RUMFORD – SAD 43’s emergency response plan will be tested next week when several law enforcement agencies converge on Mountain Valley Middle School to train for an emergency involving an active gunman on school property.

Sirens and gunshots will be heard, but it will all be in the name of being prepared if the real thing should ever happen.

Superintendent Jim Hodgkin told the SAD 43 board Monday night that the training will begin after all students have left for the day, sometime around 3:30 p.m., on Monday, Feb. 9.

“We have our crisis plans. This is part of crisis response. This is a different world now. We want to be prepared,” he said.

Taking part in the training will be the Rumford, Mexico and Dixfield police departments, the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, and a tactical team from the South Portland Police Department.

Mountain Valley High School Assistant Principal Chris Decker has led a team in the development of the plan during the past year.

Hodgkin said a similar training exercise took place at the high school a couple of years ago.

In other matters at Monday’s meeting, Hodgkin said the preparation of the 2009-2010 operating budget will begin.

The SAD 43 board will develop its budget through March, then the newly formed Western Foothills School District will finish it.

Residents of all three districts, and the unaffiliated town of Hanover, will then vote on a budget that will operate all three districts.

Hodgkin said a budget validation vote will be required, similar to the method used for the adoption of the SAD 43 budget. Residents of the three districts will vote at a public meeting, followed by referendum a few days later on an operating budget.

He said, too, that any inequities among the three districts will be evident.

“They will have to be addressed by the (new Western Maine School District) board,” he said.

That board meets for the first time at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, at Dirigo High School.