MORGAN — The E. Taylor Hatton School Board asked voters at Town Meeting here Monday to grant it the ability to suspend its kindergarten program in the event that enrollment numbers dip too low.  To many voters that seemed to be a radical about face from a school board that had advocated for a transition from half-day kindergarten to a full-day program.

In the end, voters did give the board the authority to suspend the kingergarten program if deemed necessary, but only after considerable discussion.

"This was not a financial consideration," Principal Miriam Benson said.  "This is an educational consideration."

While educators agree that smaller numbers of students often do better, there is a threshold at which those benefits are no longer realized, Ms. Benson said.  Part of the school experience is socialization and proper socialization cannot be achieved if the peer group is too small, she said.

Current projected enrollment for the 2011-2012 school year is just four students, School Board Chairman Kelly Paul said.  Fewer than five students marks the point at which it may be more beneficial for the student to attend kindergarten elsewhere.

Jim Judd asked the board what the cost would be to tuition these students to other schools.  Asking the voters to approve the request to grant authority without access to the financial implications is asking them to vote blindly, he said.

Because of Morgan's relatively high per-pupil expenses, it is unlikely that it would cost more to tuition the students than it would cost to retain them in-house, North Country Schools Superintendent Robert Kern said.

In the event the board does suspend the program for next year, parents would be responsible for transporting their kids to and from the kindergarten program of their choice.  The school of choice must, however, be a public school, Ms. Paul said.

It is also possible that the school of choice could, for any number of reasons, decline to accept the student, Selectman Robbie Guyer said.  While that is a possibility, declining enrollment throughout the state makes that an unlikely event, Roger Stoddard replied.  It’s likelier that schools would clamor for more students, he said.

Because E. Taylor Hatton currently uses combined classrooms, even a group of two or three students would benefit from the larger peer group afforded by combined classrooms, Ms. Paul said.  If successive years of low enrollment coincide, however, the board may have to revisit the issue at that time.

Sean Selby reminded his fellow townspeople that granting the school board authority to suspend the program does not doom kindergarten in Morgan.

"Just because we vote on it, it's not a done deal," Mr. Selby said.  "It doesn't mean it's automatically gone."

Greg Marsh expressed concern at what would happen to the existing kindergarten teacher.  Flip-flopping between running a program one year and suspending it the next would make it difficult to attract or retain a teacher, he said.

"We have a hard enough time attracting teachers as it is," Mr. Marsh said.

The likeliest scenario would involve reassigning the kindergarten teacher to other duties within the school coupled with the release of an aide, Ms. Benson said.  Such a decision would be dealt with in order of seniority with "last one in, first one out" being the likeliest outcome, she said.

While the kindergarten issue generated considerable discussion, the school budget itself did not.  The budget for 2011-2012 of $693,790 was down $1,510 from last year's budget, a sum evidently agreeable to the five dozen or so attendees who approved it unanimously.

The town budget of $488,991.53 was down nearly $5,000 from the previous year and also passed without opposition.

Uncertain as to what the ramifications of increasing the property tax exemption for disabled veterans from $30,000 to $40,000 might be, voters also entertained a lively debate on that proposal.  The first question to arise was also the lone question without a clear answer by the time the votes were cast — who precisely proposed the increase from the current $30,000 exemption to $40,000?

Lister Diane Moore pointed out that, on the surface, increasing the exemption was a laudable goal and a fitting way to pay tribute to disabled veterans.  The reality, however, was not always so clear, she said.

"I have heard in other towns that increasing the exemption also reduced the rebate from the state that helped some of these veterans to pay their taxes," Ms. Moore said.  "So they ended up actually being worse off by having a bigger exemption.  I'm not saying that this would happen in Morgan because we don't have access to the private information the state has when making these decisions to know what the effect would be."

When the voice vote proved too close to call Moderator Charles Woods elected to call for a division of the house.  In the end, 40 voters approved the motion and 25 stood opposed.

In his role as moderator, Mr. Woods took a few opportunities to add his own personal flavor to the proceedings.  Nowhere was this more evident than during the discussion surrounding the disposition of a town backhoe.

"Shawn, would you like to explain what this marvelous machine is?" Mr. Woods said.

Town Road Commissioner Shawn Austin reported that the 1992 Caterpillar backhoe was underutilized and in need of costly repairs.  As such, he recommended that the town put the vehicle out to bid.

"An 'aye' vote indicates we want to sell it," Mr. Woods said prior to the vote.  "A 'nay' vote means we would like to keep it around in order to admire its beauty."

The voters accepted Mr. Austin's recommendation.

The election of officers was an equally benign event.  The lone change of position followed Ken Mason's decision not to serve as treasurer to the school board.  Mr. Selby offered to and was elected to fill the vacancy.

Returning officers are Tammylee Morin as town clerk and town treasurer, both for three-year terms; Richard Miller as selectman for a three-year term; Tammy LaCourse as a school director for a three-year term; Diane Moore as a lister for a three-year term; Sue Swenson as auditor for a three-year term; Robert Cain as first constable for a one-year term,; Greg Wood as second constable for a one-year term; and Jim Judd as tax collector for a one-year term.  Cyrus Benson celebrates his twenty-fifth year as grand juror with his election for another term.  Jane Malgeri was re-elected town agent for a one-year term, and William Gottermeyr was re-elected to the cemetery commission for five years.