By Adam Swift
Much of the focus of Monday’s school committee meeting, barring an unfortunate Zoombombing incident, was on the upcoming school override vote on Saturday, April 5.
During the special election, voters will be asked to consider a $3.5 million Proposition 2-½ override to cover expected budget shortfalls for the Fiscal Year 2026 school budget, as well as a $1.4 million override to fund an education stabilization fund.
During Monday’s meeting, Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard highlighted the efforts that are underway both on the FY26 school budget as well as the push to get out information about the override vote.
Howard said there has been a lot of communication between the district, the citizens’ override committee, and the town council, as well as with the fire department, on getting out reliable information on both the school override and the debt exclusion vote for a new fire station.
“They have a Facebook page that’s called Yes for Winthrop’s Kids,” said Howard of the override committee. “It’s a great page because the information that they are putting on there is factual information and they do check with me.”
The district and the override committee have worked together to create messaging from the schools, along with the district’s attorney, to see what the district can provide for information. Howard said the district can make a bigger push this time getting out information in anticipation of the April vote than it did for the override vote last fall.
The district principals will also be providing information to parents about the vote, and how they can register to vote if they have not done so already.
“Denise Quist (the town clerk), has done a great job at providing information about how to register, how to get an absentee ballot,” Howard said. “Where this is a Saturday vote in April, which is the height of wedding season and certainly the beginning of spring youth athletics and co-curricular activities as well as the beginnings of high school activities, so we wanted to make sure that families and voters who don’t have children in the schools, that if you do have a wedding, you have the opportunity to do a mail-in vote.”
Because it is a local election, Howard noted that there will not be mail sent out from the town about requesting a mail-in ballot, but that residents will have to request them.
“Also, we felt strongly that people needed to see what the ballot looked like and what the questions looked like on the ballot, so that will be an attachment to the notice that the principals will send out, as well as a link to the frequently asked questions that the override committee worked on,” said Howard.
School Committee Chair Jennifer Powell noted that there are two websites with information on the school override. Investinwinthrop.com provides information on both the school override vote and the fire station debt exclusion, while yesforwinthropskids.com provides information on just the school override from the override committee.
In other outreach efforts, Howard said she will be talking about the override on WCAT and that the program will be shown on the local channel as well as the WCAT YouTube page.
The superintendent said that she is available to answer questions from anyone in the community.
“There is no question that is silly, no matter what you think, so if you have a question, you can email me,” said Howard. “If it is something I think you can easily access through frequently asked questions, I may turn you to the frequently asked questions, but I’m always up for further discussion. Not necessarily up to debate whether or not the schools need an override, because I am the one managing the budget … along with my administration, and so we are coming forth being transparent and honest.”
As for the explicit Zoombombing incident during the public speaking section at the beginning of the meeting, Howard said the unidentified person must have circumvented security measures the district has in place, and that the administration’s IT department would work on investigating and resolving the issue.
“We will certainly do the investigation and I will encourage anybody that wants to make a comment to this committee, that can be submitted prior and read at the meetings, so I don’t want to shut down voices or make it that people can’t reach us if they need to, we are definitely available for the appropriate audiences,” said Powell.