Residents approved the town’s first public kindergarten and town budget of $4,218,251 during the final annual Town and School District meetings March 14 and 15.

The voters’ decision to approve the SB2 official ballot voting system on March 11 means the traditional meetings held on Friday and Saturday were the last Auburn will have. Discussions on a failed two-town middle school was the focus as the school meeting began Friday night.

School Board member Kathi Porter said she’d wished she would have been kicking off the talks for Auburn’s vote on the project, but the new school effort ultimately evolved into a $62,000 budget increase.

Candia’s rejection of a 20- year contract had killed the project three days earlier before Auburn’s voters could take up their own vote on the two-town school. Porter said the additional $62,000 would be used to “research solutions for space and programming needs” for local students, and an overall budget of $10,133,854 was approved.

Residents also approved a kindergarten with a total construction cost of $382,833, with some $287,125 in state aid expected. State sources will also provide $95,040 toward the $111,060 needed to staff and supply the kindergarten next year.

Although some residents said they were concerned about financial difficulties for the many private kindergartens which have been teaching Auburn’s children, many residents said they felt establishing a kindergarten program was unavoidable.

“The fact of the matter is if the state tells us we have to do this, it’s like my 10-year-old arguing with me about going to bed,” said Chris Trickett. “Sooner or later she has to go to bed. They (the state) is telling us we have to do it.”

According to school officials’ plans, more than 50 students will attend the kindergarten when it opens next year, and a technical education classroom will be converted into two 1,000-square-foot classrooms. The kindergarten passed by a vote of 298-94, easily meeting the required simple majority vote.

Later, during the Town Meeting on Saturday, residents OK’d an additional $150,000 for extra winter road maintenance as well as $3,400 to cover increased costs for groundskeeping equipment. The final budget totaled $4,218,251 without warrant articles.

Voters also shot down an article to have the governor reject the longstanding pledge against having a state tax, and more than $300,000 in various town road projects were approved. Voters also supported a $75,000 request for wastewater planning.