YARMOUTH — The School Committee has proposed a Yarmouth considers 4% school budget increase fiscal year 2019 budget of almost $25 million, an increase of about 4 percent over current spending.

The committee presented it to the Town Council on March 15. The town will hold two public hearings on April 5 and May 3, before the budget goes to referendum on June 12.

Early state subsidy projections show Yarmouth schools losing over $489,000 from this year to next – about a 10 percent decline, from about $4.6 million to $4.1 million.

That will be offset in part because the state changed how it is funding vocational education.

The district will no longer be paying tuition for local students to attend Portland Arts and Technology High School. As a result, Superintendent Andrew Dolloff’s budget proposal includes an 83.5 percent reduction in local Career and Technical Education funding of $108,000.

Drivers behind the proposed increase in expenditures include negotiated employee salaries and benefits, increased staffing required to meet enrollment growth, anticipated increases in operational costs, updates to curriculum and technology, and a loss of state funding for professional development.

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Nearly $69,000 of the budget is attributed to changing demands, such as expanding a part-time English Language Learner teacher to full time, adding a part-time K-12 ELL education technician, expanding a part-time K-4 social worker to full-time, adding a Pep Band instructor at the high school, and budgeting a stipend of around $1,000 for a student mental health coordinator at Harrison Middle School.

Meanwhile, the district is also considering an expansion and renovation of all four district schools, which could cost $32 million. The proposal may go to referendum in November. If so, Dolloff said, the projected cost wouldn’t be factored into the budget until the 2019-20 school year.

Jocelyn Van Saun can be contacted at at 781-3661, ext. 183 or at:

jvansaun@theforecaster.net. Follow her on Twitter @JocelynVanSaun.


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