FEEPORT – Even as the full impact of the state’s decision to push teacher retirement costs onto local districts is being determined, the Regional School Unit 5 board of directors is tentatively planning to move ahead with plans to hire a full-time math strategist for the district and a half-time assistant principal for the Freeport Middle School.

According to RSU 5 board chairman Nelson Larkins, the salary of the math strategist will be roughly $60,000 and the assistant principal will be closer to $40,000.

The board was expected to make a decision on both during an Aug. 14 meeting at Freeport High School, after the Tri-Town Weekly deadline.

The fate of the math strategist position, identified as increasingly important in the age of standardized tests by RSU 5 Superintendent Shannon Welsh, was in limbo this spring as the board grappled with the looming possibility of absorbing $270,000 in teacher retirement fund costs that have been historically paid by the state. The decision to fund the salaries was contentious and sparked debate among board members during a May 8 board meeting. The 11-member board examined a number of scenarios during that meeting, including funding the full-time positions, eliminating them altogether, or changing the language in the budget to allow for the possibility of the hires, but with safeguards against the cost of the potential retirement impact. If the state decided to not require retirement funding, the allocated money would be put into a contingency fund.

The recently passed state budget included a plan to shift $29 million in teachers’ retirement costs from the state to school districts. The shift went into effect July 1. RSU 5 Finance Director Kelly Wentworth is expected to present a clearer picture of the impact at the Aug. 14 meeting, said Larkins, who admitted the process was confusing.

“We’re hoping to have a better idea of what the total amount we owe will be,” said Larkin. “I don’t think it will greatly impact the two positions, but we will base that decision on what Kelly has to say.”

During the meeting, the board is also expected to hear an update on a phone survey of residents taken to explore possible alternatives to a $29 million bond to renovate and expand Freeport High School. The survey was conducted by an independent polling company and costs $5,000, said Welsh. The tri-town voters of Durham, Pownal, and Freeport narrowly defeated the initiative on June 11.

“We wanted to look at things like separating out the two components of the plan,” said Welsh in July. “Essentially, the facilities project would be one vote and the fields project would be another. Another option is looking at the overall cost of the facility and see if it could be reduced. A third option is looking at what could be done with the local budget as in delaying some projects in other schools in order to address the needs at the high school.”

The expansion plan called for a 31,000-square-foot addition that would have been constructed to replace the industrial arts building on the northwest side of the school.

In a budget validation referendum vote June 11, a $25.8 million school budget was approved, 2,415-1,717, with Freeport favoring it by a wide margin, 1,833 to 620. It was the opposite story in Durham, with 701 against and 399 in favor; and Pownal, with 395 against and 182 in favor.