Barnstable County Report

Is the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District now a school for scoundrels?

Cooperative is not a word that comes easily to the tongue when describing the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District, at least as far as Yarmouth selectmen and an increasing numbers of parents and citizens are concerned. Consider, in January of this year in response to an invitaion to meet with the Yarmouth selectman, school superintendent Carol Woodbury appeared at the appointed time accompanied by Mr. Phil Morris. Morris is a member of the school committee and serves as Yarmouth's liaison to the school committee. The problem was, and remains, that  the entire school committee had been invited. Then the school committee and the superintendent stood by a budget for fiscal 2009 which, in the absence of a $1.5 proposition 2 1/2 override that failed  in Yarmouth  was upheld by voters at a district meeting on August 4 and the Town of Yarmouth began dismantling portions of town government in order to pay the school district. These are all facts.

At that district meeting Woodbury said in very clear language that she had already cut 39 jobs from the school district in order to make the budget as lean as possible. She said of those cut, "These are real people....." In a written listing of those jobs  handed out to voters at the district meeting Woodbury listed the following jobs:

• 2 administrators
• 14 teachers
• 1 social worker
• 5 secretaries
• 2 custodial position
• 14 special education assistants

Combining Woodbury's spoken words at the district meeting and her written listing of the jobs she had alrady eliminated, jobs held by people who she told the district meeting had already been sent letters informing them of their termination, it is clear that no one employed by the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District who was to be terminated as a cost cutting measure for 2009 had not been informed prior to August 4. Conversation among several of those who attended last night's Yarmouth Selectmen's meeting indicates the truth may be another matter.   

Parents of students in the district and  citizens who know school employees are saying that well after the district meeting school district employees were being told of their termination and that they were shocked and surprised. There is also widespread discussion of parents not yet knowing who will be teaching their children in two weeks at the start of the new school year. In addition the superintendent has shuffled the adminstration staff, principals and assistant principals,m in at least three of the district's schools. The most unpopular move appears to be the shifting of the long-time Mattacheese Middle School principal to the M.E. Small Elementary School.

Among many who attended last night's Yarmouth selectmen's meeting the mood was one of anger and confusion.

Yarmouth will now vote on $1.5 million ovrerride at the election to be held on September 16 and there will be a special town meeting held on the following night to decide how to handle the town's fiscal 2009 budget, that decision to be affected by the preceding day's override vote. Selectmen at last night's meeting considered placing one of two dollar amounts on the ballot, $1.5 million or $753,295. The higher number would fully fund town operations for the next year while the lower number would cover only the cuts in public safety budgets needed to satisfy the school district's budget. The higher amount will appear on the ballot.

Adding to the fiscal woes of Woodbury's domain is the fact now emerging that she is predicting a shortfall of as much as $800,000 by the close of the school year which starts in two weeks. Energy and escalating special education costs figure prominently as causes of this new cash drain. While Massachusetts mandates that expensive resources be available for those students requiring special attention, up to and including in-patient or residential placements costing occasionaly more than $100,000 for a single student for a single year, there is little additional funding provided by the state to help towns absorb these costs. According to Woodbury 16.4% of all students in the dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District are classified as requiring special education. that works out to slightly more than one out of six students costing extra. The average enrollment throughout the system is just under 4,000 students.