OXFORD – Monday night’s split vote by SAD 17 directors over initiating merger talks with SAD 39 kicked a rarely used voting system into action.

“Votes hardly ever get that close,” said Superintendent Mark Eastman of the initial 7-6 vote by 14 committee members, with Chairman Ron Kugell not casting a vote in the first round. Eastman said that when there are close votes, such as the one Monday night, a weighted vote system will be used.

Under the weighted voting system, the 22 SAD 17 directors each have a specified number of points based on the population of the towns they represent, Eastman said. For example, Curtis Cole, who represents Paris, gets 56 points, while Elizabeth Swift of Hebron gets 25. The difference is in the population. Paris has just under 5,000 residents while Hebron has 1,100 residents.

The subsequent 359-300 weighted vote gave Eastman the go-ahead to start discussions with SAD 39 officials about forming a single school district under Eastman’s recommendation that they immediately ask Education Commissioner Susan Gendron to extend a January 2009 deadline for a community vote on any plan to June to provide more time for discussion. If no extension is granted, the board agreed to discontinue talks with SAD 39 and let it return to its original plan to merge with SADs 21 and 43 in the Rumford and Dixfield area by Sept. 15. A vote on that plan is set for Sept. 17. If SADs 39, 21 and 43 fail to merge, SAD 17 directors will resume talks with SAD 39.

The turn of events from a month ago, when SAD 17 directors voted to give Eastman the go-ahead to organize a joint planning committee with SAD 39 to explore the formation of a single school system under an alternative organizational structure, was prompted by a recent letter from Commissioner Gendron.

In the letter dated July 15 from Gendron to Eastman, the superintendent was told that the alternative organizational structure would still require submission of a reorganization plan, which means the district must meet the requirements of both the alternative organizational structure and a reorganization plan.

That, coupled with the time frame and the fact that Eastman must quickly put together a 40-plus member committee, begin discussions and try to open the school for the new school year all at once, sent the 14 present members of the committee into a tailspin Monday night and resulted in the weighted vote.

Monday night’s vote broke down as follows:

• Paris is represented by Michael Brown, Cole, Ann Convey, Mary Pietroski and each member has 56 points. Brown had to leave the meeting just before the vote, Cole, Convey and Pietroski voted yes

• Oxford, with 46 points, is represented by Ron Kugell, John Palmer, Henry Jackson and Olive Sanborn. Each Oxford member voted no except for Sanborn, who voted yes.

• Norway is represented by Dy-Anne Gurney, Donald Gouin, Don Ware and Adam Tsapis with 54 votes each. Gouin and Tsapis voted yes, Ware voted no. Gurney was absent.

• Harrison, with 54 points, is represented by Andrew Derstine and Stephen Cummings, who were both absent.

• West Paris, represented by Nick DiConzo and Alison Stimson, brings in 40 points each. Stimson was absent and DiConzo voted no.

• Waterford is represented by William Colbart and Bill Hanger, with 34 points, both voted no.

• Otisfield is represented by Tom Moore and Joseph Vaillancourt, with 37 votes. Moore voted yes and Vaillancourt was absent.

• Hebron is represented by Elizabeth Swift and Kathleen Rideout, with 25 points each, were both absent.