Freeport Middle School Principal Ray Grogan is a busy man.

Grogan, 40, who is in his fourth year at the school, has the task of leading the Regional School Unit 5 school that is the first main mixing point for students from towns other than Freeport. Most of Pownal’s middle-school students (a few take advantage of the option of attending the Durham Community School) join their Freeport peers for the first time at the middle school, and Grogan and his staff are tasked with successfully melding a student population from two different towns into one homogeneous student body.

Grogan, who lives in Freeport with his wife, Jill and his three children, Liam, Brady and Sadie, recently took a few minutes to discuss the ongoing school year with the Tri-Town Weekly.

Q: What is your favorite part of being a middle-school principal?

A: Getting to see all the great things the teachers do with the students every day and seeing the kids learning in new and great ways every day.

Q: You have a student population from two towns, Freeport and Pownal. What does the school do to combine those kids into one population?

A: We really have kids from four different programs. Mast Landing School has kids in three different programs. (The three distinct programs at Mast Landing, Harraseeket, Soule and Spring Hill, which each have about 80-90 students, have different daily schedules and activities; however, they share a common curriculum and have the same standards for student learning). So we really look at it as we are bringing students together from four programs. The Pownal students know most of the Freeport kids from sports and other community-based activities before they come to the middle school.

Q: Has the formation of the RSU helped make that transition for kids coming to Freeport from Pownal easier?

A: Having the Pownal students at the middle school has been great for our school. They have made very smooth transitions to our school.

Q: Are there any particular challenges to having kids from two towns under one roof or do they all generally identify themselves as one big student body?

A: The kids think of us as “the middle school kids”, not “Freeport” and “Pownal” kids. They have spent so much time together before getting here together that it is a very nice transition for them.

Q: What new things are coming up for the students this school year?

A: There are always great new things going on in our school. The sixth grade is currently doing an expeditionary learning project on local invasive species and how we can deal with them. The seventh grade just finished a great integrated Maine unit that involved all of the (core) subjects. The highlight of the unit was a three-day trip to Acadia National Park. The eighth-grade math class is working on a great standards-based math program, which allows the students to continue working on the specific standards until they completely understand the concept and then move on to the next concept.

Ray Grogan is in his fourth year as principal of Freeport Middle School