As an RSU, we are forced to expand Freeport High School when our neighbor Brunswick is saddled with 369 empty seats. Expansion accommodates around 150 more students with a 20-year price tag, but RSU 5 projections in 2012 showed us reaching that number in eight years. Will we issue another costly bond or try to share with Brunswick when it may be too late? Is this smart fiscal and regional responsibility?

As an RSU, there is endless confusion on how towns share costs. As a parent attending nearly every school board meeting in the last 21?2 years, I’ve seen extensive time spent explaining cost-sharing to the towns and their representatives. By withdrawing from RSU 5 and having local budgets, we will know exactly where the money comes from and where it goes. We can take in tuition students and balance money going out for charter/alternative schools. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a simpler and clearer balance sheet?

As an RSU, at those same school board meetings, I’ve been embarrassed to be a member of a unified school district that is clearly not unified. The tension and distrust between towns is evident in the room. Is this how you or I want to sit with our neighbors? Instead, we could come to the table as individual towns with the goals of providing for students and sharing specific services and buying power. We could spend our money to renovate and innovate, making us more resilient for future economic crises, instead of expanding with a warehousing model of square footage per student.

I urge you to vote against expansion and the RSU model (which even state officials admit is flawed) and vote for local town schools that flexibly work with their neighbors.

Mandana MacPherson

Freeport