HALLOWELL -- School committees from five towns planning to merge their schools into one regional school district meet tonight to ponder their next steps as their merger date approaches.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron plans to address the group tonight, which will include school committee members from Dresden, Farmingdale, Hallowell, Monmouth and Richmond.

The school board members will also look toward November, when voters will elect the members of the new regional board. The regional board will first be charged with hiring a superintendent to oversee the five-town school district.

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Hall-Dale Elementary School on Garden Lane.

The five-town district, dubbed the Kennebec Intra-District Schools Regional School Unit, became the second consolidating district in the state to win voter approval in June.