Brewster School Budgets Won’t Need Overrides

BREWSTER – Education budgets for the upcoming fiscal year will remain stable, according to town and school officials, with the biggest change coming from the reclassification of individual expenses.

The elementary schools will see a 5.66 percent increase, Nauset Middle School will increase 2.02 percent, Nauset High School will increase 3.5 percent and Cape Cod Tech will see a 5.68 increase. With few significant changes, town officials said overrides will not be needed for any of the schools in the district this year. 

“That’s a tremendous achievement, to accomplish that and keep the programming at the quality that it is,” select board Member Amanda Bebrin during a March 24 budget discussion. 

Although outgoing Nauset Superintendent Brooke Clenchy had nothing major to report when it came to school budget changes for next year, the five budgets underwent some major overhaul.

This year, Clenchy, along with district officials, worked on a reclassification of the five budgets including Nauset’s high school and middle school budgets, the central office budget, the capital asset budget and the region-only budget. 

Most of the shifts were among individual line items. For example, many of the pre-K staffing benefits were in the region-only budget. Officials worked to find those monetary items and bring them back to the elementary budgets to make personnel costs more transparent. Around $1 million in total was reclassified. 

A large portion of the March 24 session was spent talking about the development of the next five year strategic plan. Clenchy said it has been her guiding document through the years she has served as superintendent.

The plan normally takes about six months to a year to complete and will involve some 70 different stakeholders providing feedback, including parents, students and residents. 

While Brewster enrollment rates remain steady, a few select board members questioned how to attract more students since families now have multiple options for where to send their children. Clenchy said that will be one of the main priorities of the strategic plan. 

In 2024, 960 in-district students attended Nauset; 295 students who live in the district chose other schools, whether that be Cape Cod Tech, charter schools or the option to attend another district through School Choice.

This year, Cape Cod Tech reported an increase in students and a waiting list of about 150 students. Overall, the school gained 19 students, 10 of which were from Brewster. A total of 61 Brewster residents will attend Tech next year. 

Brewster elementary schools have seen a minimal increase with 441 students this year, up from 438 last year. Nauset Regional Schools in general continue to experience a steady decrease of students, but nothing incredibly alarming as of yet, school officials said. 

Tech’s recommended operating budget for 2026 sits at just under $18.5 million. Including operating expenses and capital expenditures, Brewster’s portion will be just under $1.8 million. 

Brewster elementary schools have a reported recommended budget of just over $13 million. Stony Brook Elementary will need $5,561,572 and Eddy Elementary will need $4,797,560. A large portion of their budgets are due to special education programs and staff. Additionally, officials are seeking $2,824,507 in fringe benefits for personnel. 

Nauset Middle School’s recommended budget sits at just over $9.8 million. Nauset High School has almost double the student population and a new campus, so the recommended total budget comes in at $13.4 million. 

School budgets will go before voters at the May 5 town meeting.