Hundreds of residents and educators came from across the state, including several who made multiday treks from island communities, and waited for hours to testify in many voices but with one consistent message.

Mainers may warm up to some sort of school consolidation plan, just don't tell them how to do it. And don't try to make a model used in other states work in a mostly rural and fiercely independent state which values its small-town schools.

"A disaster -- that's where we're headed," said Dwight Tibbetts, chairman of the School Union 133 School Board and a band leader and music teacher in Augusta Schools. "We need some common sense here."

Tibbetts, whose school union includes Windsor, Palermo and Somerville, was one of several hundred residents who spoke out against Gov. John Baldacci's plan to slash the number of school districts in Maine from 290 to 26.

While Baldacci's proposal appeared to find almost no support, but plenty of hostility, from the hundreds of people who testified in two rooms of the Augusta Civic Center Monday, most said they'd be open to consolidation if it is done at a slower pace than the 18-month timeline proposed by Baldacci, and with input from schools and communities.

"No one from the Department of Education has asked financial people in schools for any input, and we do this every day," said James Jurdak, of Oakland, business manager for Augusta Schools.

Baldacci's proposal is one of seven going to the legislature's Education and Cultural Affairs Committee this session. Several attendees Monday said they would be open to bits and pieces of some of the proposed legislation. Committee members have said that is exactly what is likely to emerge from committee for the full legislature to consider -- an education consolidation bill formed out of parts -- of some or all -- of the proposed bills.

Baldacci, who did not attend Monday's hearings, has said his school district consolidation proposal would save $241 million over its first three years while not closing any schools.

However, numerous speakers Monday, many from Maine's small rural towns, said they believe the new regional school boards to be created in Baldacci's plan would quickly decide they could save their district money be closing small schools. And they said small communities would likely have little influence if they are lumped in a regional district with communities much larger than theirs.

"The mega-districts will vote to close small schools to save money," said Robert Beal, a retired educator from Beals Island who spoke with a thick Maine accent. "The smaller towns would not have a vote. This is taxation without representation. People are proud of their schools and most are willing to pay to support them. Let's not balance the budget on the backs of our school children."

Beal was one of several island residents to speak at the hearing, with many wearing buttons saying "Save our Island Schools."

Richard Farrell of Monhegan Island said he had to hitch a ride on a lobster boat Sunday to get to the Monday hearing, and others from the island took the ferry to the mainland Friday and stayed over the weekend in order to testify. They'd face similar obstacles, he said, if they become part of a large, mainland school district and wanted to participate in a meeting of the new regional school board.

Rep. Kim Silsby, D-Augusta, sponsor of a bill which seeks to push school consolidation by having current school administrative units form regional cooperatives charged with finding efficiencies, said she was encouraged that many participants Monday were open to regional approaches to cutting education costs in general.

"It's not about if we're going to think regionally, it's how we're going to think regionally," she said.

Messalonskee Middle School Principal Mark Hatch, who said Baldacci's proposed new school districts would be so large parents would rarely be able to speak to their superintendent, said he was speaking not as a principal but as a parent of his two-year-old daughter. He urged legislators, as they decide what to do, to consider what was best for her and "the other sons and daughters of the state of Maine."

Keith Edwards -- 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com