A group of borough residents aren’t convinced building a new high school is advisable, and they believe others in the community feel the same way.

Moreover, the critics think the “table vote” method used at the school board’s Community Dialogue on Facilities Tuesday was misleading and camouflaged dissent.

There was no way to suggest an option outside predetermined scenarios, said Samantha Pearson, a parent with two young children in the school district.

“The ‘dialogue’ was really a soliloquy,” she said. If you didn’t join the consensus at your table, she said, your voice went unheard.

District Superintendent Mark DiRocco said there was opportunity to write in suggestions. Those will be considered by consultant William DeJong in preparing his next recommendations, he said.

In September, in what was billed as Community Dialogue No. 1, attendees were asked to complete questionnaires about the district’s four school buildings and their preferences in a variety of areas, from class size to educational amenities. DeJong, of Ohio, studied the buildings, considered the public responses, and returned this week with 11 scenarios for reconfiguring the buildings and/or new construction.

At Tuesday’s meeting — Community Dialogue No. 2 — people sat in groups at tables and discussed and evaluated the suggested options. As tabulated, the result was an overwhelming “yes” vote for building a new high school.

The favored scenario for all schools would cost an estimated $47.3 million. That idea includes additions to Linntown and Kelly elementary schools and the Donald H. Eichhorn Middle School, as well as a new, 160,000-square-foot, $40 million high school.

Those in attendance unanimously agreed they would support a property tax increase of 1.5 to 2 mills to pay for the projects.

But Pearson said she has heard that several people, independently, have come up with the idea of a high school-middle school swap.

That is, moving the high school population to the middle school site in East Buffalo Township, where there is room to grow and install athletic fields, and moving the middle school pupils to the high school building at 815 Market St.

That wasn’t an option presented.

“There are options that haven’t been explored,” said Mary Howe, mother of a Lewisburg third-grader. “There are options that haven’t even been thought of.”

There’s a potential, Howe said, for something really good to come out of the district’s facilities planning.

“I don’t think we’re getting there by limiting options,” Howe said.