I am writing regarding the Dec. 17 vote on Freeport’s possible withdrawal from the RSU. I believe Freeport voters should think long and hard before voting for withdrawal.
It was an honor for me to serve on the Freeport School Committee for 11 years, most of them as chairperson. The School Committee worked very, very hard to develop the best possible school system for our community, but there was one element of our school system that grew ever more challenging to deal with, and that was our declining student population. It became clear that a real driver of cost in our system was the lack of students.
This challenge took many forms – loss of funding from the state and federal government, the rising costs of running our buildings with too few students, and the reality that the educational landscape was truly changing in that more and more of our students were choosing to go elsewhere. Year after year, we were asked to explain to the seven members of the Town Council exactly what our plan was to deal with these daunting fiscal realities. The result was a budget process where the Town Council went over our budget with a fine-toothed comb to make sure the taxpayers of Freeport were getting the best value for their tax dollar. It was a difficult, stressful, and sometimes demeaning process.
The RSU presented a way to sustain or even increase student population, particularly in the high school. I believe the RSU has sufficient “mass” to weather the continued loss of state and federal funding and, most significantly, the loss of students to private, charter and other public schools.
I worry about a system wracked by the upheaval that will be the result of a withdrawal, the loss of the opportunity to finally renovate the high school, and an acceleration of the loss of students to other school systems, particularly at the high school level. There are more options and choices for parents now than there were prior to the formation of the RSU. I have no doubt that a breakup of the RSU and the loss of the vote to improve the high school will force more parents to consider other options. In my opinion, the new reality of increased educational choice outside of Freeport guarantees the low student levels projected for Freeport High School after a breakup. Given these likely realities, how will we justify to the voters of Freeport taking on the enormous burden of renovating our high school by ourselves?
I want to also recognize the many parents and families in Pownal and Durham who have consistently voted for the RSU, who support the budget year after year, and who voted for the high school renovation. Prior to the vote that formed the RSU I met a large number of parents in our partner communities who were thrilled at being a part of a larger system and having their own high school. They were committed to the RSU because finally they could have a school system they could have a say in and a high school to call their own. They are an important part of our future, and I do not think we should believe they will simply tuition in to Freeport after a break-up if we have taken away the very thing they wanted.
I urge Freeport voters to vote to preserve the RSU.
Christopher Leighton
Freeport
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