JAY — Students from Spruce Mountain High School did some homework before Wednesday’s session to develop a vision for a combined high school from the Jay and Livermore Falls campuses.

They created oversized posters describing the ideal high school student. Respectful, organized, good time manager, hardworking, motivated and honest were a few of the attributes they’d like to see now and in 10 years.

Those posters pretty much reflected what the 75 or so parents, RSU 73 staff and others came up with at the session. All conferred to answer three questions:

* What is your hope for a Spruce Mountain student 10 years into the future?

* What are the skills and knowledge that student would need to be successful?

* What should SMHS do to promote those skills and knowledge?

Before the group got started, Principal Gilbert Eaton from the Jay campus told them of importance of the visioning session.

“It’s very important that we get input from the community. We see this as rebuilding, connecting for the next 20 years,” he said.

Taking a vote to merge the former RSU 36, which included Livermore and Livermore Falls, and Jay School Department is more than just the board taking a vote, Leadership Team member Sue St. Pierre said.

Developing common goals is critical.

Participants from small groups came up with very similar ideas:

* Students must understand that learning comes first.

* All learning should have real-world applications.

* Interpersonal skills, particularly teamwork, is important, as are community involvement, persistence, resilience, better communication between parents and the school, civic engagement, and diverse social interaction.

Other attributes the school should help students learn include flexibility, financial management and other life/basic skills, computer and technology skills, reflection, and how to handle setbacks.

St. Pierre said all the ideas will go before the staff and students to refine them into a concise vision statement for presentation to the RSU 73 board at its Sept. 27 meeting.

The goal is to get students from both the former Livermore Falls and Jay high schools together at the beginning of school year 2013-14.

Several board-led task forces are studying space availability and space reconfigurations to meet that goal.

Residents unable to attend Wednesday’s session who want to answer a similar survey may log on to http://bit.ly/smhsvision to provide opinions.