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Nipmuc FY27 budget emphasizes staff preservation, EL support and instructional coaching
Summary
Nipmuc school leaders presented FY27 budget priorities to preserve staffing, fund an expanded English-learner position, convert an instructional partner stipend into an instructional coach, add a school-counseling coordinator stipend, and flagged a net reduction of about five FTEs driven by long-term enrollment declines.
Nipmuc administrators presented the school-level portion of the district’s proposed FY27 budget, focusing on staffing stability and targeted investments. The budget request aims first to preserve current staffing levels and then to add specific capacity: increasing English-learner (EL) support from a shared 0.5 FTE to a full-time position so educators can push into classes rather than pull students out; converting an instructional partner stipend into a permanent instructional coach role; and adding a school-counseling coordinator stipend to coordinate services vertically across grade levels.
Presenters said enrollment has declined roughly 30% since 2010 (from about 768 to 534 students), driving a reduction of roughly five full-time-equivalent positions at the school level; administrators said they expect enrollment to creep up 10–15 students per year but that some electives may be offered on an every-other-year cadence because of low course enrollment. The presentation also highlighted continuing grant support for innovation and career-pathway programming (approximately $50,000 per year), a skills-capital award to renovate the media center, and other applied-learning grants.
Administrators framed the budget as a stability-focused package that adds capacity for EL instruction, school counseling coordination and authentic-learning supports while warning that the expiration of certain state grants would raise future budget pressures. Committee members asked follow-up questions about calculus and course enrollment patterns and asked for specific cost summaries for the subcommittee review.
Next steps: budget subcommittee meetings and further departmental budget presentations were scheduled to refine the district and school-level requests ahead of the FY27 process.
