PERU – Officials mulling a possible merger with neighboring SAD 21 Monday morning, decided to let the state education commissioner decide on an equitable cost-share ratio.

If Maine Department of Education Commissioner Susan A. Gendron makes a timely decision, the merger proposal would go to Peru voters in September and SAD 21 voters in November. Otherwise, voting may be pushed into the winter.

While both Peru and SAD 21 school boards have agreed to merge, the pre-referendum sticking point has been over cost sharing.

“In good faith, for over a year, we have tried to come up with an equitable cost-share agreement and failed,” Director Richard Colpitts said. “Now we’re asking (Gendron) to determine a funding formula for us. The commissioner said she would be happy to come out and work out the issue.”

Selectmen and SAD 21 officials in the district’s towns of Dixfield, Canton and Carthage are unwilling to budge from a ratio based 100 percent on valuation. Peru selectmen and directors, however, want a more palatable deal for their taxpayers.

Based on estimated funding for 2002-03, at 100 percent valuation, Peru would have to pay a local share of $765,544, Canton would pay $359,784, Carthage $147,816, and Dixfield $981,522.

Currently, the funding formula for all four towns is based 100 percent on valuation. For the 2002-03 year, Canton’s local share was $366,216, Carthage’s share was $150,459, Dixfield’s was $999,068 and Peru’s was $714,775.

To merge, however, Peru officials seek something closer to a ratio of 75 percent valuation and 25 percent pupils. Using this formula, with the 2002-03 estimated funding, Peru taxpayers would pay $721,726 as the local share.

But the shared cost would rise for SAD 21 towns with Canton paying $366,845, Carthage at $156,323, and Dixfield at $1,007,772.

Monday’s emergency Peru School Committee meeting settled confusion over just what directors had agreed to do at their June 17 meeting.

“I thought we ended up voting to ask the commissioner to suggest a formula,” said Chairwoman Tammi Lyons. “I thought we should go with the 100 percent and just do it because we need to make a decision so the process can continue. We’ve been doing this for over a year now and we’ve exhausted all possibilities.”

Although voters in each district have the ultimate say on the merger, town and school officials have been trying to broker a deal since last year.

To get permission to merge and invoke a referendum, the district requesting a merger must petition the state education commissioner.

“I’ve spoken with SAD 21 and (Dixfield) selectmen and they won’t go with anything other than 100 percent. So do we take a stand and bite the bullet and put the request in?” Lyons asked.

Debate then centered on the what-if’s involved until a taxpayer corrected the board’s thinking.

“If Peru votes it and SAD 21 rejects it, then we decide if we want to merge. According to Peru’s selectmen, if we go with 100 percent (valuation), they will vote against the merger,” Colpitts said.

Taxpayer Ginny Bragdon, however, thought differently.

“If the commissioner says 90-10 and Peru votes yes, but SAD 21 says no, then the selectmen have nothing whatsoever to do with this; the school boards have nothing to do with this,” Bragdon said. “You have to bring it back to me, the taxpayer, at 100 percent (valuation). It’s not your decision.”

That being said, the committee voted 4-0, accepting Director Janet Rowley’s motion to pursue a merger with SAD 21 and go with Gendron’s recommendation on the funding formula.

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