FARMINGTON – A team of architects described their proposed plans for the new W.G. Mallett School to the Planning Board, abutters and school building committee members Monday.

The project has been in the making for a year and still faces several decisions before going to referendum, perhaps this fall, Assistant Superintendent Susan Pratt said. It involves building a new school fronting on Middle Street, behind the present school fronting on Quebec Street.

The meeting was to explain the proposal and get feedback from the Planning Board, architect Stephen Blatt of Portland said.

Safety concerns about the proposed bus exit, a path straight through the property from Middle to Perham streets, and potential walkers was on the mind of several in the audience.

A parking area and parent drop-off in front of the new school’s front door would be accessed on Middle Street. From Middle Street, a separate drive would be limited to buses going one way from Middle to Perham, but on the Perham end, the bus exit would be a two-way for entrance/exit. That would allow access for service vehicles, access and parking for the Child Development Center behind Tri-County Mental Health Services and parking spaces for the University of Maine at Farmington that have had an agreement with SAD 9 for parking in the lot behind the existing school.

The proposal detailed 6-foot fencing, landscaping and planting large trees to create more privacy for the homes that abut the two homes to be purchased and razed to create the bus exit. The proposal also dropped the number of parking spaces along the bus exit from 20 to between 10 to 12.

But abutter Jeff Thomson and other audience members were concerned about parents dropping students off from the Perham Street end, leaving walkers in the pathway of buses leaving the school.

Blatt suggested that while he can design the building, perhaps the school could design a policy that would ask parents to not drop off children on Perham Street or in the bus exit and explain the safety issue to them.

Training the students also involves the parents, said Principal Tracy Williams.

The dedicated bus lane would provide more safety because buses would be removed from the children’s playing area instead of passing by them as they do now, said David Leavitt, SAD 9 transportation coordinator.

A traffic study done for the proposal indicated an increase of 33 new trips a day to the school, mostly due to the increase of about 50 prekindergarten students, one of Blatt’s team said. The study did not reveal any traffic concerns for Perham or Middle streets, she said. As for service vehicles, the school anticipates garbage removal a couple times a day and is looking at wood pellet heat requiring delivery every couple of weeks.

Other than when children come to school and leave in the afternoon, Blatt indicated the neighborhood should be fairly quiet.