JAY – A committee on school consolidation in Livermore, Livermore Falls and Jay has issued a fact-finding report that among other things shows that both the high and middle schools in Livermore Falls need to be replaced.

The ad-hoc committee was tasked with looking at all the school buildings in the three towns and presented its report to the regional planning committee Monday.

School officials and community members are exploring consolidating into one school system to comply with the state’s school reorganization law passed by the Legislature this year.

The ad-hoc committee included Jay school transportation and maintenance Director Sue Weston and her counterpart in SAD 36, Ken Vining, along with John Johnson, George Doiron, Norman Miele, Scott Albert and Jim Shink.

The report found that Jay Elementary, built in 1964 with an addition in 1985, is still in good shape and could house the prekindergarten through grade five Jay students.

At present, grade five students go to Jay Middle School.

The report also shows that the middle school has enough space for grades six through eight in a new consolidated school district. Only 252 students attend the school, built in 1996, but the building has enough space for 502 students, the report shows.

The ad-hoc committee also found that the Jay High School, built in 1969, could be used for several more years in the new regional school unit. The dome roof needs to be replaced and an addition would be needed, the report shows.

“If a performing arts center was built between the high school and middle school with new science and chemistry lab that meet all standards and a few classrooms this would meet the space needed for all (regional school unit) students,” the committee wrote.

The report also offered options for building use but notes if the Jay Middle School is not used for middle school students and a building is not added to the current high school configuration in Jay a new middle school would have to be built on SAD 36 grounds while the Jay Middle School and High School would be combined for all the high school students in the consolidated district.

“Splitting the high school into two buildings and transporting students back and forth to Livermore Falls is not a good feature,” the report states. “Keeping in mind the athletic department; the current space Livermore Falls might make a wonderful sports complex for (Regional School Unit 40) and a teen center that includes (Area Youth Sports) sports.”

SAD 36 Superintendent Terry Despres also gave a brief overview of the district’s school building capacity to the school planning committee. Each member was given engineering studies outlining what needs to be done. The plan before the consolidation efforts began was to build one new school to house middle school and high school students.

At present Livermore Elementary School is over capacity by about 30 students, the middle school has 25 less students than capacity and and the high school has about 40 more students than its 320-student capacity, Despres told the committee.