Nauset Committee Directs Superintendent to Consult Towns on Capital Assessment Error

ORLEANS -- May 21, 2026, Nauset Regional School Committee opens multi-year capital assessment dispute to intertown discussions. The committee, meeting May 21 at Nauset Middle School, spent more than an hour debating a discrepancy between its regional agreement and its longstanding budget practice: Section 4, Subsection D of the agreement requires capital costs to be split among Brewster, Eastham, Orleans, and Wellfleet using in-district enrollment, but the district has used the broader foundation enrollment figure, which includes charter, choice, and special education placements, for as long as records exist. Brewster, which sends proportionally more students out of district, has paid a higher capital share under the foundation method. The district's attorney advised a six-year statute of limitations applies if the regional agreement is treated as a contract, and that fiscal years 2024 and 2025 are effectively closed for direct repayment. The certified excess-and-deficiency fund came in at $2 million, roughly $400,000 below expectations. Chair Judy Schofield said of any retroactive demand, "We went to the voters in good faith. They voted in good faith. And to go back now and say, because of a technicality, we're going to go back and rearrange the pots of money, there's something about it that just doesn't settle." The committee directed Superintendent Brand to serve as point of contact with all four towns and asked that any intertown meetings be held publicly. Separately, the committee voted unanimously to approve an April warrant of $4,690,901.83 and a reclassification of expenses from operating to revolving accounts totaling approximately $895,000 in circuit breaker and related revenue, a process Finance Director Bob Dessy said had not been executed in recent years.