AUGUSTA -- State Board of Education members Wednesday will consider selecting a Sanford High School proposal as the pilot project for a new high school model in Maine.

The selection would put the Sanford school on the fast track to receive funds for construction of a high school campus that also offers technical and higher education programs.

Legislators unanimously approved a bill in April 2008 authorizing school construction funds specifically for regional projects that include high schools, career education centers and college-level programs on a single campus. The legislation makes the pot of construction money available when a new round of school construction money is approved.

The bill, sponsored by then-Rep. Christopher Rector, R-Thomaston, authorizes state officials to choose a pilot regional high school project and grant it earlier construction funding.

Rector, now a state senator, sponsored the bill in part to support an initiative in his Midcoast district -- known as Many Flags/One Campus -- that would merge Rockland District High School and Georges Valley High School in Thomaston. Technical education and university-level classes would be available on the merged high school's campus.

Officials planning the Midcoast project and those crafting the Sanford project applied to have their proposals designated the pilot projects.

A Department of Education team awarded the Sanford project a higher score, and Education Commissioner Susan Gendron is recommending that Board of Education members select the southern Maine proposal as the pilot project.