POLAND – The Department of Education has listened to School Union 29 officials’ plea to stay as its town system for Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland students.

“We just received word from the Department of Education that we have been approved to stand alone as our own three-town regional school unit,” Superintendent Dennis Duquette wrote in an e-mail to town and school officials Monday afternoon.

“It is outstanding news. We now have direction. Everyone is now glad to have the opportunity to make it happen,” Duquette said.

Duquette said he expects an official letter of confirmation within a day or two.

The towns path toward school consolidation has not been easy.

From the outset, a little less than a year ago, Union 29 officials saw problems with the state’s new drive for school consolidation.

The limited field of dance partners from beyond Union 29 borders dwindled quickly so that by September the Union 29 towns were left pretty much holding out a hand to SAD 15 in Gray and New Gloucester.

The glamour of that relationship faded after a few dozen meetings that all seemed to revolve around money issues.

While Union 29 and SAD 15 met the state’s Dec. 1 deadline to file a consolidation plan, the plan was incomplete.

By February, Duquette acknowledged that consolidation talks with Gray-New Gloucester officials had come to a standstill.

“We just don’t see the cost benefit of joining together,” Duquette said.

But the talks forced the three towns to look more closely at how their union was operated and how an administrative consolidation of the three towns could save money.

By March, Union 29 officials developed a plan that they believed would substantially reduce administration costs without hurting academic programs and forwarded it to state officials.

John Hawley, Mechanic Falls town manager and member of the school consolidation planning committee, welcomed the state’s decision but noted the three towns have a “ton of work” to do.

“We spent a great deal of time with Gray-New Gloucester exploring the cost factor and not much on government. We have a lot to sort out,” Hawley said.

Hawley noted that the law allows governing structures that range from continuing with separate school boards to creating a single large school board and that the planning committee is going to have to solve ownership issues, come up with a new format to create a bargaining agreement on contracts for staffs in all three towns, and must lay the foundation for implementing the cost sharing opportunities the consolidation offers.

The school consolidation planning committee has until January 2009 to pull the plan together, submit it to state officials, and, with all three towns acting on the same day, put it to a vote.