NEWPORT — State education officials will come to Newport tonight to explain why the state is unwilling to finance elementary school construction plans other than a plan to renovate and expand Coggeshall School into a building for all of the city’s kindergarten and first graders.

School Committee members rejected that plan in a 5-to-2 vote two weeks ago, but remain on record supporting a proposal for a new K-2 school at the site of Underwood School. After the Coggeshall vote, several committee members asked if Department of Education representatives could attend a meeting to discuss the situation, according to Schools Supt. John Ambrogi.

“The School Committee is going to ask them questions and they are going to explain what the process has been,” said Ambrogi, who recommended the Coggeshall plan. “What’s happened is that because people haven’t been acutely aware of the changes in the [school construction aid] regulations and may not be acutely aware of the pressures in Providence regarding the budgetary considerations, this will be an opportunity for them to hear firsthand from the RIDE (Rhode Island Department of Education] officials.”

The workshop at 7 p.m. at Thompson Middle School will be attended by two RIDE representatives — Carolyn Dias, director of finance, and Celeste Billotti, senior finance director.

The crux of the issue, said Ambrogi, is a new state requirement that school systems utilize any surplus space before seeking construction aid.

While the city needs to address what to do about its five aged elementary schools — which are facing costly safety and repair improvements — both Thompson Middle School and Rogers High School have surplus space. And demographic studies suggest that enrollment will continue a steady decline. The state is aware of both of these factors.

As a result, Ambrogi said, state officials “want to use that [surplus space] before we build new.”

The Coggeshall plan would move seventh and eighth graders from Thompson to a newly created wing at Rogers and turn Thompson into a school for students in grades two to six. The old schools would be turned over the city and likely sold.

Ambrogi says the savings in school operating costs, along with the sale of the buildings and the tax revenues they would generate, adds up to $56.7 million in savings over the 20 years of the $26 million bond for the construction. The state would reimburse the city 30 percent of the construction costs

“I have a letter saying they will fund a K-1 school,” Ambrogi said.

But the state officials have said they won’t support any new K-4 school, as some have proposed, or for the K-2 Underwood proposal the committee voted for several months ago.

rsalit@projo.com