This Week's Winchendon News
Superintendent Gosselin Presents FY26 School Budget Proposals to Tri-Board Meeting as Winchendon Faces Tough Decisions
At the TriBoard meeting of the Board of Selectmen, School Committee and Finance Committee on Wednesday, February 13, Winchendon Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Marc Gosselin and Winchendon Town Manager Bill McKinney presented their initial Fiscal Year 2026 draft budget proposals for the school district and the town. The stakes this year are high. After just squeaking by to pass a balanced budget for the current year, Winchendon is looking at a deficit of nearly $4 million for FY26 and will be seeking a Proposition 2-1/2 override from voters to avoid severe cuts to town services.
Dr. Gosselin began the budget discussion with a presentation on the Winchendon Public Schools budget development up to that point. As he explained, the district follows a long and meticulous process to develop next year's budget. It begins in October with budget templates and guidelines sent to all the principals and department heads to use in working out their future needs. In November, the Superintendent and staff hold budget discussions with principals and district-wide department heads. In December, budget requests for the following year have been prepared and are reviewed by the Superintendent and Central Office staff with the principals and department heads. In January, the Superintendent and Director of Finance and Operations Liz Latoria have worked up an initial Budget Request, and meet with the School Committee for a "Budget Workshop." All of this happens every year while the principals and department heads are also running the school district's current academic year full-time.
This year, the Budget Workshop meeting with the School Committee took place on January 23. One member of the public attended. (The video of this meeting may be watched online at https://winchendon.cablecast.tv/CablecastPublicSite/show/192?site=1%C2%A0%C2%A0)
Among the top priorities for the FY26 school budget are maintaining recommended class sizes, providing support for students with complex needs, and advancing literacy for students from Pre-K through grade 12. "We are in a corrective action status with DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) due to our low academic outcomes," Dr. Gosselin said, "and so previously, they held us to a goal in math." Staff felt strongly that literacy--reading and writing skills--were essential for building math results and overall academic results. "So I had to engage in a kind of knock-down-drag-out brawl with DESE and they finally relented and said, 'Fine, you guys can do this literacy goal, we feel comfortable with the leadership that you have now,'" Dr. Gosselin said. "We want to make sure that we're foregrounding that focus on literacy."
Winchendon is also under DESE scrutiny for the achievement gap between students with high needs and the rest of the student body. Curriculum development and staff training and development are essential to closing this gap, Dr. Gosselin emphasized.
Dr. Gosselin assured the Boards that he and Ms. Latoria had combed through past budgets and spending histories line by line to compare budgeted amounts and actual amounts expended and adjust for the most efficient use of funds as possible. Some areas automatically got the same amounts every year and those amounts weren't spent, while others ran short. "The overall exercise was tantamount to digging through your coach cushions looking for spare change," Dr. Gosselin said. "But we really did try to look in every nook and cranny for savings and efficiency." Requests from principals and department heads were also assessed for how well they aligned with overall district goals, and whether something was really needed now or could be "back-burnered" to a future year.
Dr. Gosselin spent some time explaining the district's income sources. 66.8 percent of Winchendon's school budget is covered by the state's Chapter 70 funding. This amount is calculated by the state based on a community's perceived ability to pay, according to its property values and tax rate. This means there is a very wide range statewide, from more than 80 percent for the poorest municipalities, to less than 18 percent for the wealthiest. Winchendon falls roughly in the middle. The state then dictates what it calls "net school spending" for each community--the minimum amount, after Chapter 70, that a community must spend on educating its young people (or else very dire consequences can be imposed). Communities may choose to spend more than the net school spending amount, as much as they can and want to spend, and many do.
For FY26, Chapter 70 funding from the state will be $14,394,811, an increase of 1.83 percent. The required local contribution from the town increases by 6 percent, to $6,850,740. Amount counted from a prior override some years ago adds $393,627. The school district shares some administrative expenses with the town as a whole, such as employee benefits, unemployment, town services, and so on, which comes to $3,588,108 (called "indirect costs"). The estimated "General Fund" total that the district has to work with is $18,051,070, which is a 3.54 percent increase from the current year.
The district also expects some funding from a variety of special funds and grants, amounting to $3,984,246.
Dr. Gosselin explained some challenges Winchendon faces that set it apart from many other districts. Chief among these are enrollment and special education costs. The district anticipates enrollment to increase next year by 28 students. However, students leave the public schools for alternatives at a very high rate. Currently there are about 100 students being home-schooled, "which is a very large number for a district of any size, in particular our size, it's almost 10 percent of our overall population," Dr. Gosselin said. Some 30 students go to other local districts. "We are an exporter of students," Dr. Gosselin said, with far more school-choicing out than coming in. Each student that choices out costs the district about $7,000, while students who come in bring the district about $5,000 per student. The district needs to "think long and hard" at how to create a district that families stay in and students come to from outside of Winchendon.
Special Education costs, for out-of-district placement and certified staff in the schools, comes to around $3 million. In addition, the district is bracing for increases in many other areas, including contractual obligations, health insurance (which is increasing 16.4 percent) utilities and other essential services.
At the bottom line, Dr. Gosselin explained that the administration has created three possible budgets for FY26.
The first (and lowest dollar amount) option he called the "Level Service Model." This would maintain services relative to enrollment and minimum legal requirements exactly as is. Staffing would stay the same and no new programs would be initiated. This would be a total cost of $18,685,715--an increase of 7.17 percent or $1,252,789, just to stay in exactly the same place where we are this year.
The middle option is the "Level Service Plus Model". This would include some new positions and new programs funded by alternate sources as available. This would be a total cost of $18,869,623--an increase of 8.24 percent or $1,436,697.
The third option is the "Program Improvement Model." This would give the district more leeway for spending on new programs and staff, instructional supplies, and building maintenance. This would be a total cost of $19,287,470--an increase of $1,854,544 or 10.64 percent.
The difference between the lowest, Level Service, model and the highest, Program Improvement, model is $601,755 or 3.45 percent.
Expanding on the basics, Dr. Gosselin went over pros and cons for each model. The pros of the Level Service model are basically that it costs the least and nothing is cut. It allows no flexibility for dealing with unforseeable problems or expenses either for students' needs or building maintenance--building issues will stay in a "fix it when it breaks" mode. It will be harder to stay on track with district goals, and it does not allow changes to address student retention.
The pros of the Level Service Plus model include the ability to hire new staff to help administer student services, a new maintenance technician to proactively help reduce repair costs, investment in the buildings, professional development for staff, new programs funded through trusts such as Robinson Broadhurst, and some stipended positions. This budget only allows selected budget requests to be met on a priority basis, and it continues a minimal funding for instructional supplies.
The pros of the Program Improvement model include seven new FTE (full-time-equivalent) positions, a 14-passenger van for student transportation to outside services and events, additional funding for stipends and supplies, and a complete overhaul of music and art program supplies, including new instruments for the music program and equipment such as a kiln for the art program. However, not only is the monetary cost higher, this budget also involves more expenditure in resources, time and person-power needed to develop and manage new programs.
Dr. Gosselin said the Program Improvement model will "help us attract and maintain students, rather than offering the bare minimum and having students leave because they don't have classes that they're interested in or extracurriculars. So this will help us offer some new things, like an engineering class, a business class in the middle school...things that kids are telling us they want to see. We're eager to look into even an Honors Academy, because we have kids that are saying we're going to [Ashburnham-Westminster Regional], because they have better academics. I look at that and say those 25 kids would come back to us, and they could get a challenging academic experience right here in Murdock, and not have to go somewhere else."
Dr. Gosselin emphasized to the Boards that he and the administrative staff will continue to work with the budget numbers and pare down everything that they can. "The most important thing is a budget that we can pass and that it's going to meet the needs of our students and the needs of the community," he said. The next steps in the process will be a Budget Overview presentation to the School Committee, individual Departmental presentations to the School Committee, and a public hearing on the budget. After the School Committee has approved a budget, there will be a presentation to the Finance Committee.
Responding to the presentation, Board of Selectmen Chair Rick Ward expressed concerns about the district requesting a higher amount than the lowest possible, level service budget. He stated that the town would not pass an override if the amount was too high, and six to eight hundred thousand dollars seemed like a very large amount to him. "I'll tell you that right up front, for the school, I'm for the first model, and that's the cap where we start with, and we start cutting from there for level servicing for the town. I will not support any budget when we're calling for an override that isn't based on level service funding to start where we are," Mr. Ward said. "We should show the town that we're willing to go and struggle, because we are struggling, and we need to also make cuts where we can that don't affect service, but things we are not using, money that wasn't spent the previous year, we've got to take those out of the line items."
School Committee Chair Michael Barbaro urged the Boards to work as a united front in going to the citizens of the town and explaining what they were asking for. It was important not to argue and "point fingers" as has happened in the past, he said. During COVID a lot of relief money poured into communities and affected how things could be funded, and now towns are adjusting to the fact that the COVID money is gone.
Selectman Erika Eitland said that "it's clear that level service is not cutting it," when they looked at the issues the schools are facing with enrollment and concerns over achievement gaps serious enough to be flagged by DESE. "There are twelve hundred kids who rely on us to do the right thing for them in this space." No department in the town is in a position to deal with cuts, she said, including the police. But if kids in town are leaving because they feel they don't have a future here, "what are we doing?" Ms. Eitland stated that it wasn't appropriate to act like things were fine, because these weren't just budget numbers, they were families' lives.
You can view Dr. Gosselin's Powerpoint presentation at Preliminary-FY26-Budget-Presentation.pdf. Watch the entire TriBoard meeting (find a comfy chair) on Winchendon TV at https://winchendon.cablecast.tv/CablecastPublicSite/show/197?site=1%C2%A0%C2%A0.
Town Manager Outlines Challenging Financial Straits for Winchendon in FY26
Two hours and fifteen minutes into the TriBoard meeting of the Board of Selectmen, School Committee and Finance Committee on Wednesday, February 13, Town Manager Bill McKinney had a tough act to follow as he opened his presentation of the draft town budget for Fiscal Year 2026 after Winchendon Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Marc Gosselin concluded his budget presentations to the Boards (see "Superintendent Gosselin Presents FY26 School Budget Proposals to Tri-Board Meeting as Winchendon Faces Tough Decisions," above).
Mr. McKinney said he had created a "boring, vanilla" PowerPoint which was spiffed up by his intern, Murdock Senior Bradley Wightman, who took it over and "put together a much better presentation with much better graphics. Unfortunately, the numbers are still just as bad."
Mr. McKinney's presentation was much simpler than the school department budget. It showed the Boards projected numbers in all the top categories of expenses, the projected numbers in all the anticipated categories of revenue, and finally the cold, hard totals: expenses: $39,793,160; revenue, $35,835,158; deficit for the year, $3,958,002.
As Mr. McKinney began by explaining, three major areas impact Winchendon's shortfall the most: pension (retirement) contributions, health insurance, and debt service on borrowing that preceded Mr. McKinney's tenure with the town. The first two are contractually mandated. Town Meeting agreed to change the terms of some borrowing to stretch out the payment times and reduce the amount paid. But health insurance will increase much more than the 10 percent the town calculated for last year.
Like the schools, the town aimed for a Level Service budget, where services would stay the same but costs for many of them have increased. Costs include things like contracted salaries, utilities, vehicle fuel, and snow removal. "We've had a lot of snow this winter. We're way over our budget already," Mr. McKinney said. Legal costs were up because the town is using legal services more often and they've raised their rates.
School Transportation and Tuition (including Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School, "Monty Tech") have increased by $419,280. Last year, school transportation costs went over budget, Mr. McKinney said. Transportation for Special Education students isn't as predictable as the regular school buses with fixed routes. Transportation overall was budgeted at about $1.6 million. The service has gone out to bid and the town should have a firm number soon, but Mr. McKinney has put $2 million in as a placeholder.
Retirement costs for former employees stands at $2,448,800 for FY26 and will continue rising at about 10 percent per year until it's paid off in 2036, Mr. McKinney said. Health Insurance will cost the town $3,096,000, an increase of 16.4 percent. The word around state municipalities is that health insurance will continue to go up by 10 to 20 percent per year for at least the next several years. Mr. McKinney said that the town is looking for a better price for its health insurance, if one can be found.
"Now we go to the revenue side," Mr. McKinney said into the gloomy silence.
The town's two major sources of revenue are Chapter 70 Local Aid funding from the state for the public schools, and local property taxes. Chapter 70 will be $16,511,931 for FY26, an increase of $400,639 (2.5 percent) and projected property tax revenue for FY26 is $15,476,463, an increase of $463,987 (3.1 percent). Other revenue sources are expected to stay the same as this year, and they are relatively small. The most significant sources are ambulance receipts ($650,000) and transfers from the Revolving Funds (water, sewer, transfer station) at $420,511.
Altogether, the town expects $35,835,158 in revenue for FY26, an increase of $757,864 (2.16 percent). The town will have a budget shortfall for FY26 of $3,958,002.
Mr. McKinney said that many communities in Massachusetts are facing this same crunch. Many towns will be asking voters for a Proposition 2-1/2 override this year. "These large increases, whether it's a pension or the health insurance, they're happening everywhere. So when they're talking double digit increases compared to property taxes that can only go up two and a half percent." Revenue from the state has gone south since 2023. Mr. McKinney went on to a slide showing that the state gave Winchendon an increase from the previous year of slightly more than $1 million in Chapter 70/Local Aid in FY23, an increase of slightly more than $1.5 million in FY24, and then only increased $99,156 in FY25. The $400,639 increase for FY26 is an improvement, but still far below previous amounts, while expenses rocket upward. Meanwhile, the town's tax levy revenue, from rate increases and new construction, has risen steadily about $450,000 each of those years.
Mr. McKinney showed two more slides projecting the increases in revenue and expenses up to FY29. With the most optimistic assumptions, expenses will increase by about $1.5 million each of the years following FY26. At the same time, revenues each year would increase only about $535,000.
"So this, again, this is what the shortfall is going to look like, because it just keeps coming year after year," Mr. McKinney said. "So we started with the $4 million, it's going to go up another million. Because again, that was if everything stayed just where I said it would, we're going up an extra million and another million, and it just keeps getting worse and worse, which is why we are going to need an override, and that's why we have to figure out what is the amount that would be acceptable to the residents of the town, because if there is no override, then, as I said, we're already a million in the hole, which means we have to pay the debt, we have to pay the pension, the health insurance. We obviously depend on the number of employees, but that means cuts, not even level service, not even level funding. That means cuts in other areas."
Following Mr. McKinney's presentation, the Boards discussed a few ideas for economizing on health coverage for town employees. Selectman Audrey LaBrie spoke of a Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) conference workshop she recently attended about overrides, saying "I had to shake my head during some of the discussions" and that communities needed real help from the state meeting these skyrocketing expenses, immediately. "So we'll see if any relief comes down from the state. But until then, obviously, this is the hand we're dealt with. So that's what we have to deal with," she said.
School Committee Chair Karen Kast said that she was working on the Town Manager's Ad Hoc Committee looking into overrides, and said that it's very important to be reaching out to residents actively and let them know what services they're getting for their tax dollars now, and what real benefits an override will give to them as residents of the town.
Selectman Erika Eitland said, "I think one thing that, even just looking at the state data and overrides, if we just think about what some of the wins were last year from towns surrounding us--Acton put $6.6 million through for schools and government costs. Athol put in $286,000 for public safety. Harvard, they put $423,000 just for general operating. Lunenburg put $948,000 for schools. And then Rutland, the year before, put $2 million in for general operating...what we're seeing across the board and across the state, is that a lot of towns are in this place, and I think recognizing that other towns near us are able to effectively pass it, find the right balance and meet the needs of the town, it is possible...I agree with you, I feel that we have to be meeting people where they are and having honest conversations of what they really want."
Ms. Kast said, "You know, in the long run, what it's going to boil down to is, what does the community value? And in the long run, a budget is a moral document, whether it's the town budget, the school committee budget, or whatever. So what does the town want us to do? So that's what I think we all need to be asking."
Watch the entire TriBoard meeting (find a comfy chair) on Winchendon TV at https://winchendon.cablecast.tv/CablecastPublicSite/show/197?site=1%C2%A0%C2%A0.