Superintendent's Message
Marc J. Smith - Dennis-Yarmouth Regional Schools
Amazing Art
Hello Dolphin Community,
At this week’s School Committee meeting, our student representatives were sharing many of the amazing things that students are doing throughout the district. Among those activities were the several students at D-Y High School that recently received awards from the Massachusetts Arts Education Association. These students created some amazing works of art like the one shown here and are a testament to the diverse set of talents that exist here within D-Y as well as the various ways that students have to display their excellence. I continue to be impressed by what our students can do when we give them the proper encouragement, space to grow, and feedback for improvement.
If you happened to be watching the School Committee meeting this week, you would have seen that we continue to discuss next year’s budget. Next week on March 13th, the School Committee will vote on the final budget and assessment numbers to send to the towns. The most recent changes to the budget include a small reduction in the overall budget ($100,000), which we were able to accomplish by looking closely at non-personnel lines within the budget. Additionally, the committee decided to use $500,000 in Excess & Deficiency funds (district reserve funds) this year to lower the amount that each respective town has to contribute to the budget. So in summary, this brings us from an initial operating budget projection in early January of $78,904,753 or a 9.35% increase over this year to a $76,890,501 operating budget which is a 6.56% increase over this year. This results in an assessment of $19,378,586 (3.931%) to Dennis and $41,168,199 (5.971%) to Yarmouth. Next week, on March 12th we head to present this information to the select boards of both towns. If you would like to see the slides that were used that have much more detailed budget information or a recording of the school committee meeting that includes this presentation, please follow this link here.
A second item that I presented to the School Committee was a challenge that has come across my desk regarding transportation for next year. If you would like to see the full presentation and discussion regarding transportation, you can view the school committee recording here and start at 1:21 into the meeting. In an attempt to summarize what was discussed, we have come across a problem in working with the bus company as we have been trying to plan for the extending of the school day at grades PK-3 next year. As you may know, the district has been working to expand the school day for students so that all students in grades K-12 attend school for 402 minutes each day. This was done by first adding 27 minutes to grades 4-7 two years ago and we are scheduled to add 27 minutes to each of the elementary schools next year.
When I first started as superintendent, my early understanding of the plan was that the additional 27 minutes would be gained by moving the start times of our elementary schools earlier because there is a larger gap in our transportation system between the pick up times at DYIMS and the elementary schools than the other transportation tiers. After many meetings with the bus company starting back in October, we have determined that there is no way to do this without adding buses to our contract (each additional bus costs $86,000 in an already very difficult budget for next year) if we want to keep our transportation system operating similarly to the way it currently does. Unfortunately, adding buses (2-4) would mean additional staffing layoffs to pay for this transportation.
We are exploring another option that may allow us to save money and not have to add buses, allowing us to avoid additional staff layoffs, but that would be disruptive in another way. We are currently exploring the possibility of moving from a three tier system of transportation (K-3, 4-7, 8-12) to a two tier system of transportation (K-5 and 6-12). In this scenario you might envision a bus traveling through a neighborhood picking up all K-5 students and heading to DYIMS where it would drop off the 4-5 students. It would then continue on to the K-3 school in which students from that neighborhood attend. In the afternoon, the bus would pick up at DYIMS, then go to the K-3 school pick up, and then start its route dropping off students. A similar approach would occur for 6-12. For families curious about whether other districts have used this type of transportation system, the Nauset system here on the Cape transports K-5 and 6-12 in two tiers.
As I mentioned to the Committee, we are yet unsure if we can even make a two-tier system work. School-based teams are currently collecting detailed ridership information to help us in this determination and I have set an aggressive decision-making timeline. The aggressive timeline is because I know that regardless of which decision we ultimately make, there will be impacts to our system. If those impacts end up being a change to the transportation system, then students, families, and staff will all need as much notice as possible to plan and prepare for those and we will need as much time as possible to plan for implementation.
I promise to continue to keep everyone informed and updated as we get more information. As a new superintendent to the district I surely did not want to be bringing multiple disruptions in my first year. I appreciate your continued support as we navigate a challenging budget together and work together to implement the longer school day.
Thank you and have a wonderful weekend,
Marc
Community News
The Cape Cod Cultural Center, located in Yarmouth near Bass River, is hosting a new exhibit that is all centered on the history of Yarmouth. The exhibit is there for most of the month of March with an opening reception tonight from 5-7 pm. Please see the flyer below for more information.