June 6, 2024

Dear  Parents, Guardians, Staff  and Community Members,

I would like to begin by congratulating the parents, guardians, staff  and caregivers of students who are graduating this year.  It has been an honor to serve your children and to see that their education from Winslow Public Schools has set the stage for their future plans.  Please know that your untiring support, perseverance, and guidance has played a monumental role in their success! From the first days in  pre-k to singing in the parent choir at class night, you have done it all!    

In a few short days, (Tuesday, June 11, 2024)  Winslow residents will be asked to vote on the FY 25 school budget.  Voting will take place at the Winslow VFW located at 175 Veterans Drive. The polls will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.    

The development of a school budget is a long  process involving numerous meetings and conversations with key stakeholders.  As always, the budget is developed with certain priorities in mind as a result of our analysis of student data (both academic and social-emotional).  Six budget presentations were held with the Winslow Board of Education between the months of January and March of 2024. In addition, we held a budget workshop with the Town Council on April 9, 2024.  All six school board  meetings were  open to the public, live-streamed, and recorded for transparency and accessibility.  These presentations featured a line-by-line accounting of the budget and highlighted the major cost drivers which include inflation, rising insurance cost, unfunded mandates, contractual obligations, negotiated labor increases and the request for new positions. 

The requests for the new positions have taken cost savings measures into consideration, along with state compliance obligations and, of course, the needs of our students. It’s important to note that the request for new positions is not taken lightly. In fact, we constantly analyze our needs from year to year and make recommendations based on those needs which often leads to the elimination of positions over time.  For example, over the past few years we’ve eliminated or reduced several positions at Winslow High School due to changes in student enrollment and decommissioning of the old junior high school.  These have included:  

2018-19

• Reduced English Teacher

• Eliminated Academic Support Lab Ed Tech III 

2020-21

• Reduced PE Teacher 

• HS Health moved to JH/HS Health

• Reduced Media Center Librarian (went to K-12 model)

• Assistant Principal moved to split JH/HS 

2021-22

• Reduced Math Teacher 

2023-24

• Reduced Science Teacher

• Reduced Spanish Teacher 

• Reduced Social Studies Teacher 

The decommissioning of the old jr. high required that we move an entire grade ( Grade 6) to Winslow Elementary School.  Doing so increased  the student population in that school to 551 students  with a range of needs spanning from pre-k to what would be considered the first year of middle school in many districts (grade 6).  Our elementary school is now the largest school in our district, thus the request for additional support in this year's budget  so that we can  ensure the safety of our students and that we are meeting their unique needs. 

Many of you took advantage of the opportunity to attend our school board meetings in person, others took advantage of  viewing the meetings live online while still others watched  the recorded videos of the meetings.  I  thank all of you who were able to take time out of your busy schedules to learn about the thinking that went into the preparation of this budget  and the needs we are trying to address with our financial request. 

For those who have not been able to attend the various meetings and would like to learn more about our budget, you can  visit the following web site at  Winslow Public Schools - 2024-2025 Proposed Budget Plan where you will find information about the proposed budget including, a slide show, links to watch the various meetings that took place, and a full description/rationale for  the requested positions.   

The following is a brief description of the slides if you choose to visit the above listed website:

-Slides 2- 4  provides a brief overview and a  list of fy 23 highlights

-Slides 5-14 provides early college stats,  an overview of our school district, the students we serve and what our budget supports

-Slide 15  shows the dates of our  school board budget presentations with  links to recordings of the listed meetings for your viewing convenience. 

-Slide  17 is referred to as the Projected Revenue Worksheet.  This slide shows the total request for next year's budget  and the sources of revenue that will be applied in support of the budget. 

We were pleased  to learn during the Town Council/Board Budget Workshop on 4/9/24 that the FY 25 school budget as presented to the Town Council  will not require an increase of local tax dollars over last year. 

Please exercise your right to vote on June 11th.   

Thank you,

Peter Thiboutot
Superintendent of Winslow Schools

Winslow Public Schools' Proud Moments

See an archive of  this year's "Proud Moments" below