Changes made last week to the school consolidation law will allow some districts to move forward with their regional school units and others to propose unions that allow local school boards to keep some power, but not as much as they now have.

The vote in the House was 92-to-41 and in the Senate 22-to-12, even though there were complaints from legislators that they did not understand all the details in the bill and did not have time to review it.

Characterized as a compromise between a proposal that Gov. John Baldacci vetoed earlier this month because it allowed too much local autonomy and a plan Democratic leaders said they could accept, the bill was printed on Wednesday of last week, and finally approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor on Friday.

The bill does three key things.

It gives cities and towns forming new regional school units the flexibility to negotiate local cost-sharing agreements so costs aren't simply shifted onto the more property-rich towns. That flexibility is seen as critical when local voters are asked to approve new districts later this year.

It allows the commissioner of education to approve a form of union or other governance structures that would share central office functions and core curriculum, but allow local school boards to maintain some control over their local schools.

And, it allows the commissioner to approve districts of 1,000 students in rural parts of the state where towns cannot find enough regional partners to meet the 1,200-student minimum currently in the law.

But legislators in the most rural parts of the state were not happy.

"Once again there are last minute efforts to push us to cave in," said Rep. Robert Eaton, D-Sullivan, referring to the original school consolidation law that was passed late at night last year as part of the state budget.

"Our communities have been paying a price ever since," said Eaton, who wants to see the school consolidation law repealed.

The bill that passed was a remake of the one Baldacci vetoed earlier this month because it specifically allowed school unions to continue to exist and the administration argued that spread out decision-making over too many cities and towns.

In the compromise bill, there is no language specific to unions, but it leaves the door open by allowing "alternative organizational structures" that Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron can approve.

House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, who was pushing for the original union bill for her district on Mount Desert Island, said the compromise allows for a "union-like" structure.

Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Hancock County, went even further in describing the two bills' similarities.

"They have many of the same characteristics," Damon said. "It looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, but they're saying it's a giraffe."

Others argue the only existing union that would qualify under the bill is Mount Desert Island because it is more organized than most and its municipal members already cooperate on key areas outlined in the legislation.

"There's a little bit of a bait and switch that came into this process," said Rep. James Schatz, D-Blue Hill, speaking against the bill on the House floor last week.

It does not specifically allow a school union, he said, but rather the commissioner has the discretion of approving one. Schatz first tried to get the House to kill the bill and then amend it, but both efforts failed.

Under the language approved by the Legislature, unions or other "alternative organizational structures" approved by the commissioner would have to consolidate administration of special education, transportation and business functions and adopt a core curriculum. They also would have to plan for "consistent" collective bargaining units, although not all teachers and other personnel would have to be paid the same, at least not in the near term.

That was a key provision for some because teacher pay varies widely, with communities basing salaries on what the town thinks it can afford. Unified contracts, they argue, would dramatically push up costs.

"I think this represents significant victory for this House," said Rep. Bruce MacDonald, D-Boothbay, who described the new bill as essentially the union bill passed last month only "in slightly different words."

But Scott Porter of the Maine Small Schools Coalition said towns may be in for a surprise because even if they form unions or other so-called alternative structures, their state aid will be delivered in one lump sum to the regional board that oversees the new districts.

"People are very suspicious anyway," he said, about how school aid is divided up, and the lump-sum approach will make it worse.

The last-minute machinations to pass the bill were seen as a recognition on the part of the administration that the Legislature was not going to give in. After Baldacci vetoed the original union bill, an amendment that called for complete repeal of the school consolidation law passed the House in a 73-to-59 vote. The Senate was finally given an opportunity to vote on that repeal on Friday because some members said they needed the vote on the record to help them in their bids for re-election this November. The vote failed 17-to-17.

Rep. Lisa Miller, D-Somerville, said while unions were getting much of the attention, her district has been working diligently to form a new regional school unit by merging two existing unions and a school administrative district. Her concern was getting help with cost-sharing issues, which the bill passed last week finally addresses.

"I don't want to face them with no fixes," she said. "They've been working hard to make this work."