Gorham voters overwhelming approval of the new White Rock school is doing more than addressing the need to accommodate increasing enrollment. It is allowing school officials to finally move toward three schools with kindergarten through fifth grade.

In 2001, the Gorham School Department decided the district needed three K-5 schools instead of two K-2 schools and only one K-5 school to provide a steadier education, said Brad Smith, principal at Narragansett School, and a member of the K-5 transition committee.

“The referendum being successful does give us the chance to move forward with our ultimate goal of reconfiguring the school district,” Smith said. “I am excited that having kids have fewer school changes is going to be positive for them.”

Having three K-5 schools enables students to stay in one place longer. Currently, students attending Narranansett and White Rock leave after their second-grade year to attend the larger Village school.

“For some kids, it’s not a critical factor. They seem to adjust to transitions,” Smith said. “For some students, the number of transitions and the significance of that is very important particularly when we work with families to enhance student achievements.”

Gorham voters and residents have discussed building a new White Rock School, which currently only holds about 100 students, for nearly two years. Voters on Sept. 17 voted to approve a $25.8 million bond to build the new elementary school with 1,055 voters voting yes to 179 voting no. A little less than 11 percent of voters headed to the polls.

The Gorham Building Committee met on Wednesday (after the American Journal’s press time) to discuss the next steps after the referendum, Gorham Superintendent Ted Sharp said.

Sharp said the committee must complete several construction documents and do a final review of the plans by April. From there, Gorham will need to get final design and funding approval through the state Board of Education by May.

The project will go out to bid in May, and the Gorham Town Council is expected to accept a bid by June.

“We have set these deadlines for ourselves in order to complete the project in our estimated time frame,” Sharp said.

Sharp said he anticipates breaking ground on the project by July of 2009 with construction being completed by July 2011 with the school opening the following September.

“I don’t anticipate anything not going smoothly,” Sharp said. “We’ve cleared the biggest hurdle already with the voters approving the bond referendum.”

In addition to completing the appropriate paperwork to submit to the state, the district is working diligently to handle logistical issues, such as rezoning to determine which schools students will attend, updating bus routes and figuring out what will be needed for playing fields and play equipment and what the implications will be for the musical, art and physical education programs.

“The K-5 Transition Committee has been working in earnest for the past two years meeting every two weeks to discuss these issues,” Smith said. “Some of those issues have been focused on the new White Rock School, but mostly on the K-5 transition.”

After the White Rock School is finished, it will be the largest elementary school in the district with room for 525 students. Village School will have room for 425 students, and Narragansett will have room for 325 students.

Smith said the school district’s main goal is providing good education across the district.

“The quality of education that the child gets will be the same regardless of where they go,” he said. “We want there to be three schools, one district and one common experience for the kids.”

The total cost of the White Rock School will be $25.8 million. The state will pay $23.2 million, and Gorham will pay $2.5 million. An additional $161,142 will come from federal grants.

The Maine Department of Education has ranked replacing the White Rock School, which is outdated and overcrowded, 10th on a statewide priority list for help.

The vote on the bond will add 5 cents to the town’s tax rate of $16 per $1,000 of valuation, said Gorham Town Manager David Cole. The following year it will add 20 cents and drop off after the fifth year. Based on a home valuation of $200,000 and an interest rate of 5.07 percent, the new school would cost $10.20 per home in the first year, reach a final cost of $36.94 by year five and drop off from there, according to information handed out at a Sept. 2 Town Council meeting.

The new school will be located on 25 acres, about half a mile from the intersection of routes 202 and 237 in the northeast quadrant of Gorham, keeping it close to the existing White Rock School.

The new school will be nearly 82,000 square feet. It will also be designed to expand to house nearly 820 students. The current White Rock School is 11,000 square feet.