sports news, pick up a copy of the Mount Desert Islander.