PORTSMOUTH — Walk into parts of Portsmouth Middle School and there is no mistaking the decade in which it was built. The school opened around 1970, and some of it still looks very much the part.

There are dim hallways and drab colors, undersized lockers and aging furniture. In science rooms, heavy lab tables and sinks are fixed in place. Some cabinet doors are broken. Some sinks don’t work.

Then there are the classrooms themselves.

In the seventh- and eighth-grade wings, some are essentially classrooms behind classrooms — a legacy of the “open classroom” movement popular when the school was designed. Movable walls once allowed teachers to combine spaces. More than a half-century later, those walls are difficult to move and, according to Principal Jay Masterson, so old they can no longer be repaired.

The result is peculiar: One classroom gets the windows and daylight. The adjoining classroom gets neither.

Those were among the conditions a handful of residents saw during a Sept. 17 tour designed to help explain a much larger, districtwide school construction proposal that Portsmouth voters will decide Nov. 3. (There are two more such tours; see related story.)

The proposed bond would authorize up to $41 million in borrowing for improvements at all four of Portsmouth’s public schools — the high school, middle school, Hathaway Elementary School and Melville Elementary School. Projects range from roofs, drainage and parking improvements to HVAC systems, science labs, restrooms and redesigned learning spaces.

But the middle school is unquestionably the centerpiece.

About $29.2 million of the roughly $40.4 million construction plan is earmarked for the school, including a new roof, renovations to the eighth-grade learning center and other improvements. Another $8.9 million is proposed for Portsmouth High School, with smaller projects at Hathaway and Melville.

And so last Thursday, district officials invited residents inside the middle school to see why.

Classrooms behind classrooms

“You’ll see that our classrooms in the seventh and eighth grade are double classes,” Superintendent Elizabeth Viveiros said. “So when you walk into a classroom, you’re walking into one room that is enclosed, no sunlight, no windows. Then you have to walk through that classroom to get into the second classroom.”

Back in the 1970s, she said, the design made sense.

“At the time, it was a great concept, right?” Viveiros said, noting that collapsible walls once allowed teachers to create large, open spaces.

They don’t anymore. The proposed work is intended to modernize the learning spaces while retaining a building officials say remains structurally sound.

The $41 million on the ballot is a ceiling, not necessarily what the town would spend. The town council would subsequently approve projects and borrowing, and eligible work would qualify for at least 35 percent reimbursement through the Rhode Island Department of Education.

First, the roof

Before worrying about classrooms, lockers or skylights, officials say they have a more pressing problem above their heads.

The middle school roof is more than 27 years old.

“If we’re fortunate to have this bond move forward, our first most critical project is the roof here at the middle school,” Viveiros said.

Recent rainstorms have left maintenance and custodial workers to “manage” leaks after they occur, she said.

“Whether or not the bond is passed, we know a roof project is something that absolutely needs to get done,” Viveiros said. Passage of the bond would allow the district to seek the 35-percent state reimbursement for eligible work.

Beyond the roof, the proposal would begin transforming the building’s aging interior, starting with the eighth-grade wing. The middle school serves grades 5 through 8, with each grade largely occupying its own learning center — a layout officials want to preserve.

Four existing eighth-grade classrooms would be reconfigured into two larger classrooms of about 900 square feet each, with smaller breakout rooms, storage and a shared conference room. A small addition would also be needed, partly because the wing includes science labs and specialized special education programs.

‘Dreary’ hallways

Natural light is a recurring theme in the proposed renovations.

During the tour, Masterson stood inside one of the paired classrooms — daylight in one room, none in the other — and explained that renovated classrooms must have natural light to qualify for state reimbursement.

The hallways could use some, too.

“Our current hallways are very dreary,” Viveiros said.

Plans call for adding skylights, upgrading lockers and bringing more of the school’s red-and-blue colors into the corridors. Common areas would give students space outside classrooms for supervised small-group work.

The school opened with roughly 1,000 students, Masterson said, which helps explain its narrow, tightly packed lockers. The district wants full-size lockers capable of holding winter coats.

Unlike their high school counterparts, middle school students actually use them.

“High schoolers want nothing to do with using a locker anymore,” Viveiros said. “Backpacks — that’s the way it is.”

The age of the building becomes especially apparent in the science labs.

Heavy lab tables have built-in sinks and plumbing running through the middle of the rooms, preventing teachers from rearranging them.

Viveiros described the labs as “congested” and said the tables “do not work” for the way teachers want to use the space. Assistant Principal Tanin Longway pointed out broken cabinet doors and sinks that no longer work.

The proposed redesign would move plumbing to the perimeter and use movable furniture. The science classrooms would be about 1,300 square feet, compared with about 900 square feet for a standard classroom, Masterson said. Plans also include an adjoining outdoor learning space.

Beyond the middle school

Although the middle school would receive roughly 70 percent of the money in the construction plan, the referendum would finance work throughout the district.

About $8.9 million is proposed for the high school, including HVAC and control work, science laboratories, roofing, restrooms, lighting and improvements to career and technical education spaces. Viveiros said the district has been repairing sections of the high school roof for years rather than replacing it all at once.

At Hathaway, planned work includes parking and playground areas, pedestrian crossings and drainage improvements. Melville also has drainage needs. The district also plans to put buildings on the same management system so controls can be operated remotely.

For taxpayers, the ultimate impact depends on how much the town actually borrows. At the full $41 million authorization, the district estimates the tax increase at about 37 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, or roughly $203 a year for a home assessed at $550,000.

Voters will make the decision Nov. 3.