Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron rolled out how the governor’s plan to consolidate all the state’s school districts into 26 would work Monday, saying individual cities and towns would have a voice through grassroots advisory committees, but they would not have the option of refusing to participate.

Gov. John Baldacci’s dramatic proposal to reduce the current number of school districts and local school committees from 290 to 26 by July of 2008 left some school administrators reeling over the weekend.

“Clearly they’re concerned about the timeline,” said Gendron, with administrators questioning, “Is it too aggressive?”

At least one school administrators agrees the potential consolidation could be good for schools.

“I’m open minded about it,” said Windham Superintendent Sandy Prince. “I think it’s an ambitious plan and a bold approach. I think it’ll be extraordinary to hear the discussion about it.”

Prince said the consolidation would have some good and some bad results, but is not worried that it might affect him.

“It’s really not a time to be selfish or personalize this. If it’s best for kids, then I’m all behind it,” said Prince.

Education officials argue the proposal is also good for the taxpayer, with the state poised to save millions if the Legislature approves the plan. David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for the Maine Department of Education, said the plan would give schools greater consistency and benefits while spending less taxpayer money.

“It’s very much about academic excellence. But it’s one of those wonderful occasions where spending less gets you more,” he said.

Gendron, a Raymond resident and former Windham superintendent, said she’s been asked why more consensus-building wasn’t done before the plan was announced last week as part of the governor’s budget. She said a number of reports came out last year, and they all said the same thing – reduce administrative costs and improve student learning.

Elinor Goldberg of the Maine Children’s Alliance, whose organization authored one of those reports and recommended 26 planning alliances so local residents could work on creating new districts, said the governor’s proposal is “a wonderful idea.”

“We did our plan because we want to get to that point,” she said of the regional districts. “I just think there needs to be a voluntary component. That’s what’s going to happen in the committee process. The Legislature has to have 2 cents in this.”

State Rep. Gary Plummer (R-Windham) said he applauds Baldacci’s effort, but has not made up his mind because not enough details are available.

“I’m gonna have to take a wait-and-see on this. Some people are calling it bold, I see it as drastic,” Plummer said, who spent 30 years as an elementary school teacher.

“I’m not gonna be one of the ones who jumps out and says, ‘there’s no way this will work,'” said Plummer. He believes the plan has a good chance of being accepted by legislators.

“I’ve always looked at Raymond as a community in need of this consolidation,” said former Raymond Selectman Charles Leavitt. “Raymond is the place for it,” said Leavitt.

The town of Raymond has two schools, an elementary and a middle school. High school students living in Raymond can choose to attend local high schools including Windham, Bonny Eagle, Westbrook, or Poland Regional. Superintendent Sandra Caldwell is paid $65,000 a year and the position is considered part-time. Her contract states that she works 156 days a year, or three out of five days a week.

Caldwell was unavailable for comment and did not return phone calls.

Town Manager Don Willard said 72 percent of town taxes in Raymond go to the school department. This is higher than the state average of about two-thirds, according to the Maine Department of Education.

Leavitt referred to the number of small school districts in the state as “A crisis that needs to be resolved.”

Under the governor’s plan, an estimated $240 million will be saved at the state and local level over three years to reduce taxes and allow money to be reinvested in classroom learning. Fewer districts also will allow the state to get all schools working toward the same student achievement goals.

“Maine has some of the toughest standards in the country,” Gendron said, “but what we see is there’s varied interpretation about what those standards are.”

The state’s 152 superintendents, some of whom already oversee more than one district, have the most personally to lose. All their jobs would go away and 26 superintendents would be hired to run the consolidated districts. Those districts would range in student enrollment from 1,824 in Calais and 2,546 in Madawaska to 17,728 in Sanford and 19,996 in Portland.

“The local schools stay in place and the local principals stay in place,” said Gendron. It’s the administration to support 152 central offices that would go away.

Gendron did admit the new regional school boards, which would consist of between 5 and 15 members, could vote to close schools. But cities and towns have the option under law to hold a referendum to keep their school open, if they’re willing to pick up the extra costs.

Cities and towns could not vote, however, to keep their own school districts. If Baldacci’s proposal makes it through the Legislature, community school districts will cease to exist under law as of July, 2008, Gendron said.

Each district will negotiate its own, district-wide teachers contract and assume responsibility for state-subsidized debt for new schools or renovations. In those cases where local districts already have opted to pay for new schools on their own and without state help – as is the case in Scarborough, for example – that debt will remain the responsibility of that town, not the new district, Gendron said.

The administration will use state aid for K-12 education – projected to be at $1 billion or 55 percent of the cost by 2009 – distributed under the essential programs and services funding model to influence the direction of the new regional districts.

If the Legislature amends the proposal and opts for a greater number of districts, for example, Gendron said she would recommend districts still only get the same amount for administration as recommended in the governor’s plan – $186 per student versus the current $346.

The 26 regional school boards could vote to spend more than recommended under the state funding formula, as many of the wealthier districts do now, but it would require a vote of the member cities and towns, whose citizens will have to pay the bill.

The amount each community pays to support its school district would be determined the way it is now, but the difference is they would not have local control through their own school board.

Gendron said that’s where the local advisory boards come into play, made up of parents and other local citizens, who would talk to the regional school board, but have no legal authority.

“The link with the advisory board is absolutely essential,” she said.

“There is a tremendous amount of unknown,” said SAD 61 Superintendent Frank Gorham. Gorham, whose office is in Bridgton, said the plan would dissolve his district’s school board before the end of its members’ terms of office.

“I agree there needs to be changes, and I’m not sure what,” said Donna Cobb, Windham School Board member. Cobb said she does not have an opinion on the proposal yet because many of the details are unknown at this time.

“I guess we’ll just wait and see,” she said.

The state has $1.8 million in the education budget to hire consultants this year to help districts form into the regional divisions.

“We will have a team of individuals ready to roll on July 1 should the Legislature implement the governor’s proposal,” Gendron said, and the governor is “adamant about moving forward.”

The timeline calls for 26 regional school boards to be elected in October of 2007 and they would then hire their respective superintendents. Local school districts would be dissolved and the new regional districts empowered by July of 2008.

The 26 school districts essentially would mirror the regional vocational education schools already serving the state.

There would be administrative districts centered in Madawaska, Caribou, Presque Isle, Houlton, Calais, Machias, Ellsworth, Bangor, Lincoln, Dexter, Belfast, Rockland, Skowhegan, Waterville, Augusta, Bath, Brunswick, Lewiston, Farmington, Rumford, Oxford, Bridgton, Portland, Westbrook, Biddeford and Sanford.

Locally, those districts would include:

Region 22 in Bridgton encompassing Naples, Casco, Raymond, Sebago, Stoneham, Stow, Lovell, Fryeburg, Sweden, Bridgton, Brownfield, Denmark, Porter, Hiram, Baldwin, Parsonfield and Cornish.

Region 24 in Westbrook encompassing Standish, Windham, Limington, Westbrook, Gorham, Buxton, Hollis, Scarborough and Frye Island.