Winthrop School Committee Approves Handbooks, $129K Warrant Before School Year Opens

WINTHROP — August 11, 2025 — Winthrop School Committee approves $129,273 warrant and updated handbooks ahead of August 27 school opening. The committee met Monday, August 11, at Town Hall and voted unanimously to approve student handbooks updated to reflect the U.S. Supreme Court's Mahmoud v. McKnight decision, which grants parents the right to request religious exemptions from specific curriculum materials. Superintendent Lisa Letary announced federal grants totaling roughly $1.16 million — including a $655,000 IDEA special education grant and $365,000 in Title I funding — have been received at levels comparable to last year, though she cautioned that rising salaries continue to eat into grant capacity. The district introduced Susan Gibbons as its new pupil personnel director, returning to Winthrop after prior stints in Marblehead and Somerville, and reported three hard-to-fill vacancies — an occupational therapist, a speech-language pathologist, and an EL teacher — that must be resolved before the first day of school to avoid costly compensatory service obligations. School improvement plans were tabled to the next meeting to allow fuller committee review.