Moments after last week’s lopsided vote to approve a new school district cost-sharing formula that increases taxes for Windham residents and reduces Raymond’s burden, members of the Raymond withdrawal committee indicated they would move to prematurely end the withdrawal process.

“From my perspective, we’ll probably make a recommendation to send it out to a vote in June to dissolve the withdrawal committee,” said Selectman Joseph Bruno, the chairman of the committee.

Yet the following night, the committee decided not to send the issue out to vote. At least not yet, said Raymond Selectwoman Teresa Sadak, a withdrawal committee member and the effort’s leading champion.

“If we send it back to the public, the public is going to say, ‘Wait a second, we all moved forward on the petition to withdraw. Why are we voting not to go through with it? We haven’t seen any information of what Raymond would look like standing alone,’” Sadak said.

According to Sadak, the committee will meet April 15 to put together a budget that would show the financial impact on Raymond residents of the town’s withdrawal from the district. On April 28, the committee will hold a public hearing, and then decide whether to recommend that the town end the withdrawal effort.

The withdrawal campaign has taken on a life of its own, Sadak said, with advocates of local control not yet ready to call it quits on Raymond’s withdrawal campaign.

“We owe the people something, as far as what would it look like if Raymond stood alone and withdrew,” said Sadak, who’s not revealing whether she still supports withdrawal. “We need to be able to present Raymond with all the information to make an informed vote.”

On March 25 at the Windham High School auditorium, district residents voted 167-22, with one blank vote submitted, to approve the new cost-sharing formula, which also changes the way the district funds capital improvements, such as renovations and new school construction. According to Windham Town Clerk Linda Morrell, 160 Raymond residents and 30 Windham residents participated in the vote.

Concerns about Raymond’s contribution to a proposed new middle school in Windham provoked Sadak’s effort to begin the withdrawal process from the district. Under the new cost-sharing formula, if the district builds a proposed new middle school strictly for Windham students, Raymond taxpayers would not fund the project. Sadak has described the new formula as a “huge,” positive development for Raymond residents.

Assuming that expenses and incomes remain at current levels in coming years, district administrators estimate that a $250,000 home in Windham will see a $51 tax increase as a result of the new formula, which is based on a ratio determined by averages of each town’s property valuation for the previous three years. School taxes on a $250,000 home in Raymond will decline $90, according to the projection. The tax modifications will be phased in during a three-year period, starting in fiscal year 2016.

Meanwhile, David Douglass, a Windham architect who is the chairman of the Windham Planning Board, is threatening to start a Windham withdrawal campaign, in response to the board’s handling of the cost-sharing formula vote. In Douglass’ view, the school board should have held an all-day referendum vote, not a one-time vote held at 5:30 p.m. on a weekday. Douglass also is an advocate of local control of the Windham schools.

“I don’t like the way they acted,” Douglass said, referring to the school board. “I don’t like what they did and how they did it. Both towns were not represented. Both towns would have been represented properly during a full-day referendum. The other thing is, I want the majority control of the tax base to be under town control and not under a non-town entity. The school board should answer to the town councilors and the town councilors should answer to the voters.”

“I think they were trying to manipulate the vote to please the people of Raymond,” Douglass added. “Due diligence would have said, ‘We need to put this out so that the most people from each town can have a say,’ and they chose not to do that.”

Douglass said he would first attempt to gauge support for withdrawal before taking out a petition to withdraw from the school district.

“I am going to try very hard to remove us from RSU 14 so that we’re not subject to this kind of manipulation in the future,” Douglass said. “I just know they put forward a coalition to withdraw and now I want to withdraw because I don’t want to deal with this monkey business anymore as a citizen.”

School board co-chairwoman Marge Govoni said she was not persuaded by Douglass’ reasoning.

“The full-day referendum would have been very expensive,” Govoni said. “It would have been an extra expense incurred by doing that. If you look at history, history has shown, you can go through June elections and November elections, there has not been a good-sized turnout in the communities to vote on anything that is on the ballot.”

Govoni said that the board proposed the cost-sharing formula modification since it was the fair and necessary thing to do, as opposed to a cynical effort to appease Raymond voters. She said she wasn’t concerned that residents may use the withdrawal threat in the future to exact concessions from the school board.

“I’m sorry if there’s anybody that thinks Raymond has used certain venues to their own ends, because I think it’s a perception,” Govoni said. “In my mind, it’s not true.”

Following the results Wednesday night, Dustin Roma of Windham, the president of the Windham Economic Development Corp., said he was disappointed with the results.

“It was a low turnout,” he said. “I wasn’t in favor of the major capital improvement costs being borne by the individual municipalities. If you’re going to have an RSU, then have an RSU – have everybody share the costs.”

Tammy Hamilton of Raymond, a parent of a second-grader at Raymond Elementary School, celebrated the vote.

“I was happy with the results,” Hamilton said. “I think, in fairness to the towns and the students, that it was the right thing to do.”

Board co-chairwoman Diana Froisland of Raymond also praised the vote.

“It was a fair formula, and we’re thrilled that the community felt that way, as well,” Froisland said. “We’ve been working on this since September. It’s been a long haul.”

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