BY COLIN HICKEY

Staff Writer

SAD 47 and School Union 52 are moving forward on a consolidation plan that would create a seven-town regional school unit (RSU) with more than 5,000 students, nearly 400 teachers and an annual budget of $52 million.

The regional planning committee, a group that has worked on developing a consolidation plan for more than a year, approved the proposal last week.

Step 2 in the process is to put the proposal in front of the four school boards (SAD 47, Winslow, Vassalboro and China) involved in the consolidation initiative.

SAD 47 Superintendent James C. Morse Sr. said that alone is an achievement given the complicated nature of the task.

"There have been moments when we were uncertain we would get to the point where we would get a plan to submit to the school boards," he said. "I believe what kept us going is a fixation on the educational advantage (of consolidation). We felt the trend at the state level is reduced to minimal increases in aid to education. If that were to occur and we all stayed by ourselves, we would essentially be cutting programs to balance the budget."

Morse said the regional planning committee expects to save about $244,000 in special education and systems administration costs over the first three years of the RSU.

Winslow Town Council Chairman Gerald Saint Amand is a member of the regional planning committee, a group more than 30 strong.

He supported forwarding the plan to the school boards.

"I can live with it," he said. "I'm satisfied with it after working 13 months on something to comply with the state law. It is not perfect for any of the school organizations involved. It is a compromise for everybody."

Phil St. Onge, another planning committee member from Winslow, opposes the proposal.

In e-mail messages he sent to fellow members and this newspaper, St. Onge criticized the plan on many fronts as a bad deal for Winslow.

He argued the proposal makes Winslow responsible for too much of the RSU's costs, leaves Winslow teachers open to reassignment within the RSU, and gives the RSU superintendent -- whoever that turns out to be -- control of all athletic fields in the regional school system.

St. Onge also is concerned with the size of the RSU.

"If you value community based education with a manageable number of students," he wrote, "this scheme is not for you."

Union 52 Assistant Superintendent Gary Smith views the plan much like Saint Amand.

"No town is totally happy (about it)," he said, "because it is a lot of give and take."

One of the most controversial areas concerned local debt. Winslow has the most, having borrowed $6 million to pay the local share of its recent renovation of Winslow High School.

Under the RSU proposal, Winslow remains responsible for half that debt and the RSU assumes the rest.

Assuming all four school boards approve the plan, the proposal then goes to Education Commissioner Susan Gendron. An OK from Gendron would put the issue in front of voters from the seven towns on Election Day, Nov. 4 -- the final step in the consolidation approval process.

SAD 47 communities would vote as one block, meaning that the measure could pass even if some of the individual towns in the district rejected the proposal. Union 52 communities would vote separately, setting up the possibility that one or more of the towns could reject and thereby pull out of the planned RSU.

Saint Amand said he plans to speak in favor of the RSU at Winslow's school board meeting Aug. 4.

"I feel strongly this should go in front of the voters," he said.

Smith is eager to see how school officials from Union 52's three towns react to the proposal. "I think it will be some of the most interesting school board meetings we have ever had," he said, "because you are basically setting the course for the future."

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com