AUBURN – In 2013, then Deputy Education Commissioner Jim Rier told the School Committee that getting state funding to build a new Edward Little High School wasn’t “hopeless.”

The state was proceeding with a list of school construction projects, ranked in order of need, and historically the top 20 are approved, Rier said.

Edward Little High School is No. 16 on that 2010-11 list. “Being 16 doesn’t guarantee anything, but it isn’t hopeless,” Rier said.

Two years later, the first 12 schools have been approved and are guaranteed state money. Any project beyond No. 12 is not guaranteed state funding, Maine Department of Education’s Scott Brown of the Major Capital School Construction Program said.

Auburn officials are beginning to worry that with so much time having passed, the state may draw up a new construction list and Edward Little could get kicked lower on a new list.

“Jim Rier encouraged us to stay the course, that there could be funding in the next couple of years,” Auburn Superintendent Katy Grondin said. “It’s been a couple of years. We’re hearing we’re not on the horizon because of the projects in front of us.”

Auburn Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said he and others want to find out the official status, and wanted to know if anything can be done “to move the needle.”

The community has strong interest in a new high school but cannot afford to pay for it with only local taxes, LaBonte said.

“The top 12 projects have been green-lighted. We’re sitting there fourth on the list of waiting,” LaBonte said. “We’re still looking at an unacceptable time horizon.”

How many projects past No. 12 will get approved depends “on a whole bunch of factors,” Brown said, including recommendations from the Education Commissioner’s office and the State Board of Education, and how much money is available from state lawmakers and retired bonds.

The state has an annual budget of $126 million to cover bond payments from approved projects, Suzan Beaudoin, director of School Finance and Operations for the Department of Education, said. As bonds are paid off, more money becomes available, she said.

But schools have gotten more expensive, which takes more of the money. And there are five high schools in front of Edward Little. High schools are more expensive. The Sanford high school and technical center, which is No. 2, is expected to cost $92 million.

Meanwhile, “There is talk of a new list,” Beaudoin said.

If that were to happen soon, the existing list “stays in place until a new list is accepted by the State Board of Education,” Brown said. That would take at least two years, he said.

Lewiston’s Peter Geiger, who serves on the State Board of Education, said a call for a new list could come up anytime — the current list is five years old. Until a new list is approved, “other schools will be taken on as the debt limit and process allows.”

Maine acting Education Commissioner Tom Desjardin, who graduated from Edward Little High School in 1982, visited his old school last February.

School librarian Patricia Gauthier asked if he could help or give any encouragement about when “we’re going to get our letter of commitment to build a brand new high school?”

“I can’t,” Desjardin answered, adding typically the top 20 projects get funded. “At some point we’ll get there.”

A new Edward Little High School has been talked about in Auburn for years.

Problems with the school, built in 1961, include having unhealthy air from moisture and mold, and not enough space for programs.

“It was built for the ’60s model of education,” Principal Jim Miller said. “We didn’t have mandated health classes, technology, special ed, fine arts. All those requirements, the building wasn’t designed for.”

The cafeteria is inadequate. The building is energy inefficient. “You’re talking single-pane windows,” Miller said. “Our athletic fields are all over the community. “There’s only one chemistry lab. No biology lab. Kids dissect on desks that they take notes on.”

In 2013, an Auburn committee recommended building a new high school asking local taxpayers to pay for it without state help. That plan was called off after Auburn officials agreed to wait and hope for state funding.

Past estimates to build a new Edward Little have been $62 million.

bwashuk@sunjournal.com

Top 20 school construction projects from 2011; first 12 have been approved

1. Corinth Morison Memorial School
2. Sanford High School & Regional Technical Center
3. Newport Elementary School
4. Sanford Emerson School
5. Fryeburg Charles A. Snow School
6. Newport Nokomis Regional High School
7. Topsham Mt. Ararat High School
8. LewistonMartel School
9. Monmouth Middle School
10. Caribou Teague Park School
11. Bath Morse High School
12. Portland Fred P. Hall School
13. Sanford Lafayette School
14. South Portland Mahoney Middle School
15. RSU 24 – Sullivan Sumner Memorial High School
16. Auburn Edward Little High School
17. Augusta Hussey School
18. Portland Longfellow School
19. Caribou Caribou Middle School
20. Lewiston Longley Elementary School