EXETER — The Board of Education narrowly rejected a motion establishing an ad-hoc committee to investigate the prospects of merging Wyoming Area with another school district Tuesday. The rejection came after the vice president of the school board announced his plans to form the committee last week, igniting impassioned discourse over Wyoming Area’s future.
Peter Butera, the school board vice president, said he was unlikely to broach the topic any time again in the near future, given its rejection Tuesday night at the Wyoming Area Secondary Center. The motion, which was to amend the board agenda to put the committee proposal under consideration, failed in a 5-4 vote.
“I think it would be redundant to do it next month or the following month,” Butera said. “But, maybe eventually, I don’t know.”
Butera said at last week that he broached the topic because he was disconcerted by the state of the district’s finances and questioned Wyoming Area’s ability to function as an effective school district in the long run.
Attendees listen carefully during a Wyoming Area School Board meeting on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Butera said Tuesday that he had intended the committee to include at least the administrators and four board members, the most members it could include without forming a quorum and triggering a full board meeting. He said he hoped for the committee to confer with officials from other districts, along with other public officials, about the prospects and logistics of a merger.
Butera emphasized that he was not motioning for an immediate merger of the district and was not prognosticating imminent bankruptcy for the board, misconceptions he said he feared had become popular in the community.
“As I said last week, I’m just making a motion to form a committee to gather information as to what a merger could look like,” Butera said. “And the reason I’m doing that is because I’m concerned about the school district’s finances long term, not in the short term.”
While the merger committee was rejected, it did not receive an altogether hostile reaction from the board from those who voted against it.
“I commend Mr. Butera for thinking outside the box and like I said, I’m not opposed to it down the road,” Board member David Alberigi said.
Butera’s announcement at the committee meeting June 17 seemed to drive conversation in the district for the past week. The topic received significant attention on Facebook and the meeting Tuesday was relatively well attended.
Board member Michael Supey, while acknowledging he had some reservations about the committee, voted in favor of forming the committee due to the public interest it drew.
“Since I’ve answered probably 800 questions on this topic since last Tuesday, I’m a yes on it I guess,” Supey said in a wry comment during the roll call.
Wyoming Area residents who spoke on the topic of the committee Tuesday generally expressed at least qualified support for the merger.
Brenda Jurchak, a cafeteria staff worker in the district, called the idea of forming a merger committee a “fabulous idea.” She compared a merger between school districts with a merger between police departments, like that which created Wyoming Area Regional police.
“It’s not only that we’re looking into it, I think it’s that you’re going to see that (consolidation) happen more and more,” Jurchak said during the general public comment section.
Butera said he wanted to motion to form the committee during the final budget hearing, because the budget illustrated the tenuous financial situation in which the district finds itself – and the budget seemed to do just that.
The 2025-26 budget raised taxes 3.5%. The district budget presentation noted that this hike is the result of structural challenges surrounding the costs of special education and health care, as well as a tax ratable base that has depreciated significantly in the past 15 years, due to natural disasters and slow business growth. District officials said the school board has raised taxes every year since at least 2011-12.
Butera said he would continue to investigate the prospects of a merger himself, given what he considered to be the insoluble problems Wyoming Area faced as an independent district.
“My whole issue is that I just don’t see what the point is going forward,” Butera said. “I don’t see it.”