An anticipated referendum, that could have backed Westport Island out of its possible pullout from Regional School Unit 12, is now off. The Westport Island Withdrawal Committee is no longer seeking a town vote to either stop the process toward a November withdrawal vote, or keep that process going, Committee Chairman Gerald Bodmer said.

Now that changes to the district’s cost sharing formula are easing Westport Island’s tab, some in the town have wondered why the steps toward a possible withdrawal are still under way. The committee recently explored the legality of a vote on discontinuing the process, and found it could be done; then the committee agreed to seek the referendum, Bodmer said.

Since then, however, the committee’s members have been unable to agree on the wording of the referendum question, he said. There isn’t time to come to an agreement and get the question onto the June ballot, so it will not happen, Bodmer said in interviews April 14 and 15.

“That’s off the table,” he said.

Also on April 14, Bodmer sent the district’s negotiating committee the proposed withdrawal deal, resulting from several months of talks. If no further talks are needed, the negotiating committee will take it to the district’s full board for approval; then the proposal goes on to Maine’s education commissioner Jim Rier, for the first of two nods it needs from him before the withdrawal vote.