JAY – School Committee members voted 4-0 Thursday to sanction the cooperative girl’s soccer club team made up of girls from Jay and Livermore Falls high schools as a varsity program.

SAD 36 Board of Directors still needs to take up the matter before athletic directors from both schools can ask the Maine Principals Association to recognize the varsity program next fall.

If approved by all, the Jay-Livermore Falls Wildcats Team, which has operated as a club for three years, will follow a Mountain Valley Conference schedule but compete as a Class B team in state competition.

The program is estimated to cost about $6,200 and would be split between the two school systems, Jay Chairman Clint Brooks said Friday.

In other business, the board set a special meeting to vote on warrant articles for a proposed $9.9 million 2007-08 school budget at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6, at the middle school library.

The Budget Committee has recommended some changes for the panel to consider before they vote on the budget, Brooks said, including eliminating the curriculum coordinator’s position and not filling an integrated technology director position.

Superintendent Robert Wall said he is hoping to have the state’s projected revenue sheet by Tuesday so the figures can be factored into the budget.

Wall also plans to propose increase school lunch and breakfast costs on Tuesday, he said.

He tried to increase those costs in August but the School Committee did not approve them, he said.

Under the price schedule, regular-pay breakfast prices at the high school would increase 50 cents from $1.25 to $1.50 and lunch prices would rise from $1.50 to $2, Wall said.

At the middle school, they’re looking at an additional 15 cents for breakfast to make it 75 cents and a 25 cent increase for lunch to $1.75.

At the elementary school breakfast would increase 10 cents to 60 cents and lunch would cost an additional 25 cents making it $1.75.

Adult lunches would increase 75 cents to make it $3.75.

The cost of milk would increase across the board from 40 cent to 50 cents, Wall said.

He is also proposing reduced-breakfast prices be increased 10 cents to make it 40 cents, he said.

Reduced-lunch prices would remain the same at 40 cents.

If approved, the new prices would go into effect after February vacation.

“We have to remember the cost of ingredients for meals, labor costs and energy costs have all increased,” Wall said.

The food service program is supposed to be self-sustained and is at a marginal status right now, he said.

“If we continue the way we are without increasing prices, we’ll probably be in the red by the end of the year,” he said.

The school system also has a period of time when there is no income coming in during the summer months but still have to pay the school system’s share of health insurance for employees and also have to maintain a balance to have enough start-up costs for meals to begin school after summer vacation, Wall said.

He has proposed restructuring the food service program for additional cost-savings including eliminating the director’s position.

The School Department has $3,248 owed to them for meals that have been charged and not reimbursed to date, Brooks said. School systems are required to feed students through a certain grade level, he said.

Letters have been sent out to people who owe the money in an effort to collect, Wall said.