FREEPORT – Consultants hired by the town to study the cost of a stand-alone Freeport school unit have put forth one estimation, and a group that advocates withdrawal from Regional School Unit 5 has another.

They’re miles apart.

Charles Lawton and Jack Turcotte say that it will cost about $1.6 million more for Freeport to run its four schools than the town pays as part of RSU 5, which also includes Durham and Pownal. That estimate is considerably less than their initial figure of $4 million. Still, $1.6 million is much more than the $170,012 that Moving Freeport Forward figures the town would have to pay. Moving Freeport Forward has stated that, “with further research,” the figure is reduced “to nearly even.”

All these numbers stand apart from the $14.6 million bond that RSU 5 residents have approved to renovate and expand Freeport High School, which is a capital expense. As it stands, Freeport pays 71 percent of RSU 5 expenses, Town Manager Peter Joseph said last week.

If Freeport votes to begin a withdrawal study on Dec. 17, that bond money would not be spent. The town then would be left to decide at some point how much money it wants to spend on the high school project.

In a report submitted to the Town Council, Moving Freeport Forward took issue with five study areas researched by the consultants. Moving Freeport Forward consulted with RSU 5 Superintendent Shannon Welsh, Finance Director Kelly Wentworth, Freeport Finance Director Abby Yacoben and Joseph.

Joseph said last Thursday that there is no telling which estimate is closer to being correct. An overflow crowd at the Town Hall heard withdrawal arguments during a public hearing on Dec. 3.

“The numbers provided by the town are a starting point,” Joseph said. “At the hearing, people steered away from throwing out different numbers. The numbers are all used as an assumption. Nobody’s going to know what they are until they go through the withdrawal negotiation process.”

If there is one.

“I’m not going to get into numbers as to what this is going to cost,” Joseph said. “It’s really dangerous for me or for the town to make a prediction.”

One of the biggest points of conjecture, he said, is how many students from outside Freeport would pay tuition to attend Freeport High if Freeport withdraws from the RSU. There are several nearby high schools that could compete with Freeport High for out-of-town students.

“The biggest question in my mind is the tuition figure, which nobody can predict,” Joseph said. “The biggest variable that nobody can account for at this point is how many tuition students will come into a Freeport-only school district.”