I am complete disbelief on how this Freeport Withdrawal Committee is conducting itself. The first is to hold a (high school future visioning) meeting of such significant importance on this day April 17 – the day before Good Friday and the evening of the beginning of spring vacation week and Easter weekend. I know of many families, ours included, that will be long gone by then or preparing to leave. This is by far the worst day you could pick for this and I am sure will get the attendance to reflect that. This seems this could be a calculated and underhanded attempt by the committee to get the results that they desire.

The second, they also gave such ample notice, 12 days, to get the word out. This is the bare minimum I am assuming, if not less than, for a public meeting. This is so wrong from a group of people that expounds about transparency. It seems a bit shaded to me. It appalls me to no end that this group would steer the way of limited information and cherry picking said information so only the view of the vast majority of this committee is supported.

Please take a clue from Durham, when that committee looked at this same issue and they told their people to vote against separation. Open your eyes and minds to seeing all sides.

A third point is this is not one of your 11 points that the committee is always referring back to. Why is the public’s money being spent on a facilitator and mailings if this is not an area of your responsibility? If this is an undertaking the committee feels is important, then I also implore you to come up with a reasonable and impartial budget for a stand-alone school district without any help from the other two towns, which I know is not one of the 11 points (should be No. 1), but since we are straying from the path, let’s stray in a reasonable direction. It is a reasonable outlook that if we go through with this, Durham and Pownal, who already have other offers from neighboring towns, will beat feet and get out.

At the same time, you can explain to the town how we will keep this district moving forward for less tax money, with less money from the outside sources, as well. It would also help the community as well to explain the committee’s thoughts on what is to become of the antique high school we have now, without spending even more tax money.

This is such an important issue that it keeps me up at night and creates heartburn. After many years of building a school district that people wanted to move to and put their kids in, we are destroying all the advances and going backward off a cliff.

Move this meeting and get a real public view.

Chris Parker

Freeport