Auburn school officials report good progress on the construction of a new kindergarten area while plans to address building a new school facility are on hold.

School Board Chairman Elaine Hobbs said that, in all likelihood, the lack of space at the town’s only public school will still persist this year as staff tries to find a way to make do with the space in the building they have. Although Hobbs and other school officials had hoped for a new two-town, 100,000- square-foot middle school with neighboring Candia, the latter town’s voters shot down the 20- year tuition contract needed for the project to continue, and the project was subsequently pulled from the agenda before it came to Auburn’s voters earlier this year.

“A lot of the people who were in support of it were very disappointed, because it would have been a very good educational benefit to our students,” she said. “My sense is that ... it was a significant defeat; no gray there, it’s all black and white. We’re kind of looking at where we go from here, because we’re basically back to the drawing board.”

Hobbs said that, given the current economic climate, 2009 won’t be the year for a new school proposal in Auburn either. At a recent retreat, Hobbs said the board decided not to start working on another project to present to voters in early 2009, and instead the board’s focus for the next year will be the facilities master plan.

She said the most likely scenario for the coming years is that the town will look at Auburn-only solutions, which could eventually include looking at a new elementary school. Hobbs noted that despite the vote in Candia, Auburn officials still have their architectural drawing for the 101,000-squarefoot school building, and they also plan to retain ownership of the land near Route 101’s Exit 2 where the middle school would have been built.

While concerns about the school’s space needs persist, Hobbs and new Auburn Village School Principal Ron Pedro said a bright spot on the horizon is the progress being made on the town’s first-ever public kindergarten. Pedro, who took the helm at AVS following the recent retirement of Principal Anita Johnson, said he has only been to two construction meetings so far but added the project is proceeding as planned.

According to the plan, a former industrial arts area in the school will be turned into two kindergarten rooms, and Pedro said two walls and some window frames have been put up by Goffstown contractor Pidella Corporation. The $382,833 kindergarten project was approved by voters in March following a piece of legislation which mandated kindergartens in the remaining New Hampshire towns which do not yet have them.

Although another piece of legislation recently approved by the governor gives towns an additional year to start kindergarten classes, Pedro said Auburn still intends to have its kindergarten start in the fall. As of late June, there were roughly 45 children in three classes signed up for the first year of public kindergarten.