AUBURN – The effort to renovate or replace Edward Little High School inched forward as teachers’ comments on the school – from stale air and poor heating to the need for a second gymnasium – were outlined Thursday.

Every teacher and staff member at the school has been interviewed in the past month, said Jeffrey Larimer, who is leading the school analysis for Auburn’s Harriman Associates, an architectural and engineering firm.

There is neither a plan nor a design for how the four-decade-old school may be recreated, school officials said.

However, everyone who works in the school now says it has its faults, Larimer said Thursday. He gave his briefing to members of the Edward Little Building Committee.

Following hours of interviews, Larimer condensed teachers’ comments into 44 separate deficiencies or needs.

Every interviewee had at least one complaint, he said.

Among them were:

• The building is old and small.

• It lacks an identity and a clearly defined main entrance.

• The building is not energy efficient, handicapped accessible in all areas and does not meet current codes for emergency lighting and alarms.

• It needs a larger, brighter cafeteria and kitchen, updated lab spaces, a larger library and more parking.

Not all of the 44 items would be solved in any plan, Larimer said. Rather it was meant to create a snapshot of how the teachers and staff feel about the building.

Some are backed up by empirical data, he said. Among them is the need for space.

“It is slightly undersized,” Larimer said.

The school covers 161,000 square feet of space, or about three-quarters of the size of Auburn’s Wal-Mart.

That equates to about 154 square feet for each of the 1,050 students, he said. In Maine, the average for a new school is slightly higher at 164 square feet per child, he said

Nationally, the number approaches 200.

It’s too soon for any number to become Auburn’s target, particularly since the work on the school is still early. In fact, workers from Larimer’s firm plan to examine the school site further in the coming weeks.

An exact plan will come later, after the public is consulted.

School officials plan to create a public information campaign for the project as it goes along.

“There will be a plan and there will be a chance for the public to vote,” said David Das, chairman of the Auburn School Committee.

The project has been under way since last year, when the School Committee targeted Edward Little’s problems as its No. 1 priority.

In November, the committee hired Harriman to lead the analysis and come up with a plan.

That cost is expected to reach $80,000 to $100,000, said Jude Cyr, business manager for the school district.