Moving Forward for Positive Results

School Committee Meeting Results

The DY School budget was approved last night for $49.7 million. The meeting was heated and probably left most people including both participants and viewers feeling drained.

What Comes Next

But, when I woke this morning it occurred to me that we need to shake that off. Sometimes people need to flesh out feelings. Let’s let that be in the past.  Rehashing “he said, she said” accomplishes nothing. We have no time for it. We’ve got work to do.

School Committee Work to Be Done

The school committee needs to see if they can find any additional cuts in the budget and work with the teachers to negotiate salaries that are in line with the times. Also going forward there are many ideas for growing revenue, lowering cost, creating community, and winning school choice that we need to work on once the budget is finally resolved.

Board of Selectmen Work to Be Done

The Board of Selectmen needs to fairly represent the school to the citizens of Yarmouth. It must present the DY Schools system as the positive learning and enriching institution that it is . They need to support an override by asking our citizens to vote yes on an override to support our schools. There are no empty seats. The schools are full and brimming with hard working teachers and students. Let’s not choke off any small amount of buffer we might have for future growth. Enrollments are cyclical and as such we will see increases in the future. Also we need to have room to welcome in both new and returning school choice students in the future. (I bet most people don’t want to have to build a new $5mm school down the line because we closed a school prematurely) Keeping our schools open and funded sends a clear message. We support our schools and we are ready for growth!

What You Can Do

That leaves the rest of us – parents, grandparents, friends, and citizens. What do we need to do?

• We need to get registered to vote if we haven’t already. Here are the instructions. Deadline is April 13th.

• We need to put Town Meeting and Election Day in our calendars.

• We need to talk to our neighbors, our church communities, our colleagues, our clubs or groups that we belong to. We need to tell the story of our schools. Not all the blah blah blah politics. Forget that. It’s a waste to spend energy on that.

Tell them the good stuff about our schools, about the students, the programs, the dedicated teachers, everything that impresses you. Forget about the warts. We all have our own warts. None of us are perfect. We don’t get everything done on our to-do list. The living room needs straightening. There’s that project in the garage you haven’t finished. It’s ok. We’re all working hard and so are our schools. Talking about the negative stuff doesn’t wash the dishes. Be positive for our kids.

Tell them that there is no waste, no empty seats. Tell them if they are skeptical to request a tour.

Tell them that Yarmouth is one of the lowest taxed towns in Massachusetts. Many people probably have no idea about this!

• Then ask them, please, support our schools. “Please vote for an override.”

• Lastly we need to show up on May 3rd (Yarmouth)for Town Meeting (May 4th Dennis)and May 11th for Election Day (same for Yarmouth & Dennis).
• And if you are inclined, please contact us if you would like to help volunteer with any of our ideas! We’ve got lots to work on!

Of course, these are my opinions. I simply feel we need to get to work finding solutions. Will you join us? Share your thoughts below!

You can read coverage of the meeting here:

D-Y budget approved, but divisions deepen