East Lyme — A decision on a project to renovate an elementary school and completely rebuild another one could come before voters in March.

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Newton said Monday that the school district is looking at March as a potential date for a referendum on a proposal to completely renovate Niantic Center School, build a new Flanders Elementary School and return Lillie B. Haynes to the town.

Newton presented to the school board on Monday a timeline of the project's history, starting with a study several years ago that found the district's three elementary schools required $22 million in repairs. He outlined the steps that led to the school board's decision last December to endorse moving forward with planning the project.

To move toward a referendum this year, he said community forums will be scheduled this fall. The forums will present residents with costs of the proposals, as well as diagrams of the buildings and the date of the referendum.

The architect will finalize costs by mid-October, he said.

He also said discussions are ongoing with town officials regarding relocating town offices to the Lillie B. Haynes building in the future.

If the community makes a decision at the proposed referendum this year, district officials would file for state reimbursement by June 2016. They would then complete the construction plans for the project by May 2017.

Under that timeline, construction could begin at Niantic Center and Flanders in July 2017. The date for the completion of construction has not yet been set.

Newton said the project is time-sensitive, as the district's reimbursement rate — now at 43.21 percent — decreased slightly from last year and likely could continue to decrease with each year.

Board member Candice Carlson said she was in favor of having discussions with the community as soon as possible.

Chairman Timothy Hagen said the project has many components that will need to be presented to the community, so the public can consider "the whole picture" and make a decision.

k.drelich@theday.com

Twitter: @KimberlyDrelich