By ELIZABETH COMEAU
Staff Writer Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Staff Writer

Four-thousand students. Nine towns. Four high schools.

One superintendent.

That's the latest school district consolidation plan, released Monday afternoon, facing residents of Manchester, Mount Vernon, Monmouth, Fayette, Readfield, Wayne, Winthrop, Farmingdale and Hallowell.

Under the most recent plan, those towns would join to created RSU 30 -- a consolidated school district of about 4,000 students.

The plan would mean that, of five school superintendents governing those towns now, one -- or none -- could have a job with RSU 30.

"We already have alliances with all of the schools in the proposed district," said Richard Abramson, superintendent for Maranacook Area Schools, one of five administrators who could compete for the position of RSU 30 superintendent.

Abramson said he wasn't entirely surprised by the proposed district: "If you look at the geography, it's contiguous."

As for there being only one superintendent where there are now five, Abramson said he and his colleagues may wind up doing different jobs in the proposed new school district.

"These are all friends and we all -- I think -- have contracts beyond the consolidation timelines, but I don't know what will happen to those contracts," he said. "I think it's still too early to tell. We have talked about this -- that we all have specialties that we bring to the table. So maybe this is an opportunity for having a transition period to make things work well before you go down to one superintendent."

The other four superintendents affected by the potential new district did not return phone calls seeking comment Monday.

In the past few months, school officials in Readfield, Fayette, Mount Vernon, Wayne, Manchester, Monmouth, Winthrop, Turner, Livermore Falls, Jay, Hallowell and Farmingdale had begun to examine possible consolidation partners in an effort to find cost efficiencies prior to a state-set deadline.

The latest legislative plan, released Monday by Senate Majority Leader Elizabeth Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, sets different rules for rural and urban districts while achieving the $36.5 million in savings mandated in Democratic Gov. John Baldacci's budget proposal.

Under Mitchell's plan, York, Cumberland, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Sagadahoc and Knox counties would be required to achieve a minimum student population of 2,500. But other rural areas wouldn't be required to meet that standard -- along with island and tribal schools.

While the state Department of Education released a map that shows how the number of districts could be reduced from 290 to 62 if most districts had a minimum of 2,500 students, Mitchell's proposal -- put together by a working group that included lawmakers and interested parties -- sets a goal of 80 or fewer districts.

Baldacci originally proposed reducing the number of districts to 26.

The Mitchell proposal would require all districts to vote on school district consolidation in January 2008, and to implement the consolidation by July 1 of that year. School districts voting not to consolidate would face "serious financial penalties," though those penalties are yet unspecified.

Elizabeth Comeau -- 623-3811, Ext. 433

ecomeau@centralmaine.com