enlarge Tim Greenway/Staff Photographer

Greg Frangoulis of Shoestring Theatre leads a group of large puppets during the May Day parade in downtown Kennebunk on Saturday.

enlarge Tim Greenway/Staff Photographer

Quinton Johansen was dressed as a 1st-century Roman Legionnaire as part of the parade. Johansen was with Northern Crane Martial Arts.

enlarge Tim Greenway/Staff Photographer

The morning sun casts shadows made by members of the Dunlap Highland Band as they play their bagpipes and drums during the May Day parade in downtown Kennebunk.

KENNEBUNK — Local students may be out of class for longer than expected now that federal officials have revised their recommendations for swine-flu- related school closures.

State and local officials will decide in the coming days whether Kennebunk Elementary School – shuttered this past week after a student tested positive for H1N1 influenza – will be closed for an additional week.

"It may take several days for us to determine whether it needs to be closed for more than seven days," said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. "You want to (ascertain) the prevalence of H1N1 in that area of the state."

New federal guidelines say schools with H1N1 cases should consider closing for 14 calendar days, double what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control initially recommended. The federal agency made the change Friday, when it determined that children are likely to be infectious for seven to 10 days after the onset of the flu.

Mills said state and local officials will rely on test results from York County to determine whether the school should reopen Thursday as planned. She said the school would stay closed longer if tests reveal H1N1 cases are spreading in the area.

Kennebunk Elementary remains the only school in Maine closed in the wake of the H1N1 outbreak, which began late last month in Mexico and has since spread across the globe.

State officials in New Hampshire said they verified at least one resident had the virus, bringing to 28 the number of states with swine flu cases.

The number of Mainers with swine flu held steady at six – three in York County, two in Kennebec County and one in Penobscot County – as of late Saturday. That figure had increased steadily since Wednesday, when state officials confirmed the first three cases of swine flu in Maine and canceled school in Kennebunk.

State officials called off school just as Kennebunk Elementary second-graders Sally Stead and Charlotte Finer were getting excited about a long-awaited "pajama party" in their classroom.

"We go to school in our pajamas and watch a movie," Sally said.

The girls said the party – a reward from their teacher for racking up compliments during the school year – was scheduled for Thursday but had to be postponed until the school reopens.

The two 8-year-olds had just returned to class from their weeklong April vacation when the flu hit and school officials sent them right back home. They said they were eager to return to school and attend the party.

"They're a little bored, I think," said Emily Finer of Kennebunk, Charlotte's mother.

Sally joined the Finers on Saturday on Main Street to watch the town's May Day parade. Festival-goers said the crowd at the parade was thinner than usual, but the celebration still served as a reminder that life moves on despite the flu.

"You can't live in a bubble," said Iris Sherman, coach of the Middle School of the Kennebunks' Odyssey of the Mind team.

The seven-member team was at the parade raising money and is watching the flu situation closely: The team is slated to fly to Iowa State University and participate in the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals later this month.

Sherman said there has been speculation that the Mexican team may not participate in the problem-solving finals, scheduled for the last week in May.

Members said they would be disappointed if teams back out of the event for fear of H1N1.

Sixth-grader Noah Cimenian, 11, said team members are eager to prove themselves against the best competition, and he is especially concerned that Odyssey powerhouses from Poland and China might skip the competition this year.

"Luckily – I've been checking – it hasn't reached Iowa yet," Cimenian said of the swine flu.

Hours after the parade, tests confirmed the illness had spread to the Hawkeye...