As its first school-choice contracts expire, Deerfield will extend its agreement with Concord School District and other neighboring schools on a one-year basis.
The plan is to negotiate long-term contracts with its three receiving schools, Concord High School, Pembroke Academy and Coe-Brown Northwood Academy, said Deerfield School Board Chair Kanon Cataño.
The board’s priority is to provide more continuity for families by seeking longer-term contracts, Cataño continued. The board plans to put forth a warrant article to voters in March.
“The biggest thing for us right now is to have stability for our families, for our district,” Cataño said. “So that they know they have three options. Say, for instance, their oldest child that is currently in the system can go there, but what happens in two years? Is their younger child going to be able to go there? That’s the goal.”
Deerfield, which does not have its own high school, currently holds contracts with all three high schools, allowing students to choose where they attend. These contracts, which began in 2024, were a shift from Deerfield’s previous 20-year agreements, where at least 90% of its secondary students attended Concord High School. In 2023, voters rejected another decade-plus-long contract with Concord, opting for school choice instead.
The school choice decision has been an expensive one. Under past contracts, Concord gave Deerfield a discount in exchange for the 90% quota. In the 2023 failed contract, the cost would have been a little over $15,000 per student. All of the current contracts have a higher rate.
The base tuition rate for Concord is around $18,600 per student, adjusted annually for increases in the high school’s expenditures. In Deerfield’s 2026-2027 budget, Concord’s tuition rate was about $21,000 per student. These rising costs fall on taxpayers.
Concord’s estimated tuition rate for the 2027-2028 year was a little over $23,000 per student, according to Deerfield’s board meeting on Wednesday. Cataño said this rate would make Concord High the most expensive option for Deerfield high school students. The board estimated about 40% of Deerfield students will choose Concord High next year.
High school tuition was listed as a driving factor for increases in next school year’s budget, according to a first draft of budget estimates presented to Deerfield board members on Wednesday. The budget will be workshopped throughout the coming weeks and presented to the Municipal Budget Committee in December.
On Election Day, Deerfield voters passed a school district tax cap.
