MEXICO — Inspirational, hopeful, enlightening and productive were words used to describe a two-day Future Search workshop for local schools that wrapped up Wednesday afternoon.

Nearly 90 staff of Western Foothills Regional School Unit 10, businesspeople and community members, selectmen and students took part in the workshop at Mountain Valley Middle School that aims to predict what education will be like in five years, and to make it happen.

Mountain Valley High School junior Erin Milligan said she had never attended such a conference.

“This is a new perspective. Everyone is working so well together,” she said.

Milligan was one of several students from the Mountain Valley and Dirigo regions who joined their teachers and fellow community members to begin work on a strategic plan for the 2,900-pupil district.

Meredith Brown, a junior at Dirigo High School, was also glad she had a chance to participate.

“This sounded like a good experience, to learn how they come up with planning education. I want to be a teacher. In 2015, I’ll be applying to RSU 10,” she said.

Eighth-grader Lindsy Crutchfield, a Dirigo Middle School student, wants to become a lawyer. She said the five-year plan will directly affect her.

“I want to go far in the world, and the more I can get, the better,” she said of her attendance at the workshop.

People from the Dirigo, Buckfield and Mountain Valley regions have been working all year toward bringing the three districts together.

This week’s workshop is meant to continue the integration of the three former districts while maintaining the unique identity each region has.

As staff and others worked through ideas about the future of the merged districts, several topics came up over and over.

Keeping their own identities, was one, but so, too, were broadening the online and advanced courses for all students, offering foreign languages at much earlier ages, encouraging more service-volunteer programs for students, and better integrating the school community into the broader community.

Dan Garbarini, a captain with the Rumford Police Department, is also the father of two children who attend Meroby Elementary School in Mexico. He was pleased with what he called the “incredible opportunity” to provide his opinions for the education of area children.

“What I like most is that we’re looking down the road. The economy may be bad, but kids still need an education,” he said.

While one group leader ended her presentation with, “RSU 10, the way life should be,” another led off her presentation with a rousing version of “We Are Family.”

Other ideas included developing more programs to meet individual student needs, holding longer school days, offering after-school activities for all children throughout the school district, and increasing technology.

The workshop was led and devised by Judy Enright of Skowhegan, a former teacher and administrator who has led such workshops for more than a dozen newly merged districts. The state paid the costs for the workshop as part of the mandate for merging school districts.

RSU 10 Superintendent Tom Ward said the data produced on Tuesday and Wednesday will be summarized, then shared with the school board, staff and public. Then, he said, the work will begin.

Over the summer, the district’s Steering Committee will write a strategic plan with short, medium and long-term goals. He hopes to have a plan ready for board action sometime in the fall.

“This has been overwhelming for me. It’s been a tremendous shot in the arm” that has followed the three themes of children first, opportunity, and equity across the district. “The work you did today will reinforce these themes,” he said.

RSU 10 includes the towns of Mexico, Rumford, Roxbury, Byron, Dixfield, Canton, Carthage, Peru, Buckfield, Hartford, Sumner and Hanover.

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