AUGUSTA -- The association representing Maine's school boards has endorsed an effort that calls for a repeal of the state's school-district consolidation law.

Maine School Boards Association members passed a resolution at their fall conference Oct. 23 and 24 backing a coalition's effort to land a repeal question before voters in November 2009. The group's members are also calling for legislators to repeal the consolidation mandate during their winter session, a move that would render the ballot question unnecessary.

The resolution reaffirms the association's support for the repeal effort, which members voiced in the fall of 2007.

This year, members took up the resolution approximately a week after Maine Coalition to Save Schools members said they submitted more than 61,000 signatures to the Secretary of State's office in hopes of forcing the 2009 ballot question.

The resolution also came less than two weeks before Tuesday voting, when residents in 18 different regions across the state will weigh in on local plans for rearranging their school districts.

"The basic reason, I think, is the frustration on the part of many school boards across the state with the law, the way it was enacted," said Maine School Boards Association Executive Director Dale Douglass. "The conclusion that many of these boards have drawn (is) that savings are not going to be part of the equation for several years, if then."