Auburn residents will vote on two major school warrant articles this year, with the statemandated public kindergarten decision added to a planned joint middle school bond.

Auburn is one of 11 school districts in the state without a publicly funded kindergarten program. Given a decision made at the state level in the spring, the town must now deal with offering kindergarten.

The 10 other districts without public kindergarten are Chester, Litchfield, Salem, Windham, Derry, Pelham, Milford, Lyndeborough, Hudson and Mascenic Regional.

The legislation called for the 11 districts to comply with the state mandate by September 2008. Earlier this month, state Education Commissioner Lyonel Tracy called for an extension of that deadline to September 2009, which may or may not be realized.

SAU 15 Superintendent Phil Littlefield, in charge of the Hooksett, Auburn and Candia schools, said Auburn is fortunate in having good models for the program in Candia and Hooksett. The problem, he said, is going to be finding space.

Littlefield said they are looking at a variety of possibilities to house kindergarten classes based on projected enrollment figures, which predict that the town will need three daily kindergarten sessions that would require three classrooms.

Auburn School Board members said space will be made at Auburn Village School to house the classes rather than installing additional portables on the school’s property.

“If we do something within the building, it squeezes another program in the building,” Littlefield said. “We have to look at that.”

Auburn School Board members unanimously voted to support public kindergarten at a recent meeting, said board member Kathleen Porter, but rejected an initial idea to squeeze Auburn kindergartners into Hooksett or Candia schools.

“It was on our list of potential possibilities,” said Auburn School Board Chairman Elaine Hobbs, but space issues in those two districts made that option virtually impossible.

Space issues have been an ongoing theme with Auburn Village School and Moore School in Candia, prompting the collaboration of the two school boards to look into planning for a joint middle school.

Both Candia and Auburn voters will see warrant articles this March to weigh in on the joint middle school, Auburn’s for a 20-year $29 million bond and Candia’s for a tuition agreement covering about 38 percent of that bond based on enrollment figures.

The Auburn School Board will also go with a warrant article for the kindergarten funding, but nothing has been set yet in terms of costs.

Auburn board members Porter, Hobbs and Bob Hayes agreed they would not delay the joint middle school bond until next year’s election.

At this point, it is unclear how big a monkey wrench the mandated public kindergarten funding will throw into the mix.

Auburn and Candia residents have added their input on the joint middle school, designed by the Manchester-based Team Design Inc., in numerous public information sessions over the past months.

State aid is available for both projects which would help fund any construction costs which would minimize the blow to taxpayers.

The joint middle school qualifies to be reimbursed for 40 percent of the total project cost, which comes to $25.7 million. That reimbursement is already factored into the cost breakdown, reducing the project cost to the $14.8 million. Candia’s share of that cost would be $5.9 million.

In the second year of the bond payments, the most expensive, Auburn taxpayers will see a tax increase of $1.91 per $1,000 of assessed value. In the same year, Candia’s tax increase will be $2.13 per $1,000 of assessed value. For residents owning $250,000 homes, this amounts to an additional $477.50 on Auburn’ tax bills and $532.50 on Candia’s in that year.

When the Auburn School District determines a solid figure on public kindergarten funding to bring to voters, the effect on taxes will come to the forefront.

Littlefield said he expects the Legislature to resume in the spring and come up with additional funding techniques for the 11 school districts affected by the public kindergarten mandate.

“I think the Legislature certainly has been made aware of that September 2008 deadline and the burden that’s placing on communities,” Littlefield said.

Littlefield said he intends to aim for the September 2008 deadline despite talks about a yearlong stay of that deadline, adding that he sees the mandate as the state’s natural reaction to a national trend in education.

“It’s something that has to be on our radar screen,” Littlefield said, referring to public kindgarten as a national issue.

He said that although Auburn has several highly rated private kindergartens, and admitted that he was surprised at the deadline, he thinks the state’s decision will benefit Auburn’s children.

“I think once we get over that initial shock, and we see how we can make this happen because it’s in the best interest of the youngsters, I think it becomes doable,” he said.