BINGHAM -- Confronting decreases in state funding and a declining student enrollment, Bingham and Moscow school board members will decide tonight whether to close Quimby Middle School.

If two-thirds of the school board members vote to close the school, and residents approve the measure by referendum vote, 77 students and seven teachers will relocate to different area schools, and at least three positions will be cut.

Board members for School Administrative District 13 voted in May to close the middle school that serves students in grades five through eight. Though the vote was 5-5, the recommendation to close the school by July 1, 2009 prevailed, under the district's weighted vote system. Then, in June, board members reversed their decision, opting to keep the school open for another year, until July 1, 2010. That decision granted the district an additional year to gain necessary figures and documents from the Maine Department of Education.

Now, under the law that applies to regional school units, the district needs a two-thirds majority vote to move forward with closing a school, Superintendent Kenneth Smith said. Although people refer to the district as a school administrative district, it technically became an RSU July 1. So, this spring's simple majority vote does not stand; the district will re-vote at 7 tonight at Quimby Middle School.

If the vote passes with a two-thirds majority, the district will bring the question to residents in each town by referendum sometime in the coming months. If residents reject the school's closure, the towns will be responsible for shouldering the extra cost, Smith said.

If residents approve the school's closure, the district will realize a savings of either $145,000 or $181,000 each year. If the district decides to have two secretaries at the high school, the district would save about $145,000 each year. If the district opts for one secretary at the high school, the district would save about $181,000 each year, Smith said.

The savings would come from eliminating a special education teaching position, a custodian position, an ed-tech position and possibly a secretary position. In addition to cutting personnel, the district would save in costs associated with a building, such as heating, lights, electricity, insurance, maintenance and plowing, Smith said.

In addition to saving money, especially in light of state curtailments, closing the school would allow the district to allay problems associated with declining enrollment, Smith said. Each year, the district has 4 percent fewer students.

Also, if there were only two schools in the district, itinerant teachers -- such as those for physical education, art and speech specialists -- would not have to travel as much and would require less set-up time, he said.

Opponents of the closure have pointed to the school's history and its place within the community.

The Quimby Middle School was built in 1951 and dedicated Jan. 5, 1952. With help from individuals and community organizations and businesses, particularly the Allen Quimby Veneer Company, it was built at the site of two former schools, the oldest of which had been constructed in 1878. Students who attended that two-story school did not belong to a specific grade. Young children went downstairs, and the older children went upstairs, according to a book titled Bingham, Sesquicentennial History, published by the Skowhegan Press in 1962.

If the school shuts its doors, seventh- and eighth-grade students and teachers would move to Upper Kennebec Valley Memorial High School; fifth- and sixth- graders would move to Moscow Elementary School, Smith said.

"(Quimby Middle School has) been a very integral part of the Bingham community," he said. "It's not something we take lightly. Closing a school is never easy."

Erin Rhoda -- 474-9534

erhoda@mainetoday.com