PARIS – With a major vote looming, SAD 17 officials on Tuesday made one last attempt to answer questions about a $12 million elementary school proposed for Paris.

“If we don’t get citizen approval, the project is stopped,” Superintendent Mark Eastman told a small crowd gathered for a public hearing at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

If the project is approved through special districtwide referenda Sept. 14, the state will pick up 95 to 96 percent of the cost, Eastman said.

The state would pay $11.6 million for the school, which would be built between High Street, Hathaway Road and Meadow Lane in Paris.

District taxpayers would foot about 4 percent of the bill, or between $428,000 and $607,000, depending on whether they also approved air conditioning for the classrooms.

Rick Malm of Lewis and Malm Architecture presented preliminary designs for the school Tuesday. He said the deal is almost too good to be true and urged people to vote for the project.

He noted that the special referenda are being held before the November election in order to help the district put the project out to bid early. Projects put out to bid early in the spring go for better rates, he said.

About 10 people posed questions Tuesday, residents wanting to know about preschool classes included in the building plans; how the school traffic may affect walkers in the neighborhood; and whether rumors that children from West Paris will be moved to the new school are true.

On the latter, Eastman said he has no intention of closing the West Paris school because he believes each town should have its own elementary school.

“As long as I’m superintendent and the board supports me on this, that will be our goal,” he said.

The school’s effect on neighborhood traffic is being taken into consideration, he said.

As for the preschool classrooms, Eastman said they’ve been added into the plans because the state will allow them to be built now, but will not pay for the additional rooms after the school is built.

Adding preschool classes in the district has been discussed but not planned, Eastman said.

If the school is approved and construction begins on the projected start date of July 5, the school could be completed and occupied by December 2006, Eastman said.