An 11-town informational meeting in East Machias on Tuesday evening, March 9, about school reorganization ended with a vote that sets the course for area towns' compliance with the much debated, state-mandated consolidation law.

The public was invited to learn how the towns will consolidate to operate as a single school group, to be known as the Machais Bay Area School System. Scott Porter, the superintendent of schools for the 11 Washington County towns, has been working this spring with state legislators and Department of Education administrators to bring around legal changes that makes a certain form of consolidation C an alternative organizational structure C more palatable to Washington County voters.

More than 65 members of the public turned out for the public hearing at the Elm Street School. There also were more than 20 elected officials C selectmen and school committee members C on hand.

But questions and comments were few from both the public and members of the Reorganization Planning Committee (RPC), which hosted the meeting. The nine-page plan spelling out the AOS and an accompanying 19-page interlocal agreement sailed through quickly as presented. After the meeting, both school boards and selectmen were asked to meet separately to approve measures that will set up a common referendum vote for April 29.

The RPC, which included citizen representatives from each of 12 towns, Lubec included, had been dormant since a previous consolidation plan was voted down by more than 80% in referendum votes by the towns. "Retaining local control" was the buzzword of the time.

Now, voters in those same towns C minus Lubec, no longer an RPC member C will consider regrouping as an alternative organizational structure. The difference this time is that the Maine Legislature is expected to approve changes in the state's consolidation law that would provide for each town in an AOS to receive its own subsidy check and allow for a town to withdraw from an AOS. Currently, only one subsidy check is sent for the towns in an AOS, and the district's central office has no way of determining how the funds should be split among the towns.

The officials at the March 9 meeting represented the towns for which Porter serves as superintendent: East Machias, plus those in School Union 102 C Machias, Jonesboro, Marshfield, Northfield, Wesley, Roque Bluffs, Whitneyville C and those in Union 134 C Whiting, Cutler and Machiasport.

As for Lubec, that town has been dropped from the RPC and will forge its way alone as it considers its educational future. Portland-based attorneys working with Porter struck all references to Lubec from the original wording for the AOS agreement. The new agreement, presented to the public, school board members and selectmen for the first time on March 9, lays out plans for the new legal entity, the Machias Bay Area School System.

Area towns face more than $200,000 in combined penalties if they don't choose to consolidate this spring. Porter wants the new school system to be operational by July 1, 2010. The penalties, for towns that do not consolidate, would escalate over the years, the longer a town stays out of compliance.

John Sprague, a school committee member from Marshfield, is also the chair of the RPC. He opened the meeting by describing the changes that have taken place since the last vote and the reasons why the RPC favors the new AOS plan.

"We wanted to keep local control [in the past]," Sprague told the nearly 90 people in the room. "We felt that so many rights are taken away from us that we weren't ready to give up our local control. We went the way we did, so we could have local control."

He further described how the alleviation of penalties for towns that consolidate today was key for the RPC's change of heart.

"These penalties were an eternal punishment, and they would grow each year," he said. "I'm a lay pastor, and I thought that only God could do eternal punishment."

He noted that "visitors" to the meeting were welcome to speak but that time for their comments would be limited, because "your representative is up here," sitting in front on long tables as citizen representatives to the RPC. Five of the 11 towns did not have their citizen members present.

"When all of us get together, we talk a lot," he explained about the need to limit public input. "And guess what? It's like the Congress of the United States, and you know what they do."

The motion for the RPC to take steps to put the consolidation plan to the voters of the 11 towns was made by Reinald Neilsen, a school committee member from Whiting.

With a population of 447, Whiting residents would represent 6% of the total population of the AOS, figures provided at the meeting indicated. Whiting would be allotted one member on the AOS board, among the board's 15 members. By voting to consolidate, Whiting would not be assessed its projected $14,489.35 penalty.