Special education costs, decreased enrollment discussed at Henniker school deliberative session

Special education costs and an unanticipated drop in enrollment were top of mind for the Henniker School Board as they presented their proposed budget on Monday.

The board put forward a $11.2 million budget for the upcoming school year, with a $300,000 increase over the current budget. One-third of that cost is coming from the school’s purchased services, which include an SAU-shared special education administrator position and special education contracted services.

Special education costs across the state have steadily increased since the pandemic. The state is only funding a portion of these costs, however, leaving much of the financial responsibility on towns and taxpayers.

“We’ve been managing it well,” said Student Services Administrator Martha LeMahieu. “However, the areas of specialties, such as our PT services or TVI services, school psych, those are areas that we are needing to contract out, which, when you contract out versus getting an employee, are much higher in cost. That’s the impact we’re feeling at this point.”

Another article presented in the meeting was to discontinue a technology equipment trust fund and move the money into a special education fund.

Board member Jason Schrock said the tech fund — with nearly $72,000 meant to supplement large expenses such as server replacements — has seldom been used since its establishment in 2007. If passed, the money would be added to the approximately $217,000 already in the special education fund.

“Seeing that trust fund not being used, it is our position that we would like to move that money to where it might be more useful,” Schrock said during Monday’s deliberative session. “Special education is an area where the costs are less and less predictable.”

An issue noted in the meeting that may affect Henniker Community School in the future is the unexpected decrease in enrollment. The student population has remained steady over the last 10 years. Last year, the school saw a decrease from 402 students in 2024 to 384 students in 2025.

Superintendent Jacqueline Coe said the kindergarten class had 10 fewer children in the class than they were expecting — and the district doesn’t know why. This could also impact the next school year’s first-grade class.

“In Henniker, 10 kids make a difference,” Coe said. “If we open school in September and we continue to have low enrollment in those two classes, we are going to have to look at staffing the following year.”

Voting day will occur on Tuesday, March 10 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Henniker Community School. The annual town meeting will be held at the school on Saturday, March 14 at 1 p.m.

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