LIVERMORE FALLS – Mona Baker is a troubleshooter, a communicator and one busy woman keeping 11 superintendents moving forward working together to share services, programs and other resources.

The ultimate goal is to keep more money in classrooms.

The retired educator from Winthrop worked with students with severe disabilities and as a state education consultant. She is the executive director of Western Maine Educational Collaborative Inc. based in Livermore Falls. The organization was established as a legal nonprofit corporation after two years of intense work and commitment by superintendents around the region and incorporated in August.

Baker is trying to make the group’s ideas become a reality.

The organization represents 11 school systems in 33 communities spanning four counties. Those systems serve nearly 13,000 students educated by about 1,500 staff members in 45 schools.

Baker was hired as the director in August at a salary of $35,000 for 132 days annually in a contract. She admits to working more than that.

School systems from Buckfield to Bethel to Rangeley to Winthrop pay $2 per student to belong to the collaborative. The group is also seeking grants and other funding sources to meet the anticipated $50,000 to $60,000 annual budget.

“Where the collaborative is still very much in its infancy, my work is really about building the foundations and underpinnings of the collaboration, and so that’s what I’ve spent the first couple months doing,” Baker said.

That work includes getting a couple of core initiatives off the ground while simultaneously putting together the necessary structure, such as getting a Web site up and running, working with a firm in India, she said.

Baker has also done research, interviews and gathered data, which led to a five-year plan for the future work of the collaborative.

The group’s mission and purpose is to “build a sustainable regional collaborative that meets the needs of the organization while also meeting the needs of the individual members.”

Those involved want to improve student performance by working together to ensure effective and efficient use of resources, including human, fiscal and technological.

Among the programs under way is a yearlong third-through-eighth-grade literacy initiative involving five of the 11 school systems.

“Research has shown us that we have not in schools taught kids how to read beyond the third grade,” Baker said.

About 100 teachers and administrators from Jay, Winthrop, SAD 9 in Franklin County, SAD 36 in Androscoggin County and SAD 43 in Oxford County are taking part in a series of training opportunities to continue to teach reading and literacy up through grade eight, she said.

“How you read a nonfiction science book is different than how you read a fiction book like Harry Potter,” she said.

This is one example of school leaders coming together to save money, she said.

It’s much cheaper for the collaborative to contract with Darlene Bassett of Best Practices International than for each individual school district to contract with her, Baker said.

“The goal is for every dollar we can save in administration and buying things is a $1 more we can put back into the classroom,” Baker said.

Superintendents are also taking advantage of the electronic market place by soliciting e-bids through getbestbid.com that uses leading edge technology and industry best practices to bring together buyers and sellers online, she said.

Baker plans to develop and nurture partnerships with other organizations and businesses and anyone else interested.

“Collaboration is the best way for us to go,” she said. “We want this to be a solid part of the communities.”