If the state wants SAD 61 to go back to the drawing board regarding merging with SADs 55 and 72, the district then wants the state to help it pencil in where the cost savings may be realized.

To that end, SAD 61 Superintendent Frank Gorham, along with Sylvia Pease and Gary McDonald, his counterparts in SADs 55 and 72, have invited Commissioner Susan Gendron of the Maine Department of Education and Jim Rier, who directs finance and operations for the department, to meet with them to show what math they missed when rejecting the state’s suggestion to combine as Regional Student Union 44.

The department is eager to get together, according to spokesman David Connerty-Marin.

“It’s too early to say the finances don’t work,” said Connerty-Marin. “We see the opportunity for partnerships and worry about the sustainability of smaller districts.”

While SADs 55, 61, and 72 each filed notices of intent to remain independent last month, Gendron’s letter to each superintendent said the plans were unacceptable because none of the districts would have the minimum of 2,500 students mandated by the reorganization law passed by the Legislature in June.

Gendron’s response made some school board members like Janice Barter, who represents SAD 61 in Naples, wonder if Gendron and the department read the supporting material explaining how reaching the prescribed minimum would fail to help the districts save taxpayers any portion of $36.5 million the state has already counted on beginning in July 2008.

In SAD 61, board members and those who served on an ad hoc committee through the summer believed whatever state savings will be seen by reducing administrative costs by 50 percent, and transportation, maintenance and special education costs by 5 percent, will be passed on to local taxpayers because SAD 61 already stands to lose as much as $2.4 million in state aid next March, while paring administrative costs within the state Essential Programs and Services formula and operating district buses at full capacity.

SADs 55 and 72 were the suggested choices for merging by the state, but SAD 61 also looked into merging with Raymond or bringing in Harrison. These pursuits were quickly rejected, decisions Gorham primarily attributes to the loss of state funding to SAD 61. Harrison, like other towns already in a school union or district, is also prevented from striking out on its own.

The assertion that more savings are possible befuddled Andy Madura, who directs food service, maintenance and transportation in SAD 61. Not only is this an example of how the district has streamlined its administration, Madura wonders how transportation costs can be cut when the buses are full and operate on routes outlined by state provided software.

Connerty-Marin said now that assessing notices of intent from 290 school districts and unions is finished, the department will concentrate on helping 12 to 15 districts and unions reevaluate their findings as all districts strive to create full operational plans by Dec. 1.

“We have found in many areas that local financial analysis is not always correct. We can, in many cases, return to units and show templates to properly establish how savings can be met,” he said.

Nor does he accept the idea that the potential loss of $1 million in Essential Programs and Services money and $1.4 in transitional state aid to soften the blow of earlier EPS reductions makes SAD 61 a bad dance partner for other districts seeking to consolidate.

Connerty-Marin said taxpayers in Bridgton, Casco, Naples and Sebago would have to recoup those reductions in some way, but would bear the responsibility alone even if merging with SADs 55 and 72.

Barter disagreed, noting the other SADs were grappling with potential cuts as well and that the overall reductions would affect all residents of the proposed 16-town school unit encompassing 675 square miles.

Barter, who drafted the school board letter accompanying the notice of intent, based the rejection of a merger on the added strain to a transportation system that already logs 3,000 miles a day taking students to schools while navigating around the numerous lakes and ponds in the district; the economic disparities between SADs 55, 61 and 72 that could increase the local property tax burden; and the established versatility of administrators in SAD 61 that would show efficiencies already exist to justify independent operations.

Population density was hoped to be another factor to allow the districts to continue on their own, as a combined district would have no more than 25 people per square mile and Gendron had said population densities below 100 per square mile would be considered as a reason not to consolidate districts.

In responding to the notices of intent, Gendron pledged her department would work with the districts to find the savings and support legislative efforts to reduce or eliminate the additional fiscal penalties the districts face in July 2009 for not conforming to the law. Those penalties include a further reduction of state aid and lower priority for consideration of state aid for construction projects.

Connerty-Marin said the reference was not made because of legislation introduced by Rep. Rich Cebra, R-Naples, to eliminate the financial penalties or to extend the timetable for consolidation by a year while leaving the penalties in place.

By law, Gendron will meet with the Legislature in January to evaluate the law and discuss revisions or amendments. At that point, some relief might be considered, but until then, the plan is to move forward with the idea of creating RSU 44 from SADs 55, 61 and 72.