School consolidation plan passing late Tuesday

RANGELEY — With five of six communities reporting voting results late Tuesday, a plan to reorganize six school departments in Franklin and Oxford counties into one regional school district was passing 213-139.

Only Rangeley had not reported results as of late Tuesday.

If approved, the plan would go into effect July 1, 2010.

Three of the five communities reporting approved the plan.

Residents in Dallas Plantation in Franklin County voted 149-37 for it, while Sandy River Plantation voters favored it 48-21. Rangeley Plantation residents rejected the plan by 39-60 vote.

Lincoln Plantation voters in Oxford County were the only community of voters to reject the consolidation plan by a 4-19 vote. Magalloway Plantation residents in that county voted 12-2 to approve the plan.

The five plantations and Rangeley currently make up Union 37. If the overall vote fails, Union 37 could continue as is. And, even if a town does not vote to join but the plan still has enough votes to pass, the town can ask to pay tuition for its students to attend the Rangeley school.

The board members of the new district would determine if they will accept students from nonmember towns. A town that does not vote for the new plan would be required to engage a superintendent and do all the work of a district including establishing a school board.

A school reorganization planning committee with members representing the six communities that currently make up Union 37 developed the plan to consolidate school departments in an effort to give each community a say in governing the school system and to save money.

Currently, only Rangeley is allowed to elect residents to serve on the school board that oversees the school system. The plantations tuition students to the Rangeley Lakes Regional School in Rangeley.

The state had exempted the union from reorganization, deeming it an isolated school, after a failed attempt to consolidate with the Bethel school system earlier this year.

The proposed plan calls for a 13-member school board with representation from each community based on population.

dperry@sunjournal.com