JAY – A proposed reorganization plan which would have formed a new school district consisting of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls failed to pass anywhere yesterday.
The referendum vote asked residents if they wanted to merge the Jay School Department, a quasi-municipal district, with SAD 36. The resulting district would consist of six schools and a school board of 10 directors, assisted by a transitional team had the plan been approved.
However, Jay residents voted not to proceed with the plan, with 201 “yes” votes and 228 “no” votes. Livermore residents and Livermore Falls residents rejected the plan by wider margins, with 67 “yes” and 148 “no” votes, and 91 “yes” votes and 125 “no” votes from each town, respectively.
Residents voting to not proceed with the consolidation in any single community would have been enough to kill the plan.
The town of Jay now faces the state’s Department of Education’s penalty, which has previously been estimated at $201,192 in lost subsidies for the school department. That amount could change from year to year.
