By Gillian Graham

Staff Writer

Allowing some Dayton students to attend Old Orchard Beach schools could negatively affect programming at Thornton Academy, according to Headmaster Carl Stasio.

Stasio spoke Monday night to a group of parents and teachers about a Regional School Unit 23 subcommittee proposal to allow voluntary limited school choice for Dayton middle and high school students.

 Dayton is part of the school unit formed with Saco and Old Orchard Beach under the 2007 school consolidation law.

An open enrollment committee report submitted to the RSU 23 Board of Directors Feb. 5 suggests a pilot program be established for the 2010-11 school year. Limited school choice would be extended to students currently in fifth grade at Dayton Consolidated School and eighth grade at Saco Middle School.

Dayton students currently go to Saco Middle School and high school at Thornton Academy along with all public school students from Saco. The program would be voluntary and is not designed to siphon students from Thornton Academy, said Board of Directors Member Gary Curtis of Old Orchard Beach.

The board of directors will discuss the committee’s report for the first time during a workshop at 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday at Saco City Hall.

Thornton Academy’s relationship with Dayton dates to around 1852, Stasio said.

“We like to think we’ve served the town of Dayton well over those years,” he said. “Dayton kids are an integral part of our school.”

Stasio said he is concerned allowing Dayton students to choose between Thornton Academy and Old Orchard Beach High School will undermine the private town academy’s ability to provide a high-quality curriculum and further develop the school.

Thornton would lose about $96,000 in tuition if 10 students transfer to Old Orchard Beach, Stasio said, though he noted later he doubts he will “lose enough kids to make it hurt.” The school district pays tuition of $9,617 per student to Thornton Academy under a five-year contract that expires in June.

“If we lose kids – 10, 20, whatever flexible choice is – the rest of our kids will have programs reduced,” he said. “I don’t understand how that’s a good deal for all the Dayton kids.”

“We have always sought to grow the school. You can’t do that with just a few kids,” Stasio said. “We can be bigger and as personal as we are now.”

Stasio said he also is concerned the committee’s plan – which he said he has not read – is unfair because it does not offer reciprocal choice to all students in the district. Thornton Academy is open to working with RSU officials to offer opportunities for Old Orchard Beach students to take classes in Saco, he said.

“If the schools could be complementary instead of competitive, then we could do something creative with the kids,” he said.

During the meeting with fewer than 20 parents, Stasio said he believes the district is attempting to “prop up” Old Orchard Beach High School’s declining enrollment with Dayton students. He also asserted Thornton Academy provides a better value to taxpayers because it spends less per student than Old Orchard Beach High School and school bonds are never needed.

Curtis, the school board member from Old Orchard Beach, said he though Stasio’s meeting was “very inappropriate” because the board has yet to discuss the issue. The RSU board was not invited to the meeting, he said.

“It seems strange to me that someone is calling a meeting to explain the policy of another board,” he said.

Offering limited school choice could save the district money, but the plan is designed to provide what is best for students in the classroom, Curtis said. Dayton students are used to a small learning environment and some families may want to continue in a small school setting in Old Orchard Beach, he said.

Old Orchard Beach also offers a marching band program and no-cut sports teams, unlike Thornton Academy, Curtis said. Moving some students would also relieve overcrowding at Saco Middle School and allow the district to better use underutilized resources at Loranger Middle School in Old Orchard Beach, he said.

Curtis said 20 to 30 students could be absorbed at Loranger Middle School “without batting an eyelash.” There would be no need to hire additional staff, according to school officials.

“It does not make sense for taxpayers to not maximize the resources of the RSU,” Curtis said. “We’re talking 10 to 12 students, we’re not talking numbers that are going to close down Thornton Academy by any stretch of the imagination.”

RSU 23 Superintendent Michael Lafortune said he sees the proposal as beneficial for Dayton students.

“We look at it like we have two great high schools right now and also two great middle schools,” he said. “We would never make the parents do anything.”

Lafortune said the current contract with Thornton Academy guarantees enrollment for each year of the contract, meaning the school is paid the same amount of tuition regardless of how many students attend. Negotiations for a new contract are set to begin in April.

“If a couple kids decide they want to go to Old Orchard Beach, it shouldn’t make a heck of a lot of difference,” he said.

Though it is likely the district could save money if the board adopts limited school choice, Lafortune said more study is needed to determine exactly how much could be saved and in what areas.

Curtis said “it would cost nothing to bring at least 12 kids (to Old Orchard Beach) because we have the resources. It would not cost the RSU a single penny more.”

“This is not an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ proposal,” he said. “The primary concern is what is in the best interest of children in the classroom.”

Dayton parents said they want more information from the RSU board before a decision is made about school choice. Howard “Skip” Cushman, board of directors member from Dayton, said he has fielded five or six phone calls from parents with questions about the committee report.

“I think a lot of the concern is parents don’t want their kids to travel to Old Orchard Beach,” he said. “But there’s nobody who is going to be forced into this.”

Cushman said he would have liked the open enrollment committee to explore further ways for the two high schools to share resources, such as Advanced Placement teachers. He said it doesn’t necessarily make sense to send students from one end of the district to the other when Saco students are closer to Old Orchard Beach.

Patti Oliveira of Dayton has three children – one who graduated from Thornton three years ago, a junior at the school and a seventh-grader at Saco Middle School. She said she is not opposed to other students having the choice to attend Old Orchard Beach, but wants to ensure it is not mandatory. It seems like Dayton is being singled out with this plan, she said.

Scott Masteller, who has a senior at Thornton Academy and two younger children in Dayton, said he would prefer the plan allow open enrollment for all students in the district. He also questioned whether the district should close Old Orchard Beach High School in the future to save money.

Mark Murray, a Dayton parent and guidance counselor at Dayton Consolidated School, urged meeting attendees to read the committee report on the RSU Web site and attend the workshop to offer input.

“Having a good dialogue is critical,” he said.

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.