LIVERMORE FALLS — A plan to increase space at the high school in Jay, bring the building up to code and expand the band room at the adjacent middle school is estimated to cost $5.3 million.

Interest on a 20-year bond for the project is estimated to be $2.27 million, making the total cost $7.57 million, according to an amortization schedule. Of the $5.3 million, $1.3 million of it is to bring the school up to code.

The bottom line does not include an estimated $376,000 for an additional parking area to the left of the high school field hockey field. Architect Craig Boone said the lot is not an immediate need. There is enough parking if spaces are added along the Community Drive loop road that circles the schools, plus some other areas that are available but currently not used for parking.

The project is an effort to consolidate two high schools into one for 500 or so students and staff. Voters in Livermore Falls and Livermore will vote Tuesday, April 3, on whether to close the high school in Livermore Falls by June 30, 2013. If it stays open, the two towns’ taxpayers will have to share the $650,000 that would have been saved if the school closed.

The building project would include a 17,000-square-foot, three-story classroom addition with storage spaces, an administrative office section adjacent to the library, two bathrooms and an addition to the band room at Spruce Mountain Middle School.

The band room is used by both middle and high school students and would fit more than 100 seats.

The addition would be built on the end of a two-story academic wing at the Spruce Mountain High School North Campus. There would be a ground level floor that would include a large art classroom space and smaller classrooms.

The first and second floors of the addition would connect to the existing first and second floors of the academic wing, Boone, an architect with Bunker & Savage Architects, told RSU 73 school board directors Thursday.

The firm has worked on the proposed addition plans with a RSU 73 Renovation/Addition Ad-hoc Committee.

There would be 10 classrooms and five smaller group rooms in the academic addition, Boone said.

RSU 73 directors are expected to vote on the addition and renovation plan during their 6 p.m. meeting Thursday, March 22, at the Cedar Street Learning Complex in Livermore Falls.

In the small administration addition, a vestibule would be created at the entrance of the school so anyone entering the school would check in at a window in the office. A covered walkway would be built to connect the high and middle schools.

The plan calls for moving the student lockers from the academic wing and putting new triple-tiered lockers in the wider, main corridor of the school, Bunker said.

The cafeteria would be expanded by knocking out a wall at the back of it into another room, Boone said. It would fit 256 seats.

North Campus Principal Gilbert “Specs” Eaton said three lunches would be run so no more than 200 students would eat at one setting. The area, which includes the stage, would also have seating for 500 but it would be tight, Boone said.

There would also be two large teacher preparation rooms on two floors of the addition.

While most teachers would have their own classroom, there may be some teachers that would have to move during a preparation period so another teacher could work in the room with a different teacher, Eaton said.

Secure areas, possibly lockers, could be provided for the teachers’ belongings and preparation material, Boone said.

[email protected]