RAYMOND – Raymond Selectwoman Teresa Sadak, who is spearheading an effort to have Raymond withdraw from Regional School Unit 14, will encourage the Board of Selectmen Tuesday to place a referendum vote initiating the withdrawal process on the November ballot.

Sadak has submitted a petition to the town calling on the selectmen to initiate the withdrawal process. According to state statute, such a petition requires signatures from at least 10 percent of the number of voters who participated in the previous gubernatorial election or 227, in Raymond’s case. Sadak said she obtained 347 signatures, primarily at the Jordan-Small Middle School during the June elections.

On Tuesday, Sadak will call on the board to bring the withdrawal question to a vote. The board must act to put the question on the ballot at some point, Sadak said, since she’s managed to solicit the required amount of signatures. Her hope is the board act fast to put the question to voters in November. The question would need to be submitted to the town clerk’s office by mid-September, or about 45 days prior to the election, to qualify for the November ballot.

“I’m letting them know that I have the petition, I have the signatures, and I am looking to bring this to the November election on the ballot,” Sadak said.

The November vote would be a referendum on whether Raymond residents want to officially start the RSU withdrawal process. If a majority of voters approve, the RSU 14 board would need to form a four-member committee to draw up a withdrawal agreement, which would eventually be put to a final vote at a special town meeting.

Sadak said she was motivated to start the withdrawal process after hearing a school board subcommittee’s June recommendation that the district pay to construct a new middle school in Windham.

“That’s when I said, ‘OK, I’m done,’ and I took it to Election Day,” Sadak said, referring to the petition. “I kept hoping they wouldn’t go that route.”

The proposed new school would replace the aging Windham Middle School. According to Marge Govoni, a member of the Middle School Facility Advisory Committee and the chairwoman of the RSU 14 Board of Directors, construction of the new school, if approved at a future referendum, could cost between $32 million and $42 million, not including interest.

Govoni said district officials do not expect the state to contribute any money toward a potential construction effort since the state ranks the middle school low on its list of priority reconstruction projects. School officials have been told by the state that it could be more than a decade before the middle school would qualify for state aid. Local taxpayers in Windham and Raymond, therefore, would fund the project on their own. Any project would first need voter approval.

Govoni said she hopes that Raymond residents proceed carefully with talk of withdrawal.

“We think it’s been a good partnership to this point, and we would hate to see it dissolve, but again, as I said before, we have no control over that, and we can’t stop them from pursuing it,” she said. “Personally, myself, I think it would be in the best interest of the students in both of the towns if they would remain in one district.”

Diana Froisland, the vice chairwoman of the school board, who lives in Raymond, said she was open to a discussion of withdrawal.

“I think it’s fair to look at it now that we’ve been together,” Froisland said. “I think it’s prudent to see how it’s going as other towns are doing as well. How’s it working? The law was enacted to save everybody money – that was the whole intent of that law.”

Sadak said Raymond voters should have a chance to weigh in on the matter.

“What I’m hoping is the (Board of Selectmen) does push this through so the townspeople have a say as to whether they want to go through with this or not,” she said.

Teresa Sadak