Voters in Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner will decide Nov. 4 whether to support filing a petition for withdrawal from Regional School Unit 10.

Students in the three Nezinscot Region communities attend Hartford-Sumner Elementary School and Buckfield Junior-Senior High School, about 30 miles from district headquarters in Rumford.

The other four district towns of Hanover, Mexico, Roxbury, Rumford attend schools in Rumford and Mexico.

If the motion is supported on Election Day, a petition will be filed with the RSU 10 board of directors and the commissioner of the Maine Department of Education.

The Education Exploration Committee, led by Chairman Neal Austin, held an information meeting Sept. 11 to share its findings and answer questions.

“We formed this committee out of a request from the Buckfield Select Board to see if withdrawing from RSU 10 is feasible, if it’s cost effective or not, and what the steps are to do that,” Austin said. “So our mission was to research and provide information to the citizens of all three towns — Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner — to determine if it is in the best interest of our students and citizens to withdraw from RSU 10.”

If withdrawal is supported, the three towns could become part of an independent school district, like that before 2008, Austin said.

Austin said the committee received a document from the state education department, stating how much the state is going to give each RSU per year for funding, he said. “After that, it’s up to the towns to raise the additional amounts that the school board obviously comes and presents for budget.”

The cost of forming a district

The first thing the committee looked at was the cost to form a new district.

“We had to look at the current fiscal budget and get as close to numbers that we can,” Austin said. “So what we did was we waited until the school board passed their budget (for the) 2025/2026 school year, and we used all those numbers that they had from all the different accounts that they created for what they call cost center. It gets kind of complicated beyond that,” he said.

During this process, Austin said they reached out to the state and were able to formulate “what they would give us in the breakdown if it was just our three schools,” he said. “So it’s that piece that they’re estimating that they would give us. Next year it could be more, could be less. Just like if you stay with RSU 10, it could be more, could be less.”

Looking at the current budget, state requirements and what voters requested, Austin said “our three towns would add $4,166,236, which brings it to roughly just over $10 million.”

“That’s what we are currently doing right now for the school year for RSU 10. So if we pulled out right now, we would have it put forward. Next year it might be more, might be less,” he added.

There is a lot to consider before withdrawing from a school district, Austin said.

“We’re not trying to sway you to vote one way or the other,” he said. “We understand that emotions are very high. I have kids in the school. I don’t want them to lose programs or teachers or anything like that.

“But when you look at the numbers from what RSU 10 is charging us compared to what we do on our own right now, it seems a little off center, you know, not quite even. Well, we’ve done projections for the past two years of the increase that RSU 10 has done for our three towns. If you project that out five years, RSU 10 is going to be charging our three towns an extra $2.5 million,” he said.

Austin said a weighted voting system on the RSU 10 board may offer one of the biggest challenges to getting withdrawal approved.

“Even if every single town minus Rumford and Mexico vote for whatever we want and Rumford and Mexico vote against us, we will never ever get (it approved),” he said. “The biggest problem is if we stay with RSU 10, we have no control. Zero.”

He said the school budget vote in June is an example of how votes are not always reflective of what residents in Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner want.

“All three of our towns voted almost two to one not to pass the budget, and it still passed,” Austin said. “If we have our own school board for residents of Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner, then we have more control over that. Now, obviously, we can’t tell them how to vote, but that’s why we elect them.”

Thinking outside the box

Austin said the withdrawal is a 22-step process and the district is on step one. When the three towns vote on the withdrawal question in November, it’s all or nothing.

“If one town says no, we’re not doing it. But if all three towns vote for it, then we go to step two, which is hiring a lawyer, and they will walk us through all these steps,” Austin said. “And at any point in time before we submit the final 22nd step … to send the information to the commissioner, we can vote to stop the withdrawal process.”

One person asked, “Do we have any feedback from teachers because I think all of us would agree that our biggest concern needs to be the quality of education for our kids and there’s nobody better to see that than the teachers who are with them and are they seeing something in our affiliation with RSU 10 that is not beneficial to the kids?”

Austin said the only teachers the committee would have talked to would be those who came to their meetings, and “they’ve also stressed those same concerns.”

Asked about the end result the committee was hoping for, Vice Chairman John Petrocelli said, “to be honest with you, I think most people want their community back. So that was pretty interesting to all of us.”

A person pointed out the state property valuations in the towns “has put us in a proportionate penalty. Basically, we’re paying more now percentage-wise than we used to because the state says our property is worth so much more. Those factors will not stop existing.”

Austin said he doesn’t have the answers, but said “if we are more of a community and we’re trying to do the best for our kids, then maybe all the teachers, the administration, the staff, can also think outside the box and do better for our kids and maybe save some money at the same time.”

Petrocelli said the three towns have about 500 students. With a $10 million budget, that’s about $20,000 per student.

“You can send your kid anywhere you want for $20,000 a year,” he said. “That is what I would say is my real-world version of this. They could go to Hebron Academy. They can go to Gould. They can go to CVA for $20,000 on your own.”

‘Our own place’

High school Principal Troy Eastman said passions and pride are playing a big role in some people wanting to withdraw from RSU 10.

“I’m not speaking as principal as much, but I do have the privilege of being here every day and seeing how the kids feel when they go play Richmond,” he said. “It’s like I played Richmond 20 years ago. RSU 10 doesn’t matter, right? That whole pride thing is still there. And that’s the part I really appreciate and enjoy. So I would be happy to work here under either circumstance. I just I think some of what we feel is passion. We want to have our own place.”

Linda Andrews of Buckfield said she taught in this area for 46 years.

“I was very happy here,” she said. “I’m on a fixed budget, like some other people. I’m 70 years old. I’m worried about my property tax skyrocketing. But I’m very much in favor of this withdrawal because our school (has) lost that sense of community that we had when I started working in 1976.”

Austin said that during the withdrawal process, the school will still operate the same.

“It still operates as RSU 10. It still operates the same budget they do,” he said. “RSU 10 is still going to try to do another budget for next year because they have to assume that we’re not going to withdraw. There is so many different steps.”

He said if the withdrawal vote is validated by all three towns, each town would contribute $50,000 to a fund, with one third of the $150,000 going toward a lawyer and the remainder toward the process.

Before the November vote, each of the three towns will have an open forum on the withdrawal option.