JAY – School Committee members voted unanimously Thursday to buy software through a three-year lease that they say will make it easier to submit the 3,000 reports required by the state each year.

The decision was made despite objections from town officials as they and school officials offered opinions and authority for the purchase. The lease will cost $14,526 annually.

During earlier budget discussions, the issue of buying the Advanced Data System software, an eight-component package, arose in a plan to have Jay schools share payroll and payable services with SAD 36. That school district already has the software.

The town of Jay provides the financial services to the School Department now through a Trio software program used by many municipalities.

School officials budgeted $48,500 to have two of SAD 36’s central office staff members come over to Jay and do payroll and accounts payable services. The software cost was also covered in the budget.

However, Jay town officials sought a legal opinion and were told that they could refuse to have the services removed from the town office since schools are still a town department.

Several years ago the services were moved from the superintendent’s office, prior to Superintendent Robert Wall being hired, to the town office to make it more efficient to keep town books.

Selectmen and Town Manager Ruth Marden sent a letter to the School Committee earlier this year opposing the purchase and asked the panel to remove the software and additional personnel from the budget until further research was done.

The School Committee does not plan to use the software this year but wants to be able to send its reports to the state and be ready to align with the towns in SAD 36 for a possible school consolidation.

The School Committee agreed to remove the shared personnel cost with SAD 36 from the budget but kept the software cost in the budget.

Selectmen and Marden told School Committee members Thursday that they believed the software cost was also removed from the budget.

Select board Chairman Steve McCourt said that he thought when school officials came before them that the agreement was to wait to see if Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls voters would approve consolidation before buying the software.

School Committee Chairwoman Mary Redmond-Luce said the board only agreed to remove the personnel costs.

School Business Manager Stacie Everett said they need to buy the software to report more effectively to the state and it would save money if they bought it now rather than wait. Information would need to be entered into the new system prior July 1, 2009, she said.

“We cannot go from June 30, 2009 to being part of an RSU (regional school unit) July 1, 2009 and have no records,” Everett said.

Both SAD 36 and Jay, if they each had the software license, would receive credits for the programs they had if a new school system is formed.

“We have 3,000 reports we have to give the state of Maine,” Redmond-Luce said. “We still need school software to do school functions. Payroll and payables are a small part of it.”

Marden said it was such a controversial issue, at the very least she thought it should come back to selectmen before it appeared in a warrant to be paid. Once she learned the purchase was on the agenda, she said, she wanted to discuss it before it came before selectmen and they refused to sign the warrant.

“Is it controversial because you’re afraid payroll and payables are not going to be done in the town office or is it controversial because we need software to do school reports?” Redmond-Luce asked.

Marden said it was town officials understanding that there would be no purchase until after a regional school unit was formed.

“It is ineffective. It’s inefficient,” Wall said of town software. “(The ADS software) is an effective way to work with the state (Department of Education.) This Trio is a municipal software.”

Wall said he is responsible for school financials and he needs to have the correct information to do so.

When select board Vice Chairman Warren Bryant made a comment, Redmond-Luce told him in her opinion it was conflict of interest since his wife is Jay’s financial director.

Marden said the committee could talk to selectmen at 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 14, at the town office.