RAYMOND – On Election Day, Raymond voters will determine whether to move forward in the lengthy process of withdrawing from Regional School Unit 14.

The Nov. 4 vote is the fourth of 22 state-mandated steps required to withdraw from the school district. The question will ask voters whether they would like to send a petition for withdrawal to the RSU 14 Board of Directors and the commissioner of education.

If a majority of voters approve, the RSU 14 board would need to form a four-member committee to draw up a withdrawal agreement, which would eventually be put to a final vote at a special town meeting.

The Raymond Board of Selectmen voted Sept. 2 to hold the vote in response to a 352-signature petition submitted by Selectwoman Theresa Sadak calling on the town to hold a vote on whether to initiate the withdrawal process. The referendum question also would set aside $25,000 in contingency funds toward the formation of a withdrawal exploratory committee and associated legal costs.

When Sadak initially pioneered the petition drive, she said the prime motivation behind the effort was the school board’s discussions about building a new middle school in Windham. In one of the scenarios discussed by an advisory committee to the board, Raymond taxpayers would contribute to the construction costs of the middle school even if Raymond students did not attend the school.

In August, Sadak said, she was willing to hold off on the withdrawal effort if the school board postponed talks on a new Windham middle school and focused on re-adjusting the cost-sharing formula that determines how new construction projects are financed. At an Aug. 13 meeting, with Sadak in attendance, the board decided to postpone the middle school talks and focus on amending the formula, which would allocate nearly 45 percent of the costs of a new middle school to Raymond, even if no Raymond students attended.

Yet Sadak pushed ahead with the withdrawal effort anyway, arguing that the school board has become more responsive since the withdrawal drive has come to the fore.

Diana Froisland, a school board member from Raymond, said she was confused by Sadak’s stated motivations.

“I think that was the initial fear – that the Raymond people did not want to pay for a middle school that they didn’t necessarily want to use,” Froisland said. “It seems like that was the initial reasoning. We keep trying to nail down what is the reasoning.”

“It seems like this just so jumped the gun on everything,” Froisland said. “It’s a shame. We’re just in the midst of working on that cost-sharing formula now; that’s not done.”

For Sadak, the potential Windham middle school is not the only reason for withdrawal. Furthermore, Sadak said that the cost-sharing formula has not been formally adjusted yet.

“There are so many reasons why people want to separate,” she said. “The comment was made, ‘The middle school is off the table,’ and they’re working on the cost-sharing and a comment was made that the cost-sharing is pretty much a done deal. It’s not a done deal until it’s voted in.”

“I think the school board is just protecting their position,” Sadak added.

Grace Leavitt, a teacher at Greely High School in Cumberland who spoke up at an Oct. 14 hearing on withdrawal, described the withdrawal initiation effort as “premature.”

“I basically thought that people signed the petition based on some misinformation or misunderstandings,” she said. “To spend the time and money on this process right now doesn’t seem appropriate.”

If the Nov. 4 question is approved, at least 50 percent of Raymond voters would need to approve the final withdrawal agreement, according to Paula Gravelle, school finance coordinator of the Maine Department of Education.

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A CLOSER LOOK

The Nov. 4 referendum question facing Raymond voters reads as follows:

“Do you favor filing a petition for withdrawal with the board of directors of regional school unit RSU 14 and with the Commissioner of Education, authorizing the withdrawal committee to expend $25,000 and authorizing the Raymond Board of Selectmen to issue notes in the name of the Town of Raymond or otherwise pledge the credit of the Town of Raymond in an amount not to exceed $25,000 for this purpose?”

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