RELATED STORY, PAGE 16

Although the Legislature is still in the midst of crafting a school consolidation plan, appears that Westbrook may not be affected as much as other districts.

Because Westbrook is one of the larger districts in the state, it is unlikely that it will be forced into a consolidation of administrative services with another district. However, it may choose to do so, all the same.

In a personal message to the Westbrook School Committee and a handful of educators and city councilors last Wednesday, Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron provided an update of the process in Augusta.

Last week, the Legislature’s Education Committee offered its own version of a consolidation plan that is less drastic than the one offered by Gov. John Baldacci. Gendron is expected to begin working with the Appropriations Committee on some combination of plans.

“We’re in a very different place than when the governor announced his plan,” said Gendron last Wednesday.

No members of the general public attended the meeting, a detail that did not escape the notice of Westbrook School Committee Chairwoman Colleen Hilton.

“As a board member I’m astounded that I have not heard from the public,” Hilton said at the meeting.

Gendron said the plans at the forefront in Augusta at the moment could require that districts with less than 1,200 students take steps to consolidate administration with other districts. Westbrook has about 2,500 students.

According to Gendron, of Maine’s 290 school districts, 187 of those have less than 500 students. Because of that, Maine is ranked as the eighth highest state in the nation in cost per student. She said that studies have shown the most effective number of students for any district is about 3,000.

While Westbrook might not be forced into consolidation, Westbrook Superintendent Stan Sawyer said last week he is in favor of consolidation of some kind among school districts in the area, and has worked for consolidation with the city as well. The Westbrook School Department and city of Westbrook currently share costs and services in areas such as technology and maintenance of vehicles.

Sawyer said he’s hoping to keep that consolidation and add more with neighboring school districts, including the Sebago Alliance – an alliance among Westbrook, Gorham, Windham, Raymond and Bonny Eagle schools to share such things as a $800,000 in federal grant money for staff training. Sawyer doesn’t want to see school districts get too big, however, and would like to see them limited to about 4,000 students.

The governor’s plan calls for reducing excess school administration while cutting state aid to local districts by $36.5 million. He hopes to achieve that by cutting the existing 290 school districts to 26 by school year 2008-2009. The Education Committee’s proposal would create around 100 districts in 2009-2010.

The Education Committee took a more cautious approach to school consolidation than the governor, saying first there should be planning alliances that would find $36.5 million in savings in the 2008-2009 school year through cooperation on non-instructional services. Those alliances would then recommend consolidation plans to create districts no smaller than 1,200 students by 2009-2010.

Victoria Wallack of the State House News Service contributed to this report.