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Superintendent presents FY27 budget emphasizing safety, achievement and capital repairs
Summary
The superintendent presented a FY27 budget that would raise spending about 5.21%, prioritize school safety (including $50,000 for grade-school security cameras), boost intervention and multilingual staffing, and increase the capital repairs line to $150,000; the district expects an additional $589,382 in state aid driven by enrollment growth.
The superintendent delivered the Winthrop Public Schools proposed fiscal year 2027 budget to the board, saying it is aligned to the district’s three strategic goals: high-quality instruction, improved communication and relationships, and efficient operations.
The superintendent said the budget “represents a 5.21 percent” increase in expenditures and tied most of that rise to higher salaries and benefits and increased electricity costs. As part of the safety priority, the administration proposed installing security cameras at the grade school at an estimated cost of $50,000 to match systems already in place at the middle and high schools.
The proposal also targets student achievement. The superintendent pointed to recent NWEA assessment trends — reading proficiency rising from 69% to 73% and math from 64% to 69% — while flagging concerns in middle-school math, where 7th-grade performance fell to 53% above the 40th percentile and the current 8th-grade cohort shows the lowest math levels in three years. To address that, the administration requested a middle-level math interventionist created by restructuring the librarian role so there is no additional cost to the district, and an increase in multilingual-learner staffing from 1.2 to 1.5 full-time equivalent positions.
On capital needs, the superintendent said districtwide building repairs total more than $2,000,000. To begin addressing that backlog, the administration asked the board to raise the capital repairs line from $100,000 to $150,000 for FY27 and to add $5,000 to the turf reserve (which the superintendent said currently holds $21,000).
The superintendent said the budget-building process involved multiple reviews of administrator-submitted, needs-based budgets and that difficult choices were made to lower an initial projection that exceeded 7% to the current figure. Those adjustments include eliminating 1.5 administrative assistant positions in special education and reducing 1.5 special-education and 1.5 gifted-and-talented positions, as well as reducing transportation director hours. The administration noted one remaining uncertainty: insurance costs are not finalized and the budget currently assumes a 10% increase.
The superintendent reported the district expects an additional state subsidy of $589,382 for FY27 driven by increased enrollment. “We have welcomed 36 new students this year, which is about a 4.5% increase in enrollment,” the superintendent said, and principals anticipate continued growth across the three schools.
Administrators will present individual budget-detail presentations at the next board meeting, and the district will host a community forum on March 19 at 6 p.m. at the high school to review cost centers and take public questions. The board asked for a follow-up list itemizing the specific projects that were not funded in the current proposal; the superintendent agreed to prepare that list.
