Westbook school officials this week unrolled some preliminary conceptual building sketches aimed at easing the space crunch at two of the city’s schools. Money to pay for expansions could be on a November ballot.

Parents and residents on Monday nearly filled the Community Room at the Westbrook Community Center to learn the details. School officials presented some concept plan options that included additions at the middle and Saccarappa elementary schools. An expansion at the crowded Saccarappa School could ease maxed-out conditions at Congin and Canal elementary schools.

School officials don’t expect that the state would share in funding the projects proposed in Westbrook, which would leave local taxpayers to shoulder the debt.

“We’re looking at this as a local project,” Superintendent Marc Gousse said before the meeting, and pointed out that displayed plans were only concepts.

A resident in Monday’s meeting asked whether there was a guess about costs. But officials said no estimates for the conceptual plans presented this week had been worked out.

Daniel Cecil of Harriman Architects and Engineers presented and explained the conceptual plans in Monday’s meeting. At the middle school, six additional classrooms would be added with a third floor over part of the existing school. The project would require removal of the roof over that section of the second floor. Harriman designed the middle school, and Cecil said it was designed to support a third floor.

Cecil presented three configuration options for additions at the Saccarappa school. Each of the options would include 10 new classrooms, stage, cafeteria and a gym. An addition would eliminate busing Saccarappa students to gym classes.

Additional classrooms would each handle 25 students. A library would be located in the existing cafeteria, which is now dubbed the “cafegymitorium” for its multiple uses. Due to the lack of space, students get their lunch from the cafeteria and return to their respective classrooms to eat.

Another alternative at Saccarappa could be a two-story option, but only grades 3 and 4 could be located on a second floor.

A Saccarappa project would upgrade the school population potential to 580 and would necessitate additional teachers and staff. More parking would be required, but studies haven’t been done yet.

“It is very, very early stages of the design process,” Cecil said.

Officials said the boiler at Saccarappa would handle a proposed expansion. Gousse said the system was installed in 2011, costing $1 million.

“It’s virtually brand new,” Gousse said.

Cecil said the next few months would be spent refining the expansion plans.

“We think a November referendum is a pretty reasonable target,” Cecil said.

A Saccarappa parent and a PTO member, Bernice Wellington, said before Monday’s meeting that something has to be done and she supports an expansion going to referendum.

Wellington has sweatshirts with the slogan “Support the Rising Stars” available at $10 each, with profits earmarked to help land a proposal on the ballot, she said.

“It’s all for the kids,” Wellington said.

A referendum would include the projects for both the middle and Saccarappa schools, with one contractor building both. If voters approve the project, construction could begin in the spring of 2016. Just last year, Westbrook voters approved an $8.7 million overhaul of the city’s public services facility.

Westbrook’s three elementary schools house kindergarten through Grade 4. Saccarappa enrollment is now at 335; Congin, 368; and Canal, about 340. The American Journal reported last month that the projected enrollment for this year at Saccarappa had been pegged at 310, but it could swell to 362 next year.

School officials say Canal and Congin schools are at capacity.

“It’s definitely at capacity, if not overcrowded,” Congin Principal Janet Crawford said following Monday’s meeting.

A recent enrollment study released by the school department last year put Westbrook Middle School’s enrollment figure at 769, but it estimates that the school could be more than 800 students in just two years.

The 54 pre-kindergarten students are now at the community center. Peter Lancia, director of teaching and learning, said an expansion could allow the pre-kindergarten program to be re-assigned to the neighborhood elementary schools.

The closing of Prides Corner School in 2012 moved the fifth grade to the middle school. Some residents attending Monday’s meeting raised the issue of the school department’s decision of closing down the Prides Corner School. On Monday, Gousse pointed to an unexpected rise in population and that some building projects weren’t on the table when the schools did projections.

As an example, Dean Flanagin, director of operations, cited the proposed Spring Street development of Blue Spruce Farm, with 180 units. That development is in the Saccarappa school’s district.

“Westbrook has become more urban than five years ago,” Lancia said. “People want to live here.”

The next public meeting would likely focus on short-term solutions to alleviate cramped school conditions and more meetings are planned to hear public comment on expansions.

“There will be multiple opportunities to weigh in on this,” Gouse said.

Architectural drawings show six additional classrooms added to Westbrook Middle School, with a third floor over part of the existing school. Courtsy imageParents and residents nearly filled the Community Room at the Westbrook Community Center Monday to learn more about possible additions at the middle school and Saccarappa school.Staff photo by Robert Lowell