P-J photo by Sara Holthouse The village of Panama is continuing to emphasize the importance of community involvement as the school’s merger feasibility study continues.

PANAMA — As the process continues for the Clymer, Sherman, Panama schools merger feasibility study, the village of Panama is continuing to emphasize the importance of the community being involved as much as possible.

The merger feasibility study was discussed again at the village of Panama’s February meeting, where Mayor William Schneider said he has talked with the Panama Central School Superintendent, Emily Harvey, about the process, and making sure people understand the importance of being involved.

The recently formed steering committee was also discussed, along with the upcoming community forum meetings.

“It’s a hard task so that’s what makes the upcoming rounds of meetings very important,” Schneider said. “So, when they come up, please go to them, let your thoughts be known.”

Additionally, Schneider said they do not have the ability to look into the future and see how the study will go, but the village does have some skin in the game with their shared services agreements with the school, specifically for gas and storage for the sidewalk plow. This may be affected by the merger if it is decided if and when it gets to that point to build a whole new school building, something Schneider said he hopes does not happen as he believes it would be counterproductive. But, if it were to go that way the village would need to make other arrangements for the plow.

“Even though that’s a couple of years potentially down the road, if that scenario were to play out that kind of worries me a little bit,” Schneider said. “I would assume in a combined district they would still try to honor the shared services agreements they have with other government agencies.”

It was also noted that bus garages and storage would have to be part of the study to be figured out at some point, and the sidewalk snow plow is currently stored in the Panama bus garage. The village board mentioned the schedule for the study, saying that with the plan to have the study done by mid-June, things are being pushed and seemed to be moving at a fast pace. Returning to the steering committee briefly, Schneider said he also has a unique perspective as he knows “all of the players” on the committee from different aspects of his life. He said the steering committee seems to be very good, and noted that the timeline may seem fast but they do not want it dragging on.

Village Trustee Kyle Rhoades said the group hired to do the study, White and Partners, seems to be a very good choice, following the community kick-off meeting and presentation there that Rhoades attended.

The January meeting was at 5 p.m., and even with the earlier time the board noted that there was good attendance at that meeting too, though it may have made it harder for some people to make it to.

“It’s going to be interesting when it’s all said and done, but again we need to keep an active role,” Schneider said. “I also encouraged them to pull together the three municipal groups that are involved … actually five, I think they need to pull together those groups for a meeting and see what they have to say about what might happen with the merger and how it might impact the area.”

The five municipalities involved are the village of Panama, town of Clymer, village of Sherman, town of Sherman, and town of Findley Lake. Schneider said he received some positive feedback from this suggestion, so he hoped it would happen.

Community forum meetings are coming later this month, with one for each school community. The meeting at Clymer Central School is Feb. 23, Sherman Central School is March 9 and Panama Central School is March 11, all at 7 p.m. More information on the ongoing merger feasibility study can be found on each school district’s website.