Regional School Unit 5 directors will decide Wednesday, Aug. 24, at a school board meeting/retreat whether to move ahead with a process to rename Freeport High School.

The school board traditionally conducts a retreat to discuss goals during its first meeting of the school year.

Going into the meeting at Freeport Middle School – the board meeting starts at 5 p.m. and the retreat at 7 – board members will discuss a name change for the high school as part of a portion of the retreat agenda devoted to board goals, including a “focus on accountability.” Superintendent Becky Foley, just beginning her first year on the job, said that the subject came up on June 8, during conversation of the board’s Strategic Communications Committee. The committee decided to go out and seek input, she said.

“What has come up in the past, before I got here, is we could look at what we could do to pull the three towns together,” Foley said.

This summer’s June budget referendum marked the first time that all three RSU 5 towns – Durham, Freeport and Pownal – voted in favor of the school budget. Both Freeport and Durham have made unsuccessful attempts to withdraw from RSU 5.

“This item is coming up now because of the high school renovation. Some of the board members feel if the renaming were going to happen, this should be the time,” said Foley. “The board will discuss whether they want to go forward with a process to seek input on Wednesday night. I will know a lot more on Thursday.”

The board has set a tentative timeframe of this fall through January to make a decision on a new name for Freeport High School, but Foley set that time frame “is not set in stone.” A community forum would be scheduled should the board decide to go ahead with the process Wednesday night.

“Wednesday we will decide if we’re going down this road,” Foley said. “We’re going to know much more then.”

Board Chairwoman Michelle Ritcheson of Durham said it would be a mistake to put too much emphasis on the possible renaming of the high school going into the retreat.

“It would be a much smaller piece of a discussion about the rebranding of the RSU,” Ritcheson said. “I have no idea if it’s going to happen. I would be cautious about calling this the renaming, because it would be a small part of a larger project.”

Ritcheson said that with new adminisrators on board and a new high school in the making, it’s the right time to consider rebranding of RSU 5.

“We want to come together as a more cohesive community and not three individual towns,” she said.

Regional School Unit 5 directors will toss around the idea of a new name for Freeport High school during their retreat on Wednesday, Aug. 24, at Freeport Middle School.