Residents across Regional School Unit 23 will go to the polls Tuesday to vote on a budget, but Saco voters will have an additional decision to make about the future of the three-year-old school district.

Saco voters will decide if they want to spend $30,000 to form a committee to develop a plan to withdraw from the school unit that covers Saco, Dayton and Old Orchard Beach. The effort to withdraw has been discussed off and on since the district formed, but gained momentum in June when residents collected the 1,160 signatures required to schedule the referendum.

Residents of all three communities will vote on a $43.5 million budget, a decrease of more than $116,000 from the budget for the most recent fiscal year. Voters in June rejected a $43.6 million budget, forcing school officials to revisit the budget and schedule a second referendum.

Though the two referendum questions in Saco are separate, they aren’t unrelated. Residents who support withdrawal are concerned about the loss of local control and the cost to stay in the district. Many feel the city isn’t benefiting from the arrangement, especially as taxes in the city go up, said Jeff Christenbury, a member of Citizens for Saco Education, the political action committee leading the withdrawal effort.

Because a school budget for the current fiscal year has not been approved, city tax bills sent out this month were based on the last budget approved by the RSU 23 board, said Cheryl Fournier, finance director for the city. The last budget approved by the board is the $43.5 million budget voters will consider Tuesday.

That resulted in a $1.70 increase on the property tax rate, or an additional $340 on the tax bill of a $200,000 home in Saco. The municipal side of the budget added an additional 90 cents to the property tax rate, or $180 on the bill of a $200,000 home.

“I want all of my taxes to go to Saco schools,” Christenbury said. “I would like a (school) board whose sole job is to think about Saco students and spend money on Saco schools. I just really feel, regardless of the budget, I want our board to worry about our kids and not have to sacrifice for other communities.”

A separate withdrawal effort is under way in Dayton, which was part of a school district with Saco before the RSU was created. Selectmen hosted a public hearing on withdrawing from RSU 23 Monday night. Residents will decide at a special town meeting Aug. 13 if they favor spending up to $30,000 to form a withdrawal committee. That vote will be done by secret ballot at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

Gary Curtis, chairman of the RSU 23 school board and a representative from Old Orchard Beach, said he thinks the efforts to withdraw are premature. Saco and Dayton officials could have appointed ad-hoc committees to examine the effectiveness of the RSU without spending $30,000 each on withdrawal committees, he said.

“They’ve skipped a number of steps that wouldn’t have cost the taxpayers anything,” he said.

Curtis said there is no evidence leaving the district will save Saco taxpayers money.

“I think people have to be real careful what they wish for,” he said.

If Saco voters approve Tuesday’s withdrawal referendum, a four-member committee will be formed to develop an exit plan. The members will include an RSU school board member from Saco, a city councilor, a resident and a representative of Citizens for Saco Education. The committee will have 90 days to develop an agreement that outlines how Saco would withdraw from the school district, addressing issues that include union agreements, joint contracts and debt.

The RSU board must agree with the plan, which then has to be approved by the state education commission. The plan would then need to be approved by at least 50 percent of the total number of Saco residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election.

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be contacted at 791-6315 or at:

ggraham@mainetoday.com

Twitter: grahamgillian