SECTION 1. Section 18 of chapter 286 of the public laws of 1986 entitled "An Act Authorizing the Towns of Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton, to Join a Regional School District, Incorporating Said Regional School District, and Providing for the Issuance of Bonds, Construction and Operation of a Regional School System for the Joint Use of the Participating Towns, Within Said Regional School District Established by this Act," as amended, is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 18. (1) No member town shall withdraw from the district until bonded indebtedness incurred in accordance with the provisions of section 1 herein has been fully paid and discharged. Thereafter, any member town of the regional school district may petition to withdraw from the said district at any annual meeting of said district, provided that such petition for withdrawal shall have been approved by the appropriate method of the said member town seeking to withdraw and shall have been approved by a majority of the electors of the said town qualified to vote upon a proposition for the imposition of a tax or for the expenditure of money, present and voting in the appropriate manner prescribed by said town within a period of one hundred twenty (120) days next preceding the date of the annual district meeting at which the petition is to be submitted. Such petition shall not be approved except upon payment to the treasurer of the district by the treasurer of such town of any costs which have been apportioned and certified in accordance with the provisions heretofore set forth to said town for the construction and operation of the school district during the year in which such withdrawal is to take place, and such town shall remain liable to the district for its share of the indebtedness of the district outstanding, if any, at the time of such withdrawal, and for interest thereon, to the same extent and in the same manner as if the town had not withdrawn from the regional school district, except as such liability shall be reduced by any amount which said town has paid over at the time of withdrawal and which has been applied to the payment of such indebtedness and interest. Any money received by the school district from a withdrawing town for the payment of indebtedness or interest thereon shall be used only for such purpose and until so used shall be deposited in trust in the name of the district with a Rhode Island company having a combined capital and surplus of not less than five million dollars ($5,000,000).

(2) On July 1, 1994 or as soon thereafter as may be practicable, a committee shall be formed to be known as an Entrance, Expansion and Exit Committee consisting of the following members: The town council president of each member town, the Chariho school committee chairperson, the chairperson of the finance committee established in section 12 hereof, two (2) residents from each member town of the district appointed by the town councils of said towns, three (3) residents of communities not within the district to be appointed by the Chariho school committee, and the commissioner of education or designee. This committee will review enrollment data, fiscal impact information, demographic/geographic considerations, impact upon the academic program, issues of governance, impact on the Chariho act and any other pertinent issues identified by the committee as they may be affected by the withdrawal or addition of member towns in whole or in part from and to the regional school district. This committee shall report its findings and recommendations to the Chariho school committee within six (6) months after its formation, unless said committee shall have requested and received from the Chariho school committee an extension of time for the rendering of such report, which such later date shall in any event not be more than twelve (12) months from the date of said committee's formation. In preparing its report and conducting its studies, the committee shall hold not less than three (3) public hearings on the subject matter of withdrawal or additions to the district, said hearings to be held within the district.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.