AUBURN – School officials are expected to hire an architect later this month in preparation for a city-wide vote next spring on whether to replace or renovate Edward Little High School.

The architect will work with the community to decide whether a new school should be built or the existing one should be refurbished. In the coming months, the school department will host meetings with citizens to hear what they want and will hold straw polls, Auburn School Superintendent Tom Morrill said.

A new building could cost up to $52 million. Refurbishing would cost less, but would still be in the millions.

A referendum, which could be binding or nonbinding (officials are unsure), is planned for May, the same time citizens are expected to vote on the proposed school budget, Morrill said.

The timeline is contingent on a variety of factors, including money, Morrill said. The state is not accepting applications for school construction money and likely will not until 2010, Morrill said.

Barring donations from philanthropists, Auburn taxpayers would be asked to foot the bill without state help.

Some work already has been done. A tour of the high school Wednesday showed it’s looking good, compared to last November.

Walls that were dingy have fresh coats of paint. About 150 new classroom and exterior doors have been installed. The cafeteria and some halls have new flooring. There are new bathrooms, and the booster club has raised money to improve the fitness room.

New energy-efficient lights “really dress it up because it was dark,” Principal Jim Miller said Wednesday night as he led Auburn School Committee members around the building.

The recent improvements make the school look better, but they don’t take care of deficiencies, Miller said.

The 1961 school is energy inefficient. “It’s metal frame with no insulation. There is single-pane glass,” Miller said. “The heating delivery system is old.” The building is often too cold or too hot.

The small kitchen limits food preparation. There’s no auditorium and only soccer and track fields on site. Other fields are off campus.

“Program space is what we lack,” Miller said. “Everything you saw has been retrofitted. We have six art teachers. Their rooms were put here in the ’80s. The school was built in the ’60s. They’re not art rooms.” The same goes for other classes created in the past 40 years, including special education, computer education, English Language Learners. Office and guidance space is too small. There’s no place for meetings.

In the past year, the school department has spent more than $500,000 on building improvements: $160,000 for new doors and improved security; $240,000 for bathrooms; $58,000 for new floors; and $70,000 for energy-efficient lights. The money came from capital improvement bonds or grants.

The school department “is in a sense putting money into a high school you hope to replace,” acknowledged Auburn School Committee Chairman David Das. But no one knows when, or if, that replacement will happen, Das said.

“You’ve got to keep it running until you get a new one, and that costs money,” Miller said.