Budget Information

2023-2024 Proposed School Budget

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Re: 2023-2024 Proposed School Budget

Dear Winslow Parents and Community Members,

I hope you had an opportunity to enjoy the beautiful weather the Memorial Day weekend had to offer. I wanted to take a moment to remind everyone of a very important event for the school community. The event will take place on Tuesday, June 13, 2023 as residents of the Town of Winslow go to the polls located at the Winslow Town Library from 8:00a.m to 8:00p.m to cast their ballots.

This email provides a summary of information regarding the proposed school budget. I am proud to report that the budget process included a cooperative effort among teachers, administrators, school board members and town council/town manager. Our budget represents the minimum funding required in order to maintain a quality education for our students in Winslow Maine along with being fiscally responsible to the taxpayers in our community.

Expenditures

Our total budget request for 2023/2024 is $18,825,544,68. The following is a summary of the main initiatives driving this budget.

Salary and Benefits- 76% of our budget falls in the area of salaries and benefits. We employ over 200 people in various capacities in order to effectively operate our school district. Increases to salaries and benefits due to contractual obligations amounted to $367,932.
Inflation- We have all been impacted by inflation. Unfortunately, schools are not exempt. One example of how inflation affected us is with heating fuel. We consume over 60,000 gallons of fuel to heat our buildings. Last year, we were able to lock in at $2.97 per gallon. This year, our lock in price was $3.07 per gallon. We were very fortunate to lock in at $3.07 per gallon but our new lock in price will still represent an increase over last year for the same amount of fuel. This has been the case for many items in our budget. They are small amounts in various line items but added together represent a significant impact.
Meeting the needs of students- In order to provide the necessary academic and emotional support necessary for our students to succeed and to be in compliance with student caseload requirements, we added one Special Education instructor at the Jr./Sr. High level and we increased our Special Education Contracted Service lines. Together, this amounted to an increase of $205,370.

Revenue

We did experience an increase in state revenue over last year. That amount equaled $270,469. We also experienced an increase in tuition revenue from students living in communities other than Winslow wishing to be a part of our school system. In addition, we increased our amount from our undesignated fund by $50,000 to lessen the tax increase to the local taxpayer.

Cuts and Adjustments

The administrative team made cuts and adjustments to the original proposal in the amount of $469,611. The cuts and adjustments included not replacing 1.5 teaching positions due to attrition.

After applying the various state and local revenues mentioned above and making cuts and adjustments, the proposed 2023/2024 Winslow School budget represents a 4.39% increase (or $374,931) to the local tax appropriation.

Please exercise your right to vote on Tuesday, June 13, 2023.

Thank you,

Peter Thiboutot
Superintendent of Winslow Schools

2022-2023 Proposed School Budget

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Re: 2022-2023 Proposed School Budget

Hello everyone,

I hope you were able to enjoy the beautiful weather the weekend had to offer. I wanted to take a moment to remind everyone of a very important event for the school community. The event will take place on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 as residents of the Town of Winslow go to the polls to cast their ballots. Among the things they will be asked to vote on is the 2022/2023 school budget. This email provides a summary of information regarding the proposed school budget.

Expenditures-

Our total budget request for 2022/2023 is $18,106,691.82. The following is a summary of the main initiatives driving this budget.

Negotiations- Five labor contracts were negotiated this year. This impacted well over 150 people.
Inflation- One example of how inflation affected us is with heating fuel. We consume over 60,000 gallons of fuel to heat our buildings. Last year, we were able to lock in at $1.97 per gallon. This year, our lock in price was $2.97 per gallon. We made the decision to lock in our fuel cost three days before the conflict broke in Ukraine. We were very fortunate to lock in at $2.97 per gallon but our new lock in price will still represent a $60,000 increase over last year for the same amount of fuel.
Meeting the needs of students- In order to provide the necessary academic and emotional support necessary for our students to succeed we added two additional Educational Technicians, one Social Worker and a Speech Therapist.
New Math Series- Our existing math series for grades k-8 was antiquated and not meeting the needs of our students. After two years of researching various products along with looking at our student data, our teachers and administrators have recommended a math program which they are confident will best meet the needs of our students.

Revenue-

We were very fortunate that state revenues to schools increased this year due to adjustments to the funding formula. In addition, a late adjustment was made to the state funding formula last spring which we took advantage of by not spending the additional revenue. Instead, we saved that additional revenue in order to help offset increases to this year’s budget providing tax relief to the local taxpayer. We also experienced an increase in tuition revenue from students living in communities other than Winslow wishing to be a part of our school system.

I am proud to report that the budget process included a cooperative effort among teachers, administrators, school board members and town council/town manager.

Our budget represents the minimum funding required in order to maintain a quality education for our students in Winslow Maine along with being fiscally responsible to the taxpayers in our community.

After applying the various state and local revenues mentioned above and making cuts and adjustments, the proposed 2022/2023 Winslow School budget represents a 2.38% increase (or $198,585.72) to the local tax appropriation.

Please exercise your right to vote on Tuesday, June 14, 2022.

Thank you,

Peter Thiboutot

Superintendent of Winslow Schools