Student Population Shift Means Higher Education Cost for Yarmouth

DSC00506SOUTH YARMOUTH – The Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District budget for fiscal year 2017 was presented last night, and totaled over $56 million in expenses.

However, Yarmouth will be paying for approximately 67 percent of that cost, around $30 million. That’s a 4.4 percent increase from last year, while Dennis is down 1 percent.

Director of Finance and Operations Larry Azer attributed that to Dennis losing 36 students over last year and Yarmouth gaining 73.

Dennis will end up paying around $16 million if the budget is adopted in March.

That would be a reduction of $140,000, while Yarmouth’s bill would increase by more than $500,000.

Azer said most of the 2.02 percent overall budget increase is due to the single highest increase in the balanced budget: health insurance.

That was counterbalanced by cutting 9 teaching positions and 19 assistant positions.

Yarmouth Selectman Norm Holcomb spoke out about continued cuts.

“You can’t keep cutting teachers to meet healthcare increases,” Holcomb said. “That’s just my observation.”

According to Superintendent Carol Woodbury, the district’s high level of special need also caused the slight increase over the FY 2016 budget of over $55 million.

The increase of just over 2 percent is the smallest increase the district has requested in over 5 years, Azer said.

Azer said he felt confident of the pragmatism this budget represents, stating that only $89,830 in new requests were permitted out of a pool totaling over a million.

The school committee is expected to vote to adopt the final budget on March 7th.

By ADAM FORZIATI, CapeCod.com NewsCenter

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Comments

  1. Yarmouth needs to learn that affordable housing is a drain on the community. We need to attract residents that will pay taxes and contribute to the town.

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