Durham selectmen will establish a committee to negotiate withdrawal from Regional School Unit 5 only if residents vote to move the process forward at the annual town meeting in April, according to the chairman of the selectmen’s board.
Selectmen decided last month to schedule a public vote during the annual town meeting in April. By that time, the Board of Selectmen will have established an approximate cost for Durham to leave RSU 5, and voters will decide if they want to move the process forward. The April vote would not be a vote on withdrawal itself.
Jeff Wakeman, board chairman, confirmed that the board must come up with a dollar amount for Durham to leave RSU 5, which also includes Freeport and Pownal. A public hearing must be at least 10 days prior to the town meeting.
“We could appoint an advisory committee to look at things,” Wakeman said. “We would probably end up talking to Freeport, to find out what process they used to determine the cost.”
In addition to the cost of going it alone as a school district, Durham also is on the hook for its share of a $14.6 million bond to renovate Freeport High School.
Freeport residents decided in a close vote in November 2014 to remain with RSU 5.
Withdrawal from RSU 5 has been an issue in Durham since mid-August, when Donna Church hung up a petition at the Durham Get & Go, which she owns. It is not known who began the petition. Town Clerk Shannon Plourde said late last month that she had verified the signatures of 238 Durham residents – 24 more than the total necessary to move the process forward.
Durham, which decided against withdrawal three years ago due to the cost, is consistently at odds with RSU 5 about the cost of education, and only once in the six-year history of RSU 5 has the town voted in favor of an RSU 5 budget. A $29.4 million budget for 2015-2016 was approved, though residents of Durham and Pownal voted against it. Overall property taxes in Durham have increased by 4.5 percent, Administrator Ruth Glaeser said.
Durham Selectman Michael Stewart, who signed the withdrawal petition, said that taxes are “eating everybody up” in town.
“Let the public decide this,” Stewart said. “I think it’s great to let the public have their say. It’s their tax dollars.”
Regarding the bond, Stewart said that people need to be better informed as to who benefits from a high school renovation.
“It’s still in Freeport,” Stewart said of the high school. “It really isn’t ours. Most people I talk to just want to get more informed. They just want to know how much of their taxes is going to these schools.”
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