After three years of study, seven months of head-knocking, hundreds of hours of meetings and thousands of blog postings, the hearing on the proposed merger of the Center Area and Monaca school districts was a whimper.

Three people asked to speak to a committee of the state Board of Education Monday. Two of them were the superintendents of the districts.

An audience of perhaps 50 showed up, but none added comments. The whole thing lasted 30 minutes.

The three-member state board committee -- Arnold Hillman of Harrisburg, Esther Bush of Pittsburgh and A. Lee Williams of Slippery Rock -- spent Tuesday touring the two districts and meeting with administrators.

It will make a recommendation Sept. 17 to the rest of the board, which is expected to act on the merger application the following day.

If approved, the merger would be locked in and the two districts can begin planning as one, though the official merger date is not until July 1.

Monday's speakers gave the committee little reason to recommend against it. Superintendents Mike Thomas of Monaca and Dan Matsook of Center both said it would boost academics and increase efficiency, offsetting the ongoing impact of declining enrollment.

The only other speaker, George Petrella of Center, said he was afraid that political considerations would cause the Center Area school board to withdraw at the last minute.

"If that happens," he said, "the true reason will be that it will kill everything some of the them have worked for their whole lives."

If the merger goes through, Mr. Petrella said, "then in the next election, some of them will be gone. If that happens, there goes the [Democratic] Party in Center Township."

His accusations -- that the Center board is acting on orders from the local Democratic Party -- have been common ever since five new members won election to the school board last year, took control of the board and slammed the brakes on the merger process launched by the previous board last October.

After seven months of private talks, negotiations with Monaca and a barrage of public accusations, the Center board in June agreed to a compromise that let the merger go forward.

The key concession Monaca made was waiting an extra year to consolidate the middle school and high school students so further study can be done on whether to use Monaca's high school building as a middle school.

Mr. Petrella said he is afraid the Center board could resurrect that issue as an excuse to withdraw. "If you do that, you're not worthy of your jobs," he said.

Dr. Thomas, in his comments, noted that Monaca is heading for crisis simply because of its size -- it ended the 2007-08 school year with 672 students. It has a limited ability to deal with rising costs and is being hamstrung by competition by charter schools, he said, and educationally "the ability to expand the curriculum is limited by both enrollment and economic factors."

Merging with Center would counteract that, Dr. Thomas said. "It is the administrations' belief that the merged district will provide programs for students that would otherwise be impossible," he said.

Dr. Matsook echoed that message. Center -- with 1,850 students also is losing enrollment and is also being hit hard by charter schools. He noted that elective classes are being limited or eliminated each year because there are not enough students to fill them.

Calling the merger a "proactive and visionary step to control our destiny" on the part of the districts, he called on the state to deliver on promises made that it would help cover one-time merger costs and would "protect the districts from negative fallout" on mercantile taxes, which are assessed in Center but not in Monaca.

Under current law, the taxes might have to be canceled in the new district as a whole.

That, however, is a detail to be dealt with in a plan with huge benefits, as Dr. Matsook described it.

"Simply said, we believe that we can accomplish more together than any one district can accomplish apart," he said.

Ms. Bush, who is president of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and chairs the merger committee for the state board, said it was encouraging to see districts getting together to address their challenges.

"What is important is that everybody was at the table, trying to work it out," she said. "The education of the kids is what we have to keep in front of us."