FREEPORT – A group of Freeport residents called Yes for Freeport supports the Nov. 4 referendum to withdraw from Regional School Unit 5.

Another group, RSU 5 Better Together Coalition to Oppose Freeport’s Withdrawal from RSU 5, is not convinced that the withdrawal plan will improve education for students, save money or improve the governance of the schools.

These divergent viewpoints and more will be aired – as they were during a Sept. 30 Town Council meeting – on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at a public hearing on Freeport’s withdrawal question. The meeting at the Freeport Town Hall begins at 6:30 p.m.

So far, much of the discussion has centered on a budget analysis that assumed the same enrollment at Freeport High School – 515 – as at the end of the 2013-2014 school year. Based on that, and other factors, the RSU 5 Withdrawal Committee is projecting a $14,002,178 budget in 2015-2016 for a stand-alone Freeport school unit. That would represent a $288,876 cost savings over the $14,291,054 tax burden for Freeport in 2013-2014.

Opponents of withdrawal have been quick to say that Freeport High could have fewer – possibly far fewer – students when Durham and Pownal residents have the choice to go elsewhere. The Brunswick School Department has made Brunswick the school of guaranteed acceptance for Durham students, and Pownal has Yarmouth as a nearby option.

But those who favor withdrawal can point to the fact that the budget numbers presented do not reflect any possible savings from shared services or efficiencies, or “synergies,” between the school department and the town. In fact, synergies are possible – even likely.

“There is a tremendous opportunity for that,” said Marianne Doyle, a member of Yes for Freeport, at the Sept. 30 hearing. “We’re showing a modest cost savings here which could be greater.”

The Withdrawal Committee also has presented a scenario for 60 fewer students attending Freeport High, which would result in a cost increase of $343,695 to Freeport taxpayers, rather than the $288,876 cost decrease.

Councilor Sarah Tracy asked about student enrollment during the Sept. 30 meeting.

“The reason I ask is because there are people in the community who want to do a cost-per-student analysis,” Tracy said.

Better Together member Michael Healy, who spoke to Tri-Town Weekly the day following the meeting, said he has done his own calculations based on the 2014-2015 RSU 5 budget rather than the 2013-2014 budget, which the Withdrawal Committee is using.

Healy, a retired lawyer, figures that the present 489 students at Freeport High amounts to a cost of $15,316 per pupil. Taking 60 from that and going to 429 students equals a cost of $17,254 per pupil, he said last Wednesday. If Freeport High were to lose 109 students and fall to 380, Healy said last Wednesday, the cost per student soars to $19,478.

A total of 185 students from Durham and Pownal are attending the high school.

The higher the student enrollment, the more in state aid to education. A loss of 60 students at Freeport High would mean about $630,000 less from the state, and an 81?2 percent increase in the cost of running the school, he said.

“If we lose enrollment, we lose revenue,” Healy said. “I do not think there’s been a financial analysis that is relevant. The analysis made by the Town Council is based on two-year-old numbers. It’s living in a dream world. They’re going to lose pupils.”

Healy said that the budget model the Town Council is using addresses neither taxes nor quality of education.

“Both of those issues they fail to address, by assuming the enrollment numbers are going to be the same,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, the burden is on them.”

Doyle argued that local control of schools would give Freeport residents the authority to address precisely those concerns – authority the town lost when state-mandated consolidation led to the creation of RSU 5 in 2009.

“The state mandate was not a money-saver,” she said.

Doyle, who has a child at the high school and one at Freeport Middle School, said she is not overly concerned with high school enrollment.

“If we have a good school district,” she said, “we’ll have the students to fill it. We’ve had fewer students in the schools in the past. You just adjust the cost.”

Some people in the audience on Sept. 30 spoke of a possible loss of programs, such as the football team, which Freeport High did not have prior to the formation of RSU 5.

“Sports are always put out as a rallying point,” Doyle said. “In larger schools, you have kids getting cut from sports teams.”

On Sept.16, the Town Council voted 6-2 to assume the maximum amount of students at Freeport High, for the purposes of the budget analysis for a Freeport school system. Rich DeGrandpre, a member of the Withdrawal Committee, voted with the majority, while Vice Chairwoman Kristina Egan cast a dissenting vote.

Egan said last Wednesday she is a member of Better Together.

“I am primarily concerned about the risks presented by a proposal that will likely shrink the number of students in the school system, reduce educational opportunities, and cost the Freeport taxpayer more,” Egan said.

Should Freeport residents vote against withdrawal, the RSU 5 Board of Directors would go to work on plans for the $14.8 million renovation project at the high school. But even if the vote is to withdraw, the town has preliminary plans to renovate the school, at a lower price.

Lyndon Keck of PDT Architects of Portland, who planned the original project, spoke briefly during the Sept. 30 Town Council meeting. Keck estimated a scaled-down renovation would cost between $6.5 million and $ 9 million.

Keck said that it would take six to eight weeks to begin planning the project, followed by a conceptual design that would take two months, then another referendum vote. The entire project could be completed in 10-12 months, he said. It would include badly needed renovations to the school kitchen and the technology classrooms.

A smaller facility would have an impact on programs, Keck said.

(Editor’s Note: This story from the Oct. 8 Tri-Town Weekly has been corrected. It erroneously said that Marianna Doyle is affiliated with Better Together, a group that opposes Freeport’s withdrawal from Regional School Unit 5. In fact, Doyle belongs to Yes for Freeport, which supports withdrawal.)

---

A CLOSER LOOK

A public hearing on Freeport’s possible withdrawal from Regional School Unit 5 is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 6:30 p.m., at the Town Hall.

The RSU 5 Better Together coalition has a Facebook page, www.facebook.com/RSU5BetterTogether. Better Together also can be contacted at rsu5bettertogether@gmail.com.

Yes for Freeport member Marianne Doyle said the best place to go for information on withdrawal is the town’s web page, www.freeportmaine.com, and then click on the Freeport.

---