LIVERMORE FALLS – Regional School Unit 73 tabled action recently on signing a tuition contract with Fayette until the rate is adjusted.

Fayette sends 13 students to Spruce Mountain Middle School in Jay, which serves the towns of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls, Fayette Central School administrator Teresa Harrington said Wednesday.

Students in grades six through 12 in Fayette have a choice to attend several different schools, with the school system town paying tuition.

Fayette students previously attended Livermore Falls Middle School in Livermore Falls but that school was closed as of June 30.

Fayette had paid the current rate of $6,735.78 per student to RSU 36 in Livermore Falls. That district and Jay School Department merged on July 1 into RSU 73.

The maximum tuition rate under state law for the middle school in Jay is $8,175.76 per student, RSU 73 Superintendent Bob Wall said Tuesday.

However, he sent a letter in June to the former superintendent of the Fayette school system and Fayette School Committee informing them the rate was adjusted to reflect an average of the current tuition rates for those schools. Wall told the RSU 73 board on Sept. 22 that the rate being proposed is $7,455.77 per student for this year.

Wall asked the RSU 73 board to table approval of the contract last Thursday until the dollar amount is changed.

The Fayette School Committee was informed of the adjustment on June 9, Harrington said.

She will be updating the contract to reflect the adjusted rate and that it’s for the 2011-12 school year, she said. It will go to the Fayette School Committee at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, at the Fayette Central School to be voted on. It will also go to the RSU 73  board  to be voted on.

Fayette had budgeted $7,073 to send 12 students to the middle school this school  year, according to the Fayette board’s minutes. The result was a $4,593.24 shortfall in the budget. With one additional student attending the RSU 73 middle school than was budgeted, the shortfall is $12,049.01.

The state will be sending out the new tuition rates that will be allowed for the next school year before the budget is proposed for next year, Harrington said. Like every year, Harrington said, the hope is the tuition budget will even out in the end.

Fayette has 19 students attending Livermore Falls High School at a cost of $8,798.41 per student, Harrington said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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