LIVERMORE FALLS — Regional School Unit 36 directors opted Thursday to wait for the outcome of a consolidation vote before deciding whether to close the middle school.

Voters in Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls will go to the polls Tuesday, Jan. 25, to determine if the two systems will merge. RSU 36 Chairman Ashley O’Brien encouraged everyone to vote on what he said is probably the most important decision to be made in the school district since the 1960s when the school administrative district was formed.

Superintendent Sue Pratt gave the board an overview of the process and timeline to close the middle school, if the board chooses to do so.

One of the recommendations of the Reorganization Planning Committee is to close the Livermore Falls Middle School and send those students to Jay Middle School, if consolidation is approved. Jay is expected to move its fourth and fifth graders back to the Jay Elementary School to make a combined grade six through eight middle school.

To start the school closing process, it would take a two-thirds vote of the RSU 36 board to close the school. Pratt would then have to file a closure report with the state commissioner of education and determine the costs to be borne if the school referendum on closing the school in the towns of Livermore and Livermore Falls fails, she said.

The school board would then need to vote to submit a warrant to call a referendum and submit it to the municipal offices, she said.

Up until the warrants are issued, the board could change its mind and stop the process, Pratt said.

It would take at least 12 weeks to complete the process.

“We have to have completed the process by June 30, if the vote is in the affirmative on Jan. 25,” Pratt said.

The process should be started in late January or early February so the warrants could be issued by April 1 for a vote on May 10, she said.

If the two systems are going to merge, it is important to know before the budget occurs, she said. It is estimated there would be about $300,000 in cost savings if it closed, she said.

Pratt said she was comfortable waiting until after the vote for the board to make a decision. The board is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26,  to certify the votes.

Both towns, since they both send their students to the middle school, would vote on the closing. They would also share the additional cost of keeping it open, if the vote fails. Jay would not share that cost unless the new school board of the new system opts not to vote to close the school in subsequent years or doesn’t vote at all.

Director Fred Nadeau of Livermore Falls said the current school board is not under any obligation to start the process to close the school.

On the flip side, O’Brien, of Livermore, said even if consolidation fails, the board could decide to close the school because of the budget cuts the district faces.

“Even if you vote to close the school,” the school property would still transfer to the new regional school unit, he said.

“When you vote to close, it does not mean you automatically get rid of the property,” Pratt said. The building or part of it could be used for other things or go back to the town, she said.

If the current board chooses not to close the school, it does not tie the hands of a new school board, O’Brien said.

“I don’t think that this board should give up our responsibility or authority and just throw it to a new board and not make a stand,” Director Jennifer Pooler of Livermore Falls said. “Whether we say yes or no, we need to take a stand for our community because not everybody is going to be on the RSU board.”

Director Ann Souther of Livermore Falls concurred.

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