BUCKFIELD – Directors for SADs 39 and 17 have about three months to determine whether they can successfully implement a plan that would combine the two educational systems.

“Everyone would prefer to be there,” said SAD 39 Chairman Jerry Wiley of Buckfield after most of his board voted last week to sit down with SAD 17’s planning committee to negotiate an agreement. The talks will begin even though SAD 39 had already begun negotiations to reorganize with SADs 21 and 43. That plan has been submitted to the Department of Education, but with the knowledge that SAD 39 could end up with SAD 17, Wiley said.

Wiley said that school officials in SADs 21 and 43 have agreed to hold off on a vote as long as possible in order to let the negotiations with SAD 17 go through.

Because of summer vacation schedules, it is not expected that a joint planning committee meeting will be held for at least another week or two, Wiley said.

Last month, SAD 17 directors gave Superintendent Mark Eastman the go-ahead to organize a joint planning committee with SAD 39 to explore forming a single school system. Eastman said then that he favored the move to ensure that every cost-savings possibility was explored.

Although both school districts had originally investigated a merger under the state’s new reorganization mandate, the SAD 17 board backed out because of questionable cost-savings. But in May, SAD 17 School Finance Committee members agreed that new legislation in the reorganization law that allows for what is called an “alternative organizational structure” might let SADs 17 and 39 expand their cost-sharing efforts while meeting requirements of the state’s school consolidation law.

The two school districts have shared programs and other cost-saving measures for years. They include sharing heating oil purchases, adult education, bus repairs and the technical school. The boards in both districts last month also approved a two-year contract extension to SAD 39 Superintendent Rick Colpitts, who serves as SAD 17’s part-time assistant superintendent.

“It’s a natural fit,” Wiley said.

If SAD 39 decides it will not be able to merge with 17, then it will be included in the SADs 21 and 43 plan for voter approval in November.

The SADs 17 and 39 joint planning committee is expected to develop the plan’s structure between August and Nov. 1, when the plan will be turned over to legal counsel for review and then submitted to the Department of Education by Dec. 15. The plan will be accepted or rejected by Commissioner Susan Gendron by Dec. 30. If the plan is accepted, a referendum will be held on Jan. 30 for voters to accept or reject the plan, Eastman said recently.

Under the law, the alternative organizational structure would require the two districts to function as a single school system in many respects. The combined district would receive a single state subsidy check and have a common core curriculum, single budget, one central office with one superintendent, combined administration for areas such as special education and transportation and adopt consistent school policies and calendars among other items.

Despite a single budget, Eastman said SAD 39 communities would not expect SAD 17 communities to pick up the tab for their education costs.