Freeport High School was “losing students significantly” to other high schools when Regional School Unit 5 was formed in 2009, acting Commissioner of Education Jim Rier said.

Rier also said that, of the eight communities that have withdrawn from RSUs, the result is unclear. The original 2007 consolidation mandate from former Gov. John Baldacci was meant to save money. Some who have pursued RSU withdrawal have argued otherwise.

“How these withdrawals pan out is still very much an unknown,” Rier said. “Some, I would argue, didn’t do enough homework.”

When Freeport residents voted on Dec. 17 to set in motion a possible withdrawal from RSU 5, a $14.6 million renovation plan – barely passed by RSU 5 residents in November – was left in limbo. The renovation cannot begin until the withdrawal issue is settled, and if Freeport does leave the RSU, town officials have said, the town will have to identify new funding. All the while, students and their families have school choice.

“One of the issues Freeport faces,” Rier said, “is they have so many parents who choose to send their children somewhere else.”

Rier said it’s important to distinguish among the eight RSUs that have lost member communities and the older School Administrative District units that have lost members. The number of RSUs that have lost towns has been exaggerated at times by the press, he said.

Regarding the consolidation mandate, the jury remains out on that, too, Rier said.

“Many would argue that (consolidation) hasn’t reduced cost, and it remains to be seen how this will actually play out,” he said.

Both Freeport and RSU 5 have much to do, Rier said.

“There will need to be a lot of work done once the withdrawal committee gets in place,” he said. “Each of the other towns has to withdraw, or the other towns would remain with the RSU.”

Rier emphasized that, by statute, he cannot sign off on Freeport’s withdrawal from RSU 5 unless guarantees are in place for students’ high school education.

“We require certainty that Pownal and Durham students have a high school to go to,” he said. “We can’t have a situation where a high school student, say, in the town of Durham, has no high school to go to. This process is not dictated by the commissioner, it’s dictated by statute.”

Rier said that the “simplest solution” would be for RSU 5 – Durham and Pownal – to put in place an agreement to send their high school students to Freeport. A contractual agreement with another school unit is the other alternative, he said.

Tim Giddinge, chairman of the Board of Selectmen in Pownal, chats with Shannon Welsh, superintendent of Regional School Unit 5, during a social time prior to the Dec. 18 school board meeting. Giddinge, who is sharply critical of Freeport’s effort to leave the RSU, was working with Welsh to set up a public meeting on the issue in Pownal, at a date to be announced.