Portland school board members are leaning toward a plan to rebuild Hall Elementary School at its current location, despite the state’s suggestion that they consider consolidating Hall with Longfellow Elementary, the board chairwoman said Tuesday.

Last week, the board held a workshop on the Hall School project, and concerned parents turned in a petition signed by more than 560 residents urging them not to consolidate the two schools.

“Based on the conversation at the workshop, it appears most of the board is leaning toward proceeding with Hall as planned and restarting the Hall School Building Committee in July,” Board Chairwoman Sarah Thompson said in a news release Tuesday.

The board will vote on the next steps in the Hall rebuilding project at its meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 16, at Lyseth Elementary School.

The Maine Department of Education has already agreed to pay for the construction of a school to replace Hall – estimated to cost $20 million – but the process stalled this year when some incorrect enrollment projections understated how many students would attend Hall.

That prompted the state to ask Portland school officials to consider the efficiencies of building a larger, consolidated school on one site.

Longfellow is currently on a waiting list for state funding, but is low on the list, making it unclear whether the state will agree to fund it in future years or whether the city will have to pay for improvements.

But the Hall enrollment projections did not include certain neighborhoods in the district and population growth trends. The updated numbers, presented to the board last week, were in line with initial projections that met state approval.

The Hall project architect, Oak Point Associates, also briefed the board on the impact of consolidating the schools, such as traffic patterns and site locations.

“(The report) indicated that building a larger, consolidated school on either the Longfellow site or the Hall School site would cause major disruptions in those neighborhoods,” the news release said.

For example, if it was located at Longfellow, the school would be placed on a parking lot there and require eliminating nearby Deering High School sports fields to create a new parking lot.

“Thompson said most board members considered those options unfeasible, which is why the board appears to be leaning toward the original plan of replacing Hall,” the news release said.

If the board votes to rebuild Hall at its current location, Portland residents would vote in 2016 on whether to accept state funding for the project.