JAY – Jay and SAD 36 school boards each voted unanimously Thursday to file letters of intent with the state to start collecting information for a partnership of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls as a consolidated Regional School Unit No. 40.

The boards also voted separately to request a state-paid facilitator to help them through the process.

The two boards need to form a regional school unit advisory task force of 11 members, with two of them, the superintendents and another two, the school board chairpersons. There would be seven members at large, six plus a chairman. Six of those members would be required to each take one of six subcommittees to chair: finance, governance, building and grounds, transportation, curriculum and co-curricular.

The chairpersons would each choose their own members, getting the most knowledgeable and experienced people and making it fair so the committees are not stacked.

Jay Town Manager Ruth Marden was asked to be involved.

Anyone interested in joining a committee may contact Jay’s superintendent’s office at 897-3936 or SAD 36 superintendent’s office at 897-6722.

Wall said this is like working with a 100-piece puzzle and this is just the first 20 pieces.

After working on state distributed financial figures since July 23 in preparation for Thursday’s joint meeting, superintendents of both school systems were alerted by state education representatives just hours before the meeting telling them the dollar figures they were using were not right, Jay Superintendent Robert Wall and SAD 36 Superintendent Terry Despres said.

Both men committed to working through the process and involving the community as they go.

Consolidation will not go away and it will work if the state gives the towns the tools needed to make it work, Despres said.

He expects the Legislature to take up the issue in January with the Department of Education bringing a progress report on consolidation and the problems that need to be addressed

The administrators continued with the prepared presentation but made it clear those numbers are tentative and will change, and it will be a moving target until they are solidified.

In addition, state education officials are talking about changing the rate towns will have to raise by taxation for education to get subsidy to help operate schools from $7.44 per $1,000 of property valuation to $7.14 per $1,000 of property valuation, Despres said.

Between the two systems the total budgets now are $19 million, with Jay still waiting for voters’ approval of a $9.98 million budget Tuesday, Aug. 21.

Of that amount, the regional school unit would need to raise $8.5 million to get $6.75 million in state funding and raise an additional $3.7 million locally between the three towns to reach the current budget.

All three towns would pay more for education using the tentative figures.

Livermore now raises $1.56 million for education and under the regional system would pay $1.58 million, which is $22,080 more.

Livermore Falls raises $1.55 million for education and under the regional system would raise $1.75 million, which is $22,105 more in additional local funds.

Jay raises $8.3 million for education and under the new school system would need to raise $9.1 million, which is $790,747 more in local funds.

The figure also doesn’t include $1.7 million Jay spends over and above the state’s recommended essential programs and services model, or about $208,000 that the town would pick up if the new school system’s staff were paid under Jay’s pay scale.

Under the plan both Jay and Livermore would see a decrease in state subsidy with Livermore Falls picking up more subsidy.

If the state’s new education tax rate is approved, then both Livermore and Livermore Falls would each have to raise about $44,000 less for schools and Jay would have to raise $280,000 less.