ROCKLAND (AP) – Credit card company MBNA will close a major call center in Rockland and an education center in Northport, along with a smaller call center in Dover, N.H., officials said Monday. A California facility also will be closed.

The Rockland center, with 300 employees, and the Dover center, with 50 employees, will close by April; the Northport education facility, with 50 employees, will close in May, said Brian Dalphon, director of media relations.

Also, MBNA will close its only call center in California in Aliso Viejo, where 170 people are employed, by mid-April, Dalphon said.

“This was in an effort to get to a place where our staffing level matches our outlook for future growth,” Dalphon said from Belfast.

Activities performed at the Maine locations will be consolidated into other MBNA facilities in the state. Other MBNA facilities are located in Belfast, Portland, Presque Isle, Brunswick, Farmington, Orono and Fort Kent.

Dalphon said he hoped that workers in Northport and Rockland would opt to continue working at the company’s state headquarters in Belfast. Workers who do not continue their employment will be offered a minimum of 26 weeks of severance, he said.

When the cuts are implemented, MBNA will have reduced its work force in Maine from 3,200 to 3,000, Dalphon said. Maine has the biggest concentration of MBNA workers outside of Delaware, where MBNA is headquartered.

John R. Cochran, MBNA’s chief operating officer, said the business decision has nothing to do with the quality of work in Rockland and Northport. He said that the work in those locations has been outstanding.

“With these consolidations and staff reductions complete, MBNA is focused on the future. We remain firmly committed to our other offices in Maine, and elsewhere,” he said.