WINTHROP — Representatives from the school department will meet Monday with Monmouth school officials to talk about the possibility of Monmouth joining Alternative Organization Structure 97.

Outgoing school board Chairman John Mitchell remains hopeful that the Monmouth school district can join AOS 97, which includes Winthrop and Fayette schools.

At Wednesday night’s school board meeting, Mitchell announced that representatives from Winthrop will meet with counterparts in Monmouth for an “information-seeking evening” regarding the possibility of consolidation.

“We’re only four miles apart,” Mitchell said. “It only makes sense that we can share services and resources.”

Monmouth is part of RSU 2, along with Dresden, Farmingdale, Hallowell and Richmond.

Gary Rosenthal, the recently appointed superintendent of AOS 97, pointed to a potential hurdle in any reorganization. He said state law requires a majority vote to consolidate. “It takes three-quarters to deconsolidate,” he said.

Legislation could be introduced in January that would change the law, Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal argued that a move toward consolidation is further supported by the fact that the two neighboring high schools closely match each other in achievement. According to the Department of Education, Rosenthal said, Monmouth’s high school is ranked as the 19th best in the state overall, followed by Winthrop at 20th.

In an AOS, communities retain their school board and schools, but share administrative duties, including a superintendent.

In other business Wednesday, Rosenthal noted that spending for the first quarter of the fiscal year is “a little bit below what could be anticipated.”

Looking forward to next year’s budgeting process, Rosenthal expressed the hope to have a budgetary framework in place by February.

On the plus side, the district expects to receive around $300,000 in additional money from the state next year.

On the minus side, he noted, there are “some real problems right now” with the special education budget, adding that the district has picked up two additional out-of-district students, one costing $40,000 and the other $45,000.

The meeting took a livelier turn when Karen Criss, principal of the high and middle schools, expressed concern about declining dress standards in general and what some girls are wearing to school-sponsored dances in particular. “Homemade sausage in sausage casings” she said, describing girls’ strapless dresses that are “too tight, too short, and too low.”

“And,” she added, “they’re grinding.”

Although administrators have had some success in controlling the grinding problem — last year they imposed a list of acceptable dance moves that would tone down the sexually suggestive dancing — the problem of inappropriate dress persists. “It’s out of control,” she said. “It’s an issue during the school day as well.”

Margy Knight, a Winthrop teacher, noted that it’s not just Winthrop schools that are having this problem. “Other schools just aren’t having dances,” she said.

“Teachers are hired to teach, not to monitor dress codes,” she added.

The school board expressed broad support for the efforts of administrators to address the problem.

“The board will back you up,” said Mitchell. “It’s not right. It’s distracting.”

Among other initiatives, Criss said, Winthrop’s student council has been asked to come up with its own ideas for effective enforcement. The dress code itself is being overhauled.

There was broad agreement among the board members, administrators and teachers present that parents need to be more supportive of dress requirements.

“When I call parents, I don’t get much support,” Criss said.

“How do you get to the parents?” asked Mitchell, one of the few members of the all-male board who consistently wears a tie to meetings. “That’s where the whole problem is.”

In other business the school board:

* listened to reports from board members who attended the Maine School Management Association’s fall conference in Augusta;

* voted 5-0 on second reading to approve updates to policies governing supervision and evaluation of professional staff;

* voted 5-0 on first reading to approve changes to policies governing student education records, with the understanding that any reservations about the exact wording of the new policy are yet to be addressed;

* heard a presentation regarding a new parent notification system that will save around $1,000 and require far less data base maintenance than the current system.