Kennebunkport may have caught the withdrawal bug.

At a selectmen’s meeting there two weeks ago, Vice Chairwoman Sheila Matthews-Bull said the town will likely be looking into getting out of Regional School Unit 21, as Arundel is now considering.

A petition containing nearly 380 signatures was submitted to Arundel Town Hall earlier this month to get the withdrawal process rolling there.

While we can see the concerns on all sides of the issue, we caution Kennebunkport and Arundel to proceed with caution, as the marriages of school districts are often dysfunctional relationships.

Arundel has said the costs of the RSU are too much, and with proposed Kennebunk High School renovations, tax bills will be too high.

But townspeople should keep in mind that high schools in this state are aging and expensive to replace ”“ no matter their locations. Currently, Biddeford High School is undergoing $34 million worth of renovations and the high schools in Wells and Sanford are in need of expensive renovations or replacement as well.

While Kennebunkport and Arundel may feel they are getting a raw deal, many other towns feel the same way.

Ogunquit has been trying to pull out of the Wells-Ogunquit Community School District for decades, and its most recent attempt ”“ in the form of a bill before a Maine legislative committee ”“ failed.

Ogunquit has less than 5 percent of the student population, but pays about 20 percent of the district budget. In his bid to get Ogunquit out of the district in December 2009, then state Sen. Peter Bowman, D-York, said, “The approximate cost per student to taxpayers in general is around $8,000 per student, and in Ogunquit, it’s closer to $80,000 per student.”

Taxpayers in Kennebunkport have made the same argument. At that recent selectmen’s meeting, Matthews-Bull said Kennebunkport pays $13,500 per KHS student, while Kennebunk pays $11,500 per student.

However, RSU 21 Superintendent Andrew Dolloff says the math doesn’t break down quite like that.

In an email last week, Dolloff said if someone were to divide the number of students in a town by that town’s local assessment, they would get a per pupil cost, but the cost-sharing formula is more complex than that.

He added that Arundel’s cost would be the lowest based on that math ”“ at around $6,700 per student based on the amount of state aid the town receives.

At Thornton Academy, where many Arundel students elect to attend high school, the cost this year per student is $9,275, according to Headmaster Carl Stasio. The tuition TA is allowed to charge is based on a state formula that takes an “average” of the cost of educating students in the public school districts in the state: $8,833 this year. TA is also allowed to add 5 percent of that per pupil cost, for a total of $9,275 this school year.

So while the math may be added to show different things for different purposes, what Kennebunkport and Arundel taxpayers should remember is that the cost of education is rising, and support from the state is stagnant or dropping. The benefit of programs that children from these two towns receive cannot necessarily be measured in dollars, either.

At Kennebunk High School, students can participate in the International Baccalaureate program and receive a certificate upon completion of the diploma program. And at the district’s elementary schools, students receive weekly Spanish lessons and the gifted and talented program has been expanded.

We encourage both towns to carefully consider the options, and have a plan for how to proceed after withdrawal if those processes move forward.

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* An earlier version of this story was published with an error. This version reflects the correction.

Today’s editorial was written by City Editor Robyn Burnham on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.