OES Is A Top Performing School, But Enrollment Is Flagging

ORLEANS – Orleans Elementary School was recognized last year by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as one of the top performing schools in the state. Now the question before town and school officials is how to get more students in the building.

There are 150 students attending the elementary school this school year, a figure that is up slightly from the 142 students that attended the school in 2023-2024. But enrollment has largely been on the decline at the school. In 2000, for example, the school housed 275 students.

Meanwhile, the school’s budget for the coming 2026 fiscal year sits at $4,854,861, according to figures presented by school officials to the select board and finance committee March 19. That’s an increase of almost 6 percent from the current fiscal year.

One of the biggest drivers in the budget increase is the cost of elementary special education. The school’s special education budget currently stands at $1,298,062 for fiscal 2026, which is an increase of 10 percent from this year. Figures presented by school officials show that close to 60 percent of OES students are identified by the state as “high need.” Those include students who are economically disadvantaged and are on IEPs, or individual education plans.

“We are right in line with the state average, to be honest with you,” Nauset School Superintendent Brooke Clenchy said.

But Ed Mahoney of the finance committee said that with both the budget and school enrollment moving in the wrong direction, the town is incurring higher costs. He estimated the average cost per student at the elementary school at $42,000.

“I think you have a real difficult challenge ahead of you,” he told school officials.

The cost and lack of available housing in town plays a large part in the school’s declining enrollment. But Gail Briere, who chairs the Orleans Elementary School committee, said she hopes that new developments — including the Pennrose project on West Road and the project at 107 Main St. — will bring in young families with children. There are 62 units due to go online later this year through the Pennrose development, while an additional 20 units will come online when the Main Street project is finished.

But select board chair Mark Mathison wasn’t so sure. He said it’s more likely that the projects will go to working people in need of housing who are already in town.

“I think it’s kind of overly hopeful to think that when people start moving into the affordable housing units that we have online right now it’s going to impact our elementary school,” he said.

Orleans is one of the oldest towns agewise in Massachusetts, noted select board member Andrea Reed. She said there needs to be a demographic shift away from the town’s older population to make more room for young families. Briere agreed.

“I think that’s a mindset we need to embrace,” she said.
While school choice is an option for bringing more kids into schools, that currently is not an option for the Nauset elementary schools, Newman said.
“The issue is they’re all in one union together, so you basically would be pulling kids from (one school to go to another),” she said. “That’s why they don’t do it, because they don’t want to affect the enrollments in the other elementary schools.”

Small Growth For Nauset Middle, High School Budgets

The proposed budget for Nauset Regional High School for the coming fiscal year is $13,456.297, an increase of approximately 3 percent.

Nauset officials are hoping that the completion of the high school campus renovation will entice more students to attend the high school in the coming years. New buildings constructed as part of the project went online in September, while work to renovate the remaining campus buildings is expected to be done in June.

The new high school has capacity for 905 students, but enrollment currently stands at 780, according to Nauset Regional School committee member Tom Fitzgibbons. District officials have blamed the ongoing construction of the new campus on the loss of students at the high school to school choice in recent years. But Mathison also said the high school is losing students because it has lost a step in its programming.

“If you look at the number of kids that are choicing out to the charter schools, and you look at the number of kids that are now going to Cape Cod Tech, it’s because the programs that they have are programs that Nauset doesn’t offer anymore,” said Mathison, who taught at Nauset High for almost 50 years. He said the district should work to “reconstitute the Nauset brand” to help bring students back to the high school.

The proposed Nauset Regional Middle School budget for the new fiscal year is $9,821,992, a 2 percent increase.

One-Time Expenses A Concern

The overall Nauset Regional School District budget currently sits at $38,882,458, an increase of 4 percent from the current fiscal year. Projected assessments to the four district towns for fiscal 2026 are $8,568,112 for Orleans; $17,589,160 for Brewster; $7,975,528 for Eastham; and $1,035,197 for Wellfleet.

Town Manager Kim Newman raised concerns with the district’s inclusion of $1.75 million in “excess and deficiency” funds as part of the budget. She said building that into the budget will create a budgetary gap, noting that “E and D” is likely to come in lower at $1.1 million for the following fiscal year.

Newman’s concerns echoed those raised during last year’s budget cycle, when the district included approximately $900,000 in interest garnered through money borrowed for the high school renovation that was later reinvested with the Massachusetts Municipal Depository Trust.

“Between the reduction in E and D and interest for next year, you’re going to have a gap of probably a million dollars in this budget before we get started,” she said.

Judith Schumacher, chair of the Nauset Regional school committee, said that the interest from the school project should go “back to the taxpayers.” The excess and deficiency funds, meanwhile, were used to help avoid the need for a potential Proposition 2½ override, she said.

“My philosophy is we don’t ask for an override in a year we don’t need it,” she said.

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com