DIXFIELD – Superintendents of the four area school districts that have proposed an administrative partnership will meet with a potential facilitator to help work out a detailed plan for consolidation on Wednesday.

Superintendent Tom Ward told the SAD 21 board Monday night that the meeting is the first step in setting up a reorganization committee.

He said he devoted all day Monday to meeting with the district’s attorneys at Drummond Woodsum and MacMahon in Portland to discuss the state-mandated administrative consolidation.

SAD 21 has submitted a letter of intent to the Department of Education proposing partnering with SAD 43 in Rumford, SAD 44 in Bethel and Union 37 in Rangeley.

He said he was reassured that legislation will be introduced in January that would not require partnering districts with high values to pay more of the costs. That is important for SAD 21 and some other school districts because the low property value of a district, such as SAD 21, could adversely affect school taxes for higher valued partners.

“We can all move forward,” Ward told the SAD 21 board.

He said the potential partnering districts won’t vote in the January referendum, but rather in June when such legislation may be in effect.

Ward told the board that his district will likely not save any money until a new regional school unit has been in operation for a couple of years.

“This is when you learn where you can save money, by consolidating positions, for example,” he said.

But those savings could disappear.

“But we’ll probably get hit with bargaining, with very different salary levels. It’s very difficult to ask people to take cuts in pay and benefits. It will be difficult to hold the line,” he said.

SAD 21’s two neighboring districts, 43 and 44, are on the same time schedule for teacher negotiations. All three districts are scheduled to begin negotiations in two years.

A regional board comprised of representatives from the partnering districts will likely begin meeting in April.

Other questions needing answers related to district consolidation include vocational centers or regions.

Now, SADs 21, 43 and 44 send students to Region 9 in Mexico, and the Rangeley school union sends its students to Foster Vocational Center in Farmington.

“The state’s next decision will be vocational centers. I think they’ll wait to see what the RSUs (regional school units) look like. It could be a vocational center for each RSU,” Ward said.

In the meantime, though, board Vice Chairwoman Barbara Chow said the SAD 21 board has a lot of work ahead of it

“We have a lot of work to do on next year’s budget,” she said.