North Stonington - Officials began to hear some pushback at their fourth presentation of a proposed $47 million school renovation to the public Wednesday night - a project that is slated to go to referendum next month.

With Board of Education and Board of Selectmen approval, architect Rusty Malik of Quisenberry Arcari Architects and Superintendent Peter Nero made their presentation to the Board of Finance and a crowd of a couple dozen in the elementary school gym.

The proposal includes more than 40,000 additional square feet of space for Wheeler Middle School/High School and North Stonington Elementary School, along with a new gymnasium/auditorium on the north side of Route 2. It would address multiple health, security and building code issues that have plagued the district's 50-plus-year-old facilities for years.

If approved, Malik said, elementary school construction would begin next summer and would wrap up one year later, while the middle/high school renovations would continue through December 2017.

Though any renovation is inconvenient, he said, this one would be done in "smaller bites," three- to four-month periods, moving through the buildings in "a very methodical way."

Echoing his three other public presentations, Nero emphasized safety and security as the project's top priorities, this time, with a prop - as he stomped on the gymnasium's linoleum floor and reminded the audience that this is what the children play on.

But as in years past, when taxpayers balked at large-scale, pricey plans that eventually fell by the wayside, several in attendance questioned the worth of footing the bill.

"I don't know if you looked at who's going to pay this back," resident Brian Rathbun said, adding that perhaps more than one option for the renovation should be on the ballot.

"It doesn't matter to me if they're learning under the tree out there or learning in the school," he said.

Others pointed out that the cost estimates do not include interest, making the ultimate cost to taxpayers even higher.

But the louder voices - and the ones that garnered applause - were those in support of a project they said has waited decades too long to get off the ground.

Mark Perkins Jr., chairman of the Fire/EMS Committee, noted the town's approval last summer of a $6.36 million new emergency services complex - another project that stalled for years despite growing concerns over an aging facility.

Waiting only ratchets up the cost, he said. Just as the cost of a new firehouse escalated, the tax impact of new schools only will become more painful a decade or two down the road.

"The infrastructure in the town is what it is. We've known about it since I was a kid in this school," he said, later adding, "At some point it's gotta stop. Just be done and get it over with."

Others - including Board of Finance Chairman Daniel Spring - said the investment would mean an eventual economic boost for the town, making it more attractive both to businesses and families.

Spring said the board will hold several workshops and special meetings in the hope of gaining approval of the project for a town vote by the end of next week.

a.isaacs@theday.com