AUBURN – The cost of renovating or rebuilding Edward Little High School would overshadow any public project in the city’s history, taking at least two years and tens of millions of dollars to build.

The price tag for a new high school: $61.1 million. A full renovation and addition would cost $48.7 million.

Harriman Associates of Auburn unveiled the estimates Thursday along with a recommendation: Renovate.

“This building is still usable,” Harriman architect Jeffrey Larimer said. “It’s worth keeping and upgrading. Why would you want to walk away from that building and that site?”

However, it needs lots of work. Roofs need replacement. Ventilation, heating and handicapped accessibility is poor. Some flooring has asbestos. Classrooms are outdated.

“You’ve been making due for a long time,” Larimer said.

Making due may not be enough anymore, Superintendent Tom Morrill said. “The issues are structural.”

School officials found out last week that their accreditation agency – the New England Association of Schools & College’s Commission on Public Secondary Schools – voted unanimously to place the school on probation.

The group cited 41 deficiencies and described “dire facilities conditions.” They included poor lab spaces, a lack of storage, squeezed offices and recurring mold.

If the school loses its accreditation, graduating students could have problems getting into some colleges, Morrill warned.

Most of the 41 deficiencies would be addressed in either a new or renovated school, Larimer said. Either way, the result would be a building that would last 50 years, he said.

A new school would be built on a still-undecided location. The renovation would “gut” the current building, Larimer said. “It would be a new school built around the skeleton of the old one.”

Harriman’s estimated costs were based on the list of needs outlined by school administrators and staff and a detailed analysis of the building, designed in 1958 and 1959 and opened in 1961.

There are not yet plans or designs for any work at the building.

“There is a lot of guesswork and assumption at this point because we don’t have designs,” Larimer said.

The estimates came in higher than expected.

St. Dominic Regional High School, finished in 2001, cost $13 million to build. However, it is 78,000 square feet and serves 450 students. Harriman’s costs are tied to a school serving more than 1,000 students and covering about 234,000 square feet.

Either plan could be scaled back, Larimer said. “You have to decide; how much of that do you want to do?”

The Edward Little High School Building Committee, which met with Larimer on Thursday, plans to meet with the full School Committee in the coming weeks to further discuss the renovate or rebuild options.

An open house is planned at the high school on May 16 to give people a firsthand look at the school.

Estimates for Edward Little High School

Cost to renovate: $48.7 million

Changes would include an auditorium, an expanded library, more parking and a new cafeteria

Cost to replace: $61.1 million

New state-of-the-art building – energy-efficient, code compliant and fully handicapped accessible – on a more open, usable site

Source: Harriman Associates of Auburn