Buckfield residents voted 599-538 on Tuesday in favor of withdrawing from Regional School Unit 10, but the effort collapsed anyway: Hartford rejected the measure 354-309 and Sumner rejected it 262-254, and all three towns needed to approve it for the withdrawal to pass, The Maine Monitor reported.
Because the referendum failed, Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner must now wait two years under state regulations before they can initiate another withdrawal petition from the Western Foothills School District. The vote closes a chapter that opened with a September hearing in Buckfield, where residents showed growing support for leaving the district, and a hearing a week later in Hartford, where enthusiasm waned as residents questioned potential property tax increases and the overall financial cost.
A 61-Vote Margin in Buckfield Couldn’t Carry Three Towns
The numbers tell the story plainly. Buckfield’s 61-vote margin for withdrawal was real but insufficient; Hartford’s 45-vote margin against and Sumner’s 8-vote margin against were enough to defeat the effort outright. The Sun Journal reported that voters in all three towns actually faced two questions on the ballot: whether to approve the municipality’s withdrawal from RSU 10 under the terms of a Sept. 8, 2026 agreement, and whether to approve a new school administrative reorganization plan that would have formed a new regional school unit for the three towns effective July 1, 2027, conditional on the withdrawal passing.
In Buckfield, voters approved the reorganization plan 740-377; in Hartford, 377-276; in Sumner, 312-197. But because that plan was conditional on withdrawal, it is now moot.
| Town | Withdraw from RSU 10 | Against withdrawal | Approve reorganization plan | Against reorganization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buckfield | 599 | 538 | 740 | 377 |
| Hartford | 309 | 354 | 377 | 276 |
| Sumner | 254 | 262 | 312 | 197 |
How a 12-Town District Shrunk to Four
RSU 10 was born of consolidation. Maine formed the district in 2008 following a legislative mandate under Gov. John E. Baldacci to reduce the state’s school districts from 290 to 80, The Maine Monitor reported. The consolidation brought together 12 towns: Maine School Administrative District 21 (Canton, Carthage, Dixfield and Peru), Maine School Administrative District 39 (Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner), and Maine School Administrative District 43 in the Rumford area.
The district has been shrinking ever since. In 2017, Canton, Carthage, Dixfield and Peru withdrew from RSU 10 to form Regional School Unit 56. Had this week’s vote succeeded, RSU 10 would have been left with just four towns: Hanover, Mexico, Roxbury and Rumford. That history shows withdrawal is not theoretical in this region — it has already happened once, and the district has absorbed the loss before.
What Divided the Three Towns
Supporters of the withdrawal cited a wish for greater local control, frustration with regional decisions made far from their communities, and worries about rising annual budgets, according to the Sun Journal. Opponents raised a different set of stakes: potential property tax increases, including an estimated initial boost, reduced programs and staffing resources, and the administrative cost of standing up a new school district from scratch. Opponents also questioned whether students with special needs would continue receiving the same services outside RSU 10 — a concern that surfaced at the Hartford hearing and helped turn sentiment there.
For the families in these Oxford County towns, the practical stakes are concrete: who sets their school budget, how far a school board meeting requires driving, and whether a child’s special education services survive a district split.
Two Years Before Another Try
State regulations bar the towns from initiating another withdrawal petition for two years, meaning the earliest another vote could occur is 2028. In the meantime, RSU 10 remains intact with its four remaining towns, and the three would-be defectors stay in the district they voted — in Buckfield’s case, quite emphatically — to leave. The 2017 withdrawal of four towns shows the district can survive departures, but this week’s result shows that leaving requires unanimity among the towns that want out, and that consensus did not exist in Hartford or Sumner.
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