FREEPORT – Freeport residents will return to the polls Tuesday, Dec. 17, to decide whether to officially begin the process of withdrawing from Regional School Unit 5.

In a special meeting Oct. 29, the Freeport Town Council voted unanimously to set the date and also earmarked $50,000 to cover the costs of the process if the measure passes.

The decision comes after Moving Freeport Forward, a residents’ group dedicated to removing Freeport from the school district it shares with Durham and Pownal, submitted petitions to the town with 416 signatures to trigger the vote. The petition is the first of a 22-step process for withdrawal as mandated by the state. If residents approve the question, the next step would be to form a committee to study withdrawal.

The council also scheduled a public hearing on the proposal for Tuesday, Dec. 3, at 6:30 p.m., at the Town Council Chambers in the Town Hall.

Meanwhile, the costs and consequences of a stand-alone Freeport school district are still being examined even after a study commissioned by the Town Council presented revised data suggesting Freeport taxpayers would be on the hook for an additional $1.6 million if the withdrawal effort were successful.

During the meeting, Charles Lawton, a consultant hired by the town, said the cost the town pays for education would rise from $14.3 million now to $15.9 million as a stand-alone system. The Town Council roundly criticized Lawton and longtime Maine education administrator Jack Turcotte during an October meeting for failing to provide a detailed analysis of a Freeport-only district.

“Based on what I know so far, it will be very difficult to offer a comprehensive education program of studies at Freeport High School as you deal with declining enrollment and a loss of students,” wrote Turcotte in the Sept. 27 report. “You will definitely lose students, not just from the other RSU towns, but likely from yours as well if you pull out of the RSU.”

In response to the study and its supposed shortcomings, Moving Freeport Forward is urging the council to commission a resident-driven data review, which would include potential cost savings associated with such items as payroll services and groundskeeping.

Many Freeport residents have expressed frustration with the regional school unit, especially after a $16.9 million renovation and expansion of Freeport High School was narrowly defeated at a June 11 referendum. During a June 18 council meeting, Freeport residents urged the council to take action and explore the possibility of withdrawing from the four-year-old RSU 5.

A ballot question seeking to borrow $14,638,009 for academic renovations and field repairs at Freeport High School, and a separate ballot question, billed as a bond upgrade, that seeks $1,718,891 for the construction of synthetic field surfaces, was decided by tri-town voters on Nov. 5, after the Tri-Town Weekly’s deadline.

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