LIVERMORE FALLS — If the RSU 73 board decides in January to close the high school here, a vote on the proposal will go before voters in Livermore and Livermore Falls.

Superintendent Bob Wall told the school board Tuesday that the votes from both towns will be added together. If the combined vote approves closing the building, it would be closed to instruction for students in grades kindergarten through 12, he said.

Preliminary numbers indicate that closing the school would save $638,040, Wall said.

If voters in one town vote to keep it open and voters in the other town vote to close it, then the town that voted to keep it open would have to pay the full $638,040, plus the cost of the election, Wall said.

If both towns vote to keep the building open, then taxpayers in those towns would be responsible to share the $638,040. The towns would also have to pay for the election.

Cost-sharing would be based on valuation, Wall said.

Livermore would pay 52 percent, or $331,780, and Livermore Falls would pay 48 percent, or $306,259, he said.

The towns would also be responsible for paying their share of the RSU 73 school budget.

The facilities committee agreed Monday to postpone making its recommendations to the school board on what option would be best to house high school students and whether to close Livermore Falls school, pending further information on proposed options, along with the cost of building an addition at the Jay school, what size is needed and what it would look like.

The committee will review the information at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11, at the Cedar Street complex in Livermore Falls.

The committee is expected to decide then what option it will recommend to the school board, as well as its recommendation on closing the school or keeping it open. The recommendation will be presented to the board at its meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12, at the Cedar Street complex.

In the meantime, Wall said the administration will also go through the entire north campus of Spruce Mountain High School in Jay to look at rooms and to see what spaces are needed and how many students will not be accommodated by existing buildings.

Wall said he will also be talking with the state education authorities to see what process for building an addition would be best. There are several to consider, he said, including design to build, construction process, architect design and design to bid.

Board Vice Chairwoman Mary Redmond-Luce suggested the board’s curriculum committee could go along with the administration to look at the spaces available.

Wall said Monday that he would also provide financial figures to the facilities committee to show what it would cost to make the Livermore Falls high school into a middle school.

One option some people have asked to have looked at is to make the Spruce Mountain Middle School in Jay, which houses middle school students from three towns plus tuition students, part of the high school campus, sending the middle school students to the Livermore Falls school instead.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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