enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Kennebunk resident Andrew Rimmer, who has three children in the local school system, poses questions related to sports programs to Superintendent Patrick Manuel and a panel at the Kennebunk Town Hall on Thursday.

enlarge Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Kennebunk Elementary School was closed Thursday for seven days because of a student with a suspected case of swine flu.

KENNEBUNK — Eight-year-old Sophie Smith was playing baseball under blue skies instead of sitting in a classroom Thursday. But the third-grader wasn't exactly thrilled about the situation.

"I'm a little sad because I like to learn stuff," she said. "I really love science."

Sophie was among the 476 Kennebunk Elementary students who will not be able to return to school until next Thursday due to a suspected case of swine flu. The school – the first in Maine to close because of the illness – will shut down for seven calendar days in accordance with guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The news that H1N1 influenza had hit their community had parents scrambling for information about the quickly evolving situation and, in some cases, arranging for child care. But while there was a hunger for information and hundreds of students at other district schools also stayed home, the community seemed to respond to the situation calmly.

"For now, yeah," Lindsay Smith, Sophie's father, agreed. "There's not much you can do about it."

Smith spoke during a break from pitching to Sophie, her 7-year-old brother, Charlie, and 8-year-old Sophia Ingham, a neighborhood friend, at Parsons Field. Smith, a financial analyst, said his family is lucky on the child care front because he and his wife, Laura, a journalist, have some flexibility in their schedules.

The state is "highly suspicious" that a child who attends Kennebunk Elementary has swine flu, and that the child's sibling has it as well. The sibling goes to the Crayon Academy day care center in Arundel, which is also closed for seven days. The children are showing symptoms, and live in the same household as an adult who has been positively diagnosed with swine flu. The siblings are at home and are not seriously ill, according to Dr. Donald Burgess, the consulting physician for the school and the day care.

The possible arrival of swine flu in town set off a chain of other decisions. The Beyond Tots pre-school program run by Kennebunk's Parks and Recreation Department will also be closed. All activities for Kennebunk-Kennebunkport Little League have been suspended for the seven-day period as well. Registration for the town's summer recreation programs, originally scheduled for today, has been pushed back a week.

GymNation, a gymnastics program in town that one of the affected siblings attended Monday, closed Thursday and will reopen Saturday, according to Carol Dickinson, the owner.

The town's May Day celebrations, however, will take place Saturday as planned – albeit without Little League players marching in the parade.

Beyond Tots was closed and its program registration postponed as precautions, Town Manager Barry Tibbetts said during a morning news conference that included school and town officials and an infectious-disease specialist. Tibbetts said a couple of the 38 children in Beyond Tots also go to Crayon Academy, and the registration could draw hundreds of people to town hall. It seemed safe to proceed with the May Day celebration because it takes place outdoors, he said.

The news conference drew several dozen people, including concerned parents who asked questions ranging from whether they should wake their children during the night to check them for symptoms to whether pork products should be avoided. The answer to both was no.

Shawn Fuller, president of the Kennebunk-Kennebunkport Little League, said he and the board of directors determined it was best to suspend league activities because many of the 470 participating children attend Kennebunk Elementary.

Public health officials advised Kennebunk Elementary and Crayon Academy families to keep their children home and refrain from congregating, said Dr. Andrew Pelletier, a medical epidemiologist with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The aim is to create some social distance...