The fate of a $4.95 million Proposition 2-½ override for the schools will now be in the hands of the town’s voters in November.
Tuesday night, the town council voted to put the override request on the November ballot. The money will help fund the school department’s operating budget for three years, beginning in Fiscal Year 2026.
“Our vision is to create an educational system that serves as a cornerstone of our community’s success and well-being,” stated School Committee Chair Jennifer Powell in the official letter to the council requesting it place the override on the ballot. “Every student deserves access to outstanding educational opportunities, cutting-edge resources, and a safe, nurturing learning environment.”
In a review of the budget projections and allocations, Powell stated that it is clear that the schools cannot continue to provide the same level of services without an increase in the budget beyond the town’s current projected resources.
If approved, the override would go into effect on July 1 of next year and would help sustain the school budget for three years, Powell stated.
The Proposition 2-½ override request is the first in the town in 15 years.
Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard spoke about the need for the override, as well as how the school department has made the most of the resources it has had over the past several years, at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
“This year, we presented a budget for $37,684,208, probably the most transparent budget I have ever created in seven years of creating budgets,” said Howard. “We received, after lots of discussion back and forth, $36,141,803.”
Howard said the schools are well aware of the town’s budget situation and grateful for that amount of money, but said it was about $1.4 million short of what the schools needed to open the doors for the new fiscal year on July 1.
“We … made $1.49 million worth of cuts that is actually putting us behind the eight ball moving into FY26, at the jump, $4.4 million,” said Howard.
With increases in costs coming in above the 2.5 percent the town is allowed to increase the tax levy each year, Howard said the schools would be faced with difficult decisions without the override. To open for FY25, Howard said the district had to drain almost all of its revolving accounts and made staffing cuts, not replacing two elementary teacher positions.
Howard said the town’s access to grants is also decreasing.
“Our access to money to offset the future that we face in the FY26 budget is certainly not there,” said Howard.
The superintendent said the override is critical and necessary for the district’s students.
“I would like a $10 million override, or a $25 million override, but we have to be realistic to what the people in the community can handle, including myself, who is a homeowner of 30-some odd years,” said Howard. “So I do understand the impact with our families. Not only do our kids deserve it, our community deserves it, and our future deserves it.”
Council President Jim Letterie said there were many factors that went into the override request from the schools.
“The school committee discussed a needs-based override; you have to look at what you can offer the children and the families of the town to maintain services that the town currently has; how long do we want this override to last,” said Letterie.
While there hasn’t been an override vote in the town since 2009, Letterie said the schools probably would have requested one three or four years ago if it wasn’t for the federal relief funds schools received in the week of Covid.
“Winthrop was extremely fortunate and prudent in the way it used its ESSER (Covid relief) funds and other Covid-related monies, they tried their very hardest not to use these monies for recurring expenses,” said Letterie.
The council president clarified that the override request is for the operating budget of the school, not for capital or maintenance expenses. He said the override funds are to maintain the integrity of the schools as costs continue to rise.
“The school committee and the superintendent especially have worked incredibly hard in the last several years to try to maintain a class size in the lower 20s,” said Letterie. “Several years back, back in the mid-2000s, we were approaching the upper 20s in some classrooms and lower 30s and we thought that was unacceptable and we did the best we could. Now, we’ve structured things in such a way with the school committee, the superintendent, and her staff that we are able to offer an incredibly competitive education in a safe, clean environment with class sizes in the low 20s.”
Over the weeks and months leading up to the override vote in November, Letterie said the key is education about what the override will mean for the schools and for residents. He noted that there will be a citizens’ committee for the override and urged anyone with questions about the override to direct their questions to legitimate sources of information such as the committee, the superintendent, and school committee members.
“I’m not here to tell you how to vote, I’m here to educate you, ask questions, and find answers to just vote on the facts,” said Letterie. “If you literally cannot afford it, you should not be voting for it, and if you can afford it in some way, shape, or form and you believe in the facts, you believe that it is going to the right places, you should fund this.”