FRYE ISLAND – Frye Island officials have met with a series of state political candidates to discuss concerns about the town’s growing annual contribution to the School Administrative District 6 budget.

At issue is the Frye Island selectmen’s concern that continuing growth in the town’s annual education contribution could push the island into a financial crisis in coming years, said Town Manager Gary Donohue.

The selectmen are attempting to start a discussion with the Maine Legislature about tax relief, Donohue said.

“We want to be educational advocates, but not to the point of bankrupting the island,” Donohue said.

Frye Island is a seasonal residential island that shuts down from November through April every year, and sends no students to SAD 6. According to the 2010 census, the island accommodates 481 housing units. The town’s tax rate for fiscal year 2015 is $23.31, according to Donohue.

According to Tina Plummer, an administrative assistant at the SAD 6 business office, Frye Island contributed an estimated $1.41 million to this year’s SAD 6 budget – or about 6.3 percent of the local share of the budget. Last year, the district assessed the island at roughly $1.34 million, or about 6.1 percent of the local share of the budget. According to Donohue, the town’s original contribution to the district in the late 1990s was around $300,000.

The Frye Island selectmen declined to comment on the discussions.

Bonnie Titcomb Lewis, a Democratic candidate for House District 67, which represents Gray and parts of Frye Island, Raymond and Casco, said she has met with Frye Island town officials recently. Lewis said, if elected, she would seek to establish a legislative committee that would find a compromise that “is fair to the island and does not inadvertently damage SAD 6.”

“This is a conversation that needs to happen,” Lewis said. “Certainly up until now the contribution has not been monumental. Going forward, it would be. So this is a juncture when conversation needs to happen, before this escalates to a point where there is a huge amount of money that SAD 6 is depending upon.”

Lewis said that the town has been in touch with many of the candidates vying for seats representing Frye Island – including Republican Sue Austin, her competitor in the House District 67 race, and Democrat Bill Diamond, who is vying for the Senate District 26 seat. Diamond’s opponent, Kaile Warren, was not contacted by island representatives.

“I believe all the possible candidates were involved,” she said. “We’re listening.”

Frye Island has attempted, without success, to secede from SAD 6 in the past. In 1998, the island seceded from the town of Standish, under the terms of an agreement that its residents continue to pay taxes to SAD 6. Three years later, the residents of Frye Island voted unanimously to withdraw from the school district. In response, the Legislature passed an emergency bill, L.D. 500, barring Frye Island’s withdrawal from the district “unless such withdrawal is first authorized by further amendment to this chapter.”

In 2004, the Legislature established a new education cost-sharing formula requiring towns to contribute to their school districts based on the number of students in the school system. In early 2005, the Legislature exempted SAD 6 from the formula. The district’s cost-sharing formula is primarily based on property valuation.

Last fall, Frye Island’s then-Town Manager Wayne Fournier sent a letter to Standish Town Manager Gordon Billington, expressing concern about the island’s nearly $1.4 million school assessment. In response, the Standish Council decided to investigate whether pursuing Standish’s withdrawal from SAD 6 was feasible, according to Billington. Months later, Standish residents soundly rejected, in a 142-32 vote, a proposed $25,000 appropriation for a study on the financial and logistical issues involved in a possible withdrawal.

Diamond, who is running for a seat representing Windham, Standish, Raymond, Casco, Baldwin and Frye Island, said he met with Frye Island town officials twice at their request.

“They were trying to find some relief to the property tax burdens, and they were just at the very initial stages,” Diamond said. “I basically told them that they’re going to have to get all the towns that are affected by this, especially Standish, and they’re going to have to work out an agreement to see if they can get some relief.”

Lewis said that Frye Island town officials spoke with her about shifting the town’s education aid contribution to a different school district.

“What they said was that they would be interested in contributing to a school district that had relevance to them that they would be connected to, and a potential school district would be the Windham-Raymond school district,” Lewis said.

Donohue declined to say whether the Frye Island selectmen hoped to shift their education assessment to a different district.

“We don’t want to hurt SAD 6,” Donohue said. “We don’t want to hurt anybody.”

Donohue is scheduled to speak to the SAD 6 board of directors on Oct. 20. According to Todd Delaney, chairman of the board, Frye Island officials approached the board’s finance committee in recent months seeking an adjustment to the district’s cost-sharing formula. According to minutes of the meeting, the board agreed to meet with Frye Island representatives to discuss a formula change only “upon the presentation of a written petition of at least 10 percent of the number of voters voting in the last gubernatorial election within the district.”

Delaney said he is not surprised that Frye Island officials are meeting with political candidates in advance of the November elections.

“If I would have to guess, they want those candidates to do something about the law passed more than a decade ago that says they have to pay,” Delaney said. “What I’ve been hearing from some of the candidates is Frye Island wants the same thing as what they were trying to do so many years ago. They don’t want to support the SAD 6 district at all.”