DIXFIELD – The SAD 21 board overwhelmingly voted to name the school being built in Peru the Dirigo Elementary School.

The name is consistent with the district’s other two schools, Dirigo High School and Thomas W. Kelly Dirigo Middle School, Superintendent Tom Ward said.

“This doesn’t stop the community from putting a name in front of it like TWKDMS,” he said.

The $14 million school is due to open in August. It will replace Peru Elementary School and Dixfield Elementary School. The Peru school will be turned back to the town; the Dixfield school will serve as the central office and student overflow from the neighboring high school, among other uses.

Elementary Principal Kathy Richard said with the new school named, she will be able to develop the mascot, which may be cougar cubs, since the high school’s mascot is a cougar. Having a name will also make it easier to send correspondence with an identifiable school name.

And Ward said a sign must be purchased soon, as well.

He said names have been requested for the new school’s library and for one of the athletic fields. The field, he said, would also receive a sizable donation if named as requested. He declined to identify the names put forward.

In other matters, the board voted to ask high school teachers to continue covering morning duties from 7:30 to 7:50 a.m.

Ward said a study committee was formed a few months ago to address concerns by some teachers about the matter. The study committee report recommended that high school teachers be paid for those 20 minutes.

“I feel this would be opening a can of worms,” Dixfield representative Barbara Chow said.

“We don’t have a time clock with punching in and punching out, but flexibility,” said Bruce Ross, another Dixfield representative. “If the elementary school and the middle school do this, is the high school contract different?”

Ward said he didn’t believe the high school teachers realized that the elementary and middle school teachers started the day at 7:30 a.m.

“In light of budget constraints, I recommend asking the high school teachers to continue doing morning duties,” Ward said.

High school Principal Dan Hart said many of the staff come in early and stay late.

“This came in as equity,” he said.