Most of the 57 school systems that had their merger plans rejected by the state last week were turned down because their plans didn't match those filed by their proposed partners.
Maine's 290 school districts were informed Thursday whether their plans for complying with the state's new school consolidation law had been accepted or rejected by the state Department of Education.
While most school districts got a passing grade and can now forge ahead with their plans, others were sent back for more work. Thirty-seven were rejected because their plans didn't match their proposed mergers while 20 were sent back because the proposed district did not have the minimum number of students.
Many of those districts are in rural parts of the state where school administrators said they are not surprised their plans were rejected. Piecing together towns to make the required 2,500 minimum enrollment is complicated, they said, and concerns about the loss of local control continue to hamper their merger talks.
They said they will now rely heavily on the state's offer to help to get communities that are geographically far apart closer to the same thinking on district mergers.
"Basically we are looking at an area the size of Rhode Island," said Sara Alberts, school superintendent for Millinocket and School Union 113, which includes East Millinocket, Medway and Woodville.
At issue is the state's sweeping school consolidation law passed in June. The law is aimed at cutting school administration costs by reducing the number of school districts to fewer than 80. The measure is projected to save $36.5 million in state education spending the first year.
Alberts said it was not opposition to consolidation itself that has made coming together so difficult. She said her region is aware of the grim realities of its declining enrollments and a resulting decline in state aid. "We knew we had to look at doing something differently," she said.
Instead, she blamed the complexities of getting dozens of communities to agree on one plan. In August, 100 representatives from 27 communities in her region in western Penobscot County got together to discuss one merger that would have resulted in an enrollment of 3,200.
Alberts said she went ahead and filed plans with the state assuming all 27 communities were in. But after the August meeting, several towns opted out, mainly over concerns that the larger communities would dominate the new district.
"There are too many pieces," said Alberts.
Regina Campbell, superintendent of School Administrative District 74, which includes Anson, Embden, New Portland and Solon, managed to gather together 50 to 60 representatives from neighboring communities to forge an alliance in the upper Kennebec Valley region.
But she said the process is difficult because some communities are so small. Some towns, such as Caratunk and The Forks Plantation, have only a couple of students and they are concerned about losing their option of being able to send their students wherever they choose rather than to a single district.
"Part of this is financial since there is such a disparity between partners," she said.
She said she is now depending on state education officials to sort it all out, getting all of the communities back together to talk and providing financial analysis.
"We will need all of their resources," she said.
Jay McIntire, superintendent for the Alna, Westport Island and Wiscasset school departments, said the same scenario played out in his midcoast district.
He filed his departments' merger plans feeling sure they would be approved by state officials. His communities had met nine times with the Bath school district and the School Union 47 communities of Arrowsic, Georgetown, Phippsburg, West Bath and Woolwich. He said the communities had a joint meeting in August during which all voted to join the merger.
When a rejection...
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