FREEPORT – The Freeport Withdrawal Committee and the group representing Regional School Unit 5 have asked the Department of Education to help find a facilitator to assist them in their stalled negotiations for Freeport’s withdrawal from RSU 5 – a turn of events that could push back an anticipated November vote on the matter.

The Withdrawal Committee and the Working Group are negotiating Freeport’s possible withdrawal from RSU 5. Freeport residents voted in December to explore withdrawal, and it had been anticipated that a second and final vote would be held in November. Because negotiations have slowed, a November vote could be in question.

Samantha Warren, communications director for the Department of Education, said that the department is willing to help in that direction. Leaders of the Withdrawal Committee and the RSU 5 Working Group, which consists of school board members from Durham and Pownal and their respective lawyers, met last Thursday morning with Commissioner of Education James Rier.

“They’re going to need some help,” Warren said. “We’ll help find some kind of facilitator, but it won’t be a binding mediator.”

The two committees will need to share the cost of the facilitator, Warren said.

“They need to have a withdrawal agreement to the Department of Education by mid-July” in order to have a November vote, Warren said.

The Department of Education then would have up to 90 days to review the agreement.

Peter Murray, Withdrawal Committee chairman, and Michelle Ritcheson, Working Group chairwoman, sat in on the meeting at Rier’s office in Augusta. They consulted with Rier on what has been a point of contention in the negotiations – whether Freeport needs to commit for 10 years to educate Durham and Pownal students at Freeport High should withdrawal take place. The so-called “school of record” is required by the state for towns left orphaned by withdrawal, but there is no stipulation as to what school needs to make that commitment.

Warren said that the two sides were advised that Freeport is under no legal obligation to be the “school of guaranteed acceptance.”

“On some issues, the two parties are struggling to reach consensus,” Warren said. “This office is not a mediator, and that was pointed out.”

The Freeport Withdrawal Committee and the RSU 5 Working Group will continue to discuss the issue at a meeting June 5.

Meanwhile, residents of the three towns gathered at Freeport High School last week for the RSU 5 budget meeting weighed in on the school-of-record matter prior to the session.

Tom Bowie of Durham said he doesn’t believe Freeport can or should make a 10-year commitment to educate Durham and Pownal students at Freeport High School if withdrawal occurs.

“It sounds like flim-flam to me,” Bowie said. “Look, that school is crowded. They don’t need the Durham kids, and I’m from Durham. I’d much rather see our kids go to Brunswick. They’ve got more room.”

Kristen Dorsey of Freeport tends to agree. Dorsey, who has attended many RSU 5 meetings, said she’s unclear on the state school-of-record mandate in the first place.

“I’m not sure if it needs to be one school,” Dorsey said.

Dorsey added that Freeport’s possible withdrawal from RSU 5 could prove beneficial to all three towns. She said she favors an Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS), which has a looser governance than an RSU. When school consolidation became law under former Gov. John Baldacci, school districts were given the option of pursuing an AOS rather than an RSU.

“I think this is an opportunity for all three towns to step back from the constraints of the consolidation law and kind of rewrite how we do things,” Dorsey said. “It’s a new business plan.”

Mike Morin of Pownal was involved in the organization of RSU 5. He’s not so sure that Freeport High lacks capacity.

“One of the premises for RSU 5 was that Freeport would not have enough students to maintain its own RSU,” Morin said. “Freeport and Pownal had an agreement for Pownal students to go to Freeport on a scholarship basis. Would Freeport be willing to reconsider that?”

Freeport High School has a study body of 512. Dennis Ouellette, director of facilities and transportation for RSU 5, says the school capacity is 500 students, based on an 80 percent utilization rate recommended by the architect who built the school.

The Withdrawal Committee has said that because of the capacity issue, Freeport cannot promise to be the school of record. The Working Group has insisted, however, that many parents will choose to send their children elsewhere, so capacity should not be an issue.

Capacity wouldn’t be an issue if a $14.6 million bond to renovate and enlarge the school, approved by RSU 5 residents last November, were carried out. The bond was placed in limbo, however, when Freeport voted to study withdrawal.

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A CLOSER LOOK

The Freeport Withdrawal Committee is planning the following meetings: June 5, 6:30 p.m., Freeport High School; June 11, following 6:30 p.m. Regional School Unit 5 board meeting (proposed), joint meeting with RSU 5 Working Group, Freeport High; June 12, 6:30, Freeport High; June 18, 6:30 (proposed), joint meeting with Working Group, Freeport High; June 19, 6:30, (proposed), joint meeting with Working Group, Freeport High.

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