JEFFERSON -- Chelsea residents voted 52 to 1 in a straw poll last month to move ahead with initial site plans for a new school. Now it's Jefferson's turn.

Both towns, along with Whitefield, belong to School Union 132.

Jefferson's straw poll to approve a site plan for a new school will be 6 p.m. Sept. 30. at Jefferson Village School, 48 Washington Road.

Superintendent Frank Boynton said it would cost more to renovate the old Jefferson school and bring it up to code than it would to build a new school.

He said the current building is crowded and needs major upgrades including new heating and electrical systems. The school is ranked 15th on the state's school funding priority list.

"They're looking at building a new school on the site where the present school exists, and purchasing a three-acre piece of land beside that site," Boynton said Monday. "Most of it will be town-owned land and it would include a new baseball field, a new softball field and soccer field."

The new building would have more than 45,000 square feet, as opposed to the present 20,000-square-foot building. The state would pay for the demolition of the old building.

Boynton said construction wouldn't likely be completed until 2010 or 2011.

Chelsea is going through a similar process. Its school officials met with a state panel on Monday and will send its site plan to the State Board of Education for approval on Wednesday.

The Chelsea Elementary School would be built on a 17-acre parcel on Route 226, formerly federal property at the Togus veterans' hospital.

Boynton said students in Chelsea and Jefferson would be educated in the existing school buildings during construction of the two new facilities. The students would move into the new schools upon completion and then the old schools would be demolished.

He said the Chelsea project will cost about $14 million. The cost of the Jefferson project hasn't been calculated yet, he said.

"The first step is for the town to OK the site, then it will go to the state for approval," he said. "The next step is concept approval. Then referendum. Those are things that will be coming down the line shortly."

The Jefferson school currently has 183 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

"The best we can do is put (the proposal) out there and see if people agree with it," he said. "I hope so. It will be really good for the children."

Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, Ext. 408

mcooper@centralmaine.com