School district officials say they are ready to roll out the town’s first public kindergarten program for the inaugural 213 students when the school year begins Sept. 2.

“We’re good to go,” Edie Soley, assistant superintendent for the Salem School District, said earlier this week. “All nine teachers that have been hired are in getting their rooms set up.”

Classes are broken into two half-day sessions in Salem, Windham and Pelham. Hours are 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 to 3 p.m. in Salem, 8:45 to 11:15 a.m. and 12:30 to 3 p.m. in Windham, and 8:30 to 11 a.m. and noon to 2:30 p.m. in Pelham.

According to Soley, the curriculums have been drawn up, the furniture has arrived and the supplies have been purchased.

Though the district has run into a delay installing two portable classrooms at Fisk Elementary School after concerns arose over whether the soil at that site could support the concrete footings of the temporary buildings, Soley said that issue has since been cleared up.

The seven other portable classrooms – which are being installed in a staggered order at the district’s other elementary schools – will house the older students displaced by the kindergarten program. Each of the district’s nine half-day kindergarten classes will be held inside the main buildings, according to school officials.

Superintendent Michael Delahanty said making sure everything is in place for the new kindergarten program to get off to a smooth start has caused him about as much anxiety as he has ever felt in his career.

“I want everything to be exact and I know that (the kindergarten program) is going to set a standard for the opinion that parents hold for us, especially parents who are sending us their oldest child. It’s very important to me that we inspire the type of confidence that I know people have in our school system,” he said. “It’s a brand-new program and any one of a thousand things could go wrong.”

Though the concrete footings for the portables at Fisk School were poured on Tuesday, Delahanty said the district ran into another delay after workers discovered an abandoned gasoline storage tank – dating back to before the school was built on the property – buried under the location where the portables were to be installed. While it was just a matter of getting a permit to have the tank removed, Delahanty said it caused a moment of short-term anxiety for administrators.

“A lot of people have paid a lot of attention to detail,” he said. “The only thing that could go wrong is any issue out that is of our hands.”

Windham and Pelham programs begin
In neighboring Windham and Pelham, two other communities preparing to launch new kindergarten programs after legislators reworked the state’s definition of an adequate education in 2007, district officials have reported that they are ready and waiting to welcome kindergarten students to school on Sept. 2. According to Superintendent Frank Bass, 51 kindergarten students are enrolled in Pelham while 152 are enrolled in Windham.

“We are looking really good. Our portables are in ... We are in the process of getting all of our furniture and equipment in,” Bass said. “Everything is in a state of readiness. We’re very excited to offer kindergarten in both communities.”