School boards that would become a regional school unit of 27 mostly Northern Penobscot County towns under the state’s massive education consolidation effort are considering asking Education Commissioner Susan Gendron to break the proposed RSU 17 into at least two parts.

Saying the Rhode Island-sized district would be too big and that assuring fairness of representation for all member towns would be too difficult, the committee trying to create RSU 17 is polling school boards about whether to float the idea by Gendron.

“All have to agree to it,” Millinocket School Committee member Arthur Hopkins said Wednesday. “If one board decides not to, the idea dies.”

The Millinocket School Committee voted Tuesday night to agree to consider seeking the reduction, Hopkins said.

SADs 30, 31 and 67; Unions 110 and 113; the communities of Greenbush, Lowell, Seboeis Plantation and Grand Falls Township in Penobscot County; Bancroft and Glenwood Plantation in Aroostook County; and Medford in Piscataquis County must also agree.

The SAD 31 board of directors was meeting Wednesday night at Penobscot Valley High School in Howland to consider the matter, among other things.

Answers must be ready by the consolidation committee’s 6 p.m. meeting on Tuesday at Region III-Northern Penobscot Tech in Lincoln, SAD 67 Superintendent Michael Marcinkus said.

If they are ready and unanimous, facilitator Sandra Bernstein will write the letter to Gendron the next day, Marcinkus said. Bernstein could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Consolidation committee members almost unanimously agreed to pursue the reduction during a meeting at Region III on Jan. 7. One minority dissenter, Beth Turner of Burlington, said she found the majority position difficult to accept.

“Their rationale is that they keep saying that the district is too big. They keep talking about kids not traveling that far, but I stay on topic,” Turner said.

The district’s administrative offices, Turner said, would need a central location such as Lincoln or Howland, which might be a lengthy trip for some people, but school closings that would force students and parents to commute long distances are not being considered.

“They are not talking about students or parents making that commute,” she said. “Most parents don’t go to an administrator’s office. They stick with the principal’s [office].”

Hopkins disagreed. Millinocket to Lincoln is about 35 miles, and traveling 70 miles roundtrip daily – for buses or students attending after-school activities – would be quite expensive for most parents, given the high cost of fuel, he said.

Committee members representing small towns also fear losing their voices to the wishes of larger communities, Marcinkus said.

But asking Gendron for the reduction might be academic, Marcinkus and Turner said. State officials rejected earlier attempts to forge smaller RSUs within RSU 17, they said.

“I think it’s too late,” Turner said. “This just seems to derail the work that we’ve done so far, or the work we might get done.”

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