RUMFORD – The SAD 43 board voted unanimously this week to submit a preliminary plan that says four area districts are working toward consolidating administrations.

Linda Westleigh, chairwoman of the SAD 43 board and a member of the finance subcommittee of the Regional Planning Committee, said Wednesday that subcommittees have met once, elected chairmen, and will likely meet again.

SAD 43 Superintendent Jim Hodgkin had said earlier that SADs 43, 21 and 44, and Union 37, will submit information to the state to meet its deadline of Dec. 1. That information includes the establishment of subcommittees to work on specific aspects of a reorganization plan.

At the four-district meeting earlier this month, subcommittees charged with exploring K-12 educational programming, districtwide services, finances, administration and leadership, and governance of a new mega-district were established and chairmen elected.

A meeting of the full Regional Planning Committee is scheduled for Dec. 5 at Mountain Valley High School. At that meeting, a chairman of the entire committee will be chosen.

The boards of SAD 21 in Dixfield and SAD 44 in Bethel are expected to act on the same plan when they meet Monday.

Hodgkin said once the preliminary plans are submitted to the state Department of Education, the department will decide by Dec. 15 whether to approve them.

The four area districts will then have until March to work out a detailed plan for consolidation.