JAY – Students and adults are working on ideas on what the newly chosen mascot of a phoenix would look like for Spruce Mountain High School in Jay and Livermore Falls.

Jay and RSU 36 school systems will merge July 1 and become RSU 73.

There will be combined sports teams but two separate high schools during the first year of consolidation.

Phoenix was the top choice made by the majority of students from Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls schools in grades five through 12 on the April 5 vote. Black and green received the most votes for school colors.

“For some, the idea grew up of the concept of a new school and spirit arising from the ashes signifying the end of a longstanding institutional rivalry,” Jay High School Principal Gilbert Eaton said.

According to Dictionary.com a phoenix “is a mythical bird of great beauty fabled to live 500 or 600 years in the Arabian wilderness, to burn itself on a funeral pyre, and to rise from its ashes in the freshness of youth and live through another cycle of years: often an emblem of immortality or of reborn idealism or hope.”

Jay High School junior Felicia Greenleaf, a student representative on the Jay School Committee, said she voted for the mascot because phoenix means rebirth.

She and others are coming up with designs of what the phoenix should look like. She said art teacher Melissa Allen helped her and is working with other students on ideas.

“I decided to make mine with all different colors of greens,” Greenleaf said. “I didn’t think it needed to be one color.”

Principal Eaton is accepting different ideas, she said.

Livermore Falls High School Assistant Athletic Director Sally Boivin has informed all fall and winter coaches that vendors will be bringing samples for uniforms at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 13, at the Livermore Falls school cafeteria.

Boivin has been working with Chris Bessey, athletic coordinator at Jay High School, and Eaton on the project, she said.

Anytime there is a decision to make, Boivin said, she believes it is important to contact coaches and school personnel in the capacity of athletic coordination before it is made.

Letters were sent to coaches in both school systems, even though coaches won’t be appointed until after a new RSU 73 board is seated. She wanted to get the ball rolling on uniforms and other aspects pertaining to a combined athletic program, she said.

Boivin said she has informed the vendors about the color choice, the mascot and the new school names and they will bring samples Wednesday.

Black, green and white are being considered for home game uniforms, Boivin said. The Maine Principals’ Association requires light colored uniforms to be worn during home games, she said. The association suggested white be chosen to go with the other two colors since neither are light colors, Boivin said.

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NOTE: This caption has been modified since it was published to reflect the correct last name of Felicia Greenleaf. It was a reporting error.