Stonington — The K-12 School Building Committee and the project architect unveiled the preliminary designs for the upcoming $69 million renovation and expansion of West Vine Street and Deans Mill schools during a community meeting Tuesday night.  

About 50 school officials, teachers and residents also asked questions about topics such as security, parking and alterative energy systems.

The learned that the 14-month period to design the project has begun and will be completed in January 2017.

The 15-month construction period is projected to commence in April 2017 and be completed in July 2018. The new schools will be open when students return to school the following month.

Gilbane Inc., the contractor for the high school expansion and renovation project, has been hired to do the elementary school project and will have two teams working on both schools simultaneously.

The design for both schools call for separate areas for buses, parent drop-off and prekindergarten drop-off.

Separate play areas for younger and older children are being considered and discussions are ongoing about incorporating alternative energy systems into the new schools.

The design the committee is working on for West Vine Street School calls for a 56,400-square-foot school that will accommodate 437 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade compared to the 112 now in kindergarten through second grade.

An addition would be built onto the existing school with parking in front and play areas behind the building, a design feature that some at Tuesday’s meeting expressed concern about because it would be hidden.

Plans also call for retaining the school’s sensory garden.

Plans for Deans Mill School call for demolishing a large section of the school and building an addition for a total of 62,000 square feet.

The school, which now houses 426 students in kindergarten through fourth grade would have 523 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade when the work is completed.

During the work at Deans Mill, students will be transitioned between the section of the school under renovation and the new addition, which will be constructed first.

Building committee Chairman Rob Marseglia said Tuesday there is money in the project to bring in portable classrooms to house students if needed.

Another community meeting is planned for May to update residents on the progress of the designs.

Residents overwhelmingly approved the renovation of the aging elementary schools at a referendum last spring.

The project, which will cost taxpayers $52.3 million after state reimbursement, is designed to get another 50 years of life out of the two 48-year-old buildings.

Neither school has received an update since they were built in 1967.

An addition was built at Deans Mill in 1973 after a fire damaged Stonington borough’s elementary school.

The plan also calls for closing 116-year-old West Broad Street School and moving fifth-grade students from the middle schools back to the elementary schools.

j.wojtas@theday.com