New school

Total cost with bigger gym (both Questions 1 and 2 on Feb. 27 ballot must be approved): $21.9 million

State’s cost: $21.17 million (96.5 percent of total)

Lewiston taxpayers’ cost: $764,631 (3.5 percent of total)

Note: Approval of Question 1 gets Lewiston a new school with a small gym; approval of both 1 and 2 gets Lewiston a new school with a regulation-size gym.

No new school

Maintenance costs to stay in the present Pettingill building over the next 20 years: $3 million

Debt costs

On the local share: $72,640 in the first year of a 20-year loan.

Based on current valuation and tax rate, the impact on a $100,000 home would be $4.83 in the first year.

The cost would decrease each year to $2.66 in year 20.

When

If approved, the school would open in September 2009

For more information: www.lewiston.k12.me.us

Source: Lewiston School Superintendent Leon Levesque

Feb. 27 ballot

(Question seeks approval of new school with a smaller gymnasium.)

Question 1: Shall the City of Lewiston, through its school department, be authorized to construct and equip a new elementary school on the real estate described below that the City has under option agreement, and shall the Lewiston City Council be authorized to issue general obligation bonds and notes for school construction purposes in an amount not to exceed $21.3 million, with the balance of project costs to be derived from a grant of up to $120,000 from the Maine High Performing Schools Program?

(Question seeks a full-sized, regulation gymnasium at the school. Costs are local.)

Question 2: If the Pettingill Elementary School Project described in Question 1 is approved, shall the Lewiston City Council be authorized to issue additional general obligation bonds and notes therefore in an amount not to exceed $582,748 to expand the capacity of the gymnasium for that project?