Auburn’s Board of Selectmen and School Board are holding public hearings for two citizens’ petitioned warrant articles asking whether the town’s voters would embrace converting to the official ballot law form of town and school elections, often called SB2.

In such towns, voters can only amend warrant articles at the town and school district deliberative sessions; they don’t actually vote on the articles. The vote comes through the ballot boxes on a separate date.

The School Board’s public hearing on the warrant article will take place Thursday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m., in the Auburn Village School cafeteria.

The public hearing for the town will take place Monday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m., during the regular selectmen’s meeting at Auburn Town Hall.

School Board Chairman Elaine Hobbs said the school board voted unanimously not to recommend because the traditional School District Meeting and Town Meeting format has worked well for Auburn in the past.

“We are afraid that, with SB2, voters will make uninformed decisions,” said Hobbs, adding that many more Auburn residents will likely show up to the polls than will attend the deliberative sessions to modify school and town warrant articles and budgets.

Selectmen Chairman Harland Eaton said the board has not yet taken a formal stance on the question of SB2, but will do so in the near future.

While he would not comment on whether he favors going to SB2, he noted pros and cons of a growing town like Auburn making the change, such as more people showing up in voting lines rather than getting acquainted with the issues at Town Meeting.

“I guess what I see here is a change in the era,” he said, noting the more passionate arguments for or against warrants that often come out at Town Meetings.

The latest population study for Auburn shows the town’s 2006 population to be just over 5,000.

Auburn’s neighbor, Candia, has a smaller population of about 4,000 and switched to the SB2 form of voting for the town two years ago. This year is Candia’s first year voting on school articles as an SB2 town.