DURHAM – For at least the next two years, the question of whether Durham remains a member of Regional School Unit 5 with Pownal and Freeport has been put to rest.

Durham voters overwhelmingly rejected a question Nov. 6 asking if they wanted to begin the process of withdrawing from RSU 5. The vote went 1,718 opposed to withdrawal against 650 in favor. Kevin Nadeau, the chairman of the Durham Educational Exploration Committee, a group of residents that had been exploring the town’s options if residents had voted to withdraw, said because the number of votes approving of withdrawal did not reach at least 45 percent of the total vote, there is a state-mandated two-year period before the town could even begin to explore withdrawing from the RSU again.

Nadeau, who in the days before the election came out in support of Durham remaining in the RSU, said he was pleased with the results.

“What it said to me was that people paid attention to the information that was put out there and made what I think was a reasonable decision,” he said. “That was our goal all along, just to put the factual information in front of the people so they would be able to make a well-informed decision, and I think that’s what they did.”

RSU 5 Superintendent Shannon Welsh was also satisfied that Durham would be sticking with Freeport and Pownal as members of the RSU.

“We are very pleased that Durham will continue to be part of the RSU,” Welsh said. “The three towns make a great team and it will benefit students and taxpayers for the three towns to continue to work together.”

Nadeau said he believed Durham elected to remain a member of RSU 5 because voters looked at the information gathered by the Educational Exploration Committee and determined the RSU was a good deal for the town, and was not the driving factor behind an increase in property taxes.

The committee studied how the RSU 5 budget impacted Durham. As passed by the voters in the three towns in June, the RSU 5 budget for the 2012-2013 school year is $24.9 million, 4.21 percent higher than last year’s $23.8 million. As for the impact to local taxpayers, Durham is responsible for $3.2 million. Freeport will contribute $13.3 million and Pownal will contribute $1.7 million.

The committee also found that while some factors related to the RSU, such as the town having to assume shared costs for the central office and the high school, did lead to a slight bump in property taxes, other factors, including a decrease in state aid for education and a town-wide property value reassessment completed in 2010 that changed property values, drove up tax bills for some residents.

“I think there were a lot of misconceptions out there regarding what was driving up property taxes or what was going on with issues like that,” Nadeau said. “And once people knew the truth, I think they realized that the RSU wasn’t perhaps as much as a bad guy as they thought. So I think it’s probably a combination of maybe there wasn’t as much widespread dissatisfaction with the RSU, but I think that getting some good information out there opened some people’s eyes, that it really wasn’t a bad thing for the town in the long run. It was a good thing for the town.

“For me the biggest thing I learned (during the whole process) was the fact that the RSU had very little to do with property tax increases,” Nadeau continued. “(Staying in the RSU is) certainly a good deal financially.”

Nadeau also said that the educational benefits of the RSU became clear to him from his work on the committee.

“I think it’s best for the town’s kids and parents from an educational perspective (to remain in the RSU) because you have the continuity of curriculum. I think a lot of people that were perhaps still in favor of withdrawal because they liked high school choice, I understand they feel that way because that’s really, all they knew. Now that the towns had the chance to experience what it’s like to be a fully participating member in a complete K-12 school district, I think people realize that that’s a good thing. I think we are the best educational situation for our kids.”

Welsh echoed Nadeau’s sentiments, praising the work that he and his fellow committee members did to put information before the public.

“The Durham Educational Exploration Committee did a great job,” she said. “(They did a) great deal of in-depth work to pull together the data and I think those facts really convinced the community. So having seen those facts, I was not surprised that the community decided they were going to stay with the RSU, because they were getting good value for the educational dollar. I did believe that when the community looked at the facts, they would see that we are high-performing and highly efficient and that they were getting good value and that they would vote this (withdrawal proposal) down.”