FREEPORT – It’s certain that many questions will be posed during a Dec. 3 public hearing at the Freeport Town Hall, when the Town Council and residents will discuss the ballot article to explore withdrawal from Regional School Unit 5, two weeks hence.

Among them: Can RSU 5 spend the $14.6 million to renovate Freeport High School, narrowly approved by RSU 5 residents on Nov. 5, if Freeport votes on Dec. 17 to explore withdrawal? How much more will it cost the town to operate a stand-alone school district? How does Freeport benefit – or suffer – from its affiliation with Durham and Pownal?

Another question, which might not necessarily be made public next Tuesday night: How much, if at all, will the passage of the Freeport High renovation bond impact the Dec. 17 vote? That money, after all, is likely to “go away” should Freeport ultimately leave RSU 5, and the town would need to raise the money on its own.

“I don’t think it will change people’s minds,” said Jerry Antl, a member of Moving Freeport Forward, the organization that gathered the signatures calling for the withdrawal vote. “We had no trouble getting those 485 signatures. We didn’t take a position on the bond because we thought it was a completely separate issue.”

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Town Manager Peter Joseph said that town staff is working on a presentation on information the public needs to know regarding the withdrawal process. The public then will weigh in.

“I think the bulk of it is going to be public comment,” Joseph said.

Joseph and school officials agree that none of the bond money will be spent if Freeport residents vote to explore withdrawal. That much was decided on Oct. 9, when the RSU 5 board directed Superintendent Shannon Welsh not to take any action on the renovation project until so authorized by the board.

“They’ve said they will not spend it until the separation issue is settled,” Joseph said. “The Town Council doesn’t have any say on that.”

Joseph went on to explain that “only after a withdrawal agreement is negotiated and approved by voters does the bond money go away.” That probably would be sometime next year, he suggested.

Welsh concurred that the bond money hinges on whether Freeport remains with the RSU.

“If Freeport votes to withdraw and goes through the process and then votes to approve the withdrawal plan, we would not have the authority to spend the money and RSU 5, which includes Pownal and Durham, would not likely vote to spend the money,” Welsh said.

It’s quite a different process if voters decide on Dec. 17 not to consider withdrawal.

“If Freeport does not vote to withdraw,” Welsh said, “the board would establish a Building Committee with residents of all three towns, a teacher’s voice, a student’s voice and an administration voice.”

Welsh said she would recommend to the board that such a committee be formed “immediately” following a vote to remain with the RSU. The RSU board, in fact, will conduct its next meeting on Dec. 18 rather than on Dec. 11 as scheduled, so that it can authorize a Building Committee immediately following the Dec. 17 withdrawal vote.

“We would need to get into the process of hiring an architect and an engineering firm,” Welsh said. “We would want to start construction in October or November of 2014. We need to get that process started.”

The arguments

Antl says the relationship between Freeport and the other two towns is not good, and hasn’t been all along.

“These towns have been at odds on budgets and relationships,” he said. “This isn’t really a good relationship.”

Antl doesn’t blame the residents of Durham and Pownal, who once again voted heavily against the Freeport High bond earlier this month. It passed by only 72 votes, 2,202-2,028.

“Within the RSU,” he said, “we’re strong-arming the other two towns into financing something they don’t want. Is that the way to run a school district? The last vote just increased a strained relationship.”

The Dec. 17 withdrawal vote, Antl said, would authorize a committee to explore the advantages or disadvantages of leaving the RSU.

Antl has studied the state-mandeated withdrawal process, examining the experiences each town that has successfully withdrawn from an RSU has had.

According to consolidation law, he said, after Jan. 1, 2015, it takes a two-thirds majority vote for a town to withdraw from an RSU. Right now, it’s just a simple majority.

“This makes it nearly impossible to break up an RSU after this date,” Antl said. “Freeport also can’t vote on this again for another two years, so this is essentially our one and only chance to get out of RSU 5. This is the first step in the process. The goal is a transparent process.”

Beth Parker, an RSU board member from Freeport, has a different take on the issue. Consistently when the topic has come up at board meetings, Parker has vouched for the efficacy of the RSU.

Parker, who said last week she was speaking as “a private citizen,” also served on the school board prior to the formation of the RSU in 2007.

“I know what it was like when Freeport was stand-alone and it’s not as rosy a picture as Moving Freeport Forward thinks it is,” Parker said.

As an example, she said, those advocating for withdrawal are hoping that students from the other two towns will pay tuition to attend Freeport High. That increases the state subsidy.

“But Brunswick and Greely and others have room, too,” Parker said. “Everybody’s going to try to negotiate to get these students.”

Parker pointed out that Freeport has four schools, while Durham and Pownal have one each. The high school, she said, is the most expensive to run, and so it costs more to educate students in Freeport.

Educational consultants Charles Lawton and Jack Turcotte, in a study commissioned in July by the Town Council, reported that the town would be responsible for an additional $1.6 million in tax commitment for a Freeport-only scenario, not $4 million, as the pair wrote in their initial report, which was sharply criticized by councilors for what they saw as incomplete data on a potential stand-alone Freeport school district.

“Freeport’s actual operational expenditures in fiscal year 2009 were slightly more than $15.8 million,” wrote Lawton in the second report, filed Oct. 17. “Based on discussions with the Finance Director for RSU 5, increases in spending directly attributable to Freeport schools amounted to approximately $700,000 for direct instruction and related support and just over $200,000 for additional contributions for teacher retirement. Assuming inflation-related cost increases of 3 percent over the entire five-year period adds just over $475,000, bringing the ‘built forward’ Freeport-only budget to just over $17.2 million,” wrote Lawton. “In short, the ‘deconstructing down’ from the actual RSU 5 budget for FY 2014 estimate and the ‘building forward’ from the Freeport budget of FY 2009 arrive at very similar estimates of the cost of providing the actual education received by Freeport students in FY 2014 – something between $17 million and $17.2 million.”

The scenario “effectively replaces the $4 million estimated cost that was previously presented,” wrote Joseph in a town manager’s report to the council.

Superintendent’s statement

“I absolutely support the citizens’ rights to consider whether or not to continue to be part of RSU5. The RSU provides a high quality educational experience for our students while making efficient use of our financial resources. It appears from the Town Council report that it will cost Freeport approximately $1.6 million more as a stand-alone system for what they are currently getting for their tax dollar. It is mutually beneficial for the three communities to continue to work together to provide a world-class education and address the facility needs at Freeport High School. Our students and staff benefit from our work together in RSU5 which adds value to the larger RSU community,”

– Shannon Welsh, superintendent, Regional School Unit 5

A CLOSER LOOK

Public hearing on the issue RSU 5 withdrawal, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 6:30 p.m., Freeport Town Hall Council Chambers.

Special withdrawal referendum, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 7 a.m.-8 p.m., Freeport Town Hall Council Chambers. Deadline to request an absentee ballot is Thursday, Dec. 12, 6 p.m. For more information on absentee voting, contact the Town Clerk, 865-4743, ext.123.