OXFORD – When SAD 17 voters consider funding for a new Paris Elementary School, they’ll be asked to cover the cost of air conditioning using local funds so the school can be used year-round.

The state is covering 95 percent of the estimated $12 million cost for the new school, to be sited on High Street. That’s higher than the 75 percent average of state support for new school construction, Superintendent Mark Eastman told the board of directors Monday.

But the state does not consider air conditioning to be part of basic school construction costs, so the warrant for the Sept. 14 referendum must list the air conditioning option as a separate article, Eastman said.

“Our goal is to provide for year-round use at at least two elementary schools in the district,” he said. Harrison Elementary School is being renovated for air conditioning this summer, in part to solve air quality problems at that school.

The year-round use of elementary schools is desirable in order to help ensure that students who need extra help in the summer will get it, Eastman said.

“We need to look ahead, and provide year-round use of schools that is reasonable convenient to all children in the district,” he said.

If the local option fails, there will be limited air conditioning at the new Paris school, in the library and office and other specialized spaces. But not in classrooms.

A public hearing on the funding for the new Paris Elementary School will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 7 at the district’s central office in the Oxford Shopping Plaza.