RUMFORD – The SAD 43 board will launch tentative plans for merging with one or more area districts Monday night when it meets with Department of Education-trained facilitator Bob Connors.

Connors will listen to concerns and comments from the board and help begin the reorganization process.

SAD 21 Superintendent Tom Ward said his board will meet with Connors at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9 at Dirigo High School in Dixfield. David Murphy, superintendent of SAD 44, said Connors will attend his board meeting at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at Telstar Regional High School.

Phil Richardson, superintendent of Union 37 in Rangeley, said the school committees of the five plantations and one town in his union will meet at 6 p.m. Oct. 15 at Rangeley Regional High School. He said, too, that most of the representatives for the Regional Planning Committee from his union have been chosen.

In addition to Connors, selectmen and town managers from SAD 43’s four member towns of Rumford, Mexico, Roxbury and Byron, and the Hanover School Committee have also been invited to Monday’s board meeting.

SADs 21, 43 and 44 will soon select representatives to the Regional Planning Committee. According to the state mandate for consolidation, a school board, selectman and community member from each town must sit on the planning committee.

Also on Monday’s agenda, the SAD 43 board is expected to take action on the cooperative agreement with the Region 9 School of Applied Technology and on a first reading of a policy governing board member conflict of interest.

They will also authorize borrowing about $750,000 from the Maine Bond Bank for a variety of capital projects approved by voters. Reports will be made by special services director Paula Leavitt and curriculum coordinator Gloria Jenkins.