School board members from each of the towns that will make up the new regional school unit gathered in Hancock Monday night for the first time since the consolidation vote last week. Union 96 Superintendent Bill Webster (at rear, red necktie) addresses the gathering.—STAFF PHOTO BY JACQUELINE WEAVER

RSU 24 also has an interim board, which voted Monday night to immediately begin advertising for a superintendent to oversee the new entity.

Voters will elect a 14-member board Feb. 12 to oversee two high schools, a vocational center and nine elementary schools.

“The applications for superintendent will be sitting there waiting for them,” said Harvey Kelly, newly appointed to assist Interim Secretary Omar Norton.

School Union 96 Superintendent Bill Webster said he will be applying for the position.

Nomination papers for aspiring board members are available at local town offices and are due back by Jan. 5 with a minimum of 25 signatures.

Absentee ballots must be available one month before the election.

Voters in Eastbrook, Ellsworth, Franklin, Gouldsboro, Hancock, Lamoine, Mariaville, Sorrento, Steuben, Sullivan Waltham and Winter Harbor on Dec. 9 approved a plan to consolidate their schools.

The town of Otis voted 57-37 against the plan, which had been mandated by the state. No one is sure what the final outcome might be.

“I posed the question to the state — Is a reconsideration vote legal? — and we have no answer,” said Norton, the acting School Union 92 superintendent. “If the state says it’s legal, the next question to the town is, do you want one?”

Donna Dunn, chairman of the Board of Selectmen in Otis, said there will be no meetings on the issue until after the holidays.

The state Department of Education chose the name for the new unit based on the numerical order in which the consolidation plans were approved.

School board members from each of the towns met Monday night for the first time since the consolidation vote last week and moved through their agenda in less than one hour.

In addition to setting a date for the board’s election, they drew lots to decide the length of terms for RSU members and selected an interim RSU board.

The terms initially will be staggered.

The RSU board members from Sullivan, Franklin and Sorrento will serve one year.

The members from Mariaville, Waltham, Gouldsboro and Hancock will serve two years.

The members from Steuben, Winter Harbor, Eastbrook and Lamoine members will serve three years.

Since Ellsworth will have three members on the board, one will serve for one year, one for two years and one for three years.

The interim board selected includes Julie Curtis of Eastbrook; Alice Dow, Leigh Guildford, and Dick Gray, Ellsworth; Jenna Shorey, Franklin; Peter McKenzie, Gouldsboro; Richard Malaby, Hancock; Christina Maguire-Harding, Lamoine; Kim McDonough, Mariaville; Dori Comer, Sorrento; Geoff Zentz, Steuben; Michael Pinkham, Sullivan; Charlotte Jordan, Waltham, and Jeff Alley Jr., Winter Harbor.

The new unit will have one superintendent instead of the current three, and a new deputy superintendent.

The superintendent’s position will be advertised on the Maine School Management Web site, as well as on ServingSchools.com.

Beyond naming an interim chairman, Dick Gray of Ellsworth, and initiating the superintendent’s search, the board decided to postpone action on other items on the agenda.

These items included initiating the 2009-2010 budget process, initiating drafting of the 2009-2010 school calendar and scheduling the next meeting.