RSU5 (Pownal, Durham and Freeport) like more than 20 other forced school districts around the state is faced with a withdrawal vote from its largest member . Freeport residents have already voted to explore the process and cost of withdrawal from RSU5. The facts are in, and now momentum is certainly building.

As a parent of three older kids, I can say the schools are not the issue here — it’s the governance of the budget and administration that is the issue. The shortcomings of the 2008 law that created these consolidations are fully evident in our RSU — widely different educational views and forced unequal funding burdens among the towns cause friction, discontent and in our case a 5-year string of NO votes on all things to do with taxpayer money from 2 of the three towns. This friction and dissatisfaction is not with the schools, nor with how they are operated on a daily basis.

Freeport’s vote next month on the withdrawal agreement, unanimously approved by our own RSU5 Board, is to change the governance so that Freeport can continue to offer a quality education to Freeport and all students who wish to attend. In case you haven’t noticed, the fundamental assumptions of how public education is delivered today is vastly different than even 15 years ago. If we lose ability to adapt, be nimble and embrace the changes, we will in fact be left behind. Great schools come from the faculty and administration in the building not from a failed and ill-conceived law.

Great schools are supported by the voters who invest their taxes to make a community worth living in. Vote yes, Freeport, to regain that ability.

John Egan
Freeport