BRUNSWICK

The town council will examine Brunswick High School as the Guaranteed School of Acceptance for Durham and Pownal students when the council meets on Sept. 2.

According to Town Council Chairperson Benet Pols, the town’s finance manager/interim town manager, John Eldridge, and school finance director Jim Oikle will balance any incremental costs for Brunswick against revenue gains from tuition.

“Then we’ll wait until the people of RSU 5 vote,” Pols said in an email to The Times Record on Friday.

Freeport is in the midst of withdrawing from Region School Unit 5. If and when Freeport withdraws, Pownal and Durham students will be without a high school in which their acceptance is guaranteed.

The Brunswick School Board on Wednesday voted in favor of giving Brunswick High School “school of guaranteed acceptance” status, meaning BHS will accept any Durham and Pownal students without limit.

While the council hasn’t discussed the issue yet, Pols said that Brunswick will likely welcome the students, especially those from Durham.

“Those of us on the council who graduated from BHS all did so when there was a ‘Durham bus,’” Pols wrote. “The valedictorian of my class was from Durham. At a community level, it’s what people are used to. It’s an opportunity for us to share our asset. It’s also an opportunity for Durham to keep local control and that small school feeling for the younger kids while older kids can benefit from the broader programming available in a larger community.”

Brunswick also has space for the additional students. While the school board has been discussing absorbing the fifth grade into the junior high school to deal with a population bubble of students, there’s still room at the high school for additional students, Pols noted.

BHS has a 1,200-student capacity, while last year’s enrollment was a little more than 800.

“At a more practical level, anyone who has followed the budget deliberations these last six years knows that the double whammy of base closure and school consolidation played havoc with our high school population and thus state reimbursement rates and tuition receipts,” Pols wrote.