The district was approached by Northwood School, a Lake Placid-based private school, last month with a proposal for an athletic merger that would allow day students whose families live in Lake Placid to participate in LPCSD sports. The district declined.

The matter did not come before the school board for a vote but was instead decided by the athletic department; the school board approves athletic mergers as they’re recommended by the athletic department. Recently approved athletic mergers include an indoor track merger with Saranac Lake Central School District in November 2023 and a hockey merger with SLCSD in October 2023. Most mergers occur in one-year cycles and are revisited each year.

At the Feb. 6 meeting, representatives of Northwood School and LPCSD parents turned out to question the district’s decision.

Chris Fey, the father of two LPCSD middle school students, said the looser boundaries of other programming should extend to athletics, too.

“I understand that there are district boundaries, but if they’re local, taxpayer families, why would we turn them down here in our own district? The Lake Placid Community Ski Program, they don’t just take (LPCSD) kids. They take St. Agnes kids. We’re out there, working hard, volunteers. The same parents are running these programs that support all the kids who are doing these activities.”

Fey, who is also the principal of AuSable Forks Elementary School in the AuSable Valley Central School District, added that athletic mergers can benefit students and the community alike.

“Having worked at AuSable Valley where we support mergers for just about any kid, for any sport … it’s been an exceptionally beneficial experience for those students and for our students at AuSable Valley,” he said. “If we really want to form community, which you guys have done an exceptional job at, it really should continue into the varsity sports program here at (LPCSD).”

Carrie Wardlaw, Northwood School’s senior associate director of admission, said the merger would “enhance the sports programs of both our schools.”

“Students from both schools would benefit from increased opportunities to participate in a wider range of sports, fostering a sense of inclusivity and diversity,” she said. “The synergy created by a successful merger would inspire community members to invest in and rally behind the unified teams.”

Northwood School faculty member, former Keene Central School board member and Fey’s wife, Heather Odell, wrote a letter in support of the merger.

“(Sports) are more than just about shoulder pads and playing time. These decisions impact the development of the whole student: socially, emotionally, academically. But sadly, these decisions are often based on tradition, numbers, fielding teams, ego,” she wrote.

Odell described a scenario in which the KCSD school board, save for her, voted to deny a cross country merger with Lake Placid for one student in order to preserve the soccer team’s numbers. She said that, rather than bolstering the soccer team, this decision just discouraged the student.

“The board of education did successfully convey to this young man that his talents and interests were not as worthy of those of his peers,” she wrote. “The board of education did make clear that we cared more about numbers than guiding this student in achieving his full potential, even though we had the resources to do so.”

Odell wrote that this incident and a later denied athletic merger convinced her to move her family to Lake Placid so her kids could attend LPCSD.

At the board’s previous meeting on Jan. 23, LPCSD Superintendent Timothy Seymour said a recent review of the district’s sports teams by athletic director Jeffrey Nemec showed team numbers were strong enough that LPCSD did not need to merge with other districts to compete.

“There’s only a few areas where we’re concerned with our future numbers, in girls basketball and volleyball. Otherwise, our team numbers are strong and seem to indicate that we continue to be able to field our teams internally to the best of our ability,” Seymour said.

Seymour cited the internal review as the reason the athletic department declined the merger. On Feb. 6, Seymour said that the board would address the comments and letters during the “information for the public” section of an upcoming meeting. Board president Dan Cash told the News on Feb. 11 that the merger was not on the board’s next agenda as an action item.