As the great school district dance draws near, some larger area districts have announced they would rather go stag.

Financially speaking, it’s just more practical, officials say.

All Maine school districts are required to file a notice of intent by the end of the month with the state Department of Education indicating which districts – if any – they are choosing to merge with. The notification is required by a measure enacted by the Legislature in January.

The department so far has received 73 notices from around the state.

“We’re turning out numbers for all of these units right now,” said David Connerty-Marin, director of communications for the Department of Education. “We provide the initial data we have for analysis, then give it to them to provide additional numbers they have at the local level and then to draw conclusions on it.”

Districts with fewer than 2,500 students would be forced to consolidate with others in an effort to reduce administrative overhead. That number was lowered in areas where 2,500 wouldn’t geographically make sense.

The Lewiston, Auburn and Oxford Hills school districts are well over this benchmark, but according to the law, they still are required to undertake “due diligence” in talking to neighbors to determine if a merger is feasible.

So far they haven’t found a compatible option.

Connerty-Marin said the department will review their analyses in coming weeks.

“We’ll need to look at the financial analysis that they’ve done to see if it aligns correctly,” he said. “If it hasn’t, then we’ll work with them to help them understand.”

For smaller districts, including SAD 39, which covers the towns of Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner, it’s back to the drawing board. They had proceeded with the understanding that a merger with SAD 17 – Oxford Hills – was a likelihood. That option fell through, and SAD 39 Superintendent Richard Colpitts said district officials will talk with neighboring districts in the coming days.

One critical factor for administrators as they pursue partnerships is Essential Programs and Services. In larger districts, such as Oxford Hills, Essential Programs and Services are spread out over more taxpayers. Oxford Hills is $500,000 below the state target for spending on EPS, SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman said.

“That number is the number that a state says you need to spend on all these different activities, whether it’s guidance, etc., in order to fully implement the Maine Learning Results,” Eastman said.

In smaller districts, such as SAD 39, taxpayers pay more for EPS. SAD 39 spends $600,000 above the state target.

“The smaller districts tend to be higher because they have administrative costs and other costs that are spread over fewer students,” Eastman said. “The bottom line is that they are going to be above the EPS matrix target.”

So if the districts were to merge, this amount would be redistributed. In the end, taxpayers from the larger districts would end up paying more.

Both the Auburn and Oxford Hills school districts looked at different options for various surrounding districts.

“We looked at every scenario we could think of to see if there was any change in the pattern of the numbers,” Eastman said. “There wasn’t.”

Auburn had similar findings in looking at EPS data, interim Superintendent Tom Morrill said.

“That’s not even taking into consideration the contractual discrepancies that exist between the different districts,” Morrill said. “The inequities would be even more significant if you began to factor in these differences.”