Manchester Essex School Panel Opens Budget Season With $35 Million FY27 Proposal

ESSEX — December 3, 2025 — Manchester Essex School Committee opens FY27 budget season with a $35 million preliminary plan. The committee heard a tentative fiscal year 2027 budget of $35,007,499 Wednesday — a 7.39 percent increase over the current year, or roughly $2.1 million — with health insurance accounting for nearly half the growth after the district's benefits pool recommended a 20 percent rate-increase placeholder. Business Manager Michelle Pilla noted that stripping out $750,000 in planned reserve draws would push the nominal increase to about 10.6 percent, with Manchester's assessment rising 7.86 percent and Essex's rising 8.07 percent under the preliminary figures. Superintendent Pamela Benavides said the only proposed staffing addition is restoring a speech-language pathologist position to 1.0 full-time equivalent at a net change of 0.3 FTE. The committee voted to advance a new half-year visual and performing arts graduation requirement to public comment and a second read, reversed an earlier vote to postpone a December 8 joint informational meeting with town finance committees and select boards, and approved the educational program and space summaries for three Essex Elementary School feasibility configurations ahead of a community recap meeting December 9 at Manchester Memorial School.