FREEPORT – A new principal at Freeport High School and interim co-superintendents are on board as Regional School Unit 5 schools get set to begin classes on Sept. 2, in what promises to be a challenging school year.

Brian Campbell, who succeeds Bob Strong at Freeport High School, comes there from RSU 20, where he was principal at Searsport District High School/Middle School. William Michaud is the new RSU 5 superintendent for one year, and he will be assisted by Michael Lafortune. Michaud was the interim superintendent in the Yarmouth School District, while Lafortune had been retired since 2011 as superintendent in RSU 23. They will split their time in the RSU 5 Central Office.

Freeport residents will decide on Nov. 4 a proposal to withdraw from the district. Michaud and Lafortune must oversee a budget process that might include only Durham and Pownal – and begin the search for a permanent superintendent, as well. Campbell comes to a high school that needs renovations and an uplift in morale. RSU 5 residents had approved a $14.6 million bond to update and enlarge the school last fall, but when the withdrawal process started last December, the bond was put on hold.

Campbell, 45, is composed and ready.

“School is school, no matter where you are,” he said. “There aren’t these startling differences from one district to another. Regardless, the kids will be here after Labor Day.”

Campbell said he’s dealt with a staff morale issue head-on.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with various staff members,” he said. “I think we are at a good place moving forward to create the kind of professional environment that we want. We’ll have a set of processes for debate, transparency and collegiality.”

The students are not lost in this consideration.

“Kids are such an important piece of the puzzle,” Campbell said. “They have to think they are being heard.”

He acknowledged that the condition of a facility also can impact morale, both of staff and students. Freeport High School has had some overcrowding, though that might be not as important a consideration if Freeport leaves RSU 5. The Brunswick School Department has voted to make Brunswick High the school of guaranteed acceptance to Durham and Pownal students for 10 years should Freeport withdraw, and Durham students likely would attend high school there, as they did prior to the formation of RSU 5 in 2009.

Space issues aside, the bond would have funded a two-story addition containing classrooms, a kitchen, cafeteria and band room in the space now occupied by the industrial arts section. It also included money for a new entrance, windows and roofing.

Campbell hasn’t given up on that.

“If the RSU doesn’t dissolve,” he said, “then it’s my understanding there is a plan to renovate. If it does, I understand there is a plan in place.”

While RSU 5 residents approved the bond, they rejected money for a new synthetic turf field, and that has Campbell concerned. He helped to begin a public campaign to replace McMann Field with synthetic turf when he was an assistant principal/athletic director at RSU 1 in Bath, and Freeport needs the same thing, he said. Too often, he said, kids can’t get on muddy grass fields in early spring or late fall.

“Morse (High School in Bath) can have multi-purpose athletic events there,” he said. “There is a 15- to 20-year life expectancy for a synthetic field. You’ve replaced sod three or four times in that period. There is cost savings, and more playing time. Right now, it’s unfair to kids.”

Campbell said he is working with Athletic Director Craig Sickels to begin a new drive.

“We will reinvestigate what Craig was looking at with community leaders,” he said. “I want to engage in those conversations with him.”

Campbell also looks forward to helping bring “standards-based education,” an element of the Common Core curriculum, to the school.

“Freeport is moving in that direction,” he has said. “I can help facilitate that process. I’ve been doing it a long time.”

Elsewhere in RSU 5, Durham Community School will welcome a new assistant principal on opening day. Hiram Sibley, the assistant to Principal Will Pidden, was assistant principal at King Middle School of Portland last year.

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A CLOSER LOOK

Dates for the first day of classes in Regional School Unit 5 are: Freeport High School, freshmen, Sept. 2; all other students Sept. 3. Freeport Middle School, Sept. 2. Mast Landing School, Sept. 2. Morse Street School, all except kindergarten, Sept. 2. Kindergarten, Sept. 3. Durham Community School and Pownal Elementary School, Sept. 2.

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Brian Campbell, the new principal at Freeport High School, says that he is looking forward to help bring standards-based education to the district. School starts Tuesday, Sept. 2.