FARMINGTON – SAD 9 directors will hold a hearing Tuesday on the proposed new W. G. Mallett School to be built behind the current one.

The project calls for a building to house prekindergarten through third grades.

The estimated $18.9 million cost will be paid 99.6 percent by the state, with the district kicking in $75,000, assistant Superintendent Sue Pratt said.

Voters in each district town will be asked Jan. 22 if they want to authorize directors to issue bonds or notes for up to $18.7 million to construct and equip the school. The article also asks voters to accept a Maine High Performance Schools grant for up to $150,000 to reduce cost and amount of bonds or notes authorized to be issued for the project. If total construction bids exceed estimates for the project, the state may permit the district to use the grant for such additional costs.

If the project is approved, it will go to bid in December, with construction to begin in early spring 2010 and be open for school in September 2011, she said.

SAD 9 learned in 2006 that both W.G. Mallett School and Mt. Blue High School/Foster Regional Applied Technology Center in Farmington were on a list of 20 state protected major capital school construction projects. Voters approved both projects staying at their sites in straw polls last year. The high school project is a renovation and addition project with new athletic fields.

Features of the proposed new Mallett School are:

• A 60,000-square-foot brick school, 20,000 square feet larger than the existing school.

• With the cafeteria and gymnasium close to the front door, the school can serve as a community building as well as a school. The classroom section can be closed off for night meetings with everyone entering the front door.

• Buses circle a loop from Middle Street to drop off or pick up students near a covered front porch. A separate drive with parking spaces for parents to bring children to school also enters from Middle Street, goes around the school and exits on Quebec Street.

• The design allows space for prekindergarten and kindergarten classes on the first floor as well as a music and computer room while first, second and third grade classes are on the second floor.

• The design of each room includes a large set of windows and smaller windows for maximum daylight harvesting. Room for a wood pellet silo and boiler were drawn into the plans.

• The new building is designed to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified.

• Once the new school is built, the present school will be razed and the space developed into a large playground.