DIXFIELD – SAD 21 wants an administrative merger with its three neighboring districts, but there’s one major stumbling block.

Whoever merges with the Dixfield-based district will likely be slammed with hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra taxes because the four towns that make up SAD 21 are valued so much lower than those of its neighbors.

Superintendent Tom Ward sent a letter to Department of Education Commissioner Susan Gendron stating the problem. That letter also went to area legislators.

“If the state doesn’t do something, we will be a ‘doughnut hole’ and we don’t want to be,” Ward said Friday afternoon. “When everyone sends their letter, the issue will be clear. The Department of Education is already aware of it.”

A “doughnut hole” is a district or school union that doesn’t partner with other districts for a variety of reasons, including lower or higher values than its neighbors or remoteness. One of the downsides of being designated a “doughnut hole” is the need to look for greater savings in the central office.

“It’s too much for us to make up, too much for our communities,” he said of the suggestion that Dixfield, Peru, Carthage and Canton make up the difference in school taxes so that it could join with one or more of the three districts in the area that have been discussing consolidation.

“Right now (the formula) is discouraging districts to partner when they look at the figures. We’re fortunate that neighboring districts are hanging in with us. They’ve been great, but we can’t expect our neighbors to absorb the costs,” he said.

SAD 44 in Bethel, SAD 43 in Rumford and Union 37 in the Rangeley area have each filed letters of intent to join with each other and with SAD 21.

Such a partnership, under the current state formula, could cost SAD 21 partners more than $700,000.

That’s nothing SAD 43 Superintendent Jim Hodgkin wants to inflict on the residents of his district’s four member towns.

“There’s no way SAD 43 will support any combination with SAD 21 without the numbers changing. We want to consolidate with SAD 21, but the numbers don’t address the issue,” he said.

SAD 21, SAD 44 and SAD 43 have worked together for several years, sharing services, costs and other things to save each money.

“If the numbers don’t change, no one will be able to go with SAD 21,” Hodgkin said. “Everyone felt bad at the table (at an Aug. 28 four-district meeting), but no one can ask taxpayers to pay the extra.”

Besides the three core districts, Union 37 in Rangeley, and the unaffiliated towns of Hanover, Upton, Gilead, Lincoln Plantation and Magalloway Plantation have been discussing a merger.

SAD 44 Superintendent David Murphy said his board plans to hold an informational meeting with the selectmen of his district’s five towns – Bethel, Newry, Woodstock, Greenwood and Andover – on Sept. 17 to update them on the letter of intent and other parts of the state mandate for administrative mergers.

SAD 43 did that last week, and SAD 21 plans to hold a similar meeting within the next couple of weeks. Phil Richardson, superintendent of Union 37, could not be reached for comment.

The four school units plan to hire a facilitator to help them through the merging process. Once that person is hired, a Regional Planning Committee will be formed from representatives for each of the proposed partnership towns, to work out the details.

Some have speculated that the January session of the Legislature may change some of the requirements of the law calling for district administrative mergers, and at least one citizens’ initiative has been started to repeal the law.

Ward remains upbeat.

“We’re all trying to be optimistic and hope the state will make the cost sharing more equitable,” he said.