Although the number of students enrolled in the Martha’s Vineyard public school system has changed little over the years, school costs continue to rise.

For the second year in a row, Island schools are facing a sharp increase in the budget for shared services — such as special education, music instruction and clinical therapies — that are provided to all campuses by the superintendent’s offices in Vineyard Haven.

The shared services budget of $10.6 million for 2026 is a 13.8 per cent increase over the current fiscal year’s spending plan, which itself is 15.6 per cent higher than the previous year, in what was then an unprecedented hike.

After approving the budget presented by superintendent Richard Smith, the all-Island school committee last month voted unanimously to form a working group to study the potential of unifying the Vineyard’s two regional and three town school districts into a single district, covering all six schools.

The shared services budget went up by 13.8 per cent.

Ray Ewing

The shared services budget went up by 13.8 per cent.

Ray Ewing

“There are any number of reasons that looking at regionalization is something that we need to consider, [and] we would be irresponsible to not consider that, given the . . . growth in our budgets,” committee chair Amy Houghton said during the Nov. 21 meeting.

Finance director Mark Friedman said Island towns could gain more than $750,000 in state-funded transportation reimbursements alone if the districts regionalize, because he would no longer be required to submit individual reimbursement requests for five different campuses.

The state also may have funding available for the regionalization study, Mr. Friedman said.

In a follow-up interview this week, Ms. Houghton told the Gazette that unifying the districts could help rein in school costs to taxpayers while providing opportunities to more Island students, regardless of their hometowns’ municipal budgets.

“We should really be preparing kids equitably, and how do you do that when there’s this town-centric view? It’s something that we would be remiss to not consider,” she said.

Island schools have changed significantly over the years as enrollments have shifted from generational Vineyarders to more recent arrivals, Ms. Houghton said. Immigrants now make up some 40 per cent of the school-age population, and families move between towns far more frequently than in the 20th century, she said.

The shared-services itself was designed to ensure that students with higher needs are getting an equitable opportunity, Mr. Smith told the Gazette.

“Some schools may or may not be able to afford enrichment or special education,” Mr. Smith said.

The all-Island string music program is another program aimed at making sure all students have the chance to participate, he said.

But as in past years, therapy and special education make up the largest part of the $10.6 million shared services budget for fiscal 2026.

“About two-thirds of our operating budget is direct services [and] special education costs,” Mr. Smith said.

The Island-wide Bridge program, for children with autism, continues to see rising numbers and will need an additional classroom and three more teacher assistants next year, Mr. Smith said.

Some administrators say they could save on costs under a regionalized model.

Ray Ewing

Some administrators say they could save on costs under a regionalized model.

Ray Ewing

Social and emotional delays and other mental health diagnoses are also on a continued upswing since the Covid-19 pandemic, pushing up costs, behavioral health coordinator Kim Garrison told the all-Island school committee last month.

One thing the shared services budget does not provide is the cost of off-Island residential schools for students whose disabilities can’t be accommodated on the Vineyard. If a child cannot receive an appropriate education in their town school, even with serices from the central office, state law requires that the town fund their residential placement, which Ms. Houghton said can cost upward of $100,000 a year.

Regionalizing the Island into a single K-12 district would spread out those costs, easing the burden on individual schools, she said.

The $10.6 million shared services budget will be split by the Island’s five school districts based on enrollment numbers from the annual student census taken Oct. 1.

Across the Island, the Oct. 1 census found a total of 2,155 Island children in kindergarten through 12th grade. A year ago, the census found 2,184 students, down from 2,253 in 2022.

Overall, Mr. Smith said, enrollment has remained fairly steady for more than 15 years, never dipping below 2,025 or rising above 2,200 except for the 2022 high.