Salem — Members of the Salem and East Lyme boards of education voted unanimously Monday to approve a new 20-year cooperative agreement between the two districts.

Under the agreement, Salem schools will continue to send students to East Lyme High School until 2039.

Districts without a high school have to designate another school for their students to attend, and Salem students have attended East Lyme High School almost continuously since 1967. The current agreement was created in 1997 and expires in 2019, and discussions to create a new 20-year pact began in 2012.

Salem school board member George Jackson said at the meeting that solidifying a new agreement a few years in advance helps families with multiple children plan ahead if they want to keep their children going to the same high school.

The Cooperative Committee, made up of all members of both school boards, voted in January to finalize the agreement. However, the agreement stipulates that only the board chairmen, Stephen Buck of Salem and Tim Hagen of East Lyme, can vote to approve it.

Hagen said residents of East Lyme were generally supportive of having Salem students at the high school, and he believed the high school benefits from having them.

Salem school board member Mary Ann Pudimat also said the agreement had been posted on the school website as well as the town website since November and received no comments on either website.

The school boards also discussed reconciliation history for tuition for Salem students at the high school. Maria Whalen, business director for East Lyme schools, said at the meeting the differences between what Salem paid and what the town owed to East Lyme was due largely to unexpected expenses during the school year or lower enrollment leading to a higher cost per student.