GORHAM – The Gorham High School Building Committee was expected to unveil its renovation and expansion plans on Wednesday, Jan. 8, at the regular School Committee meeting.

James Hager, committee chairman and a former School Committee member, and architect Lyndon Keck of PDT, were to make presentations in the meeting at 7 p.m., after the American Journal deadline.

Hager said before the meeting the Building Committee’s estimated cost of the plan is $14.7 million, and the Building Committee advocates a referendum this November.

The figure would not include a separate referendum question asking for an additional $2.2 million for a synthetic turf field at the school. The field question hinges on voter approval of the school renovation.

The state would not be involved in funding and the Gorham taxpayers would pay entire costs.

The renovation and expansion plans include 12 new classrooms, a new science lab, new boiler and other mechanical upgrades, new roof, 182 additional parking spaces, increasing security measures and enlarging the cafeteria by 13,000 square feet.

“The cafeteria is woefully inadequate,” Hager said.

Details of the expansion/renovation will be discussed in a School Committee workshop on Jan. 22, Hager said. The project could be on the School Committee’s February agenda.

Besides School Committee approval, placing the measures on a referendum ballot also would require Gorham Town Council approval.

The school, which opened in 1959, was expanded in 1995 for about 675 students at a cost of $11 million. The school’s enrollment is now listed as 843.

Keck was to show a PowerPoint presentation with broad details at the meeting on Wednesday. Hager called this week’s presentation a “rollout” to update the public.

After Gorham school officials identified overcrowding at the high school, a committee was formed in 2009 to begin exploring the possibility of a project. Gorham voters in a June 2011 referendum rejected a $3 million project that would have built a new stadium with artificial turf for high school varsity teams near the Public Safety Building on Main Street.