MADISON -- Supersize it?

The SAD 59 school board Monday night voted to ask the neighboring Anson and Bingham school districts to explore collaboration for a possible combined regional school unit, school officials said Tuesday.

"The board elected to have (Superintendent) Michael Gallagher talk to SAD 74 and SAD 13 boards to see if they want to sign a notice of intent with us," SAD 59 school board Vice Chairman Troy Emery said Tuesday.

Emery also is chairman of the SAD 59 Reorganization Planning Committee. "And if they say yes," Emery continued. "We'll sit down with them, with the financial templates from the Department of Education and try to make this work.

"If they say no, then the board needs to have more discussion on what 59's next step will be."

Any consolidation into a Regional School Unit (RSU) would also include SAD 53 in Pittsfield.

Emery said it is too early to even discuss the prospect of closing one of the high schools in either SAD 74, 13 or 59 as part of the reorganization plan, once and if it is hatched.

Monday's unanimous SAD 59 board vote comes on the heels of the defeat June 10 of formal consolidation with the Pittsfield district.

Madison voters nixed the idea by about 30 votes, sending the idea back to the boardroom table.

Gallagher, superintendent in both districts 53 and 59, said at the time that some Madison residents probably voted against consolidation because they believe SAD 59 should have made a proposal with SAD 74 of Anson, which is closer.

By law, any school district with fewer than 1,200 students must consolidate by Jan. 30 of next year, or suffer financial penalties.

Final rejection of a merger plan in Madison would cost SAD 59 $185,000 next year and another $190,000 in the 2010-11 school year, according to the language of the referendum of June 10.

SAD 53 communities and all but Madison in SAD 59 approved the measure.

Meanwhile, SAD 74 and SAD 13 agreed to combine administrative duties for one year, beginning July 1. SAD 13 Superintendent Kenneth Smith will be superintendent for both districts, while SAD 74 Superintendent Regina Campbell will be assistant superintendent, food service director, adult ed director and principal at Carrabec Community School in North Anson.

Campbell could not be reached for comment Tuesday on the SAD 59 vote. The SAD 74 board is scheduled to meet tonight.

Contacted Tuesday, Gallagher confirmed the vote by the Madison board and said the next step would be to reach out to the neighboring districts for an answer to the consolidation question.

"Madison did make an offer to SAD 74 midway through our discussions, probably somewhere around November of last year, midway through the discussions between 59 and 53," Gallagher said. "They had requested that there be a letter written from their board to the board of SAD 59 and there was no response.

"That was certainly the intent, that that letter be written and my understanding is that there was no response."

SAD 13 Superintendent Kenneth Smith said Tuesday that Campbell did not respond to local letters, but rather sent her letter to the state.

"Regina's interpretation from listening to the state was that each individual school system had to submit a letter of intent," Smith said of Campbell. "She sent one in, thinking that she was in compliance. Her interpretation was different.

"In effect, what she signed, I think, was the same thing."