Groton – Town and school leaders plan to present an alternative school construction plan to the Groton Town Council and to voters: Build one new middle school and renovate the two existing middle schools as elementary schools.

The new plan would cost $188 million, of which Groton taxpayers would pay $77 million, if Groton gets the reimbursement rate it expects. This would mean about $95 a year in additional taxes per $100,000 of assessed value for Groton taxpayers, Superintendent Michael Graner told the Board of Education on Monday.

Town and school leaders met Friday after the commissioner of the State Department of Administrative Services said she could not include Groton’s earlier $141 million request for new schools in the school construction package for the legislature, because the district had not followed proper procedure.

Groton had hoped to seek state reimbursement to cover 72 percent of the earlier $195.6 million cost to build one new middle school and two new elementary schools, leaving taxpayers to fund $55 million.

Leaders changed the school construction proposal because without 72 percent from the state, the old plan would have cost Groton taxpayers $103 million because of the lower reimbursement rate they qualify for. Renovating an old school lowers costs to a community because the state provides a greater reimbursement for renovating buildings than building new ones.

One of the new schools is also expected to qualify for 80 percent reimbursement next year under the state's diversity grant, which boosts reimbursements if a school is racially imbalanced. Claude Chester Elementary School, which this October fell just below that threshold, has an incoming kindergarten class that is 70 percent minority.

Under the state guidelines, a school cannot have a minority enrollment that deviates more than 25 percentage points from the district average. If registration and enrollment trends continue as they are, Claude Chester would have a minority population of 70 percent next fall, 2 percentage points above what is allowable by the state.

Graner and school board members plan to attend the Town Council meeting on Tuesday night to discuss the plan. Graner said Groton would submit a formal application to the state by June 30.

Doing nothing is not an option as buildings need significant repairs, he said. “S.B. Butler (Elementary School) needs a new roof,” he told the school board. “Soon.”

A consultant earlier estimated it would cost $55 million to repair and upgrade the aging schools to make them code compliant.

Under the proposed construction plan, three of the district's old elementary schools would close. Graner said the district might be able to close a fourth school to save additional money, though this is still being reviewed.

d.straszheim@theday.com