JAY – The Jay School Committee decided Thursday night not to offer an endorsement either way on TABOR, the tax-cap bill up for a vote on the November ballot.

“By endorsing it or not, as a group, we are sending a message to the public,” said Chairman Clint Bruce. “Let the public do their own homework by listening to the news, reading the newspapers, and listing to the elected politicians.

“Group endorsements are misleading. Are they (group endorsements) really truths or just what they want us to believe? It makes people lethargic by thinking that if the school committee approves, or disapproves TABOR, then that’s the way they will vote. I’m not even sure at this point just what TABOR is all about.” said Bruce.

Superintendent Robert Wall added, “Taxpayers elect officials and assume that they, the officials, have done their homework. The biggest travesty is when uninformed people vote. It (TABOR) is just like those TV medicine advertisements. If you listen closely, there’s a whole list of side effects,” he said.

Committee member Nancy Chaney said, “My only concern, to be brutally honest, is that I don’t know what TABOR is all about. It would feel wrong to say that we, as a board, approve or disapprove of it. You have to vote from your own life and research.”

In other business, the committee accepted a $454,079 government grant to help it, and three other school systems, purchase a system that will allow students to go on virtual field trips, visit colleges in other states and other countries, and even visit NASA through this virtual technology. The funds come from a Rural Utility Service grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Jay applied for this grant in partnership with SAD 13 (Bingham), SAD 46 (Dexter), and Lewiston High School, but is guaranteed $230,000 of it, since it will control the program’s servers.

A total of 12 schools in the four districts will have units. The matching donations for the schools involved total $300,000, which has been budgeted. The system should be up and running sometime around February vacation in 2007.

The committee also granted permission for the Jay Middle and High school bands’ biannual trip to Agawam, Mass., in May or June of next year. Representing the band were Danielle Beaudette and Nicholas McDonald, who advised the committee that money would be raised through fundraisers and if not enough money was raised, each band member would be responsible for the remainder. The school would not be required to provide any funds.