TREMONT — School officials have scheduled forums to get input on whether to proceed with consolidating the K-8 school here with its counterpart in neighboring Southwest Harbor.

The first forum, for residents of Tremont, is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, Jan. 8, in the Tremont Community Center. Dianne Waters, principal of the Tremont Consolidated School, is expected to lead the discussion.

A second forum is set for next Wednesday, Jan. 14, at the Pemetic Elementary School in Southwest Harbor, also at 7 p.m. That forum, for Southwest Harbor residents, is to be held in either the school gymnasium or library.

Last year, school committees in Tremont and Southwest Harbor voted to explore the possibility of full or partial consolidation, citing as their motivation increasing costs and declining enrollment at both schools. According to Union 98 superintendent Rob Liebow, the forums have been scheduled to gauge community interest in pursuing the issue formally.

Three possible scenarios for consolidation are to be discussed, Mr. Liebow said.

One scenario would be to close one of the buildings and have students from both towns attend the open school. The Pemetic school, which is larger than the Tremont school, would be the logical choice to remain open. That scenario would result in the greatest savings but is sure to generate the most controversy.

“That’s probably the least likely,” Mr. Liebow said. A school plays an important role in defining what makes a community, he explained. “You would lose your community center.”

Closing a school also raises some interesting questions, Mr. Liebow said. What if enrollment was to go back up? And what happens to the closed school building? Could it be used for other purposes? These questions need to be addressed before going forward, he said.

A second scenario is to have students in kindergarten through the fourth grade attend one school and make the other a middle school for students in grades five through eight. There would be some cost-savings in this approach but the major advantage could be from an educational standpoint, Mr. Liebow said. Most likely there would be two classes for each grade, allowing educators to place students in a classroom appropriate to their learning style.

The third scenario to be discussed is sending fifth through eighth-grade students from Tremont to the Pemetic school. Financially, this would primarily benefit Southwest Harbor.

“I’m not sure there’s a whole lot of savings there for Tremont,” Mr. Liebow said. Tremont would have to keep its school operating while paying tuition to Southwest Harbor for its middle school students.

If the two communities direct school officials to go forward with one of the scenarios, consolidation most likely wouldn’t occur until the 2010-2011 school year.

“I don’t think any of those models would happen next fall,” Mr. Liebow said.

Consolidation would require changing the current school structure, perhaps by forming a joint Tremont-Southwest Harbor school district, Mr. Liebow said.

Ms. Waters and Diane Helprin, principal of the Pemetic school, both declined to comment on which scenario they thought would be most beneficial, saying consolidation is a decision for residents, not school officials.

“There are pros and cons to each model,” Ms. Waters said.

Ms. Helprin was more specific.

“I think consolidation is always good educationally because you can offer more [to the students],” she said.

The Tremont school has a student population of about 130, down from 200 students in 2000. About 161 students attend the Pemetic school, which is designed to accommodate 300.

School officials tentatively have scheduled a third forum for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the Tremont Community Center. That forum would be a joint meeting for residents of both towns and held only if there is significant interest in consolidation generated by the separate town forums.