CANTON – All 44 Canton Elementary School pupils may be attending Peru Elementary School in the fall.
At a special meeting Thursday night, in a nonbinding poll, parents voted 14-5 to make the change, said Kathy Richard, principal of Dixfield and Canton elementary schools.
The final decision will be made by the SAD 21 board at a meeting set for May 23. If the board decides to move the youngsters, then the multiyear process of closing the 75-year-old Canton school will begin.
Parents at a meeting on May 4 had been given several options for their children: keeping the small school open, sending some of the school’s youngsters to Peru, or sending all of them there.
Administration and some parents had expressed concerns that the small class sizes at the school could reduce socialization, diversity and competitiveness. If the school stays open, and with only five kindergartners expected in the fall of 2005, Richard had said that multigrade classrooms would likely be established.
Other parents had expressed concern about the amount of time their children would spend riding a bus to the Peru school.
SAD 21 Superintendent Tom Ward had said that the possibility of sending Canton youngsters to Peru was not prompted by monetary savings, although the move would save the district between $75,000 and $80,000. He added that all Canton teachers and support staff would retain positions within the district. Canton Elementary School is attended by pupils in kindergarten through grade 4 and had once been the town’s high school.
The Peru school is also slated to close once a new elementary school is built on Route 108 in late 2007 or early 2008.
Peru Elementary, which had operated independently as a kindergarten-through-grade-8 school for many years and currently has a pupil population of about 180, voted to join neighboring SAD 21 last year.
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