DURHAM – The advantages of a Durham-Lisbon high school were presented at a two-hour public hearing Thursday night.

The hearing was to discuss a proposal on forming a community school district with Lisbon and to consider a tuition contract with Brunswick High School.

Facilitator Jeff Darling showed a per-pupil cost comparison: $3,284 for a jointly-owned community school district high school and $4,492 for continuing the current school choice. Advantages of a community school district are long-term security for the town and having a say in all facets of the high school, residents were told.

With a community school district, all students would be required to attend the new high school. If parents wanted to send their children to other schools, they would be responsible for the tuition.

Brunswick has offered a five-year contract, with a clause extending it to a maximum of 10 years. It requires that at least 80 percent of the students attend there.

Brunswick Principal James Ashe said the School Committee voted unanimously for the contract offer. He dismissed rumors that Brunswick might close its doors to Durham tuition students. “You have a very high commitment from Brunswick that we’ll do the best we can,” he said.

Lisbon Principal Kenneth Healey told residents, “I don’t want your money, I want something more valuable, you. If you join a CSD, you’ll have a say; a say on a new high school, you’ll have a say, on new teachers.”

He said if the community school district is approved, he would seek Durham voters to serve on the Lisbon hiring team this year.

Among concerns raised was the possibility that the state could decide that the present Lisbon High School would be renovated, instead of new construction, which could happen, Darling confirmed.

Other parents said they wanted their children to continue at Brunswick.

At one point, three Durham teen girls, who said they were seniors at Brunswick, related their unhappy experiences at the school.

Darling later said one of them was his daughter, and he had witnessed her crying because she had to go to Brunswick.

A member of the School Committee, Linda Pfaffinger, a former Brunswick resident, told of her son’s many problems while at Brunswick. Others stressed the benefits of going to a smaller school. Enrollment at Brunswick High School with Durham students is 1,178.

A Lisbon-Durham high school enrollment would be 647, it was stated.

Others parents defended Brunswick, saying they were very pleased with that school, both the physical facility and programs. Ashe invited Durham residents and parents to an informational meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 6, at Brunswick High School’s Crooker Theater to learn about academic, athletic and extra curricular programs. Building tours will be given.