JAY — School Committee members voted 3-2 Thursday to extend the work agreement with the Jay Administrators’ Association for one year, Superintendent Robert Wall said Friday.

Any increases would begin July 1, 2011. The agreement expires Aug. 31, 2012.

The decision came after an executive session. Members Mary Redmond-Luce, Tammy Dwinal-Shufelt and Mike Schaedler approved the pact while Dan DiPompo and Darcie Comstock opposed, Wall said.

The agreement was modified to create a more compatible compensation package for salary and benefits with the RSU 36 administrators. The two groups have different provisions in their contracts and the new modifications will make it an easier transition if Jay and RSU 36 consolidate, Wall said.

Voters in Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls will make that decision Tuesday, Jan. 25.

Jay administrator contracts are for 225 days each year with no vacation days, he said. RSU 36 administrators are for 260 days with 30 vacation days, he said.

If the systems consolidate, a new contract that covers most staff will need to be hammered out within three years.

The most significant difference between the two groups is the Jay administrators will pay 20 percent of the health benefits while administrator contracts in RSU 36 have the full cost of the health insurance paid by the school district, Wall said.

Individual administrator contracts in Jay are determined by using a salary range. The beginning salary range for each of the six position categories were not increased, Wall said.

The health benefit increase for Jay administrators’ was increased by 1 percent, he said.

Four of the six positions covered by the Jay administrator agreement will have a salary range increase while the two other position categories will be frozen at the current rate, Wall said.

Those positions that will receive an increase in salary are middle and elementary principals, and special education director. The high school principal position is filled this year with an interim principal pending possible consolidation. Once a permanent principal is hired, then the range for that position would also increase.

The middle school principal’s salary will go to the top of the range in the next school year to $80,334.10 and the elementary principal’s salary will go to $82,455. The special education director will receive $70,955.67, Wall said.

The two positions that are frozen in Jay and currently unfilled are the high school and middle school assistant principals.

The increase in the salary and insurance compensation package for the three administrators is projected to be between 2.13 percent and 2.75.

“If we’re going to combine the two middle schools together and do combine the high schools, there will be a lot of extra work,” he said, referring to preparation for consolidation.

The plan up for vote on Jan. 25 does not include closing any schools, but the recommendation of Reorganization Planning Committee to a proposed new board of directors is to close Livermore Falls middle first year.

If approved, the Livermore Falls Middle School students would go to Jay Middle School beginning July 1. The Planning Committee’s recommendation is for the new board to consider closing the high school the following year.

If Jay is looking at moving its fourth and fifth grade back to its elementary school from the middle school to make it a combined sixth-through eighth-grade school, there would be extra work, he said.

Currently the Jay Middle School houses grades four through eight.

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