Residents of both Essex and Manchester urged the Manchester Essex Regional School Committee to propose and approve a 9 percent increase to the budget for fiscal year 2026.
More than 50 people attended, with another 75 or more online, a public hearing on next year’s school budget at Essex Elementary School Tuesday night.
Superintendent of Schools Pam Beaudoin and Michelle Cresta, the school district’s director of Finance and Operations, presented a proposed budget of $32,397,588 for FY26. That would include an increase of $1.66 million or 5.42 percent more than the current budget.
Beaudoin said health care costs were the driving force behind the increase. The proposed budget was based on a 10 percent increase in health care costs. However, “as of today, we received a 26.9 percent increase from our provider,” said Beaudoin.
Since that would cost about $700,000 over the cost of the 10 percent increase, Beaudoin said the school district would explore other health care providers in hopes of securing one with only a 10 to 15 percent increase.
Beaudoin said much of the budget was level funded. However, there are a few cuts. Middle school Principal Joanne Maino is retiring and will not be replaced. Her position and the position of facilities manager would be eliminated. Two teachers would be moved to new positions.
To balance the budget, Beaudoin said that the schools would need to use $500,000 from a reserve fund and accept more school choice students to bring in an additional $100,000.
“The crisis hits next year,” said Beaudoin. “There are no more reserves. They will be tapped out.”
Beaudoin admitted that the cuts were not optimal, but given the situation, were the ones “that made the most sense.”
Despite the gloomy predictions, many in the audience urged the School Committee to support a 9 percent increase ($2.76 million) budget increase. This would allow the school district to replace the middle school principal and facilities manager as well as level-fund a number of other areas that faced smaller cuts.
Brian Gressler of Essex said the primary responsibility of the School Committee was providing the best education for the children.
“The baseline of every budget should be what’s best for children,” said Gressler in support of the 9 percent increase. “Essex leadership has made a choice to minimize tax increases over maintaining town functions. This includes the schools.”
He added that Proposition 2 ½ was not an “unbreakable line” and the town’s reluctance to approve an override was “costing us.”
Robert Bilsbury of Essex, a foreign language teacher at the high school for 26 years, said the foreign language department has been chipped away over the years.
“You can’t continue to go 2 ½ percent, 2 ½ percent, 2 ½ percent, because schools are growing,” said Bilsbury, “their needs are growing ... It’s normal to have overrides in tons of communities.”
Sally Berkowitz of Manchester said she has followed the school budget
debates over the last five years.
“The modest 3.4 percent budget increases have not kept pace with inflation or the rising cost of health care,” said Berkowitz. “These external factors should not be having such a dramatic impact on the programming we offer our students.”
Sophia Johansson of Bennett Street, Manchester, said that she has three children with disabilities and praised the school administrators for their work. She depends on the schools but every cut makes her children’s lives more difficult.
“Manchester Essex cannot endure further cuts without affecting our kids’ education,” said Lindsay Banks of Forest Street, Manchester. “We’ve lost so many positions with retirements and efficiencies.” She urged the district to build a new elementary school in Essex.
Jennifer Michaud, a social studies teacher at MERHS, said she feared that one of the teachers to be re-assigned would be a social studies teacher. She said that many of their classes were the most popular at the school and moving a teacher would make it more difficult for students to take those classes.
While many other spoke in favor of the 9 percent increase, only one person spoke against the budget hike. She suggested that some Manchester students should be bused to Essex.
Manchester Town Administrator Greg Federspiel said he was “a firm believer in steady budget increases” rather than one big increase. He urged the School Committee to put together a multi-year plan that “gets us to where we need to be.”
