'Blended' approach gains favor

Morning Sentinel, May 5, 2007

(excerpt) Farrington's plan confines the 2,500 minimum student population for school units to Cumberland and York counties only. The remainder of the state would comply with a 1,200 minimum.

Porter, superintendent of School Union 102 in Machias and of the East Machias Municipal School District, points out that the rural caucus has clout.

"As a group, they're a pretty good-sized force," he said. "You need a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate to get this through."

But Sen. S. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, cast doubt on the viability of the blended plan.

"It's just people trying to gin up resistance to consolidation," said Mills, a member of the Education Committee who represents a rural district. "It doesn't make anybody do anything."

Farrington's proposal must pass muster with Appropriations before going to the full House and Senate.

"He's gotten some attention from some members of the rural caucus -- not all of them," Mills said.

Porter said that the blended plan also offers locals an opt-out on consolidation, albeit with a "financial stick," that cuts administrative costs.

"Local control stays in place," he said. "It takes a local vote to make it happen."