Cost-sharing group meets with candidates

 Kennebunk selectmen on Dec. 27 interviewed four potential at-large members for the two positions available on the Regional School Unit 21 Cost Sharing Committee.

Arundel, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport must each form a three-member committee to work together to renegotiate cost sharing for the district. Each committee must consist of one member from the RSU 21 Board of Directors and two at-large members from the town.

Candidates for Kennebunk cost sharing committee were Ed Karytko, John Sharood, Richard Smith and Jeff Cole. A selectmen vote determined Smith and Cole will be at-large members on the cost sharing committee.

Smith is a member of the Kennebunk Planning Board and Sharood was a member of Kennebunk’s past RSU 21 Cost Sharing Committee. Karytko frequently attends selectmen’s meetings and Cole is a Kennebunk resident.

The RSU 21 Board of Directors voted Dec. 5 to re-open the cost sharing discussions to allow Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel to revise the cost sharing formula that determines how much each municipality pays into the school district. Cost sharing has been an issue since 2009 with the formation of RSU 21 and the question of how much each town’s taxpayers pay for whatever the school district needs funded.

“This entire discussion is about money,” Albert Searles, chairman of the Kennebunk Board of Selectmen, said at a Dec. 13 meeting. “It’s not about the quality of education or what the school needs or what the school wants and I think we need new representation and I think the other towns should consider new representation too.” 

Searles said he wants to see representatives on the new cost sharing committee who have never been involved with RSU 21 or any associated committees. He said he wants to avoid “rehashing” issues that “(RSU 21 municipality committees) have argued about already three times.” 

In light of recent renovations to the Middle School of the Kennebunks and the school district’s plans to renovate Kennebunkport Consolidated School and Kennebunk High School, residents of Arundel complained to the Arundel Board of Selectmen and the RSU 21 Board of Directors that Arundel pays more than its fair share into the district.

Arundel residents said they feel their town and students will not benefit as much as residents and students of Kennebunk and Kennebunkport from future renovations of the high school.  Most Arundel students attend Thornton Academy in Saco.

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