Manchester Essex School Committee Defers Budget Vote as Health Insurance Crisis Deepens

ESSEX — March 4, 2025 — Manchester Essex School Committee delays budget adoption as 27 percent health insurance spike forces override reckoning. The committee met March 4 without voting on a fiscal year 2026 budget, with members now targeting a March 18 adoption date after a joint session with town administrators from Manchester and Essex confirmed neither community can absorb the district's projected assessment increase within existing levy limits without a Proposition 2½ override. Superintendent Pam Beals presented four budget scenarios built around a 27 percent health insurance premium increase that she said insurers refused to bid against competitively, citing the district's high claims history. Finance subcommittee chair Jake Donahue reported Essex "does not have excess capacity" and that Manchester's preferred school budget growth rate of 3.5 percent is below every scenario on the table. In a late-meeting turn, Beals recommended the committee pursue a full carry-forward level-services budget with no reserve offset and seek a clean override: "I will cut $2 million out of our staffing and programming and we will reset" if it fails. The committee also voted unanimously to authorize high school students to pursue a MassDEP grant for three EV charging stations at the high school, and received word that Doran Whittier has been chosen as owner's project manager for the Essex Elementary School building project.