PERU – Tuesday opened with wall-to-wall children in the halls of Peru Elementary School on the first day of school.

But despite the sudden onslaught of 172 excited young voices reverberating around the playground and in classrooms, things went as expected, said Superintendent John Turner.

“All’s quiet on the western front,” he added by noon.

In other business, Turner said two area contractors had visited the school in the last two days to inspect the facility’s leaky roof.

“They both said, ‘Yeah, your roof’s bad, but it can be patched until spring and then done correctly.’ That made more sense than taking the roof off now to fix it,” he added.

At the Peru School Committee’s Aug. 19 meeting, Turner told directors that attempts were made to fix the roof over the summer, but they failed.

Past leaks have been fixed by coating the roof with tar. However, air bubbles have since formed in the tar and leakage continues into buckets placed in classrooms. Rain water also streaks down walls, especially around the ventilation system, Turner said.

Merger meeting

And, as a result of an impromptu executive session at the committee’s Aug. 19 meeting to discuss a communication from the school’s attorney, directors will meet with SAD 21’s School Board at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28, in the Peru School library.

“Some issues have come up,” about a proposed merger between the two districts, Turner said.

At the committee’s Aug. 11 meeting, directors voted to petition Maine Department of Education Commissioner Susan A. Gendron for an equitable cost-share ratio.

While both Peru and SAD 21 school boards have agreed to merge, the pre-referendum sticking point has been over the funding formula. SAD 21 won’t budge for anything less than a ratio based 100 percent on valuation.

Peru selectmen and directors want a more palatable deal for their taxpayers, who have the ultimate say on the merger proposal, which has been in the works for about a year.

Turner said the Aug. 28 meeting will delineate “where we stand right now in the merging process.”

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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