While I have been a resident and voter in Freeport for less than a year, I have been aware of the turmoil surrounding the consolidation of Freeport into RSU 5. It is reasonable to realize that RSU 5 is, was and always will be a fiscally irresponsible nightmare for Freeport taxpayers.

It is time to wake up and understand that while school consolidation was meant to create efficiency and save state and local tax dollars from being wasted for Freeport, this has not been the case.

As I understand, prior to consolidation, it was known that consolidating was not going to save Freeport taxpayers any money. In spite of this, the threat of penalties from the state coerced the community into consolidation.

Now, Freeport has the opportunity to protect tax dollars and get out of RSU 5.

There are three main financial reasons Freeport should exit RSU 5.

1. Consolidation was designed to create savings for towns whose newly formed school districts would have a minimum of 2,500 students. RSU 5 has less than 1,850 students. The RSU 5 formation then created financial inefficiency. In other words, consolidation was a waste of taxpayer dollars for Freeport, a situation that will continue under the current organization.

2. If Freeport stays in RSU 5, Freeport taxpayers will be forced to spend millions of dollars to expand the high school in order to make room for a population bubble. RSU 5, although not large enough to achieve cost savings through economies of scale, is too large to accommodate all of the high school students in the near future. Meanwhile, Brunswick High School has 30 percent of its seats empty and has a desperate need for students. This could easily be filled by the RSU 5 overflow.

3. Middle management positions have been created by consolidation, which drive up costs and steer money away from the real need: teachers, students and curriculum advancement.

In addition to the financial issues, there are many other reasons for Freeport to seek and determine its own destiny. Freeport must right-size its school system by exiting RSU 5 in order to stop the waste of our hard-earned tax dollars.

Lillian Kerr Haversat

Freeport