Winchendon balances books in nick of time

Winchendon balances books in nick of time

School Committee says cuts on horizon for district
Katie Landeck
News Staff Writer

WINCHENDON — Last night, in an eleventh hour Special Town Meeting, Winchendon voters passed a series of articles closing the books for fiscal year 2013,  balancing 2014’s budget and seemingly ending the town’s financial crisis.

According to officials, the budget had to be reconciled by end of day today in order for the Department of Revenue to set Winchendon’s tax rate for the upcoming year.

Without a tax rate, Winchendon would have been left without incoming tax revenue. At the meeting, Town Manager James Kreidler said this would have forced the town to borrow money in order to maintain emergency services such as the police and fire departments.


The Special Town Meeting was called for early in December after the town’s new accountant Donna Allard discovered several hundred thousand dollars of debt while reviewing the budget. 

Most notably, the snow and ice removal budget was running at a $160,000 deficit, Veterans’ Benefits showed a $53,000 deficit and the School Choice and Tuition budget for fiscal year 2014 revealed an additional anticipated $109,000 deficit. 

Monday night, with relative ease, Winchendon voters approved a measure to reduce the community development budget for fiscal year 2014 by $46,150.74. This measure combined with funds from excise revenue, according to officials, is enough to offset both the snow removal deficit and Veterans’ Benefits deficit.

The articles that related to the school’s budget, however, proved to be far move controversial.

An article written by Town Manager James Kreidler that sought to increase “indirect costs by $109,898 from $2,934,370 to $3,44,268” garnered extensive attention before eventually passing. The article addressed a projected deficit of $109,898 in School Choice and Tuition spending in 2014.

School officials argued the figure was too high and made a motion to amend the article to reflect a $62,668 Charter School Reimbursement the schools anticipate receiving. The reimbursement would bring the total down to $47,230, substantially reducing the school’s increased indirect costs.

Upon hearing the motion, Mr. Kreidler said that the state would not recognize the reimbursement money as part of a balanced budget and therefore would not be able to set a tax rate. Furthermore, he said trying to reinvent how the town looks at the reimbursement program this late in the game was not feasible.

“The fact is, for more than 10 years, this is not how we’ve done it,” Mr. Kreidler said.

The school took another hit when two year’s worth of Municipal Medicaid Reimbursement totaling $64,453.60 were reauthorized back to the town to cover the looming transportation deficit.

School Committee officials said they did not understand how the reimbursement funds worked and had mistakenly believed the funds could be used at any time, not just in the fiscal year they were given. They said the mistake would not happen again.

As a result of the loss, Superintendent Dr. Salah Khelfaoui said funds to cover expenses such as boiler repairs and a deficit in the athletics programs will have to come from other places.

“We go where he have always gone,” he said after the meeting. “We cut, cut, cut.”

For many voters, the disagreements between the School Committee and town manager highlighted a failure to communicate that will need to be addressed before the next regular town meeting. Some voters, including School Committee Chairman Michael Niles, talked about bringing in a third party to help mediate future discussions.

The School Committee passed over all of its articles on the warrant.