Petitions being circulated by the Maine Coalition to Save Schools, which encourages overturning the new school consolidation law, are now available locally.

Sarah Sherman McGrail of Southport, who announced last week that she has the petition forms available for anyone willing to begin collecting signatures locally, said Monday that to date, Peter Panagore of (East) Boothbay and Sarah Logan Wilcox of Boothbay Harbor have both picked up forms. The Maine Coalition has until January to collect the 55,000-plus signatures needed to put the question to voters in a referendum next November (provided the Legislature makes no move this winter to repeal the new law, which requires that smaller schools merge and form larger school districts).

Anyone else interested in collecting signatures is encouraged to call Sarah McGrail at 633-7161. She said someone has even suggested the recycling center as a possible location to reach a lot of residents. She is circulating a petition herself on the island of Southport, and said for verification of signatures, it is prudent to restrict all of the signatures on one petition form to a single town.