AUBURN — The new Edward Little High School — scheduled to open in the fall of 2021 — will have plenty of natural light and good career programs and will be an inviting place, School Committee Chairman Tom Kendall said.

It will have classrooms on one side and an auditorium, cafeteria and gym – space open to the public during nights and evenings – on the other side.

Kendall and others toured schools in Massachusetts last month, seeing that what’s out there showed possibilities and made the new school project “feel more real,” he said.

The Building Committee is working on site selection, which isn’t expected to be announced until the end of summer, Kendall said.

The group is working with a few sites, he said. “We’ve whittled it down.” The committee is talking to state environmental experts about the sites, including wetlands and vernal pools, learning “what we can and cannot do,” Kendall said. “There still are a lot of balls in the air but fewer than when we started” after state funding was approved in 2016.

When a site is selected it will have to be approved by the state, which is paying for the school. After that, Auburn voters will have to approve the site in a straw vote.

All of those steps will be followed by a new school referendum, which will include academic details and the cost. Auburn voters will have the final say. That referendum won’t likely happen until 2019, Kendall said.

The recent tour of schools in Massachusetts “opened a lot of eyes to the possibilities, made us aware of things to consider as we look to what we want,” Kendall said. “It helps set priorities.”

Edward Little aspirations coordinator Jim Horn, who also toured the schools, said his big takeaway was to ensure that the new high school will have adequate career training programs.

One of the schools visited was Essex Technical High School, which is physically huge and has extensive career programs, including plumbing, engineering, motor vehicle, equine science and some programs used by the public, such as a bakery, a restaurant and a hair salon.

Trade programs for Auburn students are lacking, Horn said. “I can only get two of our kids in Lewiston Regional Technical Center programs. If we’re spending $70 million or $80 million on a school, why build another college prep high school?” he said.

Not all students are going to a four-year college, Horn said. Allowing students to learn career programs shows how they need science and math to build houses or become welders, he said. “If more kids knew they had the opportunity to start their career in high school, school would have more meaning for them.”

Kendall agreed that more career programs are needed. The plan is that the new high school will be a satellite of the Lewiston Regional Technical Center.

Auburn could build a school with some of the characteristics the group saw at the West Bridgewater Middle-Senior High School in Massachusetts, he said. It has abundant natural light from high windows “which kept it bright, wider corridors, Google stairs,” which are stairs that double as seating, Kendall said.

The floors have rubberized tile “that kept it quiet, even though students were moving about.” The school has things such as an outside courtyard used by classrooms and students and airport-quality furniture that is attractive “but can take a pounding.”

It has spaces where students congregate making “for an environment that students want to be there, spaces that invited students to gather” Kendall said. “Auburn can incorporate some of those feature in the new school.”

The tour was taken by about 24 people including teachers, administrators and parents. The group will soon tour Maine schools, Kendall said. To see photos of the tour, go to: http://www.auburnschl.edu. 

Band teacher Bill Buzza, center, works with sophomore Loren Gardner, left, and junior Jon Meserve during jazz band practice after school on Tuesday. The new Edward Little High School is scheduled to open in the fall of 2021. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)

What’s next?

AUBURN — The new Edward Little High School Building committee next meets on Feb. 27 to hear updates from recent meetings with the Maine Department of Education.

In addition to continuing work on the site selection, “what’s going to happen now is the city will start to become more involved,” said Tom Kendall, who chairs the Auburn School Committee and building committee.

“We’ll be planning with the city manager. Anytime you do a project this size it impacts the city. I see the school department building committee interacting more with the city leadership so we get on the same page about what’s needed and impacts.”

Tom Kendall, who chairs the new Edward Little High School building committee, said the new school will be bright, inviting and include career training programs that students need. Work continues on finding a site for the new school, not expected to be announced until this summer. The new school is scheduled to open in 2021.