The school consolidation bill will have a dramatic impact on how local education is managed, forcing local referendums to cut the number of Maine’s school superintendents and the central offices they administer roughly in half.

“I think we’re top heavy, and we need to take care of our teachers better,” said Windham grandmother Pat McKee, 63. She hopes the money saved on administrative costs will stay in the school and raise teacher salaries.

“I think we pay our teachers very poorly,” she added.

Phil Shane, of Casco, who has served on the SAD 61 school board for the last 14 years opposes the consolidation law.

“They’re forcing this down our throats,” he said. He compared the Maine Department of Education to a dictatorship and said he and some other locals will try to block the plan and keep SAD 61 the way it is now.

“I think we have enough support for that to happen,” said Shane.

The law requires cities and towns to create new districts serving no fewer than 2,500 students except where geography, demographics, economics, transportation, population density and other unique circumstances justify an exemption.

“In no case, except for coastal islands and schools operated by tribal school committees, may it service fewer than 1,200 students,” the law reads.

That means the existing 290 districts in the state run by 152 superintendents and their staffs – including those currently bound together by school unions – will be reduced to around 80 districts. While rural legislators fought for and won an amendment to the bill that makes it clear 80 is only a target, the value of that victory is unclear since it would be nearly impossible to get above 80 with the student population parameters stipulated in the law.

“With the size of our district, we don’t have to consolidate,” said Michael Duffy of the Windham School Board.

A bill is being circulated for legislative sponsors that would amend the law just passed to allow for districts of less than 1,200 students. It was pushed by Sen. Kevin Raye, R-Washington County, who did not vote for the school consolidation plan because that assurance wasn’t included.

“There’s no flexibility whatsoever for a district to have any less than 1,200,” Raye said. “That would create 90-mile-long districts in some areas of the state.”

The plan was approved as part of the overall state budget in a 112-29 vote in the House, with nine members absent, and a 28-7 vote in the Senate. All those voting against it in the Senate were Republicans, and Minority Leader Sen. Carol Weston of Waldo County was the only member of leadership in either body to vote no.

Gov. John Baldacci praised the bipartisan vote when he signed the bill into law. “Together, we recognized the need to cut administration in order to create opportunities and put more money in the classroom where it belongs,” he said.

The department of education is hitting the road in the coming weeks to start the planning process. A meeting was held on June 18 at Lake Region High School and will continue until July 15 in each of the 26 regional vocational/technical districts serving the state, where regional planning committees will be formed. Education Commissioner Susan Gendron and a few of her top staff will do presentations on what the law requires and offer planning support.

By Aug. 31, units will notify the department of their intent to enter negotiations with others. By Dec. 1, units have to submit a reorganization plan. Those the commissioner says meet the requirement of the law will be voted on in a community-wide referendum by Jan. 15, 2008. Those that are not ready would be voted on June 10, 2008.

The new districts formed would be run by regional school boards, which can create local school committees, whose power and duties would be specified by the regional board.

“I think it’s a really bad idea,” said Kevin Hancock of Casco. He has two children and said his daughter, who will be starting her sophomore year this fall, already has a long bus ride each morning. He said she gets picked up at 6:30 a.m. and school doesn’t start until 7:30 a.m.

“There’s just not enough time,” said Wayne Warner, 72, of Bridgton and a member of the SAD 61 school board. He said the Aug. 31 deadline for choosing a constellation of towns for each school administration unit will be difficult to meet.

Warner said the state only provided them with an objective and a set of penalties if they don’t meet the objectives, but no advice on how to go about the consolidation. He said he doesn’t know if the facilitator that will be provided will have any relevant credentials.

One unresolved issue is will the town of Raymond still pay Windham to teach its high school students.

“We’re not sure yet. We’re talking with (the Windham school board) right now,” said Teresa Sadak, chairwoman of the Raymond school board. She said she has had trouble finding out information from the state.

It’s frustrating, we’ll still waiting on a lot of answers,” she said.

“We don’t have all the information yet,” said Wendy Trask of the Raymond School Board. She is also hoping for information from the state.

Financial penalties

There is an opt-out provision where plans can be rejected at the local referendums in 2008, but those that don’t eventually play and have a plan ready for July 2009 will pay through penalties.

For the 85 or so largely property-rich communities that are minimal receivers of state aid, that would mean a 50 percent reduction in state aid for special education – the one reimbursement they get. For the rest of the cities and towns, which get state aid for an array of school functions, the penalties are two-fold.

Those that refuse to consolidate would see a 50 percent reduction in state aid for system or central office administration and also would be required to raise more on the local mil rate to support local education before state aid kicks in. That local mil rate requirement has gone down over the last three years as the state reaches its goal of picking up 55 percent of the cost of education on a statewide average basis by 2008-2009. Those that don’t consolidate would be stuck at state aid rates in effect for the school year just ending.

All districts that don’t accept consolidation also would lose points on the scoring criteria that determines who gets state aid for school construction.

The law says schools that can’t find partners after diligently trying will not be penalized.

Those districts found to be efficient and high-performing can also make the case they should be left alone, but the criteria is not yet fully developed and won’t be until the end of the year. Five districts – Yarmouth, Cape Elizabeth, School Administrative District 75 in Topsham, Brunswick and School Administrative District 22 in Hampden – were identified as high-performing in a state policy report released earlier this year, but that is not a sure out, according to Jim Rier, the Department of Education’s director of Finance and Operations.

“It’s premature to determine that,” Rier said. “Nothing is automatic,” under the law, he said, except that tribal and island schools are exempt.

Future budgets

Further complicating the school consolidation bill is the fact it was put inside the two-year, $6.3 billion state budget and is being used to justify a $36.5 million cut in state aid for administrative efficiencies that have yet to occur through district consolidation. The largest reduction will be a 50 percent cut in system administration. There also will be 5 percent cuts in special education, transportation, and facilities and maintenance funding.

Those cuts are the same ones proposed when Baladdci announced a school consolidation plan in January that would have reduced the number of districts statewide to 26.

Department officials say the savings are still doable because studies have shown districts of around 2,500 are the most efficient, and there is diminishing return the larger you get. The governor’s proposal would have created districts as large as 17,000 to 20,000 students.

To keep the pressure on local districts to keep school costs down, the consolidation bill also requires all districts, whether newly consolidated or not, to put the school budget on the ballot. Voters will be told how much the budget is over or under recommended spending levels in areas like administration, general education, special education, transportation and facilities and maintenance.

For those over spending levels recommended by the state, voters will be asked:

“Do you favor approving the budget for the upcoming school year that was adopted at the latest regional school unit budget meeting and that includes locally raised funds that exceed the required local contribution as described in the Essential Programs and Services Funding Act?”

The new law also clarifies other contentious issues, including local school closings and school choice.

A decision to close local schools would first require a two-thirds vote of the regional school board and a vote in the city or town where the school is located. If voters want to keep the school open, the municipality would be liable for the amount the district would have saved by closing it.

School choice of high schools is preserved under the new law despite the creation of new districts. Students in units that have school choice now will continue to have that choice after consolidation.