SHENANGO VALLEY — Saving taxpayer money, drawing more people and business to the Shenango Valley and doing what’s best for kids in the area drove school board members from five districts to attend a meeting Wednesday where “consolidation” maybe became less of a dirty word.

“When people hear that word, they get all excited,” Sharpsville school board member Gerry Hanley said. “We have to convince people to think of the positives.”

Sharon City School District board member Christopher Gavin for the past two years has brought up the issue several times but it hasn’t gotten very far.

Now, he’s proposing Sharon, Farrell, Hermitage, Sharpsville and West Middlesex school directors mull over the idea of having a study done to see if merging two or more districts is feasible.

“I think there’s a good possibility it may work,” Gavin said. “I don’t have the answers. I’m trying to ask the questions and get the answers.”

West Middlesex school board President Tom Hubert, who in 2007 started the Mercer County School Directors Association to look into sharing services, said he thinks the move makes sense and would save money. But it could be a hard move politically.

Gavin’s calculations, which involve a consolidated district using the same per-pupil spending as Butler Area School District because it’s about the same size in number of school buildings and students, show a potential savings of about $10 million a year. Every district except Sharpsville might stand to save money, Gavin found.

Those figures aren’t necessarily accurate, he said, but seem to be enough reason to study a little more.

“I’m just wondering if a united school district would help bring business in,” Gavin said.

The heavy industry that once was booming in the valley is not coming back, Gavin said, and something needs to be done to make the area more attractive. Hermitage school board member Dr. Morren Greenburg noted that the Shenango Valley competes with Cranberry Township, Butler County, and Canfield, Ohio, for business in the region.

Gavin noted that last December nearly 500 houses were for sale in the Shenango Valley and the Pennsylvania Department of Education projects a loss of students at every valley school in the next nine years.

“I love this area. I hate to see it dying,” Gavin said.

Gavin suggested potential savings could be seen in 10 areas: administration, alternative education, athletics, books, cafeterias, classroom supplies, facility expenses, health care and instructional and special education costs.

The bulk of a district’s money is spent on salaries and benefits, Gavin said. And those costs are going up as people are leaving. That means raising taxes and that’s something nobody wants to do, he said.

A consolidated district would likely mean going with the lowest real estate tax rate of the individual districts, so revenues could be lower than they are currently, Gavin said.

Farrell school board President Marcena Cimoric mentioned it would be useful if all the districts had the same curriculum and books, both for purchasing and student achievement, as many students move from district to district in the course of their education. Gavin said some families move more than once a year.

Transportation changes might mean spending more money on busing, Gavin thought. He pointed out that the farthest distance between any two valley schools is just over 7 miles.

Gavin has been in contact with a representative from the Pennsylvania Economy League and a study by the league would look at three types of consolidation and as many as 24 combinations of these:

• functional partnerships

• a merger where one or more district is absorbed into another

• a physical consolidation into a new entity

For previous such studies, school districts have pitched in $5,000 each and the state kicked in $50,000 or more. But state Rep. Mark Longietti, said that the funding for those was “zeroed out” of the 2009-10 budget.

Money isn’t the only issue people should consider, Longietti said. The quality of education for the students is what made most people run for school board, he said.

Joining together would allow students to get the benefits of some opportunities that not all the districts can provide due to their budget and size.

Sharpsville school board President David DeForest cited as examples Sharon’s excellent Advanced Placement program and Farrell’s planetarium.

Hubert said a joint district could have “enormous” benefits to schools’ academic programs. He mentioned expanded gifted programs for the students who could be creating jobs in the valley in the future.

Sharpsville Superintendent Mark Ferrara brought up possibly joining forces and trying to get upcoming federal money to start a school in the valley focused on science, technology, engineering and math. Other magnet-type schools could also be a unique draw to the area, Sharon Superintendent John Sarandrea said.

DeForest said that each district has its own demographics and attitudes to deal with, too.

And he noted that statistics shown in a study wouldn’t necessarily reflect the true outcome of a merger.

The biggest hang-up for the public will probably be sports-related, Greenburg said.

“This isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight even if the study’s done,” Gavin said.