School officials told town representatives that special‑education tuition and transportation costs are major drivers of the district’s budget pressures and have consumed a growing share of the local education budget. Staff reported that special education expenditures have exceeded offsetting state reimbursements in past years and that recent increases in circuit breaker funding—about $843,000 in the current year and roughly $1.1 million budgeted next year—help but do not eliminate the pressure.

Why this matters: the district said special‑education tuition spending can range widely by placement (staff cited per‑student out‑of‑district costs between about $120,000 and $300,000) and that the district currently has approximately 11 out‑of‑district students whose placements are costly. Officials said the district’s special‑education spending is over $11 million and represents about 25% of the total school budget in the current estimate.

Staff explained that residential and out‑of‑district providers raised rates after COVID and that those increases—combined with high island costs and difficulty recruiting specialized staff locally—have forced the district to contract for services at significantly higher prices than in‑district hires would cost. Officials said the spend reserve used to smooth tuition and transportation spikes has declined from about $700,000 to roughly $250,000 following large prior overspends.

Transportation also imposes heavy costs: staff estimated island in‑district transportation expenses in the range of $850,000 and described additional travel costs for families and visitation when students are placed off‑island. School leaders said they use federal funding (IDEA Part B, cited at about $470,000 this year) and other offsets where eligible, but cautioned that some federal streams (Title I and multilingual programs) face uncertainty and potential reductions that could affect next year’s budget.

What happens next: district and town staff agreed to continue reconciling the accounting and to include special‑education and transportation expense detail in the five‑year materials the community school will send ahead of the select board review. No policy change or binding appropriation was decided at the meeting.