enlarge Photos by Doug Jones/Staff Photographer

David Ray, chairman of the Yarmouth School Committee, says his town wants more answers before choosing a school consolidation partner

enlarge Doug Jones/Staff Photographer

Representatives of Falmouth, Yarmouth and the School Administrative District 51 towns of Cumberland and North Yarmouth hold a school reorganization meeting Monday at the University of Maine School of Law in Portland. One question facing the group is whether Yarmouth will decide to join.

SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION DEADLINES

DEC.1: School districts submit their reorganization plans or alternative plans to the education commissioner for approval.

DEC 15: Commissioner responds to plans, either approving or sending them back for more work. Plans approved by this date will be put to voters.

JAN 15, 2008: Deadline for having the state pay for municipal referendums for approved plans.

JUNE 10: Deadline for municipal referendums for plans approved by the commissioner after Dec. 15.

JULY 1: Suggested start date for new regional school districts approved in referendums by Jan. 15.

NOV. 4: Deadline for approval of consolidation plans that had been rejected by voters. School districts without voter-approved plans face reductions in state aid.

JULY 1, 2009: Final deadline for startup of new regional school districts.

LEARN MORE ONLINE:

A complete list of the school district reorganization law is available at the Department of Education Web site at:

Maine Department of Education

Maine Municipal Association

"A Primer for School Reorganization"

"New Era for School Consolidation"

Maine Heritage Policy Center

The desks were arranged in a discussion-friendly circle, and a plate of cookies was passed around. But frustrations about possible school district mergers began to surface just minutes after the meeting began.

The 18 people in the room were there to discuss whether it made sense for Yarmouth's school system to collaborate with three other towns under the state's new school district consolidation law.

David Ray, head of the Yarmouth School Committee, refused to commit, saying the committee still had lots of questions and needed more time to find out whether the merger would make sense. The others were displeased that Yarmouth was still playing the field.

"Dave, you have got to marry us. We can't answer those questions now," said Peggy McGehee, Falmouth's community representative to the committee.

"But when I got married I asked those questions," Ray shot back.

Welcome to the first meeting of the "reorganization planning committee" for Cumberland, North Yarmouth, Falmouth and Yarmouth. The group of residents, elected officials and school administrators is charged with figuring out how – and whether – to merge the school districts of these four communities just north of Portland.

Versions of this meeting are taking place across Maine as local officials, parents and other residents grapple with how to comply with a new state law that requires communities to either consolidate school districts over the next two years or lose state education funding.

The law, passed by the Legislature in June, is aimed at cutting school administration costs by reducing the state's 290 school districts to fewer than 80. It is designed to cut $36.5 million in state education spending the first year through having the merged districts share administrative expenses.

Potential partners are forming committees and working against a Dec. 1 deadline for filing final merger plans with state Education Commissioner Susan Gendron.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION LACKING

Figuring out how those mergers will work is no easy task, as last week's meeting of the four towns demonstrated.

The 2.5-hour meeting, held with a facilitator at the University of Southern Maine campus in Portland, highlighted some of the issues school districts are facing: elected officials who are skeptical that the mandated school district consolidation will save money and improve education programming; turf battles over who will control the process; and a sense that much of the talk about school consolidation has been done in a vacuum.

"One of the common concerns was lack of public participation," said Geoff Herman, director of state and federal relations for the Maine Municipal Association, a lobbying group for Maine's cities and towns. The association recently surveyed 100 municipal officials and found that half had been excluded from the early planning around school mergers.

Under the law, planning district mergers is to be done by regional committees made up of municipal and school officials and residents from the various communities.

The state Department of Education does not have a count of the number of committees that have been set up. And the law is vague about whether the committees are to be set up by school or municipal officials. In most cases, the local school committee has taken on the task, which is already raising concerns among municipal officials that school officials are dominating what is supposed to be a communitywide process under the law.

Monday's maiden meeting of Falmouth, Yarmouth and the School Administrative District 51 communities of Cumberland and North Yarmouth included 14 voting members and the school superintendents from the three districts. Some members said they found the meeting tense and awkward.

"I have never been to anything like it," said Beppie Cerf, a Falmouth school board representative.

The group spent much of the time deciding whether to even talk to...