Though state legislators agree that kindergarten should be included an adequate education, bringing a kindergarten program to Salem is still a matter of funding and space.

Late last month, the House voted 226-132 to approve a definition of adequate education that includes a mandatory halfday kindergarten.

Though the definition still has to be approved by the Senate, and legislators have to come up with a funding plan, Salem officials are already contemplating its implications.

Salem is one of only 12 school districts in the country which does not offer public kindergarten, all of them in New Hampshire. The other towns are Pelham, Windham, Auburn, Chester, Derry, Hudson, Lyndeboro, Greenville, Mason, New Ipswich and Milford.

School board member Peter Morgan said bringing kindergarten to Salem has long been a goal of town educators, but doing so could be a difficult process.

Since there are about 350 children who would be eligible for kindergarten in Salem, the district would have to provide about 14 additional empty classrooms, which they currently don’t have.

Morgan said a kindergarten committee explored the possibility of expanding the town’s six elementary schools but concluded adding space wouldn’t be possible.

More likely, a new building would have to be constructed, but Morgan and members of the kindergarten committee said they wouldn’t want the young children isolated from the rest of the school system.

Rather, the new building would become an upper elementary school for grades 5 and 6, which would leave room in the elementary schools for kindergarten students.

Still, the state has yet to determine how they will fund adequate education and Morgan said this will be a key component for Salem.

The state Supreme Court ordered legislators to define adequate education, determine its cost, and fund it by July 1.

“Everyone knows that if we try to pass a bond article (for a new building), it probably won’t pass on the first try,” Morgan said. “We would have more success with that if we said the state will pay for 90 percent of it.”

While Salem officials wait to hear back from Concord about funding, they said they hope to complete a facilities master plan by the end of the year to assess the feasibility of building additions or a new school.

Even though the process is still complicated by several unknown factors, Morgan said he ultimately hopes kindergarten will become a part of Salem’s standard education. He’s not alone in his opinion.

“I have, for a very long time, been an advocate for public kindergarten,” said Laurel Redden, Salem resident and member of the kindergarten committee. “I am hopeful but a little leery of being too optimistic.”

Redden, who moved to Salem in 1997 with a young child and another on the way, said she was shocked to learn the town didn’t offer public kindergarten.

Instead, she paid to have her two children attend private programs.

When school officials asked community members to take part in a kindergarten committee, she stepped up and started doing research on the benefits of having kindergarten.

“What we found was that kindergarten has become such a standard part of the education system that they’ve stopped studying it,” she said.

Redden agreed with Morgan, saying the issue will become one of finances and practicality.

“I think everyone is supportive in general, but once you start talking dollars and cents, it becomes mired in the discussion of whether (kindergarten) is a luxury or not,” she said. “If the state sent us a mandate with 100 percent funding, kindergarten could happen overnight, but the question would be implementation.