AUGUSTA — An effort to gather signatures on a petition to overturn the state’s school district consolidation law will go on, despite changes made to the law by the Legislature this year.

Skip Greenlaw, chairman of the Maine Coalition to Save Schools, announced in a press release that legal counsel has advised that they continue to get signatures.

“We are very pleased with the recommendation that we do not have to initiate a new petition,” he said in prepared remarks. “The response from coalition members was one of relief that we did not have to start the process over and that we can finish the job we started last fall.”

The coalition needs 55,087 signatures on the petition to repeal the law. So far, they have collected an estimated 40,000 signatures, and will back out to get more at polling locations on June 10.