I am a long-term Freeport resident and taxpayer. My grandchildren attended Freeport public schools, so I have first-hand experience with what was and what could be again. I am very proud of that fact. Freeport is a great community and one that I support in all ways. Currently, Freeport is at a crossroads to rebuild the highly efficient and highly performing school system we had before the forced regional marriage with other school districts.

We need to make an important decision now to insure we remain a desirable community for future generations. The current withdrawal plan will insure Freeport’s ability to rebuild our schools in an affordable manner while it values all students. It is more than a fair offer. It is a value-based offer.

I wish to lend my voice and vote to the opportunity to once again become a strong independent Freeport school system; one that is not part of a large, dysfunctional school district bent on building an over-sized, regional high school that we cannot financially support long-term. One that is not impossibly burdened with a regional imperative that is not in Freeport’s short-term or long-term best interests.

Freeport did just fine before the regional organization was imposed on us and we will do just fine, or better, once free again.

Suzanne Watson
Freeport