Gloucester schools lose 83 students in a year, and the superintendent corrects the special education count to 25.3 percent

Gloucester's public schools have 83 fewer students than a year ago, Superintendent Amy Pasquarello told the School Committee on Wednesday, Nov. 4, in the district's fall enrollment report. The district has 2,698 students, down from 2,781 last year and 2,930 in the fall of 2016, according to the slides she showed.

Pasquarello also corrected a number from the last meeting. The share of students who qualify for special education is 25.3 percent, she said, not the 30 percent reported Oct. 28. (Read our notes from that meeting.)

What happened

• Enrollment is down 83 students from last year. Elementary schools lost 48, the high school lost 36, and O'Maley Middle School gained 11.
• The district has 40 fewer multilingual learners than last year. They are now 9.2 percent of students.
• The special education share is 25.3 percent, corrected from 30 percent.
• The O'Maley auditorium's heating and cooling control panel is failing. A vendor is due by the middle of next week, and the mayor said the Department of Public Works will fix it.
• The committee put off its vote on new operating protocols to its next meeting.

The enrollment numbers

The report counts students as of Oct. 1, the date the district sends its official enrollment to the state. Kindergarten has 208 children this year, down from 213 last year and about 241 ten years ago. The senior class, at 182, is about the same size as the senior class of ten years ago.

Multilingual learners, students still learning English, grew for years and peaked at 249 after jumps of 40 and 46 students in single years, Pasquarello said. Two years ago the number fell by 11. This year it fell by 40. At East Veterans Elementary School, the count went from more than 100 to 78. She said the district cut one position last year after looking closely at those numbers, and that the cut was a result of the decline, not a cause of it.

The report also follows each class from year to year. Classes shrink most between kindergarten and first grade, between fifth and sixth grade, and between ninth and tenth grade. The ninth grade number grows each year for several reasons: students who went to private or parochial middle schools come back for high school, some students from nearby towns choose Gloucester, and some ninth graders who do not earn enough credits are still counted as freshmen the next October. Essex Tech usually takes about 30 Gloucester students a year, and that number is now higher, she said. Members asked for more data on ninth graders who fall short on credits and on why families leave.

Enrollment by grade, Oct. 1, 2026

Grade	Students
Preschool	80
Kindergarten	208
Grade 1	201
Grade 2	221
Grade 3	220
Grade 4	202
Grade 5	227
Grade 6	211
Grade 7	195
Grade 8	199
Grade 9	199
Grade 10	174
Grade 11	173
Grade 12	182
Students past grade 12	6
Total	2,698

Source: Gloucester Public Schools enrollment report, Nov. 4, 2026, from the slide shown to the committee. The total was 2,781 on Oct. 1, 2025, and 2,930 on Oct. 1, 2016.

Special education students have been a larger share of enrollment in Gloucester than the state average for the last ten years, and Pasquarello said she intends to look deeper into why.

Several members said the cost of running the schools keeps rising even as enrollment falls, because the students who remain have greater needs, and that the community needs to understand that before budget season. (Read how Gloucester's $55.8 million school budget works.) One member said more than 200 students sit in every grade through sixth grade and then the numbers drop, and asked what would make it harder for families to choose to leave. Members talked about O'Maley's reputation among parents of fifth graders, the drop in parent involvement after elementary school, and the need to talk about the schools differently. Mayor Paul Lundberg said the city saw about 100 fewer births a year starting about 15 years ago, and that the decline shows up in the data.

Heat and cold at O'Maley

Pasquarello gave an update on the O'Maley heating and air conditioning system. Two compressors failed over the summer; one was replaced and one repaired. The problem now is the variable frequency drive control panel, which regulates the system's motors. It is failing from age, and there is no alarm when it stops working. A repair ticket went in earlier in the week, a vendor is expected by the middle of next week, and in the meantime staff can switch the system on and off by hand.

Members said the auditorium, where a grant funded after school program meets three days a week with about 75 students, has been too hot, and that staff feel they are being ignored. Pasquarello said the DPW only recently heard about the control problem and urged staff to keep filing tickets through the main office rather than just talking about it. Lundberg said the DPW was on it and that he would report at the next meeting on how it was fixed. "If we had no heat in the building, we wouldn't be bumping along for a couple of months with no heat," the mayor said. The superintendent agreed to email families in the auditorium program to explain that the summer compressor repair and the control panel are two separate problems.

The state's school building authority does not fund heating systems, only roofs and windows, Pasquarello said, in answer to a member who asked about grants.

Other business

• Professional development: The district's full day of training on Nov. 3 had 80 sessions led by 72 staff members and eight outside partners.
• Student advisory council: Pasquarello held the first meeting of her new superintendent's student advisory council on Nov. 4, with 16 high school students signed up. The group will meet monthly during the advisory block and chose to focus on how O'Maley prepares students for high school.
• Open house: The Gloucester High School open house for eighth graders and their families was set for Thursday, Nov. 5, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
• Police chief: Lundberg said the city is close to naming a police chief and that he plans a public session at City Hall to introduce the chief and talk about the Protect Act, the new state law on how local police work with federal agencies. Pasquarello said the district's related policy and procedures took effect this week and staff trainings are done. The memorandum of understanding with school resource officers is signed every year, she said, and she will go over it with the new chief.
• Operating protocols: Laura Wiessen said she had not had time to make the changes the committee asked for on Oct. 28, so the vote was put off to the next meeting.

What was decided

• Consent agenda (minutes, warrants, transfers and donations): approved by roll call, all yes, from the meeting video.
• Updated School Committee operating protocols: tabled to the next meeting, no vote.
• Adjourn: approved by roll call, all yes, from the meeting video.

What happens next

• Monday, Nov. 9, 5 p.m.: Building and Finance Subcommittee, Gloucester High School library.
• Wednesday, Nov. 18, 6 p.m.: next regular School Committee meeting, with the MCAS and special education outcomes report.

Where to find the records

• School Committee agenda, Nov. 4 (revised)
• Zoom recording, on the city's November 2026 Past Meetings page
• City Archive Center, where minutes are posted when approved

Earlier coverage: Three in 10 Gloucester students now qualify for special education (Nov. 1), the Oct. 28 meeting; Gloucester schools' special ed cushion to hit record low (Oct. 16).

How we did this: Cape Ann Current watched the meeting online and checked names against the agenda and the committee's website. These are our meeting notes, not the committee's minutes.