Deerfield's old Grange hall could soon house kids and classrooms if voters choose to clear the way for a charter school at this year's district meeting.

A group of local teachers want to provide classes that transcend boundaries between subjects and require students to produce documentary films, participate in the community and, perhaps, maintain a working berry farm.

If things go as planned, the school - dubbed Middle Village - would open in the fall of 2009 with 40 sixth- and seventh-graders and eventually expand to include 80 kids in grades four through eight. Making the school a reality is a long and complicated process, but one that town leaders have agreed to begin because a charter school might help relieve crowding in Deerfield's traditional classrooms.

"It's a way to get another school in town for essentially zero cost," said Larry Graykin, one of Middle Village's founders. "It seems to me to be a win-win situation."

About a year ago, Graykin and a few of his fellow teachers at Barrington Middle School decided to start a school of their own. They'd grown to love interdisciplinary teaching through a pilot program in Barrington and wanted to expand on the idea. At about the same time, Deerfield resident Rachel Keyser began looking for something unusual to do with the 150-year-old Grange hall on her property.

"I had just always wanted to do something other than renting it out," she said. "It's an extraordinarily well-built building with an enormous second-floor meeting area."

Keyser's now-teenage daughter attended alternative schools in Massachusetts as a child, which is why the idea of a charter school excites Keyser. In addition to a fun history, the building abuts a working berry farm that Keyser says is rich with potential lessons.

Should Deerfield voters accept the charter school warrant in March, the school district will sidestep a temporary ban lawmakers have placed on state-approved charter schools.

New Hampshire's first charter schools opened in the fall of 2004, after lawmakers passed legislation making it easier to obtain charters by allowing the state Board of Education to approve them, as opposed to seeking the endorsement of local districts. Since then, about a dozen schools have opened. Two soon closed because of a lack of students, but two more plan to open this fall.

Many of the schools benefited from a $7.2 million startup grant New Hampshire received from the federal government in 2003. That money is now long gone, and lawmakers are mulling ways to make the state-approved schools financially stable. While the Legislature works, the state has placed a moratorium on new Board of Education-approved charter schools.

But that doesn't prevent individual towns from authorizing charter schools in their districts. In Deerfield's case, establishing a new school will take two rounds of school district meeting votes. This year, residents will consider a warrant allowing the district to consider charter applications. If the warrant passes and the school board approves the charter, a second item will appear on next year's ballot to establish the school and a funding formula.

Deerfield would pay the school $8,000 for each student who attends Middle Village. That's 80 percent of the total cost of educating an average kid in town. The remaining 20 percent would continue to support the infrastructure at the traditional public school.

The school, Graykin said, would also be eligible for federal grants and, if the organization's nonprofit status is approved, private donations. Other details, such as startup costs and renovations to the building, will be addressed if the year's warrant is approved, Graykin said.

Charter school advocates say Deerfield's plan is precisely how they envisioned charters working in rural New Hampshire.

"This is a perfect type of community that would likely benefit from a charter school for their own students," said Sue Hollins, founder and director of the New Hampshire Center for School Reform.

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