BREWER – Whether the city gets funds for a new, combined elementary-middle school or just a new elementary school is the key question that needs to be answered by the Maine Department of Education, Brewer school officials are saying.

“It all depends on what the state is willing to fund,” Business Manager Lester Young said Tuesday.

Brewer school officials and engineers from WBRC Architects-Engineers of Bangor, hired in March as the project designer, have compared renovation costs against new construction for the city’s three elementary schools and the middle school and will present the comparisons to DOE officials in early September.

The analysis will be used by the state to determine if Brewer will build a prekindergarten- through-eighth-grade school or something smaller.

“It looks pretty favorable for the elementary school,” Young said. “It’s going to cost at least 80 percent as much to renovate versus [building] new. It looks very good for K-five.

“As far as the middle school, it doesn’t look as favorable,” Young said.

Brewer would like to replace the four aging elementary schools and middle school, all built between 1926 and 1962, with a combined elementary-middle school, but needs DOE approval to move forward.

“It’s still in limbo at this point,” Young said.

At an earlier meeting with DOE officials, there was resistance to the middle school being included in the construction plans, because middle schools are more expensive to build and require sports fields and extra classroom equipment, Richard Graves, WBRC architect, told the newly formed committee last month.

Extremely high operating costs and the lack of outdoor activity fields are issues at Brewer Middle School, he noted.

The State Board of Education approved 13 school construction projects in August 2005, with the top six acquiring funds in 2008 and the remaining seven, with Brewer’s State Street School second on the list, set to receive funds in 2009. The hope is to open Brewer’s new school in 2010.

After state inspectors reviewed the city’s six schools more than two years ago, and reported that all had significant facility deficiencies, Brewer school officials decided to change their long-range plans and request the combined elementary-middle school.

Once state officials make the decision about the proposed school’s size and scope, the new building committee will have the job of selecting a site. At Monday’s meeting, Graves went over a 20-page handout of criteria for site selections.

“There are about 20 to 25 items” to consider, Young said.

Included on the site selection matrix are: whether the land is suitable for a school; whether it is in a designated growth area; and whether it is near essential services such as police and fire departments.

Because the meeting with the DOE is in early September, results should be available by the time the committee meets on Sept. 18, which will allow the committee to focus on site selection, Young said.

The school building committee meets at 6:30 p.m. in the Brewer High School library on the third Monday of every month.