RUMFORD – SAD 43 Superintendent Jim Hodgkin has invited the town managers and 16 selectmen of the district’s four towns to a special meeting Wednesday night to learn about struggles and road blocks in developing the school budget and progress toward a possible administrative merger with two neighboring school districts.

The joint meeting begins at 8 p.m. in the library of Mountain Valley High School.

Hodgkin, at a Monday budget workshop, called the obstacles to the development of this year’s budget a “perfect storm.”

He said this year’s budget development is likely the toughest he has seen because of dwindling state aid and local funding, high costs for regional vocation, reductions in Medicaid payments, escalating fuel prices, and other items.

The district has also been meeting with SAD 21 of Dixfield and SAD 39 of Buckfield for months to work out a state-mandated merger.

Hodgkin will update selectmen on cost-sharing, board governance, transportation, and other cooperative ventures if a regional school unit is adopted. He said he will bring the latest news from legislators on the minimum number of students required to be enrolled in such a district, and other laws related to regional school units.