PORTLAND – School superintendents face a deadline of month’s end for signing onto an interim program that would expand Maine’s laptop computer program into many high schools this fall.

Enough schools must agree to participate by July 30 to account for 8,400 computers – the minimum threshold for Apple Computer Corp. to agree to the same low price for laptops in Maine’s 241 public middle schools.

“If that number is reached, then the program can go forward on the state-coordinated plan, much like in the middle schools,” said Tony Sprague, project director of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative in Augusta.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron has said 58 superintendents have indicated interest, but they must put it in writing. Sprague said state officials are optimistic that the threshold will be reached.

The formal proposal put forth by Gendron in a letter to superintendents last week represents the Baldacci administration’s last-ditch proposal for getting laptops into at least some of Maine’s 119 public high schools this fall. Gendron has said she will ask the Legislature next year to fully implement the program in all public high schools.

The state’s first-in-the-nation program that provided Apple iBook computers to more than 30,000 middle school pupils and teachers was originally envisioned as expanding seamlessly into high schools.

But plans to expand the program were left in disarray after the Baldacci administration decided not to press the issue during a budget crisis last spring. State lawmakers adjourned without action.

Deputy Education Commissioner Patrick Phillips said the difference this January is that lawmakers will have a better idea of the fiscal landscape after the November vote on a tax cap referendum.

“The fiscal ability of state government will be more clear. We hope it will be clear and positive as opposed to clear and discouraging,” he said.

For now, the interim plan lets school districts apply for money from a state renovation fund to install wireless networks. Gendron has suggested using federal funds to avoid out-of-pocket costs this year.

The annual fee would be $300 per laptop for four years. That cost includes servers and repairs from Apple, and Apple also would provide training and assist in installing the wireless networks that link the computers.

Those computers could be in students’ hands this October, officials say.

The ultimate goal continues to be for Baldacci to press for full funding of laptops in all public high schools in 2005-06.

Several large school districts including Portland and Bangor already have said they don’t have the money for the interim plan.

Bangor Superintendent Robert Ervin said he can’t afford to foot the bill for Bangor High School, and he said it doesn’t make sense to shift federal dollars already dedicated to other needs to fill the void.

With no assurance of state dollars down the road, Ervin said he had no choice but to opt out of interim program.

“Given full state support, we would certainly entertain [the idea]. But I’m faced with the same problems as everyone else,” Ervin said from Bangor. “I’ve got to be honest with my taxpayers.”