LIVERMORE FALLS — School directors voted unanimously Thursday to approve a regional school planning committee makeup that will include representatives from Livermore, Livermore Falls and Jay.

The Jay School Committee voted on May 6 to approve the composition to work on a consolidation plan with the towns that make up Regional School Unit 36.

RSU 36 Chairman Ashley O’Brien of Livermore said he asked Jay Chairwoman Mary Redmond-Luce if the district could have two representatives from the board, instead of just the chairman representing one town. She agreed, he said, so there will be a director from Livermore and one from Livermore Falls.

The planning committee will have 11 members led by a nonvoting chairman. Attorney Clint Boothby of Livermore has agreed to serve as the chairman to facilitate the meetings.

Boothby had served as a community member on the previous planning committee. The plan developed by that committee, which was tied more stringently to the state reorganization law, was rejected by voters in all three towns.

The new voting portion of the committee will be made up of three town managers/administrators — one from each town, two teachers recommended by the teachers’ union, chairpersons of each school board, a school director from Livermore Falls, and three business people identified by town managers/administrator.

RSU 36 Director Denise Rodzen of Livermore Falls will serve as a representative of that town. If a chairman from a different town is elected in June during an organizational meeting, then there would be a shift in a director to make sure both towns are represented, O’Brien said.

The planning committee would take recommendations from working advisory committees that would take on assigned tasks and make recommendations for a school consolidation plan between Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls. The target goal is a vote in January 2011 with the plan going into effect on July 1, 2011.

Parents, teachers, school officials, students and others will serve on the subcommittees. Surveys that went home to residents of each town were returned with more than 300 people saying they would be willing to serve on a committee to help the two school systems come together with a consolidation plan to benefit students and taxpayers.

O’Brien suggested that each one of the 13 RSU 36 directors serve on a subcommittee so that they would be involved in the process.

The working advisory committees that would be set up are finance, teaching/learning, administrative leadership, facilities/maintenance plan, technology plan, sports/ethos/activities plan, transportation plan, personnel/staff plan(s), governance/policies and procedure drafts.

Most of the committees call for six members and a chair except for administrative leadership that would consist of three members and a chair, and governance/policies and procedure drafts that would have four members and a chairperson.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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