Residents of Freeport, Durham and Pownal are invited to make comments and pose questions on Freeport’s proposed agreement to withdraw from Regional School Unit 5 during a public hearing set for Tuesday, Aug. 26.

The time and location will be determined by the RSU 5 board of directors at a special meeting Thursday, Aug. 14, at 6:30 p.m., at Freeport High School.

Maine Commissioner of Education Jim Rier scheduled the hearing for Aug. 26 exactly 20 days following his conditional approval of the withdrawal agreement between the Freeport Withdrawal Committee and the RSU 5 Working Group. Rier would grant final approval if Freeport residents vote on Nov. 4 to withdraw from RSU 5.

Paula Gravelle, school finance director for the state education department, said that Rier approved the agreement as it was presented to him on Aug. 6. The Withdrawal Committee agreed to and sent the document to Rier last Thursday, the day after the full school board ratified it.

The two committees have been negotiating Freeport’s withdrawal from RSU 5 throughout the year.

Peter Murray, chairman of the Withdrawal Committee, said he was pleased with Rier’s quick approval of the agreement, following sometimes arduous negotiations between the Withdrawal Committee and the Working Group.

“It’s been quite a process,” said Murray. “I’m happy that Freeport’s going to have a chance to vote on this in November.”

Eric Horne, one of the Freeport residents who gathered signatures that prompted the vote last December to explore withdrawal, said Monday that he knows of no spinoff group forming to campaign for a vote to withdraw on Nov. 4. Horne conceded, though, that no one saw Moving Freeport Forward – the group that gathered the signatures – coming.

“It’s been sort of organic from the start,” Horne said. “We want good information to make a wise decision. Everybody wants to make sure there’s good data.”

Good data would include a suggested budget for a stand-alone Freeport school district.

“They’re talking about putting a Town Council group together, to corral some numbers,” he said. “What I’d hope to see is just a good public conversation. There are plenty of opinions in this town, and I think that’s healthy.”

Horne said he is pleased that Freeport voters will have a choice on Nov. 4.

“It’s been an interesting process,” he said. “It’s healthy to step back and reassess.”

The Nov. 4 vote gives Freeport its best chance to meet the state standard for a withdrawal vote, which is more than half the number of residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election. That number was 4,155. The December 2013 vote in Freeport to explore withdrawal was 953-768 for a total of 1,721 – heavy for an off-year election, according to Town Clerk Tracey Stevens, but nowhere near the turnout needed.