Pembroke school leaders ask for more special-education and counseling staff as needs rise

The Pembroke School Committee heard detailed budget presentations from middle- and high-school leaders on superintendent's report items that emphasized special-education staffing and counseling supports.

School leaders told the committee they are seeing rising special-education and social-emotional needs even while overall enrollment trends decline, and asked the committee to consider adding paraprofessionals, behavioral specialists and counseling leadership in the fiscal 2026 budget.

Donna, who presented the Pembroke Community Middle School budget, said enrollment trends show a modest decline over recent years but that special-education needs and social-emotional concerns are growing. "This year we got $24,000," Donna said of a multi-year CAP initiative grant she described; she said earlier seed and implementation grants had been $4,500 and $5,500. Donna told the committee the CAP work funded lesson development and experiential learning, including full-day field trips paid for with grant money.

Donna said the middle school's Compass program, a transitory support room for students needing short-term academic or emotional support, had 13 students assigned in the first two terms and produced measurable grade improvements. She described the program as "transitory" and said many students use it for short periods; Donna reported an average participation length of about 20 days and said the average grade increased by roughly 11.6 percent for participants.

To respond to rising needs, Donna asked the committee to include in next year's budget a full-time special-education paraprofessional (she estimated about $30,000), a half-time director of counseling and behavioral supports, a half-time board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA) and a half-time registered behavioral technician (RBT). "The increased need will be provided both in our inclusion settings, pull-out settings, or substantially separate programs," Donna said, describing how the positions would be deployed based on IEP team decisions.

Mark, presenting Pembroke High School's budget, outlined similar concerns and asked for additional staffing at the high school level: a full-time director of counseling, a full-time special-education teacher, a half-time American Sign Language teacher, and a 0.4 FTE business teacher to free the current pathways coordinator. He also requested an increase in the extracurricular line item to $25,000. Mark cited current caseload figures, the number of students who have used the Compass program, and students on 504 plans and IEPs to justify the requests.

Committee discussion noted that special-education growth creates a budgeting challenge because many services are locally funded. One member said the governor's proposed budget includes limited increases in local aid and that changes at the state level will affect local capacity to absorb non-funded mandates.

The presentations will be used by budget subcommittee as it continues meetings this winter. Committee members asked that the public continue to follow the budget process and attend upcoming budget presentations so residents can help shape requests and priorities.

Next steps: staff said budget subcommittee meetings will reconvene in the coming weeks and that the committee will consider the staffing requests and trade-offs as they finalize the preliminary FY26 budget.