BY MICHELLE KIM

After considering a short list of options, the Dunbarton School Board decided Oct. 3 to remain with the current arrangement for integrated special education preschool programming until more specific information on an in-house program could be gathered.

Currently, Dunbarton sends its preschool-aged children requiring special education services to programs at New Boston Central and Glen Lake in Goffstown.

Board members had narrowed down a list of options generated by a Preschool Committee commissioned in the spring to explore the possibility of having such preschool programming at Dunbarton.

Most of the options on the short list addressed the issue of a lack of space. The five options discussed were to remain with the current arrangement, rent a classroom trailer, build a new room at Dunbarton Elementary, consolidate classes within a grade or consolidate grades.

The board members were unitedly unenthusiastic about renting a trailer.

There was some exploration of combining classes within a grade.

Board member Debra Foster, whose primary concern for Dunbarton preschoolers who went to Glen Lake or New Boston was the long ride at such a young age, said combining classes within a grade or building a room seemed to be promising options.

Vice Chairman John Herlihy also didn’t have a problem with combining classes within a grade, and said it had not been long ago that that was the norm.

Carl Metzger said that combining classes wouldn’t be a viable long-term solution for space, should the population grow.

Herlihy pointed out there wasn’t a need to pursue an option immediately, as originally thought earlier in the year, and the board members generally consented.

Board member Rene Ouellet said the board might use the time to begin financially preparing for the possibility of a preschool program.

The board also generally agreed that more specific information was needed regarding costs of building a room and starting a program and to ask for that information from the Glen Lake program faculty.