The Brunswick School Board met with community members Saturday in a full council chamber room at Town Hall to gather opinions concerning what the public believes is important moving forward in facilities planning.

Attendees were assigned numbers to correspond with breakout meeting groups to discuss not only the qualities they most value in education, but to respond to four building options the board has formulated over five years of meetings and discussions.

The first option would involve building a new elementary school and repairing the junior high. Option two would involve a renovation and extensive addition to Coffin School and repairing the junior high. Option three would see repairs to both Coffin School and the junior high, and the fourth option is to do nothing and make repairs, as needed, from the capital improvement plan.

Estimated costs for these plans run more than $27 million at the high end for option one to about $19 million in renovations and repairs, to the fourth option of limping along with existing buildings in hopes future funding will make itself available.

All the options tended to draw slightly more criticism than praise as “pro” and “con” columns were drawn in groups, but none more than option four.

Drew Weaver commented that the do nothing option was unfeasible, saying the problems aging schools are facing are not ones that will go away with more time and that the problems will be further compounded by inevitable decay and increasing interest rates.

Another comment written in the “con” column was the growing danger presented by the current buildings. With antiquated systems and inadequate security and fire prevention, it was deemed a lawsuit waiting to happen.

School board member Rich Ellis said the board was getting exactly what they looked to get out of the meeting as far as public input and ideas. He said the culmination of information gathered will be helpful when the board deliberates over what steps to take next.

“Some of the questions I’ve heard today are ones that we’ve evaluated over the last five years, so some of it won’t be additive but knowing where the public is and where their sentiments are might be helpful,” Ellis said.

Ellis said the biggest challenge will be how to pay for whatever solution the town guides them toward.

Looming over the meeting was the question of elementary school configuration. Ellis said the topic dominated a similar meeting held two years ago. Still a hot button issue, Ellis said that while he believes most people feel configuration, whether it be a kindergarten through second grade or kindergarten through fifth grade, is important, those same people cannot find consensus among themselves.

One possibility raised at the forum was converting Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary into a junior high and creating an elementary campus at the current Coffin School and junior high location. It’s an idea that Ellis said doesn’t wash with his concerns over capacity, safety and fiscal restraint.

“As a matter of fact, it introduces some new problems in that there would be new costs added to HBS, a relatively new school, to put an addition on it and changes to allow for an older population to be in that building,” Ellis said.

The option of a third elementary school, likewise, would hamper the town’s finances. Ellis said that when Jordan Acres was closed, the operational savings were between $800,000 and $900,000 a year — money Ellis said he would rather see go into hiring more teachers.

Concerns over having two large elementary schools where kids may feel lost in the mix were raised as well, something Ellis said could be alleviated by breaking school populations into houses. In the house system, kids would go through their school years in a cohort with the same kids and teachers, making a large school feel smaller.

Data from the meeting will be gathered and examined by the board, which will then likely set another date for more public input.

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• THE FIRST OPTION would involve building a new elementary school and repairing the junior high. Option two would involve a renovation and extensive addition to Coffin School and repairing the junior high. Option three would see repairs to both Coffin School and the junior high, and the fourth option is to do nothing and make repairs, as needed, from the capital improvement plan.