JAY – There is a lot of homework to be done and not much time to do it in, school Superintendent Robert Wall told more than 50 people gathered Tuesday at a public forum to discuss school consolidation.

“The No. 1 priority is making sure wherever this shakes out, we maintain the quality of school system we’ve shaped over the years and that’s not negotiable,” School Committee Chairman Clint Brooks said.

School leaders updated residents on school consolidation proposals in Augusta, including a plan to reduce 290 school districts to 80 with 2,500 or more students in each district.

School Committee members and Wall have been attending meetings since December to discuss consolidation, with more meetings scheduled.

SAD 9 in Farmington, SAD 36 in Livermore Falls, Winthrop, SAD 58 in Kingfield, Carrabassett Valley and SAD 52 in Turner are all potentially part of the mix, but they have not entered into agreements.

They have to look at everything closely, Brooks said, because this is a process that not only affects the kids and schools but all the employees and all the taxpayers.

“There are a lot of options to consider,” Brooks said, including quality of education and budget impact.

“It’s kind of difficult with a partner that doesn’t really exist because we don’t know who they are,” Brooks said.

The state’s education funding formula and Jay’s $850 million municipal property valuation will all factor in.

“It could potentially cost us to merge with someone else,” Brooks said.

Jay has reduced its school budget from $10.6 million in 2005 to a proposed $9.96 million budget for 2007-08.

If Jay, a low receiver of state education funds, raises $6.3 million, the state gives it $1.04 million. If SAD 9 raises $6.7 million, the state gives it $14.5 million and if SAD 36 raises $2.1 million, the state gives it $5.7 million, Wall said.

If Jay was to join SAD 9 made up of nine towns and they were at 100 percent valuation, Wall said, then Jay is looking at raising $580,000 more in taxes and would pay 49 percent of the budget cost.

If Jay joined SAD 36, Jay would raise $1.54 million more in taxes with Jay picking up 76 percent of the cost of the budget, he said.

“It’s not that we don’t want to work with other systems; we do want to work with other systems but we have to look out for Jay,” Wall said.

Hopefully, the formula would work out to consider ratio of students and property valuation, Brooks said.

He encouraged residents to contact legislators to voice their opinions.

“We thought it was important to involve you,” Brooks said. “We need input from you on what you feel we need to protect not only school buildings but educational programs.”

Yellow pads of Post-its and pencils were at each table in the middle school cafeteria for people to write their ideas and submit them to be analyzed and put on the School Department’s Web site.

There are a lot of unknowns and pros and cons to consider.

Criteria for partners include geography, demographics, economics and finances and educational opportunity, Wall said.

“The state is telling us this is an emergency, this has to be done by June 30, 2008,” Wall said, but in his opinion it’s too important a decision to make so quickly. A date of July 31 to choose partners is being floated.

“What they’re telling us is follow the guidelines and save millions,” he said, but it is very hard to interpret the state’s information because it changes daily.

One big thing that is missing is the vote of the people, he said.

It’s interesting, he said, that residents got to vote on tax reform but not education.