PERU – Misunderstandings over a proposed merger between Peru Elementary School and SAD 21 were reportedly resolved last week after an unpublicized meeting.

That’s what Peru school Superintendent John Turner told Peru School Committee members at their Tuesday night meeting.

Attending the informal meeting last week were Turner, Peru School Committee Chairwoman Tammi Lyons and SAD 21 Superintendent Thomas Ward and SAD 21 Board Chairwoman Barbara Chow.

“I think it was a productive meeting because they came away with a better understanding,” Turner told directors Tuesday night.

Officials of SAD 21, which has a new superintendent and several new board members, mistakenly believed Peru directors had previously agreed to a cost-share ratio based 100 percent on valuation, Turner said.

“Therefore, when they learned you weren’t approving it, they came away very upset. It was a misunderstanding created when Superintendent Ward came into this deal. He thought we had only done the state share part of it,” Turner said.

After resolving that matter, Turner said both groups then discussed grade configurations for the proposed merger.

That came up because Turner said Ward was trying to push for a new Canton-Peru school to be located on the Canton-Peru side of the Androscoggin River that separates both towns from Dixfield.

But such an elementary school would not meet state school capacity requirements of 256 students based on current student populations in Canton and Peru, Turner said.

Turner said he didn’t think parents of outlying areas in SAD 21, which is comprised of Canton, Carthage and Dixfield, would like to have their young children bused to a school halfway between Canton and Peru.

“They also heard that our roof was gone and it would cost $100,000 to replace it. But they had an extra zero in that,” he added.

Last month, Peru school directors authorized Turner to spend up to $11,000 to either replace the leaky roof or get it repaired.

Tuesday night, however, Turner said that after talking with two contractors, he learned the roof could be replaced for $7,000.

But after both contractors said the job shouldn’t be done while school was in session, Turner said he decided to have some more tar applied to the roof as a temporary patch job.

Another item that irked SAD 21 officials was Peru school’s surplus money and who gets it should the merger occur.

“They were upset about our surplus money and would like to see it turned over to them. They think there’s $180,000 in there. Their contention was that we’ve been setting that money aside for a new school,” Turner said.

Colpitts and Peru school directors argued that wasn’t correct, because they had been told they couldn’t mark the carryover money for anything.

Peru school director Richard Colpitts said that accumulated surplus had been raised by taxpayers in past years for the Peru school and would be turned over to Peru town fathers should the merger happen.

“It’s the Peru taxpayers’ money that was used to fund their school. It’s our municipal government’s decision on where the money is spent,” Colpitts added.

He said the board had previously used the surplus money to reduce the amount that had to be raised in taxes for school budgets.

Turner then advised the committee to spell that out in merger documents, otherwise, should the merger occur, everything, including the current school building and surplus funds, would become the property of SAD 21.

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