Fifth-grade students at Dunn Elementary School in New Gloucester could be moved to Gray-New Gloucester Middle School at the start of the next school year.

A committee is making that recommendation for School Administrative District 15 because of unexpected enrollment growth at the elementary school.

The Student Population/Facilities Committee is scheduled to meet with the SAD 15 school board to discuss the recommendation in a workshop at 6:30 Wednesday in the middle school cafetorium. The committee will also ask for the creation of a transition team composed of administrators, staff and parents to plan the move. Under the plan, Dunn School would continue to house the third and fourth grades.

The committee was led by school board members Dr. Alan Rich and Sharon Vandermay and included parents Theresa Boynton and Lisa Knedler. The committee members did not return calls seeking comment on the plan.

While public comment on the plan will not be allowed at the Jan. 28 workshop, a separate meeting for parents is being planned for some time in February. The school board will also discuss the recommendation at its Feb. 25, when the public is welcome to comment. The board will vote on the recommendation at their meeting on March 4.

“This is an opportunity for feedback. It is not a done deal. It’s only a proposal,” said Superintendent Victoria Burns.

The recommendation is a result of population increases in kindergarten through second grade classes over the last three years, Burns said. The increases have exceeded projections and will lead to limited classroom space once those classes reach Dunn School, even with the renovations approved by voters in 2005, she said.

Up until the recently, the kindergarten classes numbered at around 150 students, and as low as 130, Burns said. The last few classes, however, have had around 170 students.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen,” Burns said. “Everyone around the state was saying projections were down.”

The construction of a new elementary school was considered, but construction requires time and funding, Burns said, and the bubble could go away as quickly as it appeared.

“It might just evaporate. You don’t know if you are going to need it,” she said.

Gray-New Gloucester Middle School was built as a school for fifth- through eighth-graders in the late 1980s, and remained that way for years. It will have no trouble handling the extra class, Burns said. The cafeteria, gym and parking lot are all of sufficient size, she said.

“They should be able to accommodate the increased population for years to come,” Burns said.

Middle School Principal Sherry Levesque said it was too early to comment on the recommendation, which has not been sent to the full school board yet. But when the time comes she hopes to provide parents with plenty of opportunities to weigh the merits of the proposal.

“There will definitely be information out to the parents and a chance for parents to view the middle school,” she said.

Near the end of each school year, fifth-graders are invited to spend a day at the middle school to get an idea of how the school works, Levesque said.

“We’d certainly do that for the fourth-graders if the plan goes through,” she said.

If the proposal is successful, Levesque sees no problem with having a middle school with fifth through eighth grades again.

“We were a 5-8 school at one time, and it would work just fine,” she said.