Officials fear a sudden surge in kindergarten enrollments in late summer could make the start of the school year a little more hectic than usual.

According to Superintendent Michael Delahanty, the district projected that around 300 children of eligible age for kindergarten would enroll in the program.

As of last week, the number of future students registered with the district remained below 200, creating concerns for officials moving forward with preparations for the start of the school year.

Salem is one of about a dozen communities in New Hampshire without a current public kindergarten program. Plans to go forward with the program began after legislators changed the state’s definition of an adequate education to include kindergarten – effectively making public kindergarten mandatory for all communities – in 2007.

“Right now, the number of teachers and classrooms is determined by enrollments,” Delahanty said. “Having these kids registered in late August isn’t going to help us.”

So far, the district has hired seven new kindergarten teachers and Delahanty said they are holding off on bringing any more educators on board until they have a better idea of the size of the kindergarten class. Officials had originally anticipated hiring around 10 teachers.

Delahanty said the district also had to make a final decision on how many portable classrooms to bring in by the first two weeks of May. With a 14-week construction time, a delay in determining the final amount of space needed would give educators and officials little time to set up before the start of the school year. As it is, Delahanty said the district expects to have the portables on site during the first or second week of August, already limiting the amount of time educators have to prepare.

Though officials originally proposed constructing 10 portables – funded by the state for the first three years as town officials search for more permanent facilities – that number is now down to eight or nine.

While current plans call for the portables to be used by older children, likely the fourth- and fifth-grade students, Delahanty remains concerned that a late surge in enrollment’s could have the district squeezed for room.

“I won’t have the space for them, and there will be more in one room than we would normally have,” he said. “We anticipated that some parents would be keeping their children in private facilities. I worry that in July or August, like what is true with our first-graders, we have an influx of enrollments.”

The concern has led officials to put up fliers in local schools and send press releases to local newspapers calling for parents of eligible students to register with the district as soon as possible.

“I hope that parents that are unaware of the process can get the information and get their children registered,” he said.