Superintendent Provides Budget Update, Contract Negotiations

By Adam Swift

Superintendent of Schools
Lisa Howard provided an update on contract negotiations and the school budget process to the school committee at its regular meeting on Monday night.

Howard said the administration will be doing a short budget presentation to the school committee at its April 27 meeting. She said that date will also be the public hearing date for the school budget for anyone who wants to come in and ask questions or make comments.

“The next step is going to have a budget subcommittee meeting to finalize the initial version of the budget, post that information in the newspaper after this whole school committee votes on that on May 4, and then get it to the town manager and then it goes to FinCom,” said Howard.

Howard said the next tentative date for contract negotiations is April 13. The district has been in negotiations with the bargaining units for teachers, nurses, educational support professionals, and secretaries for nearly a year.

Howard said there were initially discussions about the school committee meeting with all four bargaining units on Wednesday, April 8, but she said the Winthrop Teachers’ Association did not want to go in that direction.

“They want to do two sessions … with the teachers and one other unit,” said Howard. “So we will have more conversation about the details of that.”

Howard said that more discussion was expected in executive session about the dates for the negotiations and which other bargaining unit in addition to the teachers would be involved in the next negotiation session.

In other business, Howard noted that there was one resignation from fourth grade teacher Samantha Burns, who will teach through the end of the year, but is moving to Pennsylvania.

“She wrote a nice note about enjoying her time here and the support she has received,” said Howard.

Howard said the school district is also advertising for two positions, an occupational therapist and a speech language pathologist, that are currently contracted out.

“Both of those positions are subcontracted out so an agency is providing those,” said Howard. “We had difficulty finding people at the beginning of the school year to fill those positions, so we are actively recruiting people much earlier this year to fill those spots.”