MERRIMACK – The new Nashua Program at Brentwood has been thriving since the Nashua School District revived it last spring. The alternative high school for students with intensive needs has grown from 10 enrollments in August, 2014 to 15 in February, 2015 and may accommodate up to 24 students next fall.

The program has now nearly reached its current capacity of 16 pupils.

“We have 15 students there… we had a new one come in today,” said Director of Special Education, Jan Martin, at the Feb. 5 school board meeting, adding the school is expecting to have one more student soon.

Except for two students, Brentwood enrollments are all from Nashua.

The school may be able to accommodate more students for the next academic year, as long as the district can support additional staffing.

Southeastern Regional Education Service Center, known as SERESC, abruptly closed the school in spring 2014 citing high operating costs, but the Nashua district was able to assume leadership of the program in time to re-open in fall 2014.

The administration, after identifying middle school students who would be a good fit for the school, hopes to begin next fall with 20 students, eventually increasing to 24. “Hopefully by mid-year we would be up to 24 students,” said Martin.

But to support higher enrollment, the program would need to increase staffing.

Expanding staffing would include the addition of a part-time biology teacher, as well as increased time for the existing art, English, math and special education teachers, and program secretary. The school coordinator will be categorized as an administrative position next year, meaning the position will have authority over discipline issues as well.

Expanding staffing for the program was one of the few additions to the stringent 2016 education budget which looks to cut nearly one million dollars from the baseline budget. The current budget proposal reduces $1.2 million from the baseline budget in personnel and program cuts, while adding $186,157 in Brentwood staffing, a new charter school special education position and a pre-engineering teacher.

Set by the Fiscal Year 2015 budget of $100.7 million, the baseline for the FY 2016 budget is set to increase 2.8 percent to about $101.7 million. The rise is due to automatic salary increases under collective bargaining agreements, as well as contract increases in district transportation and utilities. The New Hampshire Retirement System costs for district personnel is also set to increase in 2016.

Because the city’s spending cap is expected to be 1.6 to 1.8 percent over the 2015 baseline budget, the district has to make net reductions of at least $988,000 from the 2016 baseline to meet the city’s bottom line.

Most Brentwood positions are part-time, with some individuals filling more than one role at the school.

“We have one person right now doing math and physical science. That is really rare and hard to find,” said Martin. For 2016, the math and physical science teacher would have one full-time position between the two roles.

The Brentwood projected staffing increase would be 1.45 full-time equivalent credits; from 6.55 this year to 8.0 in the fall.

“This is pretty thin staffing…we’ve been pretty frugal,” said Superintendent Mark Conrad. Brentwood could use additional guidance support, he said.

The 2015 – 2016 academic year will be the final year for the Nashua Program at Brentwood at its current facility on the Merrimack High School campus. SERESC still owns the building and leases the space to the school district. The company has notified Nashua that it plans to use the Brentwood facility to open a STEM-based charter school in fall 2016.

The district plans to continue running the program at another location yet to be determined.

The Brentwood School had been operating as an alternative high school in Merrimack since 1981.

Tina Forbes can be reached at 594-6402, tforbes@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_TinaF.

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