PHILLIPS — The Select Board will hold a public hearing Monday on a citizen petition asking selectmen to start the process to withdraw from Maine School Administrative District 58.

The hearing follows a public hearing at 6 p.m. for proposed amendments to the Zoning Ordinance at the Phillips Area Community Center at 21 Depot St.

A vote to officially start the withdrawal process is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on May 20 at the Phillips Town Office at 124 Main St.

The school district includes Avon, Kingfield, Phillips and Strong. Eustis withdrew from the district in 2013.

Strong held a public hearing Monday on its own petition to leave the school district. Residents will vote on the matter May 8.

Declining student enrollment, aging school buildings in need of repair, and rising costs are among the issues facing the district.

Student enrollment is projected to continue to drop. There are 212 students at Mt. Abram High School in Salem Township; 141 at Day Mountain Middle School in Strong; 119 at Phillips Elementary School; and 95 at Kingfield Elementary School, according to data provided at a public hearing in Strong.

The hearing Monday in Strong drew more than 60 residents. A vote is scheduled from 1-6 p.m. on May 8 at the Forster Memorial Building at 14 South Main St., which is attached to the Town Office.

Residents in Phillips and Strong presented petitions asking selectmen to begin the process to withdraw.

A resident in Avon was passing a petition to start the withdrawal process but as of Tuesday it had not been turned into the Town Hall, Select Board Chairperson Jane Thorndike said.

A resident in Kingfield said they were going to pass a petition, but it hasn’t happened, Town Manager Leanna Targett said Wednesday.

There is a 22-step process for a municipality to withdraw from a regional school unit, including completing a petition to withdraw, a vote to start the withdrawal process, and the formation of an official withdrawal committee, according to Chloe Teboe, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Education.

Maine changed the law in 2019 to allow a regional school unit comprised of a single municipality to dissolve, Teboe wrote in an email. This requires the actual withdrawal of the last remaining municipality in the regional school unit. Prior to that, dissolution was not allowed, Teboe wrote.

“The Maine Department of Education has not yet had an RSU dissolve, but there are a handful of single-municipality RSUs,” she wrote.

Though the state changed the title of Maine School Administrative Districts to Regional School Units beginning in 2008, MSAD 58 decided to keep its name, though officially it is considered a regional school unit.

It is an unlikely scenario for all towns to withdraw from a district, Teboe said.

In order for municipalities to withdraw from a regional school unit, there must be a party available to negotiate that withdrawal agreement at the regional school unit level.

“In other words, at least one municipality must remain part of the RSU to negotiate. Even if multiple municipalities were negotiating withdrawal at the same time, the negotiations and withdrawal agreements would all be handled separately and with the current members of the RSU,” she wrote.

Following a vote in favor of leaving a school district, the withdrawal does not become effective until the official end of a school year on June 30. Member municipalities continue to contribute to the RSU until that effective date of withdrawal, Teboe wrote.

If there is debt service that a district incurred while a town was in the district, that town would still be responsible for its share of debt if it withdraws, according to information provided at the Strong public hearing.