A request for $146,009 for engineering studies for a new Auburn Middle School passed after about 500 residents swarmed to the town’s annual School District Meeting on Saturday, March 24.

School board members repeatedly said the architectural and engineering money represents the next step toward getting a “true” middle school atmosphere for Auburn’s sixththrough eighth-grade students, who currently go to Auburn Village School along with elementary students.

“(AVS) is an elementary school with a middle school in it,” said school board member Kathleen Porter. “We all know we’re going to have to do something – we’ve been talking about it for 10 years.”

Voters ultimately approved the expense 251-194 after a secret ballot vote.

Earlier this month, Candia voters narrowly approved spending $91,791 to round out the studies.

The two school boards will spend the next year negotiating a tuition contract to send Candia’s students to the school, slated to sit on 58 acres of Auburn school property by Hooksett and Dollard Roads, near Route 101’s Exit 2.

If the boards can agree on the terms of the tuition deal, it will be presented to voters next year along with a bond proposal for a new school, school board members said.

“If we can’t hammer out a deal with Candia next year, then we wouldn’t have a partnership,” said Porter.

Despite the 194 “no” votes, nobody overtly spoke out against the idea of collaborating with the neighboring town for a middle school, which would be owned and operated by Auburn with a tuition contract.

But some residents questioned the scope of the project.

Connie Schofield suggested some of the lingering issues with AVS – originally built in 1941 – wouldn’t necessarily disappear because of new school construction.

“How many millions would it be to bring this building up to code?” she asked.

Auburn Planning Board Chairman Stoney Worster suggested enrollment projections could be rendered meaningless with the potential expansion of Interstate 93.

“I-93 is the 800-pound gorilla,” he said.

School board members repeatedly said the warrant article was strictly to move the plan forward toward a more complete school proposal next year.

“This is not a vote for a school.

This is a vote for answers,” said Auburn School Board member Robert Hayes. “We’re going to be able to come back with firm numbers based on actual costs.”

Several residents said they liked the plan simply since it could improve the learning environment for the district’s middle school students as they prepare for public high school in Manchester.

Resident Everett Harriman described himself as a “highly qualified empty-nester,” the kind that would typically reject a new school proposal.

But, said Harriman, “I have an obligation to pass on to the school-age citizens in this town that which I had given to me.”

School officials estimate this year’s warrant article will add about 22 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation to the tax rate, meaning the owner of a $300,000 home would pay an additional $66 for the studies.

Voters almost unanimously approved the only other money article on this year’s school warrant – a school district operating budget of $9,973,105 – after no discussion from the public.

The meeting was so well attended about 40 residents spilled out of the AVS gymnasium into the cafeteria to watch the proceedings on television.

Fifteen minutes after the 1 p.m. start time, a line of residents waiting to check in stretched from the gymnasium entrance to Eaton Hill Road.

A public informational session on the new school plan is scheduled for Thursday, April 19, at 7 p.m., at AVS.