Indications are that the second and final vote on Freeport’s withdrawal from Regional School Unit 5 is likely to coincide with next year’s gubernatorial election.

One day after Freeport voted to pursue the withdrawal issue, Dick Spencer, the RSU 5 lawyer who has advised several other school units through the withdrawal process, told the school board at a meeting Dec. 18 that, in a withdrawal referendum, more than half the number of Freeport residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election is needed for the vote to be valid. Spencer, who works for Drummond Woodsum of Portland, told the board that withdrawal bids in Monmouth and Belfast failed because they could not reach that threshold.

Freeport drew 27 percent of its registered voters on Dec. 17 as the town voted, 953-768, to explore withdrawal from the RSU. Though Town Clerk Tracey Stevens said that number was heavy for an off-year election, it still doesn’t match the number needed to reach the state requirement. A total of 4,155 Freeport residents voted in the 2010 gubernatorial election.

Spencer said that the second withdrawal vote could occur as early as July, but that would put negotiations between Freeport and the RSU on a fast track.

“The withdrawal vote needs a major get-out-the-vote effort,” Spencer said. “Monmouth and Belfast have failed at that.”

Moving Freeport Forward, the driving force behind Freeport’s effort to leave the RSU, is well aware of the need to keep moving forward.

“The gubernatorial election, ideally, is what we’re hoping for,” said Kate Werner, Moving Freeport Forward’s choice to sit on the RSU Withdrawal Committee.

James Hendricks, chairman of the Freeport Town Council, is working with RSU 5 Chairman Nelson Larkins to establish that withdrawal committee, which will negotiate with the RSU board to reach a withdrawal agreement that is acceptable to the state Department of Education. The committee will consist of one town official, one member of the general public, one member from the group filing the petition (Moving Freeport Forward) and one member of the RSU 5 board.

“We will be considering dates when the council will meet to discuss forming the withdrawal committee,” Hendricks said.

Another time factor to watch: Should negotiations persist beyond next November, the chance of Freeport leaving the RSU are jeopardized. Step 20 in the 22-step statutory process dictates that any withdrawal vote held Jan. 1, 2015, or later would require a two-thirds majority.

“We are going to look at this process as quickly as possible,” said Charly Haversat, a key operative with Moving Freeport Forward.

Haversat said that Werner is a great choice to represent Moving Freeport Forward on the withdrawal committee.

“She’s not only a numbers person, but she also understands policy,” Haversat said of Werner. “She’s very, very adept at it.”

Spencer also told the board on Dec. 18 that the school board, and not the Town Council, will choose which school board member sits on the withdrawal committee.

Town Manager Peter Joseph confirmed on Dec. 19 that the Town Council will appoint all but the RSU 5 member to the committee, and leave that appointment up to the school board. That member must be a Freeport resident, Joseph said.

“The Town Council will conduct a workshop the first week of January, possibly on Jan. 2,” Joseph said.

Potential conflicts of interest can be problematic, Spencer told the school board, because the board’s withdrawal committee representative must be a Freeport resident, as well.

“Under Maine law,” Spencer said, “there is a requirement of fidelity. It’s a tricky situation. The majority of the board is from Freeport, so there is no conflict because their loyalty is to the board. But it does raise a kind of fundamental fairness question, which you all are going to have to wrestle with. It seems to me that just as a matter of fairness, you need to figure all that out.”

Brian Pike of Durham, who regularly attends school board meetings, was the first to show up at the Wednesday night meeting. Pike said he was disappointed with Freeport’s vote.

“I think it’s sad,” Pike said. “I think the students from all three communities got a lot of benefit from the RSU.”

The Dec. 17 decision leaves town officials in Durham and Pownal scrambling to find out what directions they should take in terms of educating their children.

The result leaves in limbo a $14.6 million Freeport High School renovation bond, barely approved on a second vote in November.

Larkins will open and preside over the first meeting of the withdrawal committee until the committee elects a chairman.

Though extensions are granted, the timeline calls for the withdrawal committee and the RSU 5 board to submit the proposed agreement to the commissioner of education within 90 days of the committee’s formation. It doesn’t always work that way, however. In the case of Wiscasset leaving RSU 12, it took more than a year for the committee and the RSU to agree on terms for withdrawal. By the time Wiscasset residents made withdrawal official with a second vote in November, the entire process had taken a year and a half.

The commissioner will give either conditional approval or recommend changes to the agreement within 60 days, in step 10 of the statutory process.

Officials in the rural towns of Durham and Pownal now must be prepared for a change in course. During both votes to renovate and enlarge Freeport High School, residents of Durham and Pownal were opposed. More of them voted for a reduced $14.6 million renovation the second time around in November, however – enough to get the bond passed by a tiny margin, 2,324 – 2,252.

Tuitioning their students to another RSU – or back to Freeport schools – is on the table.

Jeff Giddinge, chairman of the Board of Selectmen in Pownal, attended last week’s school board meeting. Giddinge spoke at length with Superintendent Shannon Welsh in an effort to schedule a public hearing in Pownal.

In comments made to the Tri-Town Weekly, Giddinge also was highly critical of Freeport’s withdrawal effort.

“I just feel that it’s really unfortunate that our students are being put at a disadvantage because some adults are acting like children,” Giddinge said.

Giddinge said he took drives earlier in the day, from Pownal to Greely High School in Cumberland, from Pownal to Yarmouth High and from Pownal to Freeport High. There was only five minutes’ difference between the first two and Freeport, Giddinge said, in a reference to the choices that the town could consider if the RSU is dissolved.

Giddinge’s wife, Erica, was a founding member of the late-breaking group, United Support for RSU 5, which held a rally outside the Freeport Town Office on Dec. 16. Erica Giddinge said that the withdrawal vote has some Pownal students and parents upset.

“The kids were really upset,” Erica Giddinge said. “They started really going on Twitter and Facebook late at night.”

People who support maintaining the RSU are discouraged, she said.

“It’s frustrating, because we worked so hard to get to this point and it’s only been three years since we formed the RSU and we really don’t know whether it’s working or not,” she said. “And our kids have bonded and the parents have bonded.”

Giddinge noted that once withdrawal is official, orphaned towns must contract to a high school for a minimum of 10 years. The Dec. 17 vote puts the $14.6 million bond out of play for the time being, and could put Freeport High in a poor position to compete with other local high schools for students.

“It’s really hard to justify paying tuition to Freeport High anymore,” she said.

Giddinge also said that Pownal had the only school to come into the RSU without debt.

“It got absorbed,” she said. “When we leave, we need to make sure we are protected.”

In Durham, town officials are holding back on a reaction to the Freeport vote.

“We need to absorb this and be very careful about what we put out there to the public,” said Deb Larrabee, vice chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen. “I’ll be working with the chairman (Jeff Wakeman) and we’ll be talking about things.” Larrabee also writes the Durham and Pownal town news columns for the Tri-Town Weekly.

Wakeman said last Thursday that the next board meeting is scheduled for Jan. 14, and he doesn’t anticipate any upcoming special public meeting on the withdrawal issue.

Regional School Unit 5 director Beth Parker and her son, Logan, voted Dec. 17 on the RSU 5 withdrawal issue at the Freeport Town Office.