RANGELEY — Voters here and in five plantations will be asked Tuesday, Nov. 3, if they want to approve a plan to reorganize six school departments into one regional school district effective, July 1, 2010.

Rangeley and the plantations of Dallas, Rangeley and Sandy River in Franklin County, and the plantations of Lincoln and Magalloway in Oxford County, make up School Union 37. The state exempted the union from reorganization, deeming it an isolated school, after a failed attempt to consolidate with the Bethel school system earlier this year.

However, as a group, representatives of the Rangeley area communities developed a plan to consolidate and to see if voters would approve it, Ginny Nuttall, a member of the Reorganization Planning Committee, said Monday. She is also chairwoman of the Rangeley School Board.

The new school system would give each community a voice in governing and budgeting, she said.

As it stands, the existing “structure of School Union 37 does not give any governance of our school system to community members in Dallas, Sandy River, Rangeley Plantation, Magalloway or Lincoln Plantation,” she said.

Only Rangeley representatives may vote for the school board members to guide the school, formulate the budget, negotiate contracts and approve policies related to the Rangeley Lakes Regional School, Nuttall said.

The plantations pay tuition to send students to the Rangeley school.

For more than five years, the Union 37 School Board has talked about sharing the responsibility for the school and giving a voice to all in the school community, Nuttall said.

Currently there are six school boards and, if the plan passes, there would be one unified board with 13 members and representation from each community, Nuttall said. Elections for members of the new board would occur in January 2010.

The plan calls for board members’ votes to be weighted, based on a population formula. Rangeley members’ votes would each count as 235 votes. Dallas Plantation would have two members with each vote worth 120 votes. Lincoln would have one member with a vote counted as 45 votes. Magalloway would have one member with a vote value of 36 votes. Rangeley Plantation would elect two members with each of their votes valued at 59 votes. Sandy River would also have two members with each vote counting as 45 votes.

Both Lincoln and Magalloway plantations would have the option of electing an alternate board member who may replace a primary member if that person cannot attend a scheduled meeting.

The new district would be funded, based on the state’s Essential Program and Services funding formula. If needed, any additional local allocation funds will be raised on a per pupil basis from each town in the new reorganized school district, according to the plan.

The transition plan calls for the current school board and the new school board to work together to develop a budget for the July 1, 2010, school year.

Also addressed in the proposed plan is a way to continue if the reorganization plan does not pass. The district could continue with its current union structure.

Or, if a town does not vote to join but the plan still has enough votes to pass, the town can ask to pay tuition for its students to attend the Rangeley school, according to information found on Union 37 Web site, www.rlrs.info.

The board members of the new district would determine if they will accept students from nonmember towns. A town which does not vote for the new plan will be required to engage a superintendent and do all the work of a district, including completing state forms, providing transportation and establishing a school board.

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