At $26,538 per pupil, New Salem-Wendell ranks #90 of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending (Massachusetts districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
132
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$26,538
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
New Salem-Wendell operates 1 public schools serving 132 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Massachusetts. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Franklin County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $26,538 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending. See how Massachusetts compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 64.9% local, 27.5% state, and 7.5% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
a 134:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 14.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 87.2% White, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 0.8% Asian across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Swift River, enrolling 134 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses grew 4.6% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (131 to 137 students), while the student-teacher ratio tightened by 0.6 students per teacher, per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $3,583,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 51.7% went to instruction, 41.1% to support services, and 0.2% to capital outlay, support-services-heavy relative to typical districts, reflecting spending on transportation, administration, or student services. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
Swift River accounts for 100.0% of all New Salem-Wendell student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of New Salem-Wendell a distant remainder — means New Salem-Wendell-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Because it contains a majority of the affected population, enrollment-weighted aggregates will sit closer to this entity's reported fields than to those of smaller peers; an unweighted entity count answers a different question.
New Salem-Wendell student-counselor ratio is 134:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
New Salem-Wendell chronic absenteeism rate is 14.2% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.