Voters in 16 communities will decide Tuesday if they want to form the Western Mountains Regional School District as part of reorganization effort by the state to reduce education costs and increase efficiency.

A 45-member planning committee made up representatives from each of the towns in SAD 9 and SAD 58, and Coplin and Highland plantations put in hours to develop a plan to merge the school systems.

The proposed new system would span three counties and serve about 3,200 students from Avon, Coplin Plantation, Chesterville, Eustis, Farmington, Highland Plantation, Industry, Kingfield, New Sharon, New Vineyard, Phillips, Strong, Temple, Vienna, Weld and Wilton.

Daylong referendums will be held Nov. 4 in each town with times varying slightly.

Under the plan a 25-member school board would be created to oversee the new system. The formula is based on population and it gives Farmington seven members, Wilton four members and the remainder of the towns one member each.

The plan calls for a consolidated central administrative staff in a central location.

It also has a cost-sharing formula to be implemented that initially starts with valuation and then phases in a formula based on valuation and residential students over six years. There is also a cost-shift identified that indicates that the SAD 9 towns will pick up substantially more in additional local costs while SAD 58 towns’ shares would decrease.

The majority of school directors in SAD 9 and SAD 58 have voted not to support the plan but did vote to submit it to the state as required by law.

If the majority of voters approve the merger Nov. 4, then individual towns would vote to elect new school board members during the spring with the new system beginning operations July 1, 2009.

If the majority of voters don’t approve the proposal, then all four school systems would be assessed a penalty that is expected to grow each year. The estimated penalty for the year 2009-10 in SAD 9 would be approximately $408,000 and in SAD 58 approximately $125,000. Penalties for Coplin and Highland plantations are estimated at more than $2,000 each.