The Raymond School District’s insistence on keeping high school choice even after school consolidation with the Windham School District is no longer a point of contention for the committee charged with planning the merger of the two school districts.

Now, committee members said last week, they’ll just have to convince the public that the school choice question should not halt the plan.

The plan, which includes formulas for sharing costs among the two towns as well as rules of governance for the new school unit that would be formed, must be approved by voters in each town when it appears on the Nov. 2 ballot. If approved, the new school unit will start July 1, 2009. The planning committee will hold a public forum on the plan Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 6:30 p.m. in the Windham High School auditorium.

Raymond voters will also decide Nov. 2 whether to keep high school choice, a matter that town officials refused to negotiate during the planning process with Windham officials. More than 60 percent of Raymond’s 250 high school students attend Windham High School. The rest go to a number of other local schools, including Westbrook, Gray-New Gloucester and North Yarmouth Academy.

Though some of the Windham representatives on the planning committee were initially furious about the refusal, including Windham resident Jeff Vermette, who said it first struck him as unfair. They now believe school choice would not weaken a merger agreement or have an impact on the budget of a new school unit.

But, committee members from Windham said last week that the residents who must approve the plan may not be so sure.

“Windham residents may feel it’s not fair that Raymond students can decide where to go (to high school),” said Jeff Vermette, a member of the planning committee.

If the Raymond and Windham school districts merge, the regional school unit will get virtually the same amount of state funds for Raymond students whether that town chooses to maintain school choice or not, the committee said during a presentation of its plan last week.

“Maybe from a truly philosophical view it is unfair,” Vermette said of school choice. But school choice’s impact on the budget would be “insignificant” on the overall educational budget of a combined school district, and the benefits of consolidation far outweigh any philosophical differences, he said.

“I don’t think it should be a deal-breaker,” said Vermette.

But hard feelings may spill over into the ballot booth if Windham voters feel Raymond’s decision on school choice will raise Windham’s educational costs under the consolidation plan, said Windham School Committee member Mary Wassick. While the votes are on the same day, there is concern that Windham voters will vote against the plan in order to see how the school choice vote comes out, setting back the consolidation schedule.

“For some folks in Windham it is a deal-breaker,” she said. “It’s important that we get that information to the voters.”

Committee member and Raymond Selectman Joe Bruno said the issue of school choice is separate from that of consolidation. The stance of Raymond voters on school choice should not impact the vote on the merger, he said.

“They are not linked at all,” said Bruno, adding that it was important to have both votes in November when the highest number of residents come out to the polls.

At the presentation with her husband, Mark, a Raymond selectmen, Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said the new school unit would have to honor Raymond’s decision on school choice. Also, she said, neither Raymond voters nor the new school unit could reverse the school choice decision once the new unit is formed. The law was written to protect smaller towns who found themselves outnumbered on the new boards formed by consolidation, Gendron said.

Windham and Raymond officials have been working on consolidation for around a year, even before Gov. Baldacci signed into law the bill that made consolidation for most school districts mandatory. Discussions initially included the city of Westbrook, but adding that district was rejected by Windham and Raymond committee members in the spring.

While Windham has more than 2,500 students and thus was not obligated to consolidate under the law, officials thought a merger could help cut costs and improve programs. The Raymond School District is required to consolidate, and board members felt merging with Windham made sense, given its proximity to Raymond and the number of Raymond students who go to Windham High School.

The benefits of consolidation include the enhancement of programs through shared staffing and the use of collective resources, said district superintendents Sanford Prince of Windham and Sandra Caldwell of Raymond. Cost savings are likely to come through the consolidation of services and the elimination of duplicative programs and positions, they said.

Once they are under one educational roof, Raymond and Windham can learn from each others’ strengths, Prince said. For example, Raymond’s full-day kindergarten could be expanded to Windham, he said. Schools in Raymond and Windham could also share teachers for specialty courses in areas like language and mathematics, Caldwell said.

Over time, the two towns could eliminate duplicative positions by sharing food service, maintenance and transportation operations, among others, Prince said. Web site management and professional development could also be shared, Caldwell said, and a consolidated unit would have greater purchasing power for paper and other materials. The new school unit would hire a new superintendent as well.

Current contracts will be honored, and the new school unit would renegotiate the contracts as they expire. Therefore, some duplicative positions would not be eliminated for a few years. Prince’s contract runs through June 30, 2011, as do the contracts of Windham’s assistant superintendent, director of curriculum, and director of student services. Caldwell’s contract is set to expire June 30, 2009.

The composition of the body that will govern the new school unit is still in question.

Initially, the committee suggested a nine-person board, with six members from Windham and three from Raymond. Now, the committee believes a smaller board, perhaps five from Windham and two from Raymond, would be more manageable.

Either way, the votes on the board would be heavily weighted toward Windham. Using population percentage, Windham was given 810 total votes to be distributed among its board representatives while Raymond was given 192 votes. The representatives would be elected to staggered terms of either one, two or three years.

Under the plan, debt established prior to the formation of the new unit will remain the obligation of the town that incurred the debt, with the exception of debt on Windham High School, which will be shared by the two towns on the basis of student count. Future debt will also be shared by the communities.