PERU – Copies of a proposed merger agreement between SAD 21 and the Peru school system were given to selectmen who met Monday night.

The board is expecting additional copies that include a signed endorsement by state Education Commissioner Susan Gendron soon.

Once the signed copies are in hand, selectmen from Peru and the SAD 21 towns of Carthage, Canton, and Dixfield can agree to put the proposal before voters in referenda.

If the agreement passes, Peru will transfer its school property and become part of SAD 21 before the 2005-06 school year.

Under the proposal, cost sharing among the four towns would be calculated using a formula of 90 percent property evaluation and 10 percent pupil count. This formula would take effect July 1, 2005.

Between now and then, the Peru and SAD 21 systems would remain essentially unchanged. Peru students attending Mountain Valley or other secondary schools as of September 2004 will be allowed to graduate from those schools as planned.

When Peru residents go to the polls to vote on the merger referendum, they will also elect four members to a new school board of directors. The board will be made up of 15 directors: two from Carthage, three from Canton, six from Dixfield, and the four from Peru.

Voting power of each director would be weighted based on his or her town’s population. To form the new board, each of the three towns in SAD 21 now will drop one director either by resignation or by lot.

Although the new school board would not take full effect until July 2005, it would have some responsibilities beginning later this year. In addition to preparing a budget for the 2005-06 school year, the board would serve as building committee for the SAD 21 joint school construction project.

Under the proposed agreement, this project would include submitting an application for a state subsidized school building to be built in or near Peru over the next several years. If the Peru school is closed in favor of a new school, the vacant buildings and land would be transferred back to the town for its own use.

The differences between the SAD 21 and Peru bargaining groups are also addressed in the proposed merger agreement. SAD 21 has two collective bargaining groups, one for certified personnel (teachers, librarians and nurses), and one for support personnel.

Peru’s lone bargaining group, the Peru Teachers’ Association, would cease to exist and employees would be subject to the policies and procedures of the SAD 21 groups. The agreement states that seniority rights would remain based on date of hire for Peru employees coming to SAD 21.

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