PROVIDENCE — An education consultant has recommended sweeping changes in the city’s 42 public school buildings that, if approved, would be the largest school construction project in the state’s history.

The project, which would be phased in over a number of years, could cost some $792 million. The consultant proposed at least seven new buildings during the first stage of construction.

DeJONG Inc., the education planners hired by the city in March, released a master plan yesterday that outlines which buildings should be closed, which should be renovated and which should be built from scratch. The 10-month study of school buildings, some of which house two schools, not only looked at the conditions of the buildings but also at the need to create dynamic new environments for teaching and learning.

“This is a plan of hope, of direction, a facility master plan which can lead to a new generation of schools in the city of Providence,” DeJONG wrote in its 81-page report.

The plan calls for building 19 new schools, mostly elementary; closing several schools, including Perry Middle School; and converting Del Sesto High School into a middle school.

Hope High School, the poster child for high school reform in Providence, would be renovated. One of the original options proposed closing the building, which is in poor condition, and building two smaller high schools, possibly on the same campus.

During the first phase of construction, DeJONG proposes:

•Replacing Nathan Bishop Middle School, on the East Side, with a new grade 6-8 school. The building, constructed in 1929, is in poor condition and it would be far more costly to renovate than to build a new school.

• Replacing Mount Pleasant High School with two smaller high schools, a career and technical school focused on the construction trades and a smaller theme-based high school. DeJONG recommends new construction because the existing building is in bad shape, it’s too large to accommodate the district’s new smaller-is-better model and it would cost millions more to renovate than it would to build from scratch.

• New buildings for the following elementary schools: George West in Mount Pleasant, Alan Shawn Feinstein in Washington Park, Asa Messer in the West End and Laurel Hill Avenue in the Hartford neighborhood.

• Renovating the Hanley Career and Technology Center, in the West End. DeJONG says this building can’t be used in the future unless significant health and safety issues are addressed.

• Creating a new alternative high school for 200 students. Providence Supt. Donnie Evans says there is a need to create specialized high schools to keep troubled students from dropping out. These schools would be small and personal and offer hands-on learning. That project could be in a new or existing building.

• Closing the West Broadway Elementary School, in Federal Hill, this fall. The school doesn’t meet state fire code requirements for first-graders and kindergarten students, who have to be taught on the ground floor. The School Department announced yesterday that will be done in June.

“Research shows very clearly that students cannot get a 21st-century education in a decaying 19th-  or early 20th-century building,” Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline said at yesterday’s news conference in City Hall. “If we’re serious about making children a priority, we need to address our school facilities.”

The challenge facing Providence is enormous. Many school buildings are at least 60 years old. Nearly 80 percent are in poor condition. Roofs leak. Bathrooms are Dickensian. Heating systems break down. Hallways are dark and cavernous. Some schools aren’t handicapped accessible. And most are not designed for high-speed Internet connections.

While the buildings are structurally sound, they were built for a different era, when schools were organized to resemble factories with children sitting in rows facing an adult. They are simply too big to meet today’s smaller, more collaborative educational model. In many cases, DeJONG said, the cost of renovating these monoliths far exceeds the cost of new construction.

At the heart of the DeJONG report is the philosophy, one shared by Evans, that schools should be smaller, with no more than 600 students at the elementary level, 750 at the middle and 900 at the high school level. After listening to parents and community leaders, the consultants also agreed with the concept of neighborhood schools, the notion that elementary and middle school students should be able to walk to school.

DeJONG acknowledged that a project of this magnitude faces numerous challenges, including the lack of land available for new construction. One possible solution, it said, is to locate new schools on park sites and then convert the school property into parks. This would allow school construction to begin without disrupting the lives of students at existing schools.

In deciding whether to renovate or build from scratch, the consultants took a number of issues into account, including the age of the existing buildings, their condition and projected enrollments. Some schools are located in neighborhoods where public school students no longer live. The new plans reflect those demographic changes. The study, for example, recommends building a new K-8 school in the northwest corner of the city because the school-age population is growing in that region but there are no middle schools there.

The consultants also proposed three timelines for paying for the project: $50 million annually spread out over 37 years, $70 million over 20 years or $95 million annually over 13 years. Although the city is responsible for financing school construction, the state reimburses the city for 80 percent of the cost.

Cicilline said yesterday, “We can’t allow this to take 37 years. We need to do this as quickly as possible.”

Because of the complexity of the project, the consultants suggested dividing it into four phases, with six to eight schools targeted per phase until all of the school buildings on the list are renovated or replaced.

During the past year, DeJONG spent a lot of time listening to parents, teachers and staff and they made it clear that they wanted a variety of middle school options. So, for the first time, DeJONG developed a flexible floor plan that will allow existing and new schools to be configured in several different ways: a traditional grade 6-8 school, a K-8 school (the model favored by Evans), or a kindergarten through grade 5 school.

The planners envision a fresh way of structuring elementary and middle schools. Buildings would be organized into houses, or pods, which would group students by grade or subject matter. According to planner William DeJong, this system enables teachers to teach in teams and gives students a sense of identity. One configuration, for example, groups kindergarten and first grade students in one pod, second-  and third-graders in another and fourth-  and fifth-graders in a third pod. With this approach, a student spends his entire day with the same group of teachers.

According to DeJONG planner Frank Locker, “This may be the defining school concept for the next 10 years.”

The DeJONG proposal faces review by the state Department of Education, the Providence School Board, the mayor and the City Council. The next step calls for Supt. Evans to submit his recommendations to the school board.

Meanwhile, the city will host a series of community meetings next month to gather feedback from parents and other community partners.