Two weeks before the start of a new academic year, Westbrook school officials are now preparing to make an official proposal either to renovate and expand Saccarappa Elementary School, add a new wing of classrooms at Westbrook Middle School, or both.

An architect working on the project gave initial cost estimates of $11 million for Saccarappa and $3 million for the middle school, which he said were very early, and very high, estimates. No state funding would be available for the projects.

Superintendent of Schools Marc Gousse said Wednesday that he believes Westbrook parents are awaiting a project.

“For parents out there, I don’t think we can build something soon enough,” he said.

The plans come at a time when more residential development and a growing immigrant population are seen as exacerbating the already crowded conditions at both the elementary and the middle schools. Last month, school officials announced that portable classrooms would be installed at Saccarappa and Canal schools.

Plans for an expanded Saccarappa would add between eight to 10 classrooms, a cafeteria, gym and library. School officials have dubbed Saccarappa’s current gym space the “cafegymitorium.” The school’s library is in a portable classroom outside, and many students eat lunch in classrooms.

At the middle school, the expansion would be for a third-floor wing of six classrooms. When originally built, the state declined to fund the wing, but the school was constructed to easily allow for the wing to be added. The middle school is currently considered “at capacity.”

At a joint meeting Monday with the City Council, School Committee and city and school administrators, City Planner Molly Just outlined residential growth patterns in the city since the 1990s, but also presented the projected numbers of new housing units that could affect school enrollment. While development numbers are high, she said, the type of housing plays a big factor in determining the number of school-aged children each development would add to the district.

Going through development that has been recently approved, the largest immediate impact may be seen in the Saccarappa district zone, with the 183-unit Blue Spruce Farm subdivision planned for Spring Street.

However, Just said, due to the type of housing proposed at the site, with many condos and small rental units, a study has projected between 30-46 students to come from the new neighborhood.

Just argued that with Blue Spruce Farm’s proximity to Idexx Laboratories, a major Westbrook employer, as well as the Maine Mall area, developers believe many one-bedroom rental units will be used by younger employees.

“Probably very few families,” she said, referring to the one-bedroom units. “You’ve really got to think about the unit type when you’re hearing about development.”

Just said the current demand in the city “seems to be in rental units.”

Also discussed were the senior care development on Landing Road, and Westbrook Housing’s expansion on Liza Harmon Drive, both of which aren’t expected to produce students.

However, Blue Spruce Farm also calls for at least 50 single-family homes, with an option for 22 more. Blue Spruce Farm is expected to be built through a period of five years.

At the former site of Prides Corner Elementary, which was closed in 2012, a 46-unit duplex condominium project is already under way.

“That’s the question we do have to look at – which numbers do we use?” said Jim Violette, the chairman of the Westbrook School Committee, referring to the difficulty of estimating how many students development will bring. “There could potentially be 150 students over the next five years.”

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said he sees demographic changes as another way numbers could be skewed, with an increasing number of immigrant families moving to Greater Portland, including Westbrook. The Westbrook district now has the third highest number of English Langauge Learner students in the state.

“That only makes this cloudier,” he said.

Bryant said that almost half of the Prides Corner units are already spoken for. They are expected to have a similar demographic of the nearby 75-unit Brydon Farm, which according to Just, has zero school-aged children.

“While there’s some numbers up on the board that are scary, the analysis is that the actual number of school-aged children generation is not that high,” Bryant said.

Bryant said the type of housing at Prides Corner is “very hot right now,” but is not the demographic that produces students.

Just also said that interest in single-family homes is still there, and will continue to grow in the northern part of the city.

“There’s still that dream of a house on an acre-lot,” she said.

Dan Cecil, a veteran architect with Harriman Associates, said the meeting was a first for him – with members of planning, the City Council and school officials discussing future growth.

“It’s pretty rare,” he said.

Cecil said that when the school department closed Prides Corner, it dodged a bullet in terms of cost savings. During the last year of operation, the school cost Westbrook $510,000 to run.

Mayor Colleen Hilton asked school officials what the proposal is, if one or both proposed projects will be forwarded.

“I’m not really sure where we’re headed right now,” she said.

Hilton asked that if Saccarappa is expanded, perhaps a redistricting could allow the department to forego the middle school expansion for now.

“We believe our most pressing need is at the elementary level,” Gousse said.

School Committee member Susanne Salisbury said the growth in Westbrook is a “good problem to have.”

“People want to move to Westbrook, that’s a good thing in the end,” she said.

Rubble from the former Prides Corner Elementary School gives way to a busy construction site Monday, as 46 condominium units are being built. Due to its demographic, city officials don’t expect the site to impact student enrollment, but elsewhere in the city, development is prompting plans for school building expansion. Staff photo by Andrew Rice