Westbrook school officials have decided that adding a portable classroom at both Canal and Saccarappa elementary schools is the best short-term solution to overcrowding.

At the same time, a joint city-school department meeting next month will focus on future school expansion plans.

Superintendent of Schools Marc Gousse said this week that the department has backed off from an original plan to implement three kindergarten classrooms at the Westbrook Community Center. The unforeseen costs of bringing the building up to fire code standards required for public school buildings doomed the idea, he said –the fixes would have cost the department from $200,000 to $400,000.

In a letter sent to parents the last week of June, Gousse explained the decision to add portable classrooms, a move that he insists is short term.

“In response to community feedback as well as unanticipated costs of reconstruction, we have decided to amend the plans and address increased enrollments at our elementary schools in a different way,” he said in the letter. “We will instead be installing modular classrooms, or portables, at our schools with the greatest need, which at the moment are Canal and Saccarappa.”

At a community forum on June 9, parents questioned plans to host kindergarten at the community center, with concerns ranging from school identity, transportation and how students attending would be chosen. After the meeting, Gousse said the department took a step back, especially as logistical questions lingered.

In the letter, Gousse emphasized that kindergarten students will be attending their neighborhood schools for the upcoming year.

A follow-up forum is scheduled for Tuesday, July 28, at Canal Elementary School, at 6 p.m.

Gousse said that while adding portable classrooms isn’t ideal, classrooms will be shifted so that all students will have homerooms inside the school. He said the modulars will host “ancillary” services such as Title 1 (used for one-on-one instruction) and English Language Learner – programs that will not require students to be in the portables for extended portions of the school day.

Peter Lancia, the school department’s director of teaching and learning, said keeping students in their “home school” is a benefit.

“They’re part of their school community and they’re well taken care of right there in their own building,” he said.

A portable that has been at Saccarappa since the fall of 2013 has hosted a library and music room. Gousse said the two new portables, which each have two classrooms, will cost under $50,000.

The department’s original proposal would have sent one class from each elementary school, each made up of 18 students (for a total of 54), to the community center.

Lancia said that while the community center would have been an exciting opportunity to attempt an early childhood education center (with the department’s pre-K program also on site) there are more advantages of having students at the existing schools.

On Monday, Aug. 17, the Westbrook City Council and Westbrook School Committee will convene for a joint meeting to discuss future school expansion. Gousse said he has been in frequent discussions with City Administrator Jerre Bryant and City Planner Molly Just about the district’s needs.

Through the past year, as considerable housing development and other growth has been announced in Westbrook, the school department has also seen rising enrollment numbers. A study done by Portland-based Planning Decisions said Westbrook’s numbers would continue to rise, albeit slowly, during the next 10 years. However, with an uptick in development, numbers could push higher.

Bryant said Wednesday that Just will be giving an overview of the city’s growth projections, particularly what sections of the city will see the most growth. Knowing this can help the school department decide on which school to focus on in terms of expansion.

“The workshop is a key component to this discussion,” Gousse said about the meeting in August. “That’s when the question of ‘Where do we go now?’ will be discussed.”

“The size of our school-aged population is growing,” Lancia said. “Portables are a good short-term solution, but it can’t be longer than a few years.”

Gousse said the department and School Committee are “getting close” to a proposal for expansion, which most likely will include plans to renovate and expand Saccarappa and complete a third-floor wing at Westbrook Middle School that will add a series of classrooms. The department has been working with an architect on the project.

“At a minimum, we need a project at Saccarappa to build a gym and cafeteria,” he said, also adding that, “classroom expansion has to occur somewhere.”

Any project would be entirely funded by city property taxes.

“No one is looking to continue to increase portables or make these permanent,” Gousse said. “We see this as a two- to three-year envelope.”

A portable classroom sits just outside Saccarappa Elementary School this week. A plan from school officials would add two additional portable classrooms in the district in the face of growing kindergarten enrollments. Staff photo by Andrew Rice