The Manchester Essex Regional School District (MERSD) is committed to a collaborative approach to budget planning.  Throughout the budget season, we have been working cooperatively with Boards of Selectman and Finance Committees in both Essex and Manchester in order to provide one another with on-going progress reports on our planning process and outlook. 

The FY 14 Budget represents what the district believes is needed to maintain quality and position the schools for continual improvement of the educational program and student achievement.  These needs are balanced each year with a commitment to fiscal responsibility. 

In recent years, the state has responded to MERSD’s multi-year trend of rapid enrollment growth with significant increases in state aid.  As enrollment growth now begins to slow, increases in state aid have also declined.  While this has caused budgeted town operating assessments to increase more noticeably in 2014, the average annual operating increase to taxpayers over the past three years has been just 2.2% - more than 50% lower than seen in the prior four years.  At the same time, the district continues to invest in staffing and programming to address enrollment growth and the increasingly diverse student population we serve. 

Please visit the MERSD Budget Page for details about our FY14 budget proposal and goals and to review additional budget documents.

Key Overview Documents to Review on the MERSD Budget Page

FY14 Budget Brochure

FY 14 Budget Presentation

Important Dates to Remember

Manchester Town Meeting:   April 1, 2013 ~ Memorial Elementary School

Essex Town Meeting:  May 6, 2013 ~ Essex Elementary School

The Manchester Essex Regional School District is a high achieving community committed to educating all students, inspiring a passion for life-long learning, and developing local and global citizenship.  Its success is a community effort. On behalf of the faculty and staff of MERSD, I extend my sincere appreciation to the residents of the communities of Manchester and Essex for their unwavering support of our students and our schools.