A new consolidated middle school in South Portland could cost about $23 million to build, Ken Kunin, the city’s superintendent of schools, said at a public forum last week.

The school department is hoping to recieve state funding for the project, which could take up to six years to complete. One of the first steps in the Maine Department of Education’s mandated process was the forum, held on Oct. 5.

Residents discussed all the options on the table, which are renovating or building a new Mahoney Middle School or building a new consolidated middle school that would combine students from both Mahoney and Memorial Middle.

Kathy Germani, the assistant superintendent, said it’s been more than a decade since the school department first began trying to find a workable funding solution to the issue of what to do about the city’s two aging middle schools.

But it wasn’t until this past summer that the city learned Mahoney had finally made the list of school projects eligible for state funding. The school, which was built in the early 1920s on the corner of Ocean and Broadway, houses about 300 students. Memorial, which was built off Wescott Road in the 1960s, houses about 425.

There are pros and cons to each option, the pre-project architect Michael Johanning told attendees last week.

The news that Mahoney could be renovated or built new with state funding, while exciting, also foretells a long road ahead, Johanning said. That’s because the South Portland School Department is required to conduct a lengthy and detailed analysis about whether to build a new school, renovate or consolidate.

The required analysis will weigh factors such as safety and security, the historic value of each building, property size and room for growth, as well as traffic flow and accessibility, Johanning said.

After an introduction of where the school department stands, those in attendance  were broken up into small groups to address the issues surrounding the school construction options

Large sheets of paper on tables and walls in the high school cafeteria invited people to comment on and answer a series of questions provided by the Department of Education. Members of the public were also invited to write down their own questions.

Courtney Hart, whose daughter is now in third grade but who would attend Mahoney, wondered how consolidation might affect her child’s learning environment and ability to participate in extracurricular activities.

“If schools are consolidated, how can we make sure the kids will have sufficient access to extracurricular opportunities?” she asked.

Hart added that while she’s willing to be persuaded, her initial opinion, which is shared by many parents she knows, is against consolidation.

Hart likes that Mahoney would be within walking distance for her daughter and worries if the middle schools are consolidated that a shift from the small, “nurturing environment” at Brown Elementary School to a school that would top 700 students would be too dramatic.

“I really like the idea of a community, neighborhood school,” Hart said.

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