Pelham school officials, faced with a state mandate to provide public kindergarten next year, must submit a long-term implementation plan to the state Department of Education by Dec. 1.

No decisions on how they are going to provide a kindergarten program were made when members met for a strategy session on Wednesday, Sept. 3. The board will discuss the issue again at future meetings, but Assistant Superintendent Roxanne Wilson is going forward with her plans to start a committee to work on curriculum for a program.

The state Legislature has included kindergarten in its definition of an adequate education. Earlier this year, lawmakers extended the kindergarten mandate until next year and are offering financial assistance to Pelham and other communities to begin a program in 2009.

“I think they’ve been very kind to us in terms of what they’re providing for us,” said School Board member Linda Koehler. “I think they’ve really extended themselves for us. I think it’s time for us to look as a community at (kindergarten) as something we need to provide for our children.”

Koehler encouraged her colleagues to come up with a plan and to educate voters about why it’s necessary and the costs to start a program.

Superintendent Frank Bass estimated it would cost $400,000 to $450,000 for teachers for a half-day program to educate more than 200 children. Additional money would be needed for aides and specialists. State aid of $1,200 per child will offset some of that cost, he said.

Where the students would be taught is uncertain, but school officials can take advantage of state aid for both a temporary fix and a permanent solution, according to Bass.

For the first three years, the state would pick up the full cost for modular or portable units, along with furniture and fixtures. The state is also offering to pay 30 percent of land acquisition costs and 75 percent of construction costs.

Pelham is one of approximately nine New Hampshire communities that do not offer public kindergarten. Some residents, however, are not happy with the state’s actions. Board member Linda Mahoney complained the state is stepping on local control.

“I’m not viewing this as a kindergarten issue,” she said. “I’m looking at this issue as a much bigger issue, and I do believe it has to do with our constitutional rights as a community. There are some who might disagree, but in this bill it’s waiving the will of the voters.”

“I think what the state is offering is very generous and I’d love to give the townspeople the opportunity to take advantage of that,” Mahoney said. “But that’s not what the state is doing. The state is saying, ‘This is what we’re going to give you, take it or leave it, you’ve got to do it. And if you don’t want to, you’re going to have to do it anyway.’ That’s where I have an issue.”

Mahoney also raised concerns that other programs in the school district could suffer. She noted that voters didn’t pass funding for paving for the middle school’s parking lot.

“We put in kindergarten, this money is going to have to come from somewhere else,” she said. “That’s where I’m coming from. It’s going to have to come from other programs in the district. Where is all this money going to come from?”

One of the residents who attended the meeting, Bill Scanzani, said the time to fight the state mandate had passed and he warned that the community would put itself in peril if it didn’t follow the law.

“I think instead of debating how we got to where we are, I think we’re better off trying to figure out how we’re going to fund it,” Scanzani said.

School Board member Cindy Kyzer stepped down from the board for its discussion. Her husband, Matt, is the pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church, which offers a kindergarten program.

“I don’t want it to look inappropriate,” by sitting on the board, she said.