DIXFIELD — The Regional School Unit 10 board Monday night tentatively set a public hearing for July 7 on the effort of four towns to leave the district.

It will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Dirigo Elementary School in Peru and board Chairman Bruce Ross of Dixfield will be facilitator.

Committees from Canton, Carthage, Dixfield and Peru have met for over a year to discuss leaving the 12-town district, saying they believe it could save money. The towns made up School Administrative District 21 until they merged with SADs 43 and 39 following the school consolidation law of 2007.

The agreement between the district and and the four withdrawal committees is posted on the RSU 10 website.

The other district towns are Buckfield, Hartford, Sumner, Mexico, Rumford, Byron, Roxbury and Hanover. Byron is also considering leaving the district, Superintendent Craig King said.

In other matters, the board:

• Approved a request by Meroby Elementary School Principal Kim Fuller to change a response to intervention position to a grade-one position;

• Agreed to move a teacher from Buckfield Junior-Senior High School to Hartford-Sumner Elementary School because of higher enrollment;

• Accepted resignations from Rumford Elementary School half-time art teacher Heather O’Leary and Mountain Valley Middle School librarian Amy Ryder;

• Hired Jan Peaslee as a part-time secretary at Meroby, Kathy Crutchfield as middle school health teacher, Kelcie Virgin as Meroby grade-two teacher and Laurence Thornton as half-time physical education teacher at Meroby;

• Granted art teacher Meghan Andrews-Wright a one-year leave of absence; and 

• Approved changing the position of response to intervention teacher to regular classroom teacher at Meroby.