Dennis-Yarmouth committee previews $86M FY27 operating budget, warns of major revenue unknowns

Superintendent Doctor Smith and Doctor Gilson presented the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District’s first-pass FY2027 operating budget on Jan. 5, describing a high-level plan that currently totals about $86,000,000 and reflects a baseline increase of roughly 6.35% over last year.

Smith told the school committee that the draft budget is being built with the district’s three strategic objectives in mind—reducing disparities in achievement and access, establishing consistent districtwide supports, and addressing facilities and capital needs—but stressed the revenue picture remains incomplete. He and Gilson said the district is still waiting for several state data points, including chapter 78 information, transportation aid, charter-school aid and school-choice estimates; together those categories exceeded $17 million in the prior year and will be finalized after the governor’s release later in January.

The presentation separated predictable cost drivers—settled vendor contracts, planned capital work and known salary obligations—from volatile items such as health-insurance increases (to be set by the Cape Cod Municipal Health Group) and rising out-of-district special-education tuition and transportation costs. Gilson showed the district projecting roughly $7.4 million in out-of-district tuition and related transport next year, a figure the administration described as “creeping” toward 10% of the operating budget.

Gilson also described budget offsets the district expects to apply: a larger circuit-breaker carryover (raised from $1.6 million to $1.8 million), solar revenue averages from multiple local sources, and McKinney-Vento transportation revenue. Those offsets reduced the portion of the $86 million the committee would need to fund from assessments and local contributions in the preliminary calculations.

Debt-service items are also on the table, Gilson said, including a principal payment of $444,000 and an interest payment the administration clarified in committee discussion as $330,875; the district also received a premium of roughly $118,000 it plans to apply to the debt obligation rather than pass on to the towns.

Committee members pressed the administration on how the state’s “minimum required local contribution” feeds into the regional assessment split between Dennis and Yarmouth. Doctor Smith and committee members reiterated that the state’s formula—based on resident income and property values—determines the first portion of the assessment and can cause disproportionate changes from year to year; the regional agreement then applies the approximately 70/30 split (Yarmouth/Dennis) to the remaining amount. Smith said the district will meet with town finance committees and select boards after the state’s numbers are released to review specifics and expected impacts.

Smith and Gilson said the presentation did not yet include priority items (the rubric ranks requests from 4 [highest] downward) and that the committee will receive more detailed line items and supporting materials at upcoming meetings, including a public hearing scheduled Jan. 9 and a target date for final adoption in March. The administration anticipates additional modeling when the governor issues the official revenue figures and when the Cape Cod Municipal Health Group finalizes health-insurance increases.