Nauset Officials Look Ahead To 2026-2027 School Year

ORLEANS – At the end of a busy school year, it’s easy to suspect teachers and administrators welcome the opportunity to wind down that the summer months afford them. But for Elaine Pender, the silence that comes with summer “can be deafening.”

“I personally miss the energy of the children, the purpose-filled days,” said Pender, principal at Orleans Elementary School. “It’s important work we do. It’s a privilege to be around these kids everyday.”

Teachers, administrators and staff across the Nauset Public Schools are less than a week away from the first day of the 2026-2027 school year. On Sept. 8, buses will roll in and students will once again make their way through the halls of the district’s six schools. Kindergartners will start the following day, Sept. 9.

In the central office, Nauset Superintendent Glenn Brand is entering his second year at the helm of the regional district, and he’s introducing a number of new faces to key administrative positions. The district has a new assistant superintendent of finance and operations, Beth Regulbuto, as well as a new human resources director in Matthew Beales and interim special education director in Erin Sullivan.

Also new this year is Kate Benoit, who was hired this summer to the newly-created position of director of communications and community outreach. Brand said in the role, Benoit will be charged with helping the district better align and focus its messaging with the broader community.

“My experience is school districts everywhere struggle with [communication], and 95 percent of them don’t have a dedicated person to keep an eye on those communications efforts,” Brand said. “Schools do the best they can and districts do the best they can, but they don’t have a team of PR folks.”

Brand also said a new strategic plan has been developed for the district with the input of staff and members of the Nauset community. He said he hopes to have the plan finalized and voted on by the regional school committee sometime in the early fall.

The 2026-2027 school year also promises to find the district probing further at options for potentially regionalizing resources. In June, the four Nauset towns of Orleans, Brewster, Eastham and Wellfleet were each presented with potential scenarios for addressing the district’s aging school buildings. Those included scenarios involving consolidating schools, renovating existing buildings and/or new construction.

Talk of regionalization has been met with questions and concerns by some in the community, but Brand said there is a “clear need” to address the aging state of the district’s facilities, especially those at the elementary level.

“Whether or not at the end of the day it’s regionalization or something that tries to strengthen the sharing of resources, people are thinking about that,” he said.

At OES, Pender said for teachers and staff, the first day of school is met with the excitement of Christmas. 

“They go all out,” she said. “They’re ready. They’re so excited. They’re more excited I think than the kids. The kids are excited but nervous, but there’s so many people here to help them through that transition.”

Pender said she and her staff are looking forward to building on various programs and initiatives that continue to grow. That includes an interdisciplinary reading program where students at each grade level study a particular subject in greater depth. The school is also continuing to build on existing partnerships with community groups such as the Orleans Conservation Trust, the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History and others as part of its commitment to exploratory and experiential learning.

“That’s an essential part of knowing where they live and being stewards of the Cape,” she said.

At Eddy Elementary School in Brewster, it’s been a busy summer for Principal Steve Guditus. The school is welcoming 12 new staffers this year. Those include paraprofessionals and special educators as well as a new physical eduation and health teacher, head custodian and cafeteria manager.

“It’s exciting, because when you go through the interview process, it’s a mutual interview too,” he said. “Although we’re interviewing them for their skills and experience, they’re interviewing us also about our culture. That part is really exciting, because we want people that are on board with the things that are priorities for us.”

The school is also looking to build upon its positive behavioral program, Eddy R.E.A.D.Y., which rewards students for their good behavior in school.

“We catch them doing the right thing, catch them demonstrating core values, and we give them a little green card,” he said. “And at the end of the week, we celebrate a third, fourth and fifth grader and they get an extra recess for their class,” he said. Similarly, the school is boosting its focus on “restorative practices,” where extra attention is given to addressing specific problems or issues with students to give them the tools to restore a relationship or situation.

Both Eddy and OES will also continue work with their farm to table gardens, where master gardners assist students in growing produce on-site for use in the school cafeterias.

For Nauset Regional High School Principal Patrick Clark, the new school year represents the first full year that students will spend in the newly-renovated high school campus. Ground broke on the $169 million campus in early 2023, and portions opened up to students and staff last year.

Recent weeks have seen students return early for the start of fall sports. Additional beginning-of-the-year events have also been held ahead of the first day of classes, including the "Warrior Welcome,” where incoming freshmen pick up their school-issued Chromebooks, and the “backstage pass,” where freshmen are given tours of the new campus.

“We’re good to go,” Clark said. “The buzz is back in the building big time over the course of the past week. It’s really great to see.”

Peter Cohen, who is starting his fourth year as principal at Nauset Regional Middle School, said he and the middle school staff have put considerable focus in recent years on building a positive school culture. And he said the seeds of that work have started to bear fruit.

“We want to use the vehicle of school to be able to create good people, not just good scholars,” he said.

The middle school will look to build upon the “house system” that it successfully installed last year. Modeled after Harry Potter, students and staff are arranged in four houses (Blizzards, Tsunamis, Hurricanes and Tornadoes), each of which engage in a friendly competition throughout the year to see who can accrue the most points, which are given out to members for good deeds and positive behavior. The winning house is awarded at the end of the year with the “House Cup,” which currently belongs to the Hurricanes.

Cohen credited last year’s outgoing eighth grade class, which started at the middle school in his first year as principal, with setting the right tone and getting other students to buy into the concept.

  “I know they really bonded,” he said. “Sometimes eighth graders can be a little too cool for school, but in this particular case they really bought into the leadership role and showed and modeled for other students [that] ‘It’s OK to get into this.’”

Middle schoolers will also have the opportunity to show their leadership skills through other initiatives, Cohen said. A group of student ambassadors known as “The Crew” have been designated to lead tours of the school and brainstorm ideas for school events, such as a school barbecue and a movie night.

As Labor Day approaches, the energy and activity on the Lower Cape will swiftly move from the beaches, bike trails and ice cream shops and into the classrooms. But administrators say the start of a new school year always rings with promise.

“For me, I love this time of the year,” Cohen said. “It’s always exciting. New beginnings.”