PEABODY — The School Department wants to kick out 168 dried-up, unusable tires, but their plans are falling flat.

The tires came with 14 modular classrooms installed at Peabody High School in the fall of 2003 as building renovations got underway. The tires wound up in a storage container, where they wasted away.

Now, school officials want to find a way to junk the tires without spending too much money.

"You've got to pay to get rid of it," School Business Manager Michael Musto said. "So I'm stuck with the dilemma."

When he started in the district, he learned the storage bins were rented. Eventually, the district purchased the containers that house the tires for between $1,500 and $2,000, Musto said.

But as the school board suggested sundry ways to be rid of the tires, they learned from administrators that it's not as easy as it seems.

Committee member Edward Charest, for example, suggested selling the rims as scrap metal.

"I certainly hope we don't pay somebody to take it away," he said at a committee meeting.

But the School Department can't just sell items it no longer uses; it must offer them at public auction, Musto said.

Committee member Edward Nizwantowski suggested that students in the vocational school's automotive technology program could remove the tires from the rims.

Turns out that's against the law.

"I was just told (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) would not approve these students to remove the tires," Musto said.

Nizwantowski wondered if a company making the rubber-based artificial turf would accept the tires for recycling.

Musto has struck out with his attempts to get rid of the tires, too. The city's Department of Public Services doesn't want them. There's a charge to dispose of them and someone would have to remove the rubber from the rims.

Committee member Beverley Dunne worried that if the tires were trashed and the School Department needed to move the portable classrooms, administrators would have to turn around and purchase new wheels.

"If we didn't have portables and we had tires, I'd say go for it," she said.

At another meeting, Dunne said that it shouldn't be so complicated.

"We could pump them up and float them in Crystal Lake," she said.

"There's a million things we could do with those tires."

Earlier this month, the board took the first step by declaring the tires surplus.

"The tires are still sitting there," Musto said last week.