A decision will need to wait on whether seventh and eighth grades will move from Wiscasset Middle School to Wiscasset High School next year. School committee members expressed varying levels of support for Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage’s recommendation on Oct. 23, but some members said they need more information and that the proposal’s timing was a surprise.

“Now we’re talking about moving grades and we don’t even know which school we’re closing yet,” committee member Michael Dunn said.

Wiscasset voters will decide Dec. 9 whether or not to let the committee close Wiscasset Primary School next year, as it voted to do on Sept. 15. A parent’s petition led to the upcoming referendum vote.

Beverage has said a decision to move grades seven and eight to the high school would put to rest the issue of possible overcrowding at the middle or primary school, whichever remains open and takes the other one’s students.

The committee planned to call a workshop to further discuss the two grades’ possible move. Resident Judy Flanagan asked that it be held before the public hearing on the closure referendum. Once the hearing is set, the committee can schedule the workshop, Committee Chairman Steve Smith told Flanagan.

During Thursday’s discussion, Dunn and Committee Vice Chairman Glen Craig said they were surprised that Beverage was making the recommendation after the committee voted to close the primary school, but before the town vote is held.

The recommendation came after he started hearing concerns about the middle school serving kindergarten through eighth grade if the primary school closes, Beverage said.

He hadn’t meant to confuse anyone by raising the idea of moving grades seven and eight, and if the board was not ready to decide, that was fine, he said.

“But I think the dialogue needs to occur.”

Committee members and Wiscasset High’s principal Cheri Towle cited several pluses of the two grades’ moving.

Towle and committee member Chelsea Haggett predicted that a seventh-through-twelfth grade school would lead more eighth graders to choose Wiscasset High over other high schools. Right now, the town loses incoming high school students to other schools, Towle said.

“That’s why we need to bring those seventh and eighth graders up (to the high school),” Towle told the committee.

“I like this idea,” committee member Gene Stover said. Eighth graders would have access to advanced classes, he said. However, he expected the move will come with some cost.

The two grades could have their classes on two floors on one end of the building, at minimal cost to prepare the space, school officials said.

About 30 people turned out for Thursday’s meeting in the high school library.

Wiscasset Primary teacher Carol Adams raised a question about the figures the committee used in deciding to close the primary school. She asked how the closure would save money on teaching positions, over what the department is spending on teachers this year.

Beverage said it was hard to respond without seeing the figures she was referring to. He invited her to meet with him so they could go over the figures with a calculator.

“Would you do that,” he asked.

“I would be happy to,” Adams said.

Also Thursday, Smith announced the search will be getting under way for Beverage’s successor. Two teachers, two administrators, two community members and two school committee members will comprise the superintendent search committee, Smith said. Plans call to start advertising the job in November, with resumes due by mid-January.

Beverage announced the new school department’s two latest hires. Michelle Blagdon will be an educational technician in special education at Wiscasset Primary; Julie Lutkus will work half-time as a special education secretary.