Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School Committee Adopts New Budget

Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School.

SOUTH YARMOUTH – The Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School Committee adopted a new budget last month, six weeks after its initial budget proposal failed.

The new budget aims to satisfy both towns without requiring hundreds of thousands of dollars in school district staffing cuts.

“I don’t see how cuts are in the best interest of our students at this point,” committee Chairwoman Jeni Landers said.

“We’re level-funded again, we are not investing any additional money in our schools.”

The new budget totals $62,001,508, the same amount as the failed version, but uses foundation enrollment to determine each town’s assessment.

It also relies on a larger than originally anticipated contribution from the state, and a boost in the state-mandated minimum contributions from each town.

“With the Governor’s budget numbers, that’s the current regional agreement, and that was based on what Dennis voted at Town Meeting and what would Yarmouth have to do to come up with those numbers and come up with the difference compared to what they voted at Town Meeting,” said Dennis-Yarmouth Assistant Superintendent for Administration and Business Services, Kenneth Jenks.

Using foundation enrollment as a basis for dividing cost boosts, Dennis’ share increases from about 29.56% to about 31.34%, while Yarmouth’s share drops from about 70.43% to about 68.65%.

The method of dividing costs has been a point of contention between the towns for years.

Residents have speculated it is what prompted Yarmouth to file a lawsuit in February that has jeopardized a $44.3 million state reimbursement for a new regional middle school.

The current regional agreement charges the towns based on how many students they send to district schools, foundation enrollment also counts students who live in Dennis or Yarmouth but attend a charter school or another public school district.

The district is expected to pay roughly $3.3 million for those students in the year ahead, the majority of whom live in Dennis.

The cost shift is not as drastic as it would have been under the failed budget however, which called for a 32-68 Dennis-Yarmouth percentage split.

The committee also did not want to make any drastic cuts to services and programs offered to students.

“We were trying to make sure that we had enough services for students and a little bit of a flex so that if we add a few families, and we always add a few families we wouldn’t start in an overage,” continued Jenks.

“Again these are kind of risk factors because we know they’re going to have an impact.”

During a two-hour discussion last month, the budget and assessments initially failed but were approved after committee member Andrea St. Germain changed her vote.

Committee members Brian Carey and James Dykeman, both from Dennis, were the only members who ultimately voted against the adopted budget.

Both voted in favor of a failed motion by Carey to base the assessments on the current regional agreement and apply a combination of budget cuts and excess and deficiency funds to help alleviate the increased burden to Yarmouth.

“I’m not saying this is easy, and I’m not saying it’s right,” Carey said of his motion.

“I’m stuck on the legal law, that we have a legally binding agreement and that’s what we should be doing at this point.”

If the budget and assessments fail a second time, the committee is required by law to call a district-wide meeting, which can approve them by a majority vote.

The committee had been facing a June 28th deadline to adopt a new fiscal 2020 budget after a previous budget was rejected last month.

By: LUKE LEITNER, CapeCod.com News Center

About CapeCod.com NewsCenter

The award-winning CapeCod.com NewsCenter provides the Cape Cod community with a constant, credible source for local news. We are on the job seven days a week.



CapeCod.com
737 West Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
Contact Us | Advertise Terms of Use 
Employment and EEO | Privacy