Several Maine communities that are unhappy with school consolidation will get a chance to tell lawmakers today why they should be allowed to withdraw from their regional school units.

The Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee will hold public hearings today on two bills proposing withdrawal.

L.D. 803, sponsored by Rep. Wayne Parry, R-Arundel, would allow Dayton and Saco to withdraw from Regional School Unit 23, with voters’ approval.

L.D. 1083 would allow Arundel an emergency withdrawal from its regional school unit and avert a fight over tuition costs at Thornton Academy’s new middle school in Saco.

Officials from Dayton and Saco, which had their own school union before they merged with Old Orchard Beach in 2008, say consolidation has proven too costly.

“When it started out three years ago, we decided it would be a good way to save some taxpayer money. It’s just not working out that way,” Dayton Selectman Ted Poirier said.

Saco Mayor Roland Michaud agreed.

The current year’s school budget of $42.5 million is about $100,000 more than last year’s budget for RSU 23.

That $42.4 million budget, for 2009-10, was a 1.8 percent increase from the three communities’ combined 2008-09 budgets.

The district, with more than 4,000 students, is the third-largest in the state.

Michaud said he wants the consolidation question to go back to voters.

School officials defend the arrangement.

School Board Chairman David Galli said municipal officials in Dayton or Saco never told the board they were seeking to withdraw. “From our perspective, the RSU is working fine,” he said.

Gary Curtis, an RSU 23 board member representing Old Orchard Beach, said there were savings of $400,000 in the first year, and the current increase is caused by reductions in state and federal funding.

The new district has improved education, he said, with more Advanced Placement courses and gifted-and-talented programs.

But municipal officials are chafing that in the current $42.5 million school budget, Saco and Dayton are paying more than they did in the last school year — the first year of the district — while Old Orchard Beach is paying less.

Saco contributes $16.1 million (59 percent), Dayton contributes $2.1 million (8 percent) and Old Orchard Beach contributes $9.3 million (33 percent).

That works out to an increase of $115,619 from Dayton and $2,038 from Saco, and a decrease of $191,128 from Old Orchard Beach.

As the school board works on the 2011-12 budget, it is trying to change the cost-sharing formula, which is based on property valuation and enrollment.

“I don’t think Dayton can afford to continue down the path of paying that percentage that they are paying,” said Skip Cushman, Dayton’s only representative on the school board.

Of the 4,203 students in RSU 23, 70 percent are from Saco, 20 percent are from Old Orchard Beach and 9 percent are from Dayton.

Parry is co-sponsoring L.D. 1083 with Sen. Nancy Sullivan, D-Biddeford. The bill would allow Arundel an emergency withdrawal from RSU 21, which includes Kennebunk and Kennebunkport.

That would allow Arundel to extricate itself, without penalty, from a dispute between the district and Thornton Academy.

Five years ago, Arundel signed a contract with Thornton to send its middle school students to the private academy, which then spent $3 million to build the new school.

But when Arundel joined RSU 21, officials wanted to send students to the less-expensive middle school in Kennebunk instead of Thornton — which cost $7,440 per student last year.

An arbitrator ruled last fall that some students from Arundel could leave Thornton, but RSU 21 would have to pay Thornton the lost tuition for the next three years, at a total potential cost of more than $300,000.

The arbitrator also ruled that the district could, with voters’ approval, buy out the contract at a cost of nearly $1.2 million. A vote is set for this spring.

Staff Writer Emma Bouthillette can be contacted at 791-6325 or at:

ebouthillette@pressherald.com