Work by Matthew Stone

Aug. 12, 2010

WINTHROP -- School starts here in just a few weeks, but that doesn't mean the schools' financial condition will be in order.

Winthrop's special education budget is facing a $100,000 shortfall, a newly hired special education director told school board members Wednesday night.

And, Superintendent Briane Coulthard said, other underfunded areas of the budget -- including Winthrop's adult education program, known as the Carleton Project -- boost the full budget shortfall to more than $180,000 for the 850-student school system.

The schools' administrative staff have been trying to work through the shortfalls in a piecemeal fashion ever since they discovered them, Coulthard said.

But, "now I'm saying, 'It's serious,'" he said. "We need to work down. That's a shortage of revenue."

The shortfalls have come to light as a new team of administrators have taken charge in Winthrop, which has three schools. Superintendent Stephen Cottrell and special education director Lew Collins moved onto positions elsewhere in Maine at the end of the school year.

"If we're going to do something, do it in August," said Coulthard, who didn't fault previous leadership for the shortfall. "Don't wait until February and really have to change and give people notice."

The special education budget, said Richard Spencer, the new special education director, is facing shortfalls in accounts supplied by its three primary revenue sources: local, federal and economic stimulus funds.

That's because a number of essential expenses weren't figured into the budget, he said.

Those include:

• transportation costs for three students with autism -- about $10,000 per student -- who attend a specialized program at Wayne Elementary School;

• psychological services and evaluations for students, which cost about $18,000;

• an education technician's position, at about $39,000; and

• supplies, teacher training and outstanding service contracts.

"How that happened, I don't know," Spencer said of the budgeting oversights.

The shortfalls leave the Winthrop schools' ability to pay for speech and language, physical therapy and occupational therapy staff members, as well as a teacher who teaches deaf students, in question.

Some of the shortfall can be attributed to a $48,000 subtraction from Winthrop's state funds after an audit revealed the school district incorrectly reported costs.

The other sources, at this point, are unknown, Spencer and Coulthard said.

The school officials have yet to make suggestions to school board members on addressing the funds shortfall. Coulthard said he'll have written recommendations in time for an Aug. 25 board meeting.

At this point, Spencer said, the ideas are in short supply.

"I can't say I have any recommendations for us because we as a staff are still wrestling with this," he said.

Cutting services is not a likely option, Spencer said, since special education students are legally entitled to the services outlined in their individual education plans.

"Our parents have rights," Spencer said. "With those rights and that sensitivity, with a reduction in services, it would not be helpful."

School board members were unaware of the funding shortfalls in advance of Wednesday's meeting and didn't know how they could have arisen, said John Mitchell, the school board chairman.

"I don't know if it was adjustments from the moneys we thought we were receiving, if it was internal, or if it was a change in student needs," he said. "I don't fault anyone for this."

Already, the Winthrop schools' $9.6 million budget is the product of substantial cuts. The spending plan cut the schools' staff by about 18 positions: 10 1/2 teaching jobs, a bus driver's position, a part-time speech therapist's post and six custodians' jobs.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435
mstone@centralmaine.com

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