Westport Island's proposed deal to pull out of Regional School Unit 12 is nearly ready to go to the school district's board.

The town's withdrawal committee is awaiting figures on district debts that the town will have to help repay, committee chairman Gerald Bodmer said; once those are plugged into the deal, the proposal will go to the district's negotiating committee, which will present it to the district board, Bodmer said.

The step is one of several still needed for the town to withdraw; however, some of those inside the process are not sure townspeople are still interested in leaving the district, now that the financial landscape has changed.

The withdrawal committee's negotiations with the district on the possible pullout stem from a vote Westport Island took in 2012. Proponents maintained the town was paying more than its fair share of the district's budget.

Changes the district has since made to its cost-sharing formula work better for Westport Island, according to Bodmer and fellow withdrawal committee member Richard DeVries.

“Very much so,” said DeVries, who also serves as a Westport Island representative to the district board.

Bodmer declined to give an opinion on whether or not Westport Island should stay in the district; but DeVries said he would definitely recommend the town stay in.

The town may be able to step off the withdrawal path if it wants to, by taking a new vote, according to a Maine Department of Education official. The earlier vote bound the town to enter the process; another could be held to lift that bind, said Paula Gravelle, the state department's school finance coordinator.

The town should first get a legal opinion, however, she said.

Bodmer, who is also a town selectman, said he recently heard of the possible option to stop the process. He asked Gravelle about it and would be asking her for a written statement, he said.

If the town continues on the path toward possible withdrawal, the final vote to stay or go from the district may come in November 2014, Bodmer said.

Prior to that vote, the proposal would face public hearings and a pair of reviews by Maine's education commissioner.