MERRIMACK – The small, white schoolhouse at the end of Depot Street will be a little smaller and less colorful next year.

Administrators at the Merrimack PTA Kindergarten and Preschool, now in the midst of its 50th anniversary, have announced that the school’s kindergarten program will not return next fall for a 51st year.

The school’s preschool program for 3- and 4-year-olds will continue, according to Patti Sexton, the school director. But, the kindergarten program has struggled to survive a dramatic drop in enrollments in recent years, forcing administrators to make the change.

The program, which once spread 48 kindergartners across two classrooms, is now down to 10 students, Sexton said this week.

“Things will certainly change. … The complexion of this place will change,” said Sexton, who made the announcement earlier this month.

“But besides being incredibly sad, we know we’ll survive this,” she said Tuesday, speaking over a chorus of students playing in the background. “As long as our school is in existence, our philosophy will be the same.”

The PTA school first opened in 1961 under the management of the school district’s parent-teacher association. It became private sometime later when a number of teachers took charge of the school.

The school building hasn’t changed much over the decades, according to teachers and administrators. It’s still housed in the same 150-year-old schoolhouse with the same wooden floors and large windows looking out on the playground.

And the school’s student-centered philosophy hasn’t changed much, either.

These days, PTA kindergarten compares favorably to the district’s public program, according to teachers Julie Akers and Doreen Bateson, who have led the class for 10 years.

Not only are the teachers free from state requirements that can confine public teachers, Akers and Bateson said, but they are given a full four hours each day with the students.

The school district’s kindergarten consists each day of two 2 1?2 hour sessions.

“It allows us to have a very academic focus, but it still allows time for 5-year-olds to be 5-year-olds,” Akers said Tuesday, seated in her classroom.

“We get go outside and play,” Mitchell Krupp, 5, added when asked his favorite part of school. “We have a lot of fun.”

But with the Merrimack School District’s kindergarten program available, fewer parents are opting for the PTA School and its $2,900 tuition.

Twenty kindergartners or more routinely enrolled at PTA after the school district launched its program in 2007, and the school survived the change by adding pre-school for 4-year-olds in 2006 and a 3-year-old program the following year.

But the kindergarten enrollments have continued to decline since, reaching 10 this year.

Administrators could opt to restore the kindergarten program later if student numbers increase, said Sexton. But it will have to be under different leadership, she said. Sexton, who has been at the school for 11 years, is planning to leave at the end of the year to return to the classroom as a teacher.

“We’ll have to see what the future holds,” she said. “We’ve worked really hard over the years to ascertain how we could be serve the needs of this town. This is how we can do that right now. … It’s sad, but the school will always be here.”

Jake Berry can be reached at 594-6402 or jberry@nashuatelegraph.com.