LEWISTON – When students at Pettingill Elementary School were dismissed Thursday, they got on buses using a public street for a parking lot. A car traveling down Little Street had to stop when the driver saw students boarding.

It’s like that every day, and it’s not a safe situation, Principal David Bartlett said. “We have to stop traffic to unload and load students.”

A new school that would relieve that and other problems, such as overcrowding, awaits if approved by voters in a special election Feb. 27.

The total cost of a new Pettingill School, including a regulation-size gym, would be $21.9 million. The state would pay for 96.5 percent; Lewiston taxpayers would pick up the remaining 3.5 percent.

The school would be built at the site of Cote’s golf driving range on College Street, about a mile from the existing school.

Pettingill School – built in 1929 and enlarged in 1965 – is too small, Superintendent Leon Levesque said. It lacks adequate space for everything from parking to the cafeteria and classrooms.

Classes are held in the basement, a real basement with overhead pipes.

There’s no computer lab.

The library is in a portable building on the front lawn.

“We do not have an art room,” Bartlett said.

The art program is on wheels, which limits learning. There’s also no music room, so lessons and performances are held in small places or different locations.

“We were unfortunate to live in these facilities for some time, but right now is the time to do the project,” Levesque said. “The state share is very favorable,” he said, referring to the state paying 96.5 percent of the cost.

It would cost $3 million to keep the existing building open for another 20 years, Levesque said. “I’d have to put money in over the years just to keep that building functional,” he said.

It has taken Lewiston eight years to reach funding status on the state’s priority list, he said. If voters turn down the project, the state money would go to another community. It could take another 10 years to get state-approved construction, Levesque said.

‘Montello-Pettingill project’

A new Pettingill School would be built to hold its 300 students and about 300 from Montello, solving overcrowding at both schools.

“Montello’s been the catch basin for years,” Levesque said. “As we started closing schools in Lewiston, we put students at Montello,” he said.

“Although this is replacing Pettingill, this is really a Montello-Pettingill project.”

Lewiston is lucky to have found a site for the new school that is large enough and close to the current school, Levesque said.

“We’ve spent a lot of time with state and city planning. We know that housing development will continue in that area.”

The new K-6 school would be energy-efficient, and would have four classrooms for each grade level and the capacity for full-day kindergarten. It would have a pre-school program for 4-year-olds.

It would have space for special education, a library, an art room, a cafeteria and a gym with a stage. Its outside would be reddish brick with a drive to safely load and unload students.

Attractive, good schools are part of economic development for Lewiston, Levesque said.

“We want young families to live in the city. They’re going to look at services,” he said. “Schools that are safe and welcoming are part of that picture.”