LIVERMORE — A plan to merge Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls schools into one system will be sent to the state on Wednesday.

The Regional School Planning Committee made no changes to the plan Tuesday after a review of the process the committee and its subcommittees used to develop board apportionment and a cost-sharing formula.

Jay and RSU 36 school boards voted last week to send the plan to Maine Education Commissioner Angela Faherty to review. Once she reviews it and determines it meets the state’s school reorganization law, the plan will go to voters in all three towns on Jan. 25, 2011.

During school board discussions, a Jay School Committee member raised the issue of Jay not having a number of votes equal to the combined votes of the two RSU 36 towns of Livermore and Livermore Falls.

The plan calls for Jay to have six members on a new school board, for Livermore to have three and for Livermore Falls to have four. It is based on population and each board member representing the same number of residents, Jay Superintendent Robert Wall said Tuesday.

The Governance Subcommittee made up of town and school officials, along with residents from each town, looked at various options. Those ranged from a nine-member board to a 21-member board. They looked at three other methods including weighted voting and sub-district voting, Wall said.

It came down to what would be fair for all towns, keeping the voting method as simple as possible and complying with state law, he said.

The committees, in which more than 90 people participated since May, were charged with coming up the with the best options for all of the towns. The plan was approved unanimously by the Regional School Planning Committee, and most of the subcommittees unanimously approved recommendations for the planning committee.

Cost-sharing is based only on the amount that exceeds the state’s recommended essential programs and services funding formula and is based on each town’s valuation, Wall said. Jay is valued the highest.

All three towns would pay their share of the regular budget, just as they currently do, Wall said. Each system has about a $9.1 million budget.

If the cost-sharing method was in place on the current budget, the two systems would share the nearly $1.3 million that exceeds the state’s formula, with Jay paying 71.7 percent; Livermore, 14.56 percent; and Livermore Falls, 13.37 percent, Wall said.

Of the combined amount, Jay is currently $1.18 million over the funding formula, he said. RSU 36 exceeds the formula by about $118,000. Currently, Jay pays 100 percent of the excess and Livermore and Livermore Falls split their share, with Livermore paying slightly more than Livermore Falls due to a higher valuation.

The proposed plan factors in Livermore Elementary School’s debt, being paid for locally and without state aid, which would bring the amount over the state funding formula to $1.59 million, according to school officials’ data.

Jay’s current figure includes its share of the cost of Jay Middle School, which is state-supported.

The Finance Subcommittee looked at a variety of cost-sharing methods that were based on student count and a combination of valuation and student count. Those methods showed more reductions to Jay’s share of the costs and increases to the other two towns.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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