FREEPORT – After Freeport town councilors said they would hire an independent consultant to study the consequences of the town withdrawing from Regional School Unit 5 during a July 9 workshop, the process was scheduled to move forward this week with the Town Council likely to approve seeking bids from prospective consultants. The council is meeting Tuesday, after the Tri-Town Weekly’s deadline.

The cost of a consultant for the three-week job has been pegged at less than $10,000 and more than $5,000, according to Freeport Town Manager Peter Joseph. The reason a consultant will be hired, as opposed to appointing a committee, is to avoid the appearance of bias, said councilors during the July 9 workshop.

The study would look at potential costs to taxpayers and the impact a withdrawal would have on the curriculum. The consultant will also be asked to work with town staff on a speculative, Freeport-only school budget.

The process of withdrawing from an RSU involves a 22-step procedure per the rules governing the school consolidation system. Most recently, the town of Wiscasset, citing lack of control of school spending, sought and received conditional approval to withdraw from Regional School Unit 12.

Educational consultants Raymond Poulin and Norm Higgins, who were hired by Wiscasset to examine the financial impact of withdrawal, estimated there would be a $1.5 million, one-time cost to the town to withdraw.

Per the guidelines of the Maine Department of Education, leaving a regional school unit starts with a withdrawal petition, which needs voters’ approval on a secret ballot. The petition authorizes forming a negotiating committee and funding it.

According to Joseph, 10 percent of Freeport’s roughly 7,000 residents would have to sign a petition to bring withdrawal to a vote.

Municipal officials and the school unit appoint members of the committee to work out details of the separation, and the resulting agreement goes to the commissioner of education and then to voters at a second referendum, according to the Maine Department of Education.

Municipalities must wait 30 months after the formation of an RSU before gathering signatures for a petition to withdraw. RSU 5 started operating on July 1, 2009; thus, Freeport is eligible.

“I think the issue is whether or not residents want to do a study,” said District 1 Councilor Andy Wellen said during the workshop. “Based on my little corner of the world, there definitely is.”

Many Freeport residents have expressed frustration with the regional school unit, which seemed to reach a tipping point after a $16.9 million renovation and expansion of Freeport High School was narrowly defeated June 11. 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 it shares with Pownal and Durham.

“I don’t want emotions to run crazy and inform this decision,” Freeport resident Beth Parker told the council July 9.

Parker’s sentiments were echoed by fellow Freeport resident Joyce Clark Veilleux, who said via an email read by Councilor Melanie Sachs the situation was akin to “3-year-olds having a temper tantrum” and urged cooperation within the three towns.

The results on the expansion proposal from Freeport, Durham and Pownal put the total votes on the school project at 2,202 against and 2,028 in favor. In Freeport, 1,623 were in favor, 902 opposed. Pownal trounced the bond, 472 to 118, and it was the same story in Durham, where 828 were against and 287 in favor.

Pownal and Durham voters also rejected the $25.8 million fiscal 2014 budget for RSU 5.