OAKLAND -- School Administrative District 47 is moving forward on a plan to form a regional school unit with China.

School board members voted 9-2 to take the step at their Wednesday night meeting in the district's Technology Building.

Kerri Oliver, of Sidney, and Becky Seel, of Belgrade, cast the dissenting votes.

Prior to the decision, SAD 47 Superintendent James C. Morse Sr. made the case for consolidating with China, even though he said the cost savings would be minimal.

The reason to partner, he argued, is to prevent a decline in student enrollment and the decrease in state education funding that would result from that decline. State funding is based on student count and municipal evaluation.

That decline is already happening in the district, Morse said.

He said enrollment at Messalonskee High School has dropped from 944 five years ago to about 879 this fall. And steeper declines are coming, he said.

Morse said projections put Messalonskee's enrollment at 834 next fall and as low as 699 for the 2015-16 school year.

But with China becoming a partner, he said, SAD 47 would gain about 800 students.

"Without those numbers," Morse said, "we will be crushed as far as state funding. This, to me, is the keystone (of the partnership)."

Oliver, who cast one of the dissenting votes, argued that China could end up the victim of the consolidation effort.

"Here is my fear," she said. "If our voters (in Sidney) vote this down in November, China is left out in the cold on Nov. 5."

Oliver indicated that such an outcome is definitely a possibility.

SAD 47 is large enough on its own to form a regional school unit without a partner and thus avoid state penalities.

China school board members last month voted unanimously to move forward with an SAD 47 merger.

Charlie Clark, chairman of the China board, told his SAD 47 counterparts that he opposed school consolidation when the idea was first proposed.

But once it became law, he said, he decided to put his energy into making it work rather than into trying to skirt the initiative.

Still, he said, he remains uncertain about what ultimately will result from school consolidation.

"I think it is a giant leap of faith," he said.

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com