NORFOLK - Besides supporting the design of a new public safety building, residents have approved $500,000 for a feasibility study for a new elementary school.

That came Wednesday during the second night of annual town meeting.

The meeting resumes Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at King Philip Middle School and is expected to go a fourth night Wednesday, since only a third of the 61-article warrant has been tackled.

The state is expected to pick up $250,000 of the cost of the school study, which will recommend whether a new Freeman-Centennial School should be built or the existing building, which officials say is aged and cramped, should be renovated and expanded.

There was a lot of discussion about the school request, and some residents questioned the cost and need of the study and a new school. They referred to town meeting having approved $575,000 for the design of a new public safety building. Voters at a tentatively scheduled June 24 special election already face a $414,910 Proposition 2 1/2 budget override, along with a debt exclusion from that tax limiting law for the $14.3 million public safety building.

The school department has made it onto the coveted state reimbursement list for school building projects, and a task force has been busy holding forums and giving tours of the Freeman-Centennial building off Boardman Street.

Tuesday night, the Community Preservation Committee is looking to dip into the Community Preservation Act fund for $1.1 million to acquire 32 acres off Park Street for open space and passive recreation. A 22-home subdivision is planned for the land, but the town has the first right of purchase.

Advisory board members oppose that request, as do selectmen, noting it would consume about one-third of the CPA fund.