PARIS – January is going to be a busy month for SAD 17 officials working on plans for a new Paris Elementary School.

At 7 p.m. Jan. 25, the Paris Planning Board will begin a site plan review of the $12 million school, planned for land bordered by Hathaway Road and Meadow Lane off High Street.

That same day, school district officials will meet with Department of Education officials on the project, which still needs to win final design approval from the state.

On Jan. 26, school officials and project architects Lewis and Malm Architects of Bucksport will meet with the Paris Elementary School Building Committee. That meeting is set for 6 p.m. at the district’s central office in Oxford.

Also this month, school officials filed a required permit application with the Department of Environmental Protection for the project. Public comment will be accepted by the DEP throughout the permitting process, but a hearing won’t be held unless one is requested by the end of the month.

“We’re not expecting any issues with that process,” Superintendent Mark Eastman said. “It’s simply a required part of the process.”

Eastman said the project is on schedule. Last September, district voters approved spending $600,000 as the local share of costs for the school, which ranked third on the state’s list for priority funding in 2002.

The school will house 450 students in kindergarten through grade six. It will replace the present Mildred Fox Elementary School in Paris and the Madison Avenue School in Oxford.