STRONG -- A dramatic cost-sharing shift could sabotage the proposed Western Mountains Regional School Unit (RSU) consolidation plan when it goes before Franklin County voters in November.

For more than a year, a Regional Planning Committee (RPC), including four superintendents, school board members and community representatives, has provided the Department of Education with data to create a template for forecasting each town's share of the new combined budget.

Recently, DOE's Director of Finance and Operations Jim Rier reported newly-discovered discrepancies in financial data, indicating MSAD 9's original share of funding could be much higher.

"A significant amount of MSAD 58 costs will be shifted to MSAD 9," he said.

State analysts had not known the MSAD 58's 2007-08 financial data included only 10 months of data, rather than 12, because the district had modified its fiscal year to coincide with MSAD 9's.

"We told you there was a problem with the numbers you looked at, but you didn't listen," MSAD 58 board chairman Gerald Pond said.

Thursday night's meeting at the Strong Elementary School highlighted the deterioration in collaborative efforts.

"Well, we're screwed," New Sharon representative Spencer Thompson said. "I don't think this should go forward, to be honest."

MSAD 9 voters approved an $8,310,268 budget for 2008-2009. Based on Rier's calculations, if the schools had consolidated, MSAD 9 voters would have had paid $946,621 more, or an 18.6 percent increase. Conversely, MSAD 58 towns would have paid $894,183 less, or a 24.3 percent decrease.

"The shift comes from the valuations and population densities of the two districts," Rier explained.

SAD 58 has 959 students in five schools, with a poorer district that extends from Strong to Canada. MSAD 9 has 2,500 students in six schools from Vienna to Farmington, with higher property valuations and fewer miles to transport students.

The RSU committee hoped to make taxpayers and the future single school board see the benefit of supporting the new cost shifts.

"Can this committee dictate how the new (RSU school) board builds their budget?" Temple resident Ben Milster asked.

Rier suggested the new RSU board could take more time to find cost savings if the RPC committee agreed to spread the financial shift over five years. MSAD 58 voters would delay receiving their full 24.3 percent decrease for those years, but MSAD 9 voters could plan their increased share with less impact.

MSAD 58 would contribute 20 percent less each of the next five years, while MSAD 9 would absorb 20 percent more each year until the budget shift was complete. Each town in the new RSU would pay the new percentage based on population and valuation.

The members of the committee debated about the option of presenting MSAD 9 voters with the budget increase as one lump sum in the first year. Representatives of MSAD 58 members of the RPC opposed phasing in the cost shift over five years, because it wasn't presenting the true consolidation picture to voters.

Supporters of the five-year plan suggested that this would offer the new school board extra time to absorb the details of managing the new super-district.

"You don't need to change the funding formula so that it's nice and warm and fuzzy," Pond said. "There's going to be another wave coming that's even bigger than this."

The RPC committee voted 14 against, nine in favor, and with one abstention, for presenting MSAD 9 with the increase during the first year.

The second option, spreading the budget shift over five years from MSAD 58 to MSAD 9, passed, with 13 votes for, nine against, and two abstentions.

The new consolidation plan needs to be approved by MSAD 59, MSAD 9, and Highland and Coplin Plantation school boards very quickly before it can be resubmitted to the DOE.

If any of the four school boards does not approve the new budget shift as approved by the Regional Planning Committee, the group will have to submit an alternate plan to the DOE.