LEWISTON – Once Lewiston’s new Raymond A. Geiger Elementary School opens this fall, the old Pettingill school should be torn down. Then the site should turn it into a playground and park, School Committee members agreed Monday night.

The recommendation will go to the City Council.

A special committee has been working on what would be the best use of the Pettingill school. Part of that building opened as a school in 1929. It is being replaced by a new, larger school on College Avenue.

The committee concluded the Pettingill building has severe limits, said committee member Dennis Grafflin, who chaired the special panel. Repairs to keep the building open would cost $1.3 million.

On top of that, “the site is so small. There’s no parking,” which doesn’t make it financially viable, Grafflin said. The building “has very severe economic limits on what could be done.”

The special committee recommended the building be demolished and the site turned into a neighborhood park with a playground, Grafflin said. The school board agreed, approving the motion unanimously.

But demolishing the building won’t be cheap. Officials said early estimates to knock down the building and clean the site run from $230,000 to $280,000.

By law if a school building is not to be used for education, the committee has to offer the property to the city, which is what the committee decided Monday.

Meanwhile the board approved a re-districting plan for the new school.

Pettingill has 341 students who will attend the new Geiger school. Another 200 students from Montello will be sent there, relieving overcrowding at Montello.

That will give the new school a population of about 600 students, and Montello will have 650 students instead of 830. Two portable classrooms at Montello will no longer be needed, said Superintendent Leon Levesque. Also one of Farwell school’s pre-K classes will move to Geiger, Levesque said.