I gained hope during September 14, 2002's D-Y School's budget presentation to Town Selectmen and Finance Committees that D-Y's new Superintendent Pierantozzi and D-Y Educators Association new President will try to improve education within available dollar resources. However, as evidenced by other major and exciting Town of Dennis updates, D-Y Schools need direction from voters who are accurately and thoroughly informed.

D-Y's NESDEC evaluation flawed - link to Dennis-Yarmouth-Barnstable Register Paper - March 14, 2002

Year 2001 D-Y Education includes significant events.

Town of Dennis Finance Committee affirmed a legally wider responsibity to oversee D-Y School's spending. Hopefully, per it's practice with other Town operations, FinCom will not only validate accuracy of spending but also integrity and rationale of money requests. Manpower costs dominate school spending. Increases that exceed America's Federally reported Cost of Living Increases with adjustments for enrollment, must be carefully justified and explained if voters will approve overides. "Product" goals must improve, hopefully to higher than State averages for MCAS and down to State averge drop out and expulsion rates - at least up to demographically similar Nauset Schools.

• Year 2002 Fed COLA is 2.6%. A one tenth percent increase above 2.5%, or 2.6% appears reasonable without discussion.
  
• RAGE, an educator driven activist organization to increase state aid formulation, ran it's course with rejection by State courts. Please consider that the State formula is adequate for Educator pay increases to be in line with other Professional gross pay increases for America, such as Cape Cod Hospital Nurses and Workers unions - about 4% to gross pay to top salary.
  
• D-Y and Barnstable Educators Associations created additional categories of compensation for work historically intrinsic to the traditional Salary stepwork. This should be reexamined and tempered back to national policies. Incentives based on performance are used by the Nauset School District. Two years of result incentives has produced steady growth of track record now superior to results of D-Y's 1990's creative compensation for hours of untrackable benefit to students.
  
• Result of unique add ons to traditional pay schedules was annual Town Report listing of actual gross pays which increased an average 8-11% from the previous year for most years since 1993. Such rates might be appropriate for low salary step educators, but upset the apple cart beyond fiscal integrity as that rate galloped cost of pay dollars well beyond top steps.
  
• still under construction - 1/1/2002

Printed newspaper articles by RG -

Dennis-Yarmouth-Barnstable Register Paper

- 9/20/01 Hope for D-Y School's fiscal woes.
- 9/6/01 Rejection of D-Y School Budget Committee firms up existing responsibilities.
- 8/30/01 Who should explain D-Y instructional costs?
- 8/9/01  Only truth  about excessive educator gross salary hikes can begin saving D-Y & Barnstable education.
paid editorials by restoredyed

Letters read at Selectman Meetings

- 8/30/01 About a joint D-Y Ed budget study committee.