On Thursday, April 17, all Freeport residents are encouraged to attend a community forum to share their thoughts on the future of Freeport High School. The forum will be held at the Freeport Community Center on Depot Street and will begin at 6 p.m., with refreshments available at 5:30.

As Freeport negotiates a possible withdrawal from RSU5 and a transition back to community schools, the group representing the town has established some broad, guiding principles. In our negotiations, we seek (a.) to ensure that the new Freeport school system is organized in line with community values and vision (b.) to ensure educational continuity for all students and (c.) financial fairness for all towns.

The financial equity principle is easily resolved. The RSU was only recently assembled, so it is fairly straightforward to divide assets and debts. To be clear, we do not seek to establish any sort of financial “edge” for Freeport – we just want to make things right.

To address educational continuity, the Freeport group has already proposed that students attending Freeport schools at the time of withdrawal have the ability to continue through the Freeport school system if they so choose.

The principle of ensuring we negotiate an agreement that is in line with community values is what drives the forum on Thursday. Specifically, we seek guidance on whether a stand-alone Freeport High School should focus on being a community school, or a larger regional school serving tuition students. Should we seek to be a larger school, should we try to arrange selected local tuition agreements, or should we develop our arts and technology strengths to attract students from around the region based upon the quality of our programs?

We have invited panelists to address the historical strengths of the local Freeport district, current trends in policy at the state and national level, as well as the 2014 Maine Principal of the Year – an expert in applying educational trends. These folks will also stay and interact with the small discussion groups that will report out a series of ideas and goals that will help focus our negotiations moving forward.

This is a great opportunity to have your voice heard and listen to the ideas of your friends and neighbors as we seek to create a high school that reflects our community and opens doors for our kids in college and career. We hope to see you on Thursday.

Richard DeGrandpre

Dennis King

Peter Murray

N. Kate Werner

Freeport Withdrawal Committee