The Winthrop School District is facing a nearly $700,000 budget deficit for the current school year.
According to Winthrop Superintendent Becky Foley, this is due an overestimation of how much funding would be left over from last year, as well as a lack of adequate funding to cover the current year’s expenses.
Taken together, the district is a total of $681,207 short of what it needs to cover the planned expenses for FY25.
Foley first discovered the shortfall earlier this month after just two weeks on the job, following Superintendent Jim Hodgkin’s reportedly abrupt resignation over a “lack of understanding” by some members of the school board.
In memo sent to the Winthrop Town Council on September 19, Foley explained that the district’s FY25 budget earmarked $395,000 worth of surplus as a revenue source when only $155,164 was left over from FY24, leaving a $239,836 deficit.
In addition to this, the FY25 budget is estimated to fall $441,371 due to the under-budgeting of salary and benefits costs.
Foley requested in this memo that the Town Council consider moving $318,614 worth of expenses for capital improvements back to the general fund to help alleviate the $681,207 shortfall, leaving the school district with a deficit of $362,593 to accommodate. She did not, however, make a formal request for the Council to do so during their meeting on Monday, September 23.
She also asked the Council in this memo to consult the town attorney to find out what happens if the school district exceeds the $13,452,389 in expenditures authorized by voters.
While options for resolving this deficit are being explored, Foley has frozen all discretionary spending.
“My first priority is to find a path right now where I’m avoiding having to call a special budget meeting and asking the voters for additional money for the current year,” Foley said during last week’s Council meeting. “My second priority is creating a budget for next year that gets us back on track and prioritizes safety.”
According to the Kennebec Journal, Chairperson of the Winthrop Public Schools board Alicia Lawson said that members were not given specific projections during the budgeting process, only “broad updates and overviews.” As a result, Lawson suggested that they “could not have seen the overspending coming.”
“We were not given those items; it’s not broken down,” Lawson said. “It’s really just by article.”
Councilor Roy Weymouth expressed concern over a $91,000 allocation for substitute teachers, the largest line item involved in the district’s deficit.
Superintendent Foley went on to say during last week’s meeting that she would have approached the entire budgeting process differently, utilizing more historical data and incorporating more feedback from administrators.
“I think there is definitely room for improvement in the process area,” Foley said in response to a question from Councilor Aaron White. “And I assure you that the process will be done differently than it was this past year.”
Former Superintendent Hodgkin told the Kennebec Journal that he checked over the budget and was confident that it did not contain any deficits or shortfalls.
Foley indicated during last week’s meeting that she had looked over the budget with Hodgkin, and they were unable to identify any additional savings.
[RELATED: EPA May Pressure Maine Schools to Use Problem-Prone Electric School Buses]
The Winthrop School District has also made headlines in recent months due to its struggles with its fleet of problematic electric school buses obtained last year the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Program.
After receiving four electric school buses last year through the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program, the district found that the vehicles were riddled with serious problems.
The $5 billion federal program launched in October 2022 and has a goal of transitioning all public school bus fleets to 75 percent all-electric buses by 2035.
For each electric bus received, the districts reportedly agreed to give up one of their current diesel-powered buses.
Officials in Winthrop have been struggling with these buses for many months now, pulling them off the road entirely after a power steering failure this February forced a driver to pull into a snowbank in order to stop the vehicle.
Prior to this, the district had already reported difficulties with faulty heating systems and leaky windshields that made the glass seem like it’s “not securely in place.”
This past summer, the Maine State Police Vehicle Inspection Unit noted a number of problems with the buses, ranging from loose body rivets and an inoperative driver’s auxiliary fan to a power steering hose that rubbed on a bracket and a malfunctioning rear emergency door check.
Following the Winthrop bus’ power steering failure in February, the district sent all four of its vehicles to back to their Canada-based manufacturer Lion Electric so that any existing issues could be fixed.
After having gone through several rounds of repairs, the vehicles were eventually able to pass state inspections.
At the end of May, then-Superintendent Hodgkin and Transportation Director Josh Wheeler met with EPA representatives to discuss a path forward regarding the buses.
School officials went on to tell the Kennebec Journal at the time that the EPA could not provide the district a clear answer other than that they may be contractually obligated to pay if they do not make use of the buses.
The schools show no responsibility. How do we expect the kids to learn any. They must be all Democrates.
Well four Bright Bulbs have done it again. Sounds like the federal Scum has failed to do their job. Do not vote for a Democrat ever again They are even screwing our kids.
Kamala loves yellow school buses . If Kamala gets elected EVERY TOWN IN MAINE will be required to get yellow electric school buses . No joke . The presidential election is up to you . Choose wisely .
And fire trucks too ..lol
Short term problem. Won’t be long before kameltoe and tiny tim sends all these kids overseas to war.
Sounds like they need to ask the former FAILED superintendent for the money, since he’s the one who helped screw up the budget. They might also want to replace the finance director too. Maybe they need some remedial math classes.
Doesn’t Winthrop have a little beach in town ?
Maybe they can lease it to some Chinese for the six hundred thousand they sort of lost track of .
Ahh NO problem raise the taxes of the rich white folk who have those lakefront homes . Equity !
Another Good job performed by your local socialist government .
Democracy in action at its finest , and actually stupid enough to buy into the electric school bus scam .
And they didn’t even make the stupid busses here , they came from Canada . How Maine is that ?
My only question is : Why don’t they paint their fancy electric busses green ?
Time to eliminate 2 or 3 over-paid hacks from the school staff. That should work handily.
“…they were unable to identify any additional savings.”
This is always the excuse. Always.
I know! Reevaluate everyone’s homes and raise taxes 35%!! Just like South Portland. (sarc)
The schools have way too much power over the budgets in this state and show results so bad any non government business would fire them all.
I’ll bet I could find savings. Start with the electric busses. EPA says Winthrop may still have to pay, POUND SAND. Take the school to court and the court orders the school to pay, Court you can pound sand also. What are they going to do put a lean in the school, board up the doors? Stop any repair cost past or future for the buses. Fire 14 hacks and assistant hacks and their personal secretaries. That should be @ 40 people or so you don’t have to pay. In this district we have drivers and “bus monitors” on each bus. One of them need to go. Hum which is more important? Also here we have a fleet of vans on the road transporting “gifted” and “special needs” children here there and everywhere, that stops. As dose three meals a day, ALL YEAR LONG. Don’t talk to me about the poor going hungry. The poor already get EBT $, where is that going if not to feed their children. This hasn’t even touched on what’s being taught or after school programs.
I’ll bet I could find savings and end up with a real surplus. Ya there will be gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair. Ike should have warned us about the Education Industrial Complex as well as the military.
The first place to look is administration. How many are there? How much do they get paid?