The members of a committee planning the Fayette, Maranacook-area and Winthrop school systems' merger have long discussed taking their consolidation plan to voters in a November referendum.

But the November vote is no longer a possibility for the six towns as the committee planning the schools' merger begins exploring an alternative structure for the proposed district.

Representatives on the committee representing the six towns on track to merge their school districts into one next July meet Wednesday to form a special task force that will explore the alternative district structure allowed by legislation passed in April. That legislation amended the original school-district consolidation bill signed into law in June 2007.

"This subcommittee has got to work quickly," said Joel Swimm, a Fayette representative on the committee. "We can't waste time. We've got to get answers."

For the six-town district -- which, in addition to Fayette and Winthrop, would serve Manchester, Mount Vernon, Readfield and Wayne of the Maranacook-area school system -- too much time has elapsed to hold a November referendum.

The Department of Education requested that districts planning a November vote submit completed merger plans to the state by Aug. 25. In order to hold a vote by the state-mandated Jan. 30 deadline, the Department of Education has told the six-town district to submit its merger plan by Nov. 14.

The towns' merger has been in limbo since July 10, when district planners voted -- by a one-vote margin -- in favor of the alternative structure. The committee had previously been making fast progress toward shaping a regional school unit, the administrative structure most merging districts across the state are adopting.

On Aug. 21, six of the towns' seven school boards voted to form the task force that will explore an alternative design for the district. Winthrop's board, which represents the largest town of the new school unit, was the only board to oppose exploring the alternative organizational structure.

At Wednesday's meeting, committee members will begin sorting out where to go next, said committee chairman Kevin Cookson, of Winthrop.

"Now that the school boards have had their say," he said, "now it's back to the drawing board, in some sense."

While a task force -- which likely would not include a Winthrop representative, Cookson said -- explores the alternative structure, the merger planning committee is likely to continue work on a plan for the conventional regional school unit.

An alternative structure -- whose definition in state law is vague -- would likely allow smaller towns closer control over a larger, regional school district.

The six towns would likely keep their local school boards and control over their elementary schools' budgets. The alternative structure, advocates say, would prevent larger towns in the district from determining whether the smaller towns' elementary schools remain open.

The conventional regional school unit establishes one, 11-member board to oversee the six towns' schools. Winthrop would have four representatives; Manchester and Readfield would each have two; and Fayette, Mount Vernon and Wayne would have one each.

The regional school unit structure pits larger towns against smaller ones, Fayette's Swimm said.

"You're going to have a lot of pressure placed on these smaller, rural communities to close their schools," he said.

"The only way to preserve the authority of the local board on that issue was through an (alternative) structure," said Susan Herman, who represents Mount Vernon on the planning committee.

Swimm, who favors the alternative arrangement, said he would like to see an alternative structure plan contain "an escape clause."

"I think (towns) need to have the knowledge that, hey, if things go awry 10, 20 years down the road, there's a way to get out," he said.

Maine's Department of Education would not regard an alternatively shaped district any differently from a conventional school unit. The state would issue one subsidy check that separate school boards would have to determine how to divide among themselves.

"I just think it's more manpower and time wasted," said Cookson, of Winthrop. "Even if you ended up with an (alternative) model, I still think it would be difficult to manage."

While Winthrop does not appear to be on board with an alternative structure, John Mitchell, chairman of the town's board of education, said Winthrop has no intention of seeking out other merger partners.

"They're going to look at that (alternative district structure) and may find it's not suitable for them," he said.

The committee meets Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Maranacook Community Middle School media center in Readfield.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com