The average cost to educate a child in public school on Martha’s Vineyard is more than several regionalized school districts of similar size, including Nantucket, according to a recent study. 

It cost more than $34,000 per student last year, with the average teacher salary above $110,000, according to the study by the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS) based on statistics from the state education department.

The study was commissioned by the all-Island school committee, which has formed a subcommittee to examine the potential savings and other benefits of unifying the Vineyard’s five individual school districts into one. 

Though regionalization has been resisted in the past, officials with MARS said it could provide cost savings to Islanders.

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School had the highest per-pupil cost, $41,143, followed by $34,727 for the two schools in the up-Island district. Down-Island schools range from $32,984 for Tisbury School, $32,315 for Edgartown School and $30,770 for Oak Bluffs School, MARS consultant Stephen Hemman told the subcommittee at a meeting last month.

Not all of the money comes from property taxes in the six towns. State grants also play an important role in school financing, but vary based on local income and property values.

Subcommittee chair Alex Salop said that policy unfairly classifies the Vineyard with year-round communities where high land values match residents’ incomes more evenly than they do here.

Tax records from the state department of revenue showed the 2022 per capita income on Martha’s Vineyard at $56,312, with the equalized property value per capita a whopping $2,251,371, according to the MARS report.

By comparison, the Nauset district on Cape Cod had a per capita income of $117,964 against a per capita property value of $955,765.

“The paradox between land value and per capita income — that creates a unique challenge,” Mr. Salop said.

The Vineyard’s five school districts enrolled 2,453 students in 2023-2024, according to the MARS report.

Similarly-sized school districts that have regionalized on Cape Cod and elsewhere in the state are spending significantly less than the Vineyard, Mr. Hemman said.

Monomoy, with 1,654 students, averaged $25,510 per pupil and $87,618 per teacher last year. North Middlesex, with an enrollment of 3,096, spent $20,458 per student and $72,714 per teacher and the 1,951-student Quabbin district spent $20,251 and $74,802 respectively.

Even the Nantucket district spends about 15 per cent less than Martha’s Vineyard to educate its 1,713 students, Mr. Hemman said. With one town versus the Vineyard’s six, Nantucket is able to capture savings by educating its students by age group instead of residential area, which Mr. Hemman said helps to fill classrooms and reduce staffing costs.

Children in pre-kindergarten through second grade attend Nantucket Elementary School before moving to Nantucket Intermediate School for third, fourth and fifth grade. Sixth- through eighth-graders go to Cyrus Peirce Middle School and ninth- through 12-graders attend Nantucket High School, the Vineyard’s traditional sports rival.

A regionalized Martha’s Vineyard school district could achieve similar economies by consolidating students by grade, Mr. Hemman said. Additionally, regionalization would unlock more state reimbursements for school busing costs, Mr. Hemman said.

Presently, only the up-Island and high school districts are eligible for transportation reimbursements because they have already regionalized, he said.

Regionalizing Island schools also would make it easier to coordinate instruction on state educational standards, helping to raise students’ performance on the annual Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) examinations, MARS consultant Nadine Ekstrom told the subcommittee.

The MARS team meets once more with the regionalization subcommittee this Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in a hybrid meeting at the high school library and online.

Following the meeting, the consultants will prepare a final report for the subcommittee, Mr. Hemman said.