JAY – Selectmen voted Monday to table action on a request from school officials to use two downstairs rooms in the Community Building for a cooperative behavioral program for students.

Vice Chairman Warren Bryant said he would like more input from Area Youth Sports and SAD 36 before a decision is made.

Jay and SAD 36 in Livermore and Livermore Falls initiated the Crossroads Program, a behavioral program for special needs students, at the beginning of the last school year. The program provides a cost-effective and community based alternative to sending students to program placements out of the area, school Superintendent Robert Wall told selectmen. The program is open to all area school departments.

The program has connections to Evergreen Behavioral Services, which provides some staffing services to address behavioral handicap needs, including psychological.

If the cooperative program was not in place, students with those needs would be sent out of the area at a cost of a minimum $40,000 per student plus transportation costs, Wall said.

Last school year, the program was initially housed in a portable unit that formerly served as the Jay School Department’s central office. After water damage to the portable resulted in mold, students were moved to the Jay High School for the rest of the year, which Wall said wasn’t ideal because there was only one classroom available for them.

Wall asked to use the downstairs meeting room at the Community Building and a space behind it, and the voting area room. Changes to the rooms would include putting a wall up to make a smaller space for the local cable access Channel 7 headquarters. It would not infringe on the space youth sports uses, he said.

The entrance to space would be moved to the side of the building to avoid snow falling from the roof.

Evergreen Behavioral Services has funds available to make modifications, Wall said.

The old portable unit has been offered to AYS to use as a central meeting space and they would be responsible for any modifications, he said.

The Jay Historical Society would still have access to its area.

The town would also be able to use the space normally used for voter registration.

The set up would allow for separate classrooms for middle and high school students, special education Director Tina Collins said.

Part of the program calls for academics and hands-on experience for students such as working in the commercial bakery at the middle school, which would have to be reactivated, and possibly using the garage for students to detail work on vehicles, Wall said.

Selectman Amy Gould said it seems that having the program at the Community Building would be better for students and cost effective for taxpayers.

Jay and SAD 36 split the cost of a teacher and education technician.

If Jay consolidates with Livermore and Livermore Falls to create a new school system, Jay has retained the right to use that building. Changes in the state reorganization law also allow for towns to maintain control of their school buildings, Wall said.

Selectmen opted to table the decision until 6:30 p.m. July 14, at the town office.