AUGUSTA -- Some of the staunchest opponents of Maine's school district consolidation mandate had a chance Tuesday to tell lawmakers what should be changed about the law.

The Legislature's Education Committee also heard from some of the school officials trying to make the law work after their districts consolidated.

The discussions came as the legislative panel started talking about how lawmakers need to change Maine's consolidation mandate, two weeks after voters upheld the law in a referendum on its repeal.

The 2007 consolidation law was an attempt to cut school administrative expenses by merging the state's 290 school districts into 80. With more than 100 school districts turning down local district merger plans, however, the state now has 218 districts.

Roger Shaw, superintendent of Mars Hill-based School Administrative District 42, said the state should eliminate the penalties meant to be levied on districts that don't comply with the consolidation law.

"It's unconscionable to think of penalties on top of what was announced to you today," he said, referring to news that Gov. John Baldacci will announce a statewide spending curtailment Friday that probably will cut more than $38 million from school budgets statewide.

Bill Webster, superintendent of the newly consolidated Regional School Unit 24, cautioned against that move, however. Many of the voters in his Ellsworth-based district, which encompasses 12 towns, would not have voted to consolidate, were it not for the prospect of a penalty.

"There is no question in my mind that, had those penalties not been part of the law, that my communities would not have approved consolidation," Webster said.

Skip Greenlaw -- chairman of the Maine Coalition to Save Schools, the group that led the campaign this fall to overturn the merger law -- suggested allowing more flexibility within the law.

For example, he said, if legislators scrub minimum size requirements from the merger law, more consolidation can happen.

The law now requires most consolidated districts to enroll at least 1,200 students.

In addition, towns that are unhappy with the districts they're part of need to have a way to withdraw, Greenlaw said.

"I don't want to suggest that you make it easy, but I think there are a lot of RSUs that have incurred substantial tax increases as a result of (consolidating)," he said.

Quenten Clark, superintendent of Kingfield-based SAD 58, told legislators to better articulate the goals of consolidation, and to remove the Department of Education from much of the process.

"If consolidation were left to Mike Cormier and Quenten Clark, it would have worked," Clark said, referring to the superintendent of the Mount Blue Regional School District. The proposed merger between Mount Blue and SAD 58 failed after voters opposed it.

Shaw and Greenlaw recommended that legislators allow small school districts to find ways of complying with the consolidation law other than by merging districts.

"We're looking for ways to consolidate our administrative offices next year," Shaw said of his district's collaboration with a nearby school system. "This is outside the consolidation law. We are doing what we know we have to do to save money."

Shannon Welsh, superintendent of Freeport-based Regional School Unit 5, also suggested lawmakers allow unhappy towns a way out of their consolidated districts.

Pownal experienced a 35 percent jump in its local tax burden after it merged into RSU 5.

"I've had people in Pownal say to me, 'We might not use the opt-out law, but emotionally we need it,'" Welsh said.

Donald Siviski, superintendent of Hallowell-based RSU 2, cautioned legislators against associating wild tax swings with consolidation.

"The challenge of RSU 2 was a property revaluation in Monmouth," he said, referring to a $300,000 tax increase in Monmouth after the merger. "Basically, all of the little folks with similar property value got together and formed an RSU of 2,400 students, and then revaluations kicked in."

Siviski said consolidation appears to be improving education in his district.

"It's the collective genius of more people trying to survive instead of wondering by yourself how you're going to survive," he said.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com