AUGUSTA – The concept plan for SAD 68’s proposed new $10.5 million elementary school received unanimous approval Wednesday from the State Board of Education.

Now the project will proceed to the design and funding stages. A public hearing on the construction project will be held in February and a referendum vote will be conducted in the district in March. The district includes the towns of Dover-Foxcroft, Monson, Sebec, and Charleston.

“There is general and widespread support for this project,” SAD 68 superintendent John Dirnbauer said Wednesday as he related the district’s history to board members and its plan for the future. He said the new school would provide better opportunities for students. “I think it will help us meet the Maine Learning Results,” he said.

The proposed new school, which was supported 69 to 37 by SAD 68 residents in a straw vote Tuesday, is expected to serve 140 pupils from pre-kindergarten through grade four. The new school will be on the campus of SeDoMoCha Middle School in Dover-Foxcroft and will house the district office.

Dirnbauer said that at one time there were 20 small schools in Dover-Foxcroft, Monson, Sebec and Charleston. All but the Morton Avenue Elementary School in Dover-Foxcroft, the Monson Elementary School and SeDoMoCha Middle School have been closed.

The move to combine the elementary school and the district office on the middle school campus was praised Wednesday by state board member James Carrigan. He complimented Dirnbauer and SAD 68 directors for being willing to work together to bring about the consolidation despite opposition by residents of one community.

Although more than 250 Charleston residents have petitioned Education Commissioner Susan Gendron to do a fact-finding into what they called “irregularities” in the construction plans, no one from that community attended Wednesday’s session. The residents also have asked for Gendron’s help to expedite the town’s withdrawal from SAD 68, a move prompted by the district’s closure of the Charleston Elementary School.

“There are some people in Charleston who are very upset about this,” Dirnbauer said. He believed, however, that over time the district will get the support of residents in that community. District and Charleston officials will be meeting with state education officials next week to discuss the town’s withdrawal application, he said.

State board member Jean Gulliver referred to the fact the district had 20 schools in operation at one time and said Charleston was not the only school that had been consolidated.

If Charleston does withdraw from the district, Dirnbauer was asked what impact that move would have on the new building plan. The superintendent explained that Charleston now has 60 children in kindergarten through grade four. When the new school opens in 2007, it is projected the town will have about 30 children in those grades, he said.

Dirnbauer reminded the board members that there are about 40 elementary pupils at the Monson school who were not factored into the new school project. He acknowledged that at some point, the district must address the future of the Monson school.

Gulliver suggested that the district could substitute Monson children for the Charleston pupils.