DIXFIELD – Guidance counselors and social workers will be available at all three SAD 21 schools Tuesday morning to help those dealing with the deaths of two drivers from Peru on Monday.

Christine Wing Sterry, 31, of Peru, the mother of a Dirigo Middle School child and two Dirigo Elementary School children, and Carl Grant, 48, also of Peru, the uncle of at least one student at Dirigo High School, were killed in the head-on collision on Route 108.

Superintendent Tom Ward, speaking at Monday’s SAD 21 board meeting, said bus driver Clint Dolloff was driving a school bus filled with students when he saw the accident and reported it.

“He handled the bus and the kids very well,” Ward said.

Ward said Christine Sterry was coming home from work when the collision occurred.

Dan Wing, a SAD 21 board member from Peru, is Christine Sterry’s father. The children’s grandmother and an aunt went to the schools that morning to tell them of their mother’s death while Dan Wing went to the crash scene.

Ward said he spent most of the day meeting with staff in the three schools, then held a crisis team meeting after classes were dismissed Monday afternoon.

If additional counselors are needed, he said nearby SAD 43 offered its counselors as well.

He said staff have two fact sheets explaining what happened Monday morning to share with students.

Also at Monday’s meeting, directors approved the senior class participation in a Project Graduation event providing the class works out details with Ward. Class President Jennie Skillin and secretary Julie Webber said senior students will decide later this week from three options: a camping trip in Jackman, a Casco Bay cruise, or a series of activities in the Bethel area.

The board also lifted a restriction on elementary school students bringing wheeled backpacks to school. Dirigo Elementary School Principal Kathy Richard said the cases are too large to fit into available storage space in the classrooms and have presented a safety hazard. Board member Ronda Palmer said traditional backpacks are too heavy for elementary children to carry.

Ward said the custodial staff will search for a way to safely store wheeled backpacks in classrooms.