Brewster Resolves School District Overpayments

BREWSTER – Officials have reached a resolution to Brewster’s overpayment of close to $400,000 to the Nauset regional school system as part of their annual debt assessment.

Research by select board member Pete Dahl, confirmed by regional school officials, revealed that Brewster was assessed $391,162 more than it should have been over the past three fiscal years due to a misapplication of the regional school funding formula. 

The regional school district consists of four towns — Brewster, Orleans, Eastham and Wellfleet — and the district underassessed Eastham and Wellfleet while overassessing Orleans, which paid about $2,000 more than required, and Brewster. The funding miscalculation dates back more than three years. 

Town Manager Peter Lombardi told the select board June 15 that prior to the bond payments for the new high school kicking in in fiscal 2024, the overassessments were negligible. But that year Brewster paid $68,668 more than it owed, a figure that rose to $148,583 in fiscal 2025 and $173,911 this year.

Lombardi reported that he, Dahl and Finance Director Mimi Bernardo met with district and town representatives a week and a half ago.

 “We talked about focusing our attention on the previous three years,” Lombardi said. “We agreed that the simplest solution for all parties involved was to see if Wellfleet and Eastham, who have been underassessed, would be willing to appropriate funds to cover [their] balance.”

Brewster released the first quarter funds that were owed earlier in the month for its final fiscal 2026 payment at the corrected amount. 

 “Both Eastham and Wellfleet were not just amenable to the solution but had the funds available and have already paid the school district for their share,” Lombardi said. 

Lombardi said the 2024 and 2025 overpayments will be addressed in fiscal 2028 and fiscal 2029 as the fiscal 2027 fiscal budget, which begins in July, has already been set. The parties will put that into a legal framework to make sure everyone is on the same page.