RAYMOND – On Tuesday, Raymond voters opted to move forward in the lengthy process of withdrawing from Regional School Unit 14.

In a 1,324-940 vote, Raymond voters authorized town officials to send a petition for withdrawal to the RSU 14 Board of Directors and the commissioner of education. Raymond and Windham formed the district in 2008.

The Nov. 4 vote is the fourth of 22 state-mandated steps required to withdraw from the school district. Now, the school board will need to form a four-member committee to draw up a withdrawal agreement, which could 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 Teresa Sadak calling on the town to hold a vote on whether to initiate the withdrawal process. The referendum question also sets aside $25,000 in contingency funds toward the formation of a withdrawal exploratory committee and associated legal costs.

Sadak, who has spent much of the year advocating for withdrawal, said she was “shocked” by the vote totals. When she heard the news at midnight on Tuesday, Sadak said her reaction was, “Oh my God, that’s great. Oh my God, I’m scared to death.”

“I’m glad it went through,” Sadak said. “Now the hard part starts.”

Despite her trepidation about what comes next, Sadak said she is excited that the town will pursue more information about what it would mean for Raymond to withdraw from RSU 14. Ideally, if a final vote on withdrawal is held, Sadak hopes Raymond voters will weigh in on the matter on the date of the 2016 presidential election, in order to maximize participation.

“I want to move with it, because I think that doesn’t keep people in limbo,” Sadak said. “On the other hand, if this gets to the point that it gets to the town vote, and this gets to the end, I want to make sure that it’s a big referendum, and not a local election.”

When Sadak initially pioneered the petition drive, she said the prime motivation behind the effort were the school board’s discussions about building a new middle school in Raymond. 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 district’s Board of Directors postponed talks on the 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 it.

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.

On Tuesday, pro-withdrawal voters offered various reasons to justify their yes votes. Dennis Dorey, a former technology coordinator at Jordan-Small Middle School, said he preferred the town’s previous arrangement, prior to district consolidation. Dorey, who favors withdrawal, also said he was concerned about the cost of a new middle school in Windham.

“I’m concerned about the drumbeat for the new middle school that we’ll have to pay for,” Dorey said. “So I’m not sure how we’re necessarily going to lose too much money here if we have to kick in for a middle school that we don’t need.”

Bonnie Geller said that she voted to kickstart the withdrawal process in order to cut down on the long distances her children travel to Windham High School every weekday.

“I think it would be good to withdraw from RSU 14,” Geller said. “I don’t like my kids going all the way to Windham. We live up in Raymond on Mountain Road. It’s a long drive. It’s an extra hour in the morning and an extra hour at night. It makes for a very, very long day for the kids.”

To Michael Higgins, who voted no on the question, the talk of withdrawal is extreme.

“I think it’s premature,” Higgins said. “It seems to me that there are aspects to the merger that are working well. It’s really just begun. If there are issues, they ought to try and work them out at the school board level rather than overturning the merger.”

For Catriona Sangster, the former chairwoman of the RSU 14 board, the withdrawal vote is concerning. Sangster, who spoke out against the effort at a recent public hearing, said that the effort could cause turmoil in the school district, even if Raymond voters ultimately decide not to withdraw.

“I’m a little concerned about the tenuous time we’re going to have for the next two years,” Sangster said. “It’s going to be insecure for our students and teachers in Raymond. I’m concerned for them and I’m concerned for our teachers’ ability to not let this affect them, and our students to be able to get the best education they can.”

Raymond voters check in with busy ballot clerks at the Jordan-Small Middle School gym on Tuesday. Voters overwhelmingly backed an effort to begin studying withdrawal from the local school district.