School Budget in Dispute for Yarmouth Town Meeting

gavelYARMOUTH – A big vote is set for Monday in Yarmouth, as voters head to special town meeting to decide whether or not to fund their remaining portion of the proposed Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School Budget.

Selectmen are unanimously opposed and will encourage residents to vote against cuts to cover the $212,000 shortfall.

If voters do not fund the shortfall, a joint town meeting between Yarmouth and Dennis would be required.

D-Y Regional School Committee Chairman Brian Carey feels Yarmouth should fund the budget as is. He said he will be attend the Town Meeting and speak in support of the article.

“We hope to discuss it with the Town Meeting voters and hopefully change their minds so that we can move on with the budget process for 2015,” he said.

Carey said he was disappointed in the vote of the Yarmouth Board of Selectmen earlier this week to recommend that Town Meeting not cover the school department deficit.

“I just think that this is an emotional argument in a lot of ways and I believe that a lot of people let their emotions dictate how they voted recently,” he said. “I hope to show some pertinent facts that will enlighten everybody and make it easier for them to come to a place where they can vote for our budget.”

Dennis residents have voted to fund their share of the budget.

The Special Town Meeting is Monday, July 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the Mattacheese School.

Carey said he is hoping he can sway Town Meeting voters so a district wide meeting is not needed.

“A district wide meeting, nobody wins,” he said.

Going forward, Carey said, better communication from the beginning can prevent this in the future.

“Unfortunately, the hard stance that the selectmen took is something new in the last 30 days. We’ve had a long budget process and there was plenty of opportunity to express objections with our budget. And we never heard any of that. It wasn’t until the assessments came out and significant portions swung to Yarmouth that really the objections came out,” he said.

 



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