After voters over the past two years turned down proposed budgets for the Mascenic Regional School District, leaving the district in default budgets, administrators say there is little left to cut.
Superintendent Liz Pogorzelski said that if the district has to face a third year in a default budget, anticipated cuts could have deeper impacts for students, particularly at the elementary and middle school levels.
Pogorzelski said under the previous default budgets, the district has been able to make up the difference, often by eliminating unfilled positions. She said those positions had been empty for a significant portion of time or were didn’t deal directly with students.
“I think what we’ve done has been able to make the best of a bad situation,” said Pogorzelski.
Currently, however, she said there are no more “obvious” places to cut without impacting filled positions and student programs.
“We’re not at that point anymore” of eliminating empty positions, she said. “All positions have been filled, or contracted out, because we need those services. We’re not at a point where we have extra things to cut.”
While any decisions about cuts to the proposed budget would come only if the proposed budget failed, the district administration has put together a proposal for what a school year under a default budget would entail, including staff cuts, elimination of sports and extracurriculars at the middle school level, and elimination of non-required preschool.
“These are areas we identified as least impactful to student progress,” Pogorzelski said. “None of this is ideal but we’re looking at what would be the best of a bad situation. These are the areas that we think we can reduce from without having a harsher impact on students.”
The district’s proposed budget for the 2026-27 year is $23,899,107, roughly an 8.75% increase over the current default budget. If the budget fails at the polls on March 10, the default budget is $23,431,429, which is $467,678 less than the proposal.
The proposal hasn’t been without detractors, with two attempts to cut the budget by about $900,000 being made during the district’s deliberative session. Both proposals failed to pass.
A warrant article is also on the ballot to create a budget cap to limit the amount of the cost per pupil to the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or CPI-U. The article does not use language required by state law, and is expected to be considered unenforceable.
The addition of a Life Skills program
The majority of the increase in the budget is attributed to increases in salary and benefits, previously approved by the voting public.
One of the program additions included in the budget is the restoration of a Life Skills program aimed at students with individual education plans, for whom the district is responsible for educating until the age of 22.
Pogorzelski said that teaching life skills is a state requirement, and the district has hosted a program in the past, but in recent years has been tuitioning students to a program outside of the district.
“Eventually you have to look at the cost-benefit analysis of paying that tuition and paying for transportation, versus absorbing the cost of a salary position,” Pogorzelski said.
Pogorzelski said the district already has a space with a kitchen and laundry set-up, to which students have access, and supply costs for the program would be minimal, with the major cost being the teacher for the program.
Pogorzelski said it is always preferable to keep students in their own community when possible, and that a full life skills program may attract tuitioning students to Mascenic.
Pogorzelski said the district will likely move forward with the life skills program, even in the case of a default budget, which would require cuts to be made elsewhere in the proposed budget.
Staffing cuts and class sizes under a default
According to Pogorzelski, under the proposal currently being put forth by the administration, cuts to reach a default number would include staff cuts at both the elementary and middle school level which would impact class sizes.
The proposal would include eliminating a third-grade teaching position, a move that would increase the third-grade class sizes to 21 or 22 students.
The district previously reduced a second-grade teaching position last year, and, based on current enrollment, this would mean that next year’s second-grade class sizes are also expected to increase, from 15 or 16 students to about 20 or 21 students.
Eliminating a middle school teaching position is also proposed, which would increase the seventh and eighth-grade class sizes from 16 or 17 to 21 or 23 students.
According to Pogorzelski, the current average class size for Highbridge Hill Elementary School is 19.8 students, at Boynton Middle School, 16.5 students, and Mascenic, 15 students.
The district’s policy recommends — but does not require — class sizes of no more than 18 per class in kindergarten through second grade, no more than 20 in grades three through five, and no more than 22 in grades six through 12.
Pogorzelski said with projected class sizes, the proposed class sizes under a default budget would have two grades over the recommended class size limit, and the fifth grade right at the recommended cap.
Program cuts under a default
Under the proposal, the full-day 3-year-old preschool program at Highbridge Hill Elementary School would be eliminated.
The district is required to provide services for children with an individual education plan as young as 3 years old, and Pogorzelski said those services would continue to be provided — but not as a full-time, four-day-a-week program.
Currently, the preschool is open to any student. If the full-time program were eliminated, it would only be available for those with IEPs, and only for their required services. They would attend for services such as speech or occupational therapy at set times during the week, rather than as part of their school day.
All middle school extracurricular programs, which include athletics, would be eliminated.
Pogorzelski said some activities have received grant funding, and those with funding sources outside of the general budget would continue. Others that are paid for through the activities fund would be eliminated.
“The big hit is going to be athletics,” said Pogorzelski.
Pogorzelski said the district has, in the past, petitioned for older students to participate in sports at the high school level, and said the district could pursue that route. She said she has also had discussions with the New Ipswich Parks and Recreation Department about absorbing younger students into sports programs, which she said could be possible.