WINTHROP — In a unanimous vote Wednesday night, the school board endorsed a proposed $10.2 million budget that’s about $650,000 over current spending.
Under the proposal, school officials are seeking an additional $365,000 from the town’s taxpayers for the 2012-2013 school budget.
A $450,000 increase in the cost of special education accounts for the lion’s share of additional spending, officials said. Total special education spending for next year is projected to be $1.8 million, or about 17 percent of the overall budget.
About 13 percent of Winthrop’s students are identified as special needs.
Superintendent Gary Rosenthal said the request for additional funding is “not unlike a number of other school districts around the state.”
“Although I think when you compare our increase with a number of others, you’re going to find ours is very tempered,” he said.
Wednesday night’s budget meeting was sparsely attended, and no one asked questions prior to the board’s vote.
The new budget reinstates a deferred 4 percent pay increase for teachers, provided that the town agrees to a 4 percent pay increase for the police. The town’s contract with the police union sets pay increases for all municipal employees.
Health insurance premiums also are expected to rise about 4 percent.
The district also is adding to the staff next year to accommodate increased student enrollments, including a new kindergarten teacher, two education technicians, a behavioral specialist, a physical education teacher and a half-time English teacher. School enrollment was up by 40 students this year, and an additional 30 are expected next year.
On school revenue, the board’s budget anticipates increased funding of about $300,000 from all nonmunicipal sources, including an additional $130,000 in state revenue sharing.
The remaining shortfall — about $365,000 — would come from taxpayers. Last year the town’s taxpayers contributed $5.6 million to the school budget; this year, that figure would increase to nearly $6 million.
On Monday, the school board is scheduled to present its budget proposal to the Town Council.
On June 4, the council will hold separate votes on the town and school budgets. If approved, the budget will be submitted to voters for validation at the polls on June 12.
Copy the Story Link
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.