District voters will decide on the pending merger between SAD 21 and Peru on April 7.
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

DIXFIELD – A pending merger between SAD 21 and the town of Peru moved one step closer Monday night.

By a 12-1 vote with one abstention, SAD 21 directors accepted Peru’s Feb. 24 vote to join the district as a participating municipality.

A 13-1 tally approved the merger warrant, notice of election and decision to conduct a districtwide meeting referendum on April 7 to determine whether or not to admit Peru into the district.

A 13-0 vote with one abstention OK’d public hearings on the referendum to be held in the SAD 21 towns of Canton, Carthage and Dixfield. It also approved a cost-share ratio based 90 percent on valuation and 10 percent on pupil population.

Carthage Director William Skidgell was the lone dissenter in the first two votes. He abstained from voting in the third tally.

In other business, directors approved several student fund-raisers, including three Dirigo High School fund-raisers that were not on Monday night’s meeting agenda.

These are:

• A T.W. Kelly Dirigo Middle School seventh-grade bottle drive on April 17. Money goes toward the group’s eighth-grade class trip.

• A Dirigo Middle School eighth-grade car wash on May 8, with money going toward their class trip.

• A Dirigo High School junior class bottle drive from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, March 13, to benefit the junior prom.

• A Dirigo High School Ecology Club T-Shirt Fund-raiser. Junior and senior members of the club are to sell an environmental T-shirt from March 1 through 12.

• A dinner to be served by the high school’s sophomore class on Saturday, March 27, to raise money for the class account.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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