JAY — Voters in RSU 73 towns will go to the polls Tuesday to determine if a three-story classroom addition, a new administrative office and renovations to the high school in Jay will be funded.

The referendum vote will held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. May 8 at Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls town offices.

The project also includes expanding the band room at the adjacent Spruce Mountain Middle School that houses students from all three towns plus tuition students.

The cost of the project is proposed at $5.3 million, including up to $1.3 million in renovations to the Spruce Mountain High School North Campus. 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.

Regional School Unit 73 directors are proposing to add 20,040 square feet to the high school in Jay to accommodate about 500 students from both Jay and Livermore Falls high schools.

Voters in Livermore and Livermore Falls have voted to close the south campus high school in Livermore Falls as of June 30, 2013.

The $5.3 million includes architect fees, a $250,000 contingency, about $75,000 for removal of ledge, allowances for equipment and some realigning of existing rooms to better serve students.

Bunker & Savage Architects are creating a workbook on the project that would go out to bid. Bunker & Savage would not bid on the construction project, architects have said.

The project calls for two additions at the high school.

A three-story, 17,800-square-foot addition would be built at the end of the high school academic wing. It would have 10 classrooms and five small group rooms.

The first floor would be below grade, the second floor would match up with the first floor of the existing wing and the third floor would match to the second floor.

On the first floor, a couple of storage rooms would be below grade, but the classrooms would have windows and be well lit.

A second addition in the plan would be a single-story vestibule of 2,240 square feet on the library wing. The administration offices would be moved there, and a securer entrance to the school created.

The existing administration offices would be made into a larger nurses station and clinic and two more public bathrooms would be added near the gym entrance.

Not factoring in the cost of teaching staff, technicians, secretaries and administration, the cost to operate two high schools for 2012-13 is projected at $1.16 million.

“Continuing to operate two high schools will be far more expensive than adding this space and combining our students together,” Superintendent Robert Wall previously said.

The first payment on the bond would be interest only, Wall said. On a home valued at $100,000 based on current valuation in Livermore Falls, the estimated tax increase would be $9.10. A home of the same value in Jay would have a tax increase of $6.98. A home valued at $100,000 in Livermore would have a estimated tax increase of $8.62, according to Wall’s data.

The estimated maximum tax increase on the same valued property over the 20-year bond period would be $40.12 in 2013-14 in Livermore Falls, $30.75 in Jay in 2013-14, and $37.98 in Livermore in 2013-14, Wall had said.

Closing the Livermore Falls high school will lower the cost of operating the high school program and will absorb addition/renovation costs, he said.

“The addition is a good investment in cost containment,” Wall said.

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