AUBURN – To help ensure that more youngsters here show up at kindergarten with the skills for academic success, the School Committee unanimously approved two pilot pre-kindergarten programs Wednesday night.

This fall, the programs will teach 4-year-olds at Sherwood Heights and Fairview School. Each school will teach 20 preschoolers for half-day sessions.

“I’m thrilled. This will be meeting a need,” Fairview School kindergarten teacher Linda Leiva said after the committee’s vote. Leiva is also the early childhood team leader and heading the project.

Many Auburn children now receive pre-k, but many do not because their parents can’t afford it, she said. Youngsters who don’t go to preschool often show up at kindergarten already behind youngsters who have gone.

Preschool gives children “more ability to sustain attention,” Levia said. “They know routines. They know what it means to sit and listen to a story. They know the give and take of social engagement in the classroom.”

Attendance will be voluntarily. Preschool students’ parents will not pay any fees.

And, there won’t be additional costs to city taxpayers, Superintendent Barbara Eretzian said. Because the program will meet the needs of some special needs children, the state will cover much of the costs.

Auburn will provide existing space, utilities and furniture. “We will use what we already have,” Eretzian said.

The exception could be transportation, which the Auburn School Department plans to provide. Costs and transportation plans aren’t worked out, she said, but the costs will come from the existing budget.

The preschool classes will likely not begin on the first day of school, but will begin before Oct. 1, Eretzian said.

As outlined by Leiva, Fairview and Sherwood Heights will both offer a morning and afternoon class. Each class will have 10 four-year-olds. In those classes there’ll be six typical four-year-olds and four special needs students.

Students in the pre-school classes will receive a quality, “pre-k opportunity. Then there will be enhanced opportunity that all special needs students get,” Eretzian said. “It’s similar to being in kindergarten. The program is designed for your typically developed” preschooler, with extra support given to the special needs students.

Staffing in the classes will be high; three teachers to 10 students, Leiva said.

Enrollment will soon be offered on a lottery basis.

The lottery will first be offered to four-year-olds who live near Sherwood Heights and Fairview School. If the Auburn School Department does not receive enough applications, enrollment will be offered beyond the two schools’ neighborhoods.

If the program goes well this coming school year, it may be expanded next fall, educators said.

Auburn joins about 93 other Maine school systems that offer public, preschool classes, Leiva said. The state Department of Education is encouraging school departments to do more to help more children become ready for kindergarten. Studies show preschool classes pay big dividends for those students, both academically and socially, Leiva said.

In addition to the state paying for much of the program, Auburn stands to gain about $500,000 a year because the city is adding students to its enrollment. The state education funding formula pays more than $5,000 per student.

Besides the 40 preschool slots Auburn is creating, the city will receive funding for 50 Head Start students attending preschool programs at Washburn and Walton schools, once those programs receive state approval.

That means Auburn will add about 90 students to its enrollment, boosting state funding, Eretzian said.