LIVERMORE FALLS — The corridors of Spruce Mountain High School in Livermore Falls were a bit quieter than usual last week when students and staff returned to school for another year. However, the corridors at Spruce Mountain High School in Jay were somewhat noisier.

This year all freshmen are attending the Jay high school, leaving about 237 sophomores, juniors and seniors at the Livermore Falls school and about a dozen fewer staff members.

“It didn’t seem as exciting without the freshmen and no one looking clueless,” Steve Leunig, principal at the Livermore Falls school, said.

At the Jay school, Principal Gilbert Eaton said the additional 70 to 75 freshmen from Livermore Falls brought the high school enrollment to about 272, and all classrooms are being used.

During the past couple of years as student population declined in Jay, at least two classrooms were used for other purposes because there weren’t enough students to fill them.

Eaton said the combined class of freshmen came in at about 120.

The freshmen had few problems getting used to attending classes at Jay. They had combined a year earlier at the adjacent Spruce Mountain Middle School, so they already knew each other, Eaton said. And at the Jay high school, the freshmen class had their own locker section.

The most difficult change during this transition period has been the extra busing to attend classes offered at the other campus.

“Taking a cross-town bus means these students must leave one class a little early and get to their next class a few minutes late,” Leunig said.

He has also emphasized more teamwork among his staff because there are fewer of them. A number of teacher and educational technician positions were lost due to budget cuts, retirements, and sending the ninth-graders to Jay.

“The freshmen are settling in,” Eaton said.

He said each student works with an advisory teacher daily on such things as school culture, looking to their futures and sustained silent reading.

School year 2012-13 is likely the first of two major transition years for the the students and staff of the two high schools. Administration and board members are working to find a way for all secondary students to attend the one high school in Jay at the beginning of the next school year.

The former Livermore Falls High School would likely be closed.

Eaton said he expects the 43-year-old Jay school to house just over 500 students next year.