Mike Rossi said his body was at work last Thursday morning, "but my mind was in Harrisburg."

He had invested two years of his life into nurturing the merger between the Center Area and Monaca school districts, believing in it enough to give up his Center Area loyalties, sacrifice countless hours of family time, put his reputation on the line and relinquish his school board seat.

But when the merger finally went through with lavish praise and a standing ovation from the state Board of Education in Harrisburg that day, Mr. Rossi was not there.

His absence was noted by Center Area Superintendent Dan Matsook.

"I was thinking on the way [to Harrisburg] that some of the people who really rolled up their sleeves on this should have been in the van with us," he said.

Mr. Rossi would lead that list. As Center Area school board president in 2006 and 2007, he was a driving force behind making the merger happen and a devoted spokesman for it.

He was not alone.

Kim McKenzie, Ladonna Dmitsak, Mike Perich and Pete Urtz also were on the board during those years, helping to put the merger together and supporting it. Like Mr. Rossi, they got voted out of office three weeks after approving the merger.

They had to watch from the sidelines as the new board members delayed the process, made counterproposals, found fault with their Monaca partners and nearly killed the initiative.

They waited by the phone last Thursday for the news from Harrisburg.

"I would be lying if I told you it was not a rough day," Mr. Rossi said of the wait. "But if I had to do it all over again, I would do it the same way."

Mr. Perich could not be reached for comment, but the three other former board members agreed.

"It was absolutely worth it," Ms. McKenzie said. "Being on the sidelines was OK because it went through and it was the best thing for the kids and that's all that matters."

"I'm just so glad it got done that it doesn't even matter that it got done without me," Ms. Dmitsak said.

"I'm pleased," Mr. Urtz said. "I'm glad everything worked out."

Mr. Urtz was on the board for only a year, appointed while merger talks were under way. He said he had been inclined to favor the idea before being appointed, but "once I got on and got all the reports, it was obvious that this was the right thing."

Obvious or not, that board -- with Mr. Rossi, Ms. McKenzie, Ms. Dmitsak, Mr. Perich and current board members Rob Gradisek, Charlene Kosmal and John McCracken -- chose to go where no other Pennsylvania school district had gone before: into a voluntary merger.

"When we sat down and looked at it, had studies done and saw the trends, it was really common sense," Mr. Rossi said. Center Area was losing enrollment and was starting to have difficulty filling advanced courses. Monaca, about one-third Center's size, was losing enrollment as well and had eliminated almost all advanced classes already.

The roots of the effort go back to 2005. Dr. Matsook and Monaca Superintendent Mike Thomas had talked about it and broached the idea to their board presidents over dinner. If the two districts merged, they could offer all the children a better education.

The board presidents at the time -- Mr. Gradisek, of Center Area, and Mel Mikulich, of Monaca -- agreed that it was worth looking at, and the superintendents began their exploration.

Economic advantages soon emerged to join the educational advantages. Studies eventually set the projected savings at about $1.5 million a year, depending on how the plan was executed. Center Area taxpayers, who had a higher millage rate than their Monaca counterparts, likely would get a tax cut.

Still, the decision was not easy.

"There would be no more Center Area High School, no more Monaca High School," Mr. Rossi said. "There were a lot of traditions there. Those were hard decisions."

And the board members knew those decisions would not be popular -- that they might, in fact, get the members voted out of office.

"Absolutely," Ms. Dmitsak said when asked if she could lose her board seat over the decision. "Absolutely, and that was really OK. It was a good reason to get unelected."

"These opportunities don't come along very often," Ms. McKenzie said. "Maybe once in a lifetime. ... How many times do two superintendents get a chance to work with their boards to create a new school district the way it ought to be?"

"We were in this together," Mr. Rossi said. "Collectively, we put this merger ahead of everything."

For him, it is still ahead of everything.

"I don't need, nor do I want, praise," he said. "This was about the kids."

Dr. Matsook noted that those board members had to give up personal loyalties to make that decision. Mr. Gradisek's father, he said, was the first principal ever at Center Area High School, and Ms. Dmitsak's the second.

"Those board members were entrenched in this community their whole lives," he said. "Their willingness to go down that road [to the merger] needs to be commended.

"These things don't happen unless you have the right people around you. And they were the right people."