By THOMAS LUCKIE III

OGDENSBURG -- The Ogdensburg City School District Board of Education approved two sports mergers with Heuvelton Central School for the upcoming spring season at Tuesday's meeting.

Mergers in all levels of boys and girls spring track and all levels of boys lacrosse were approved by the board.

All present members voted in favor of the track merger, while board members Michael Tooley and Renee Grizzuto voted against the boys lacrosse merger, which passed with a 5-2 vote. Tooley and Grizzuto also opposed a revisited merger request with Lisbon Central School for boys varsity hockey, which was approved by the board at a meeting on Nov. 7, 2016.

Board members Vicky Peo and Laurie Zweifel were absent from the meeting.

Sports merger policy had been an ongoing discussion point for the board until a revised policy was also approved at the Nov. 7 meeting.

Although the recently revised policy includes language stating that "If a merger, in a particular sport, is requested by more than one school it shall be the practice of the district that all school's requests will be honored," the board did not discuss potentially revisiting a merger request for boys modified lacrosse from Lisbon Central School that was initially denied at a meeting on Aug. 22, 2016.

The formal requests and combined teams applications submitted by Heuvelton did not include a projected number of athletes planning to participate in track nor boys lacrosse at any level.