Raymond voters will decide on Nov. 4 whether to pursue withdrawing from Regional School Unit 14, the district the town formed with Windham in 2009.

The Raymond Board of Selectmen voted 4-1 on Tuesday night, with Joe Bruno opposed, to put a referendum question on the November ballot asking whether a committee should be created to examine the costs of leaving the district – a vote required by the state to start the process.

Raymond is the latest Maine community to pursue breaking up a school district created in 2009 as part of a statewide effort to streamline the educational system and reduce costs. Saco and Dayton voted last year to withdraw from the school district they shared with Old Orchard Beach, and Freeport will vote in November on whether to leave the district it shares with Durham and Pownal.

Last month, Raymond Selectwoman Teresa Sadak presented a petition to the board to force the referendum. It had more than enough verified signatures – 10 percent of the number of votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, under state law – to require the town to hold a vote at its next election or call a special election within 60 days.

Bruno said Wednesday he voted against holding the referendum because he wanted the school board to discuss the issue before making that decision. That didn’t happen.

The referendum will ask voters if they want to spend $25,000 to form the exploratory committee. This effectively started the withdrawal process outlined by the Maine Department of Education in 2011, four years after the Legislature enacted the school consolidation law aimed at reducing administrative costs for districts.

As a result of the consolidation law, the number of districts in Maine dropped from 290 to 164, but the number has increased in the past three years.

Since 2011, 15 towns have withdrawn from their districts and 17 others have started the process, according to the DOE.

Sadak said she started the petition to withdraw from RSU 14 when district officials began talking about building a new school in Windham that wouldn’t qualify for state construction aid and would add hundreds of dollars to the tax bills of homeowners in Raymond.

Schools in Windham are overcrowded, while those in Raymond are underused, but proposals to balance the population by having some Windham students attend school in Raymond have been panned by parents and were rejected by the school board.

More recently, a committee was formed to address infrastructure issues with Windham Middle School and Jordan-Small Middle School in Raymond. Both schools need upgrades to their roofs, windows and heating and electrical systems.

The committee recommended in June that the district pursue one of three options: renovate Jordan-Small and build a new Windham Middle School; shift grades within the district’s schools and build a new consolidated middle school in Windham; or build a consolidated middle school without shifting grades.

Leslie Bridgers can be contacted at 791-6364 or at:

lbridgers@pressherald.com

Twitter: @lesliebridger