BINGHAM -- Confronting decreases in state funding and 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 would relocate to different schools, and at least three positions would 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 a regional school unit July 1. So, this spring's simple majority vote does not stand; the district will re-vote at 7 p.m. tonight at Quimby Middle School.

If the vote passes with a two-thirds majority, the district would bring the question to residents in each town by referendum sometime in the coming months.

If residents reject the school's closure, the towns would become responsible for shouldering the extra cost.

The school was built in 1951 at the site of two former schools -- the oldest of which had been constructed in 1878 -- then dedicated Jan. 5, 1952.

If the school closes, seventh- and eighth-graders and teachers would move to Upper Kennebec Valley Memorial High School; fifth and sixth grades would move to Moscow Elementary School.