Gorham town councilors Tuesday in a joint workshop with school officials appear grim as they hear issues about overcrowded schools and a looming repair job. Pictured, from left, are town councilors James Hager, Marla Stelk, Suzanne Phillips, and Chairman Benjamin Hartwell. Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak is in the background.

GORHAM — Gorham school officials, facing overcrowded buildings and a big-ticket repair job, met with town councilors Tuesday to discuss the potential of three spending referendums next year.

Referendum proposals include asking taxpayers to borrow money to pay for a multi-million high school renovation/expansion project, to buy more portable classrooms for the district and to fund a $1.9 million replacement of the heating and ventilation system at the middle school.

Members of the Town Council appeared not to favor three referendums in the same year.

“To do it all in one year is suicide,” Town Councilor Marla Stelk said.

No votes or final decisions came in Tuesday’s workshop.

The high school project seemed to top the list. “The priority for me is working on the high school,” School Committee Chairman Darryl Wright said.

The project could go to local voters in November next year. It’s also possible it could go to referendum in June, placing it on the same ballot as the annual school budget validation referendum.

Architect Dan Cecil of Harriman Associates told councilors the project is “a work in progress.” Planning started last fall. “We’re now in the concept design phase,” he said.

Cecil said the high school with a capacity for 750 students has 850 now with 944 projected by 2027-2028. Superintendent Heather Perry said a project would be constructed to house 1,100 students.

An estimated cost remains unknown now, but a rough estimate will likely be announced this fall. After Tuesday’s meeting, Cecil said a final figure will be known in mid-spring.

Additional portable buildings are necessary to relieve overcrowding at district schools as enrollments swell, Perry said.

 The number of portable classrooms appeared unclear this week, and Wright said it would be discussed later this fall after the municipal election when the new committee is seated.

“The direction from the council is to lease them (portables),” School Committee member Dennis Libby said after the meeting.

Town councilors advocated delaying a decision on the middle school project. “Keep your fingers crossed on the heat pumps,” Town Councilor Ronald Shepard said.

Norm Justice, facilities director for the school district, said a project could take two years.

The school was built in 2002 and a consultant, Stephen Doel of Bennett Engineering, said the middle school has 120 heat pumps. Replacing existing heat pumps as they fail would cost $1 million.

It was one of five options Doel outlined  for dealing with the middle school heating and cooling system. Option 1 calls for replacing all “major system” components costing $1.9 million and is the best “overall,” Doel said.

New heat pumps would have a life expectancy of 15 to 20 years, have higher efficiency and require fewer new pumps.

/////In March 2014, a heat pump “seized, overheated and caught fire,” the school’s principal Robert Riley notified parents. Smoke evacuated the school during a parent-teacher conference, but classes were not in session.////

School officials did not wrap costs of the system into its annual budget.

“We didn’t put it into the budget because a project of this size has always been something we look to bond rather than have the total cost hit all at once,” Perry said in an email Wednesday.  “We didn’t feel that we could add $1.9 million to the regular budget in one fiscal year.”

The School Committee was expected to discuss at a workshop Wednesday evening results of the meeting with town councilors.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 854-25677 or [email protected].