BY MATTHEW STONE

Staff Writer

A simultaneous meeting of seven school boards on Thursday could offer some clarity for six towns whose school systems are merging into one regional district.

The boards will meet to discuss changing course on the school-district merger between the Fayette, Winthrop and Maranacook-area school systems.

Maranacook schools serve students from Manchester, Mount Vernon, Readfield and Wayne.

The six towns' schools merger has been marked by uncertainty since July 10, when the committee planning the districts' consolidation chose -- by a one-vote margin -- to adopt an alternative administrative structure for their emerging school district.

Before the vote, the towns had been making fast progress toward shaping a new regional school unit, the district structure most merging school systems are adopting. Under that structure, the six towns' boards would merge into one regional school board.

Proponents of the alternative structure say they want to prevent a larger town on a regional board from having outsized influence in a decision to close a smaller town's elementary school. Committee members planning the merger have discussed a structure that would allow the individual towns' school boards to remain intact.

Other merging districts -- including merging districts in the Mount Desert Island, Machias and Fort Kent areas -- have looked to the alternative structure as a way to allow small towns closer control over larger, restructured districts.

"Why should it be up to the town of WInthrop whether Wayne gets to have an elementary school?" Stan Davis, a Wayne district planning committee member, said in July.

Davis cast a "yes" vote -- the tally was 9-8 -- at the July 10 meeting in favor of adopting the alternative structure.

The school-district consolidation law's alternative structure provision is vague about the structure's shape. The law specifies little beyond requiring merging systems to adopt consistent core curricula, school policies, calendars and collective bargaining agreements.

On Thursday, the Fayette, Manchester, Mount Vernon, Readfield, Wayne, Winthrop and Community School District 10 school boards will decide whether to file new notices with the state Department of Education explaining their intent to merge districts and the structure they plan to adopt.

To adopt the alternative district structure, all seven school boards must file uniform notices with state education officials. If the boards disagree, their merger could be in jeopardy.

The boards that prefer the alternative structure could decide to form their own school district without the others. Or they could return to the table and continue planning the initial regional structure.

All but one of the seven boards will meet at the Maranacook Community High School student center in Readfield on Thursday evening.

The session will start with a briefing on the choice between an alternative district structure and regional school unit at its 6 p.m. meeting.

At 7 p.m., the Fayette, Manchester, Mount Vernon, Readfield and Wayne school boards will split apart to vote on whether to file new notices with the state. At 7:30 p.m., the Community School District 10 board, which oversees Maranacook's middle and high schools, will take a vote.

The Winthrop Board of Education will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the library of Winthrop Grade School.

Regardless of the path the school boards choose, much work remains before the merger is complete, said Holly Stevenson of Wayne, chairwoman of the Union 42 board: The committee planning the merger has planned to hold a November vote to allow residents to weigh in on the reorganization plan.

The merger plan needs approval from each of the seven school boards and the Department of Education before voters have a chance to accept or reject it.

"It's very hard and especially with the deadlines looming before us," Stevenson said. "People are willing to work and we just need to be able to schedule those meetings and really jump into the work that needs to be done."

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com