School consolidation is the Rubik's Cube of Maine's education world. The challenge of finding suitable partners is proving frustrating for many school units. They've engaged in endless discussion, endless number-crunching and endless wooing. They've tried it this way and that way, with one set of partners and then another -- only to find that the numbers don't always work, and the voters don't always want it.

Which means the state gets out the big stick and imposes sizeable penalties for those districts in 2009.

If you said, "No fair," you're right.

It isn't fair to punish districts with leaders who have made good-faith efforts to puzzle their way to consolidation, but haven't been able to finish the puzzle. At least not yet.

That's why Education Commissioner Susan Gendron told a legislative committee this week that she's going to submit legislation to allow certain school units more time to find merger partners before penalties are imposed.

That should come as a relief to those communities that have been unable to make the required progress toward consolidation.

Gendron's vow this week needs to be turned into artfully constructed legislation. That's because any penalty reprieve needs to be able to distinguish between those towns and units that have made an honest effort at consolidation, and those whiney or truculent units that have not. Granting a reprieve is not simply something that we believe should be left to the commissioner's discretion -- there's already too much of that in the labyrinth of rules and regulations that govern school consolidation.

For months, many local school officials have been lamenting the difficulty of devising a successful consolidation plan. Gendron's wise to pay attention to their concerns, and by moving to relieve penalties for some units, she's come up with an appropriate and fair response.