MINOT — A local man told town officials Monday that he believed the town should withdraw from Regional School Unit 16, a local official said.

Mike Dulac spoke during the public comment portion of the Board of Selectmen meeting, Town Administrator Danielle Loring said Tuesday.

Dulac said he was seeking to investigate the process of how the town would go about withdrawing from RSU 16, which serves Minot, Mechanic Falls and Poland.

He was told he would have to follow the steps spelled out by the Maine Department of Education, beginning with a citizen petition to bring the matter to a local vote as a warrant article during one of the town’s state elections.

Dulac would have to gather the signatures of at least 150 local residents, or 10% of the number of local voters in the most recent gubernatorial election, to initiate the process, Loring said.

Dulac told local officials Monday that RSU 16 is expensive and that he had concerns about management of the infrastructures of the respective schools serving the three towns. Each town has its own elementary school and shares middle and high schools in Poland. All are under the auspices of RSU 16.

A $5.1 million bond proposal to update the heating and ventilation systems in the district’s three elementary schools failed by 7 votes earlier this month.

A plan to modernize the schools’ heating and ventilation systems was developed after a cast-iron plate in the boiler at Minot Consolidated School cracked in late September 2022.