BY MATTHEW STONE

Staff Writer

Maine education observers predict the state's school district consolidation law will be the subject of heated debate when legislators convene their 2009 session this winter.

But an effort under way to repeal the mandate could complicate efforts to amend portions of the law.

When a new Legislature arrives in Augusta this winter, members will spend much of their time debating adjustments to the original consolidation law, said Douglas Rooks, education project director at Maine Children's Alliance.

"There are going to be a lot of districts looking for options and that needs to be dealt with," said Rooks, who has written widely about the state's consolidation mandate. "This is going to be a major focus of debate in the Legislature next year."

On Tuesday, voters weighed in on 18 plans for district mergers, rejecting five of them.

When voters decide on 22 more proposed district mergers in December and January, additional reasons for revising the consolidation law are likely to come up, University of Maine Education Professor Gordon Donaldson said.

"I think a lot of people think that there can be some benefit from some forms of regionalization," he said. "What I'm hearing is a lot of people thinking there weren't enough choices for people reasonably to come up with solutions to save money, improve schools and sustain community."

As legislators consider amendments to the consolidation mandate, however, they risk their revisions not becoming part of the law until after November 2009.

Advocates who favor repealing the consolidation law submitted signatures to the Secretary of State's office in October, hoping to force a ballot question before voters in November 2009. The Secretary of State will determine whether the signatures are valid by the end of February.

With that initiative pending, amendments to the law require the approval of two-thirds, rather than a majority, of legislators. Amendments that pass with a simple majority become competing measures voters can choose from on the November 2009 referendum ballot, Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin said.

A November 2009 referendum would come five months after most district mergers take effect on July 1, 2009.

David Trahan, an incoming state senator from Waldoboro, said he will propose legislation this winter to move the repeal vote earlier than November 2009.

"I think it's very important that we vote on this a lot sooner than November," said Trahan, a Republican and repeal proponent elected to the Maine Senate on Tuesday. "I think waiting until November is disrespectful to the people working on consolidation. We shouldn't make them do six or eight months of work that's going to be repealed."

The result of Tuesday's voting on consolidation plans did not come as a surprise to Trahan, Rooks or Donaldson, they said.

"Of those plans that failed, they failed for a reason," Trahan said. "Those communities do not want the state of Maine dictating what they do with their education system."

Rooks noted that the plans voters rejected were consigned to failure when municipal and school officials refused to lend their support.

The provisions of a plan to merge Farmington-based School Administrative District 9 and Kingfield-based SAD 58 spurred the districts' school boards to vote against endorsing the plan. In Houlton, town councilors unanimously encouraged residents to reject that town's consolidation plan. Voters followed suit in both cases.

"The plans have to be good plans that people have consensus about, and then they get approved," Rooks said. "People have some faith in their elected officials."

Donaldson, the education professor, said many of the successful mergers were not combinations that represented major changes.

"They represent small and minor regionalization steps," he said.

Oakland-based SAD 47 added one town -- China -- to its administrative structure, he noted. And Kennebunk-based SAD 71 added nearby Arundel's schools.

"Those are small steps toward regionalization," Donaldson said. "They will not require a lot of change."

Voters in Aroostook County were among those who rejected school district merger plans that would have united, in some cases, more than a dozen towns' schools.

"The educational benefits, and I assume the efficiency benefits, "Donaldson said, "didn't convince people that it was worth giving up their own school boards and their own sense of control over what their kids get."

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com