JAY — The RSU 73 Transition Committee voted 3-2 Tuesday to recommend a $18 million-plus budget to the new school system’s board of directors once they are elected later this month.

Members, Chairman Ashley O’Brien of Livermore, John Wakefield of Livermore and Jim Collins of Livermore Falls voted in favor of recommending the budget to the new board. Mary Redmond-Luce and Tom Goding, both of Jay, opposed.

Redmond-Luce said prior to the vote that she would not support it because there wouldn’t be a principal at each high school next year. Goding said after the meeting that he opposed the vote because people in the three towns voted for consolidation so the budget could be reduced.

“I don’t believe the cuts should be at the children’s level,” he said. “They should be at the top where they were supposed to be in the beginning.”

During the meeting, Jay Superintendent Bob Wall went over the revenue picture for the original proposed 2011-12 budget of $18.28 million. It reflected an increase of $57,842 over the combined budgets of Jay and RSU 36 this year. The budget figure also absorbed the proposed savings of closing the Livermore Falls Middle School, if voters approve it May 10.

The two systems will consolidate July 1.

A major factor in the cost-sharing formula among Livermore, Livermore Falls and Jay was that Livermore Falls petitioned and received a reduction of $18.55 million from its 2010 valuation due to the Wausau Paper mill closing, Wall said.

The cost sharing formula for any costs that exceed the state’s Essential Programs and Services funding formula will be based on valuation.

If no changes were made to the proposal, Jay’s share of the budget would have been nearly $8.04 million, a $34,630 increase over the current budget. Livermore’s share would be $1.63 million, a $186,147.66 decrease. And Livermore Falls’ share would be nearly $1.35 million, a decrease of $365,002.47.

Those figures include applying a combined total of $1.3 million in estimated undesignated rollover funds to the towns that the money was raised in to reduce the tax commitment. For Jay, it is an estimated $800,000.

The budget does not include about $120,000 for adult education that will be split equally between the three towns.

It also does not include money for four reserve funds that the Transition Committee voted to recommend the new board set up. Three reserve accounts of $25,000 each would be for fuel and electricity, health insurance and capital projects. The fourth reserve is for $65,000 for special education for tuition/contingency.

The proposed bottom line also does not include the Transition Committee’s recommendation to enter into a three-year lease for 130 laptops for sixth-graders. The cost is $45.417.29 per year.

It also doesn’t factor in the committee’s vote to remove any funds connected to setting up a bus garage and hiring a mechanic to repair and maintain buses and other equipment.

The committee voted 3-2, with O’Brien and Wakefield opposed, to recommend the new board contract out for one year for those services.

During the discussion on that subject, nonvoting member Denise Rodzen of Livermore Falls said the Reorganization Planning Committee accepted reports and not recommendations from subcommittees charged with studying certain topics.

Yet, administration has chosen to move forward with setting up the bus garage in the first year and chose not to do what the townspeople wanted from the start, Rodzen said.

Wall said he didn’t want to insult her, but the administration’s charge is to save money and provide a quality education for students.

Townspeople believe this district is top heavy with administration, Rodzen said.

She never finished her comment because Transition Committee Chairman O’Brien slammed his gavel on the table and told her she was out of line. He warned in the beginning he would not allow criticism toward anyone.

Rodzen said she was not out of line.

After the meeting, Rodzen said townspeople wanted administration to be reduced and not teaching staff.

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