enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

York Superintendent Henry Scipione says it’s not practical for York schools to remain independent, because resulting cuts in state aid are about equal to the higher costs it appears York would have to shoulder in a merger.

enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Fritz Schermer says York residents are “very skeptical” about the possible York school system merger with the Wells-Ogunquit school system. The York painting contractor sees “no real benefit” to the town.

enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

The merger “seems like a bad idea” because of the cost and the loss of local control, said Laura Kennedy of York, who owns a flower shop. “I think a small system works better.”

enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Paulette Chernack, at Gravestone Artwear in York, sees an imbalance in a possible York-Wells-Ogunquit school merger: “York ends up taking most of the responsibility financially.”

A QUICK LOOK

YORK SCHOOL DEPARTMENT has 2,012 students in four schools: Village Elementary School, Coastal Ridge Elementary School, York Middle School and York High School.
WELLS-OGUNQUIT COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT has 1,439 students, the vast majority of them from Wells, in three schools: Wells Elementary School, Wells Junior High School and Wells High School. The district has no schools in Ogunquit.
IF THE TWO DISTRICTS merge, 58.3 percent of the students in the new district would come from York, 40.29 percent would come from Wells and 1.41 percent would come from Ogunquit.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION LAW

• The law is designed to cut the number of school districts from 290 to about 80.
• Each district must have at least 2,500 students.
• Exemptions cover island and tribal schools, districts with low administrative costs and high-performing schools, and districts where merging would be impractical for geographical or other reasons.
• Non-exempt districts with fewer than 2,500 students must submit consolidation plans to the state.
• Merger plans approved by the state will be subject to approval by local voters.
• Teachers and other employees will be transferred to newly consolidated districts under their existing contracts.
• Merged districts will be governed by regional school boards.
• Proposed school budgets must be approved by referendum.
• All districts, exempt or not, must submit plans to the state showing how they will cut administration, transportation, special education and facilities/maintenance costs.
• Non-exempt districts that fail to merge face state aid reductions and will have a harder time qualifying for state school construction money.

"There would be no real benefit" to York, so most folks in town are "very skeptical," Schermer, a painting contractor, said last week. "We would have less control and we would get to pay more money, which we already do in abundance."

Although some York residents are reserving judgment until more details emerge about the plan to meld York and the Wells- Ogunquit district into a new, three-town school system, many others share Schermer's hostility. Some oppose consolidation outright, but others simply dislike spending more money without proof that they would get a better school system in return.

Primarily because York has more students than Wells-Ogunquit, York's costs would jump $1.2 million a year in a merged district, while Wells and Ogunquit would save that amount, according to the superintendents in both districts. With an annual school budget of $24 million, that would represent a 5 percent increase in York's costs.

Such "cost shifting" is emerging as an issue in some districts as they investigate mergers in order to comply with a state law that sets a minimum enrollment of 2,500 students, with some exceptions. The idea behind the law is to cut costs by consolidating smaller districts and reducing the total number of districts from 290 to no more than 80.

Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron says the law generally is working well, although a few bugs will have to be worked out by the Legislature next year. But some local educators fear that the law's shortcomings may be worse than state officials admit, because of potential cost shifts if districts merge.

The severity of the problem is unclear. Jim Rier, finance director in the state Department of Education, says dozens of districts claim they would be hit with heftier school bills if they merge. But he says a closer analysis shows that some of those increases would not occur or would be much smaller than originally thought.

Rier did not pass judgment on York's projections, saying that that merger will have to be studied more closely to gauge its financial impact on the two existing districts.

If the financial fallout occurs the way local officials predict, Rier said, "we have to find a means to make sure that it doesn't," because the state's goal is to create "a level playing field" between districts that merge.

York and the Wells-Ogunquit district played musical chairs with other prospective "partners" before agreeing to pursue a merger with each other. York initially listed Wells-Ogunquit as one option and Kittery as another.

The school board in York later focused on Wells-Ogunquit, which had decided by then to pursue a partnership with York.

York Superintendent Henry Scipione and Wells-Ogunquit Superintendent Edward McDonough say the proposed merger has created skepticism in all three towns because of the big shift in costs. Scipione noted, though, that some pieces of the puzzle are still missing because local officials do not know yet how much a merger would save overall, and how such savings might blunt the $1.2 million increase that York anticipates.

While voters in York worry about the merger's impact on them, residents of Wells and Ogunquit question the practicality of the plan because of the negative effect it would have on York's finances.

"York is not going to take this on, nor should they," unless the state revises the consolidation law to protect the town's interests, McDonough said.

Far from gloating over the prospect of a merger that would work to the advantage of Wells and Ogunquit, residents of the two towns "have said this isn't right from Day One," McDonough said.

There is, Scipione said, "some skepticism" in York about a deal that would raise the town's school costs by $1.2...