Yarmouth Finds $800k to Close School Budget Gap

YARMOUTH – The town of Yarmouth has found funds to reduce its shortfall in the proposed Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School budget.

Yarmouth was looking at a possible $1.6 million Proposition 2 ½ override to cover the costs of a 39 student increase in enrollment.

The town was able to free up $800,000 from a reduction in Cape Cod Regional Technical High School enrollment, debt drop-off and property tax growth.

About $375,000 in savings came from the lower than expected enrollment at Cape Tech, with over $400,000 in funds being available from debt drop-off and another $50,000 in an increase in property tax revenue.

“That would reduce the override need to about $800,000,” said Selectman chair Tracy Post.

“But [the school committee] is continuing to work on that number.”

The proposed budget for next year is currently $60.6 million with Yarmouth being responsible for about $34 million.

A combination of cuts to social workers and social emotional learning teachers, along with dipping into deficiency funds is being considered by the regional school committee.

“They talked about the possibility of using some excess in deficiency funds to cover the gap which is what they did last year,” Post said. “That doesn’t really solve the problem because it just makes more of a delta for next year.”

Selectmen will not make a decision on whether to recommend an override until the regional school committee settles on a final budget.