AUBURN — The School Committee voted unanimously Wednesday night to accept a building committee’s recommendation to build a new high school at the site of Edward Little.

The School Committee also voted 7-1 to apply to the state for money to build the school, which is estimated to cost $60 million.

City Councilor Ron Potvin, the mayor’s representative on the committee, was the opposing vote.

Potvin made a motion recommending the School Committee hold a referendum before the state application deadline, which is June 2010. That referendum would ask voters if they wanted to build a new high school and pay for it without state money.

Potvin said Auburn has already failed two times to get state money for a new high school, and that “nothing’s more important” in a community than the high school. Going the state funding route could take years; building the school with local money would be much quicker, he said.

He said the Building Committee’s cost of a new school could be reduced, maybe as low as $40 million, by keeping the existing gym and building around it.

If voters rejected the referendum, there would still be time to apply for state funding, Potvin said.

He said he made the motion because of the urgent need for a new high school, and because of “timing.” Because the city will soon be retiring debt, a $40 million high school could replace that debt without a huge increase in taxes.

Other committee members said it’s critical to go after state money, that the community cannot afford to build a new school on its own.

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