With the school district looking at a $4.95 million override vote in November to help fund its operational budget in FY26 and beyond, every dollar the schools bring in counts.
At Monday night’s school committee meeting, Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard said the district is getting about $4,000 less in state and federal entitlement grants than it did for last year.
Those grants help supplement the school budget for special and regular education instruction, as well as ELA and mentor programs for the district.
“Overall, those entitlement grants come in at $1,187,619,” said Howard. “When you add them all up, that is $4,204 less than we received last year.”
The superintendent said 85 percent of that grant money is used to help fund salaries for positions that are already in existence.
While the $4,000 might not seem like a large number, Howard said you have to take into account the fact that teachers typically receive a step or percentage rate salary increase from one year to the next. In addition, the three-year run of ESSER III Covid relief funds are also coming to an end.
“We budgeted for that and planned for (the end of ESSER funding), however, moving forward into FY26, you can see how that story will continue to be frustrating,” said Howard. “Next year, if grants go down again and salaries go up, we will keep getting deeper and deeper in the hole.”
Howard said grants are supposed to supplement instruction and support staff, but she said Winthrop and other communities throughout the state have come to rely on the grant funding.
“It’s out of desperation that we have to do that,” she said.
Howard said the ESSER and entitlement grants have been used to fund reading teachers and specialists, ELA teachers, and custodians, among other positions.
“All of that money, as it gets smaller and smaller and the cost gets larger and larger, we start to run into a wall of not being able to fund these things,” said Howard.
Many people did not anticipate the grant funding dropping by as much as it did, Howard added.
“A $4,000 loss is pretty big compared to the fact that we actually need more money than that to fund these same people from year to year,” said Howard. “Hopefully, these grants will not continue to go down.”
The superintendent said the district has several seasoned grant writers who are always looking for opportunities for the schools.
In other business, Howard said the school district continues to have access to MBTA Charlie passes.
“Every year, after August 15, we reach out to the MBTA and ask them for MBTA Charlie passes,” said Howard. “What they are is cards that are provided to the school that can be given to students that need them. The students load them with funds, but it is at a discounted rate for them to be able to ride the buses to and from our schools if they want.”
The district orders about 500 per year and typically uses about 400, Howard said.