I believe wholeheartedly in teaching my children about honesty, respect and community. So I am discouraged, probably like many of you, at this contentious battle going on regarding RSU 5. I will always maintain that those who yell the loudest are most often times the same people who do not have the actual facts to support their case. Between the barrage of “vote yes” signs that have recently popped up everywhere and the wordy editorials by the same supporters who formed Moving Freeport Forward last year, this vocal pro-withdrawal group continues to hammer their message home regardless of facts.
The more vocal supporters on the “yes” side claim RSU 5 has lost teachers because of the structure of the RSU – yet have they provided one fact, one name, or had one teacher come out to support such a claim? No. They also claim that Freeport High School could somehow magically maintain similar levels of staffing, academic programs, services and athletics even though a withdrawal vote would cause a reduction of total students at FHS conservatively between 10-15 percentr. Is that realistic? Of course not. A vote to withdraw would lead directly to higher taxes and/or significantly reduced programs and services.
To me, the Tri-Town Weekly story from June 18, 2014, gets to the heart of this entire conversation. A survey was completed by FHS students representing all three towns that make up the RSU, a truly collaborative work. Fifty-six percent of students said they were against withdrawal, while only 28 percent were in favor of withdrawal (16 percent were undecided). Yes, they may still be kids, but they are our high-schoolers that conducted that survey on their own and actually added some outright honesty to this debate.
If the students themselves, who are closer to this than all of us, can see the value in their RSU, why does this smaller vocal minority feel they know so much better? Please vote no, allowing us to continue as an even-stronger community RSU.
Sean Dugan
Durham
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