FREEPORT

With Freeport’s withdrawal talks in the rearview mirror, Lindsay Sterling is looking forward to taking a leadership role as a newly elected member of the Regional School Unit 5 Board of Directors.

In a four-way race for two seats on the RSU 5 board, incumbent Beth Parker and newcomer Sterling were elected on Nov. 4, with Parker garnering 1,901 votes and Sterling 2,010, unseating incumbent board chairman Nelson Larkins, who received 1,454 votes.

“There are a variety of needs in the community and balancing those needs are a primary concern” of board members, said Sterling in a phone interview with The Times Record. “Personally, I consider this a welcome opportunity for me to be on the team that is responsible for working to meet those needs.”

Sterling, a food and corporate communications writer, moved from Wisconsin to Freeport 13 years ago where she currently lives with her husband and two daughters, both who attend schools in the RSU 5 district.

Previously, Sterling served on the Freeport High School Renovation Advisory Committee as a community liaison, attending the committee meet- ings and bringing information to the public.

“ I gained experience with our schools and with the community of parents and educators through that project,” said Sterling, “and through volunteering at the schools where my kids have gone.

“I felt that morale in the district was very low,” said Sterling of her motivation to run for the school board.

“We have an attrition rate that is high,” said Sterling, noting that 20 percent of students leave the district between eighth and ninth grades. “I would love to help the board get more information from the families who have left about why people are choosing other schools.

“I know some of the families who have moved their kids to other schools, and they love Freeport as a community,” she said. “I hope that we can use that specific information to develop a strategy moving forward to correct those problems.”

In November 2013, RSU 5 district voters passed a $14.6 million bond for a broad- ranging renovation and expansion project at Freeport High School. A separate $1.7 million bond to rehabilitate the school’s track and fund a new turf field failed.

The issuance of the high school renovation bond was put on hold pending the final results of the withdrawal vote, however, Sterling said renovation plans will be back on the board’s agenda in the near future.

“The withdrawal discussion was a difficult discussion for all people in our community and I’m looking forward to having this clear path forward,” said Sterling. “We have the high school renovation we can get rolling and that will be an uplifting project for the community.

“We’re looking at some great positive changes,” she said. “I think we can have an exceptional school district.”

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