Wiscasset Primary School will close next year unless voters turn around a narrow decision the School Committee made Sept. 15. Residents have 30 days to collect 167 signatures and get them in to the town, Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage said.

Otherwise, the decision sticks and the primary school will close next school year.

Under the scenario discussed Monday night, the closure would send all the school’s students to Wiscasset Middle School, the other school that has been most discussed for possible closure.

If the town gets the petition in time, residents’ binding vote on whether or not to close the primary school will happen in December or January, not November, as first projected, School Committee Chairman Steve Smith told about 80 people who turned out in the Wiscasset High School library Monday night.

The committee could have called for a non-binding vote, but that would leave the door open for the next school committee to make a different decision, officials said.

“A binding referendum is the way to go. It’s the clean way to go,” Beverage said.

The committee took two votes Monday: The first, stating that keeping the primary school open would cost the town $785,524 more next year (than if it closed instead), passed 4-1, with Eugene Stover, Smith, Vice Chairman Glen Craig, and Michael Dunn in favor and Chelsea Haggett voting in opposition; the second vote, to close the primary school according to a law that allows for the citizens’ petition, passed with Stover, Smith and Dunn in favor and Haggett and Craig opposed.

Craig reiterated later that he does favor closing the primary school.

Also in an interview later, Haggett explained that she didn’t mean to vote as she did on the cost figure that was cited. She supports that being the dollar figure used, she said.

“I just misunderstood.” Haggett said her vote against closing the primary school was intentional.

She would be concerned about the smaller children being in the middle school building, due to the stairs and other issues some speakers raised about whether the building is suitable for the younger grades, she said.

Before the committee voted, some residents and school department employees called on the committee to decide that night on a school to close.

“We elected you because we believe in you,” resident and Wiscasset High staff member Deb Pooler said. “We’re looking to you for leadership tonight.”

Pooler told the committee she would prefer a kindergarten through sixth grade, and seventh through twelfth grade setup.

Having the middle and high school grades in one building could help keep students from moving on to another school for their high school years, she said.

“Seven through 12 is great, because guess what? They’ll want to stay with us,” Pooler said.

Some other speakers said they want more information, or community involvement in a strategic plan, before a decision is made about the future of Wiscasset’s schools.

Monday’s youngest speaker, Wiscasset Middle School fifth grader Marguerita Fairfield, 10, said she would like to keep going there. Among her reasons are its separate gym and cafeteria.

“I feel more responsible getting to go there, because it’s just a really amazing place to be,” Fairfield said, standing up from her seat in the second row.

In new figures Beverage released Monday night, closing the middle school (and housing kindergarten through sixth grade at the primary school and seventh through twelfth grade at  the high school) would save the town $655,674; closing the primary school (and adding its students to the middle school, keeping the high school grades nine through twelve) would save $785,524.

So, according to Beverage’s numbers, the town would save $129,850 more by closing the primary school.

The committee needs a year-two budget that can pass, and that will avoid tapping the town’s reserve fund for another $1.25 million to offset taxes, Smith said.

“We’re going to get into turmoil if we don’t provide some relief.”

Beverage invited anyone to meet with him to talk about the information he gathered for the school committee.

Wiscasset Primary School Principal Mona Schlein had argued that two of the middle school’s grades could switch to the primary school for less money than it will cost for all the primary school’s grades to be moved into the middle school.

In an interview after the committee’s votes, Schlein said she remained hopeful that the primary school could get to stay open. The school committee and the superintendent have all worked hard, and the community showed it is interested in the decisions being made, she said.

She said that, in supporting keeping the primary school open, she felt she was advocating for its young students.