Budget Information

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