MONACA, Pa. – Pennsylvania will be shedding a school district by the end of this school year – a significant development even after years of nationwide efforts to nudge and sometimes force school systems to share services or merge.

The merger unfolding between two western Pennsylvania public school systems with sharply declining enrollments is the state’s first district consolidation in at least 20 years, and most notably, its first voluntary one.

Officials say the move will save money and improve educational offerings, yet parents in both districts worry that some losses will accompany any gains. In any case, the consolidation is expected to be closely watched.

The willingness of two school districts to dissolve boundary lines is rare in states where local school board control is sacrosanct and school traditions that define a community are deeply ingrained. In recent years, at least a few states have tried to force mergers, with mixed results.

Yet the marriage of the Center Area and Monaca school districts northwest of Pittsburgh is part of a gradual, ongoing national progression toward fewer districts educating public school students.

Over roughly the last two decades, the number of school districts nationwide has declined 10 percent, from 15,714 in 1985-86 to 14,166 in 2005-06, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

With local school boards facing spiraling prices for fuel, employee health insurance and other operating costs – and opposition to increases in property taxes that largely pay for them – the idea of consolidating to save money is becoming an increasingly common discussion topic.

“These conversations are going to be inevitable,” said Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak, who has been gently encouraging Pennsylvania’s smallest rural school districts to at least consider merging or sharing services. “School districts are realizing that the cost of doing business won’t get any cheaper.”

Proponents say small district mergers can streamline administrative costs and achieve economies of scale. But even in the most difficult economic times, resistance can be strong.

The arguments against consolidation aren’t just rooted in nostalgia for the old alma mater or skepticism about any promised savings. Critics also question whether educational quality will improve under larger school enrollments that mergers inevitably produce.

“It’s not that consolidation is bad, but big schools are bad, and the notion that you can make education better by making schools bigger is just plumb wrong,” said Marty Strange, policy director of the Rural School and Community Trust, based in Arlington, Va.

Enrollments in Monaca, a borough of about 6,000 people along the Ohio River, and in Center Area, which consists of two neighboring townships, have dropped steadily along with the region’s population following the steel industry’s decline.

Monaca superintendent Michael Thomas has seen his district’s enrollment decrease from 900 to 672 students during his 11-year tenure, while Center Area has lost 175 students during the five years Daniel J. Matsook has been superintendent.

With fewer students, the menu of academic choices becomes limited. Monaca does not offer Advanced Placement classes, no mathematics beyond calculus and no science beyond physics, and Center Area cannot afford to continue offering courses that typically have 10 or fewer students. The merger is expected to produce about $1.5 million a year in combined savings for the districts.

“It is not financially responsible to offer courses that have three, four, five students in them,” Matsook said.

Some states have forced the issue by mandating the consolidation of all districts, or ones that fall below a certain enrollment threshold.

In Maine, Gov. John Baldacci’s administration is overseeing a plan to consolidate the state’s 290 school districts into 80.

A 2007 Maine state law ordered the reorganizations, and although local voters get the final say, a “no” vote will reduce state aid.

Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said the state had to take a hard line after its earlier efforts to ease the local property-tax burden with a greater infusion of state money failed. The plan is expected to save the state more than $36 million in the first year, she said.

“Districts were incentivized to do business differently, and they chose not to,” Gendron said.

Opposition to the mandate has fueled a petition drive to overturn the law.

“There has been zero … discussion about the impact on education quality throughout this whole debate,” said Skip Greenlaw, a former state lawmaker leading the petition drive.

In Nebraska, a federal lawsuit was filed over a 2005 state law that forced elementary-only school districts, located mostly in rural areas, to combine with K-12 districts.

A federal appeals panel in April upheld a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit, but it has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Mike Nolles, who leads a group dedicated to preserving the small schools and whose wife is one of the plaintiffs.

The one-room school that Nolles’ 12-year-old daughter attends in north-central Nebraska is still operating, but the loss of local control has discouraged parental involvement, he said. Before consolidation, parents used to help with tasks such as maintaining playground equipment and ordering supplies.

“The teacher told my wife last evening, ‘Parents don’t even come to the school building anymore,”‘ Nolles said.

Arkansas lawmakers passed legislation in 2004 requiring the mergers of school districts with fewer than 350 students as part of a broader reform effort. That effort was prompted by a state Supreme Court ruling that declared the state’s school funding system unconstitutional.

The law has reduced the number of districts from 311 to 245. In most cases, districts made the transition successfully, said Dan Farley, executive director of the Arkansas School Boards Association.

One downfall, however, was a decline in the numbers of black school board members and administrators due to changes in racial demographics, Farley said.

“I don’t think it was a deliberate thing, but it was an unforeseen consequence,” Farley said.

The last major state-ordered consolidation of Pennsylvania school districts occurred in the 1960s, when the state had more than 2,000 districts. By the 1980s, the number was reduced to 501.

With the consolidation under way in Monaca, the number will edge down to 500.

Zahorchak, Pennsylvania’s education secretary, says his philosophy emphasizes encouraging small districts to pool resources in some way to spend their money efficiently, but to keep their enrollments manageable.

“Let’s buy big, and deliver small,” he said.

The merger plan for Center Area and Monaca calls for grades K-5 to consolidate in the 2009-10, with grades 6-12 following in 2010-11. The combined district will enroll about 2,600 students.

Residents are eyeing the change with a mixture of hope and anxiety.

Estee Cron, 31, who has three children in Monaca’s elementary schools, worries that her community’s student athletes won’t have a chance to compete on teams in a larger district.

“We’ll lose our football team,” said Cron, a municipal parking officer.

Monaca homemaker Laura Gray favors the merger, even though her children don’t. Gray’s daughter, a sophomore, would be affected by the consolidation; her son will graduate in the spring.

“If they had told me when I was going to high school (the districts were going to merge), I would have said, ‘No way. I am staying right here,”‘ Gray said. “But I think it’s a good thing. I think it’ll be better for both schools.”

Even though the merger is voluntary, Thomas, the Monaca superintendent, concedes many challenges lie ahead on the way to creating a new school district. Several committees have been formed to sort out issues such as picking a new school mascot, school colors and a new district name.

“There are a lot of traditions tied to schools and dealing with that is difficult,” Thomas said. “There has never been a voluntary merger in Pennsylvania. There is no blueprint for us to follow.”

Associated Press writer Martha Raffaele reported from Harrisburg.