WESTBROOK - Westbrook schools will not be consolidating its transportation services with Portland, based on a study that showed the collaboration would decrease services for Westbrook students.

Superintendent Reza Namin had been in discussions with Portland and South Portland about consolidating both transportation services and vehicle maintenance.

Under the proposal, Westbrook and Portland schools would have shared vehicles, drivers and transportation policy. The department was also looking at sharing a transportation director with the neighboring district, as Westbrook's Penny Esposito is retiring in December.

The shared policy, however, would require more Westbrook students to walk to school, which Namin said he wouldn't support.

"I don't intend to look for partnerships that decrease our student services," he said. "I'll be looking for ones that increase them."

According to a study conducted by Kevin Mallory, transportation director for Portland schools, Westbrook provides transportation to more than two-thirds of its students, while Portland only provides bus service to about one-third.

The discrepancy between the numbers is largely due to the differences in the policies.

Westbrook picks up kindergartners who live more than 0.1 mile away, children in grades 1-5 who live more than 0.3 miles away, children in grades 6-8 who live 1 mile away and high school students who live more than 1.5 miles away from their school.

In Portland, kindergartners who live within 0.5 miles do not receive bus service, and neither do children in grades 1-5 who live within 1 mile of their school, nor do children in grades 6-12 who live within 2 miles of their school.

Though Namin said he would not move forward with that partnership, he said he's still considering joining an existing vehicle maintenance partnership between Portland and South Portland. Those districts have been sharing a maintenance facility and mechanics for their buses since March 2008, according to Mallory.

Esposito, however, said she believes it will be in Westbrook's best interest to keep the department's mechanic and maintenance facility in the city.

"It makes economical sense to me," she said.

Portland has realized about $60,000 in annual savings by having its buses serviced in South Portland, rather than by private mechanics, Mallory said.

However, according to Esposito, because Westbrook already has its own mechanic and maintenance facility on Saco Street, the department would likely have to wait longer for vehicles to be fixed, if the department started having its buses serviced in South Portland.

In addition, she said, the department would incur travel expenses because it would have to get the vehicles to the maintenance facility on Highland Avenue in South Portland, which is about 11 miles away.

"It's not cost effective," she said.

Both Mallory and Polly Ward, business manager and transportation director for South Portland schools, said not having Westbrook join the partnership would make little difference to them.

"It's not something we saw ourselves as making money on," said Ward.

But even if both of these collaborative efforts don't come through, more joint ventures among the three districts - or with others - are possible in the future.

"I'm not going to be discouraged from looking for partnerships," Namin said.