LIVERMORE FALLS — Although the school year started only two months ago, the Regional School Unit 73 board of directors is already preparing for next year’s budget deliberations.

At Thursday’s meeting, the board talked about possible venues for the meetings.

Director Joel Pike asked whether they would be held at the Superintendent’s Office in Livermore Falls or a larger venue.

Board representative Amy McDaniel wondered if there should be a meeting at each school.

“We’ve talked about community buy-in,” she said, noting that it would be good to move the meetings around. “I think for parents with students at the high school, they may be more likely to go to the meetings at the high school.”

“From my perspective, we ought to have all of these in a larger room,” Pike said.

In other business:

* Facilities and Transportation Director Ken Vining said that recently, the Spruce Mountain Elementary School boiler failed inspection.

“We found out we had a one- to two-inch crack inside of it,” he said.

The crack has since been patched, but more work may be needed on the boiler in the future, Vining said.

* Spruce Mountain Middle School Principal Scott Albert noted that parent-teacher conferences were held last week at the middle school. He said they’re designed to be held in the middle of the trimester so students struggling in their classes have a chance to bring their grades up after parents meet with teachers.

* Albert also mentioned that last week, Jay High School graduate and Eastern Kentucky University baseball coach Edwin Thompson was at the middle school speaking to students at an assembly. His speech encouraging them to overcome obstacles to reach their goals was well-received by the students, Albert said.

* Technology Coordinator Craig Suttie showed the Chromebooks that are being piloted at the elementary school. The versatile computers can serve as laptops or be converted into tablets.

“When we buy these things, it’s how rugged are they?” he said. “That’s what I look for.”

• A meeting has been set for Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 6 p.m. at Spruce Mountain Middle School between the school board and the Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls boards of selectmen.

• Superintendent Kenneth Healey reported that 1,452 students were attending the district’s schools as of Oct. 21. At the beginning of the school year, that number was 1,489 students.

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