There are so many great things happening in the Yarmouth Schools, we couldn't wait until month's end to provide you with this update.

On Thursday, March 12 the School Committee voted unanimously to approve the proposed 2026-2027 School Department Budget in the amount of $44,212,213, an increase of 4.65% over the 2025-2026 budget. This would result in an estimated impact to the taxpayer of 3.14%.

The proposal seeks to preserve current programming throughout the district with no expansion or additions. The proposal reduces staffing across the district by 1 full-time equivalent position.

To date, the School Committee has held four public meetings on the budget, along with several Finance Committee meetings. The budget proposal now moves to the Town Council before being voted on by the citizens in the state-required two-step approval process.

Upcoming public deliberations on the budget include:

Thursday, March 19                Budget Presentation to Town Council

Thursday, April 9                    Town Council – Public Hearing I 

Thursday, May 7                     Town Council – Public Hearing II

Tuesday, June 2                       Town Meeting – 7:00 p.m. at YPAC

Tuesday, June 9                       Budget Referendum – 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at YHS Gym

Read more about the budget proposal on our district finance page and in this budget narrative from Superintendent Dolloff.

We hope to see and hear from many of you at these meetings!

On Thursday, March 12 the School Committee voted unanimously to approve the 2026-2027 Academic Calendar. The year begins with the first day for students on Tuesday, September 1. If there are no school closures, the year would end on Friday, June 11. For each closure, one day will be added to the end of the year until June 17. Any days beyond that will likely become remote learning days, although that is a decision that will be made at the time of the closure.

The calendar may be viewed here and on our district calendar page.

The last week in February typically marks the end of the winter sports season, and Yarmouth Schools topped off the year with Unified basketball games at YES and YHS.

At YES, the Unified Team took on members of the faculty as the YES Pep Band played a variety of "pump" songs and hundreds of students, staff, and families looked on.

In the picture below, Isaac Bliven takes it to the basket against the YES faculty team on the way to a resounding victory.

At the High School, the Unified Team took on Mt. Ararat of Topsham. Maya Advani is pictured below, bringing the ball up the floor with several of her teammates while dozens of YHS fans filled the student section in support of the team.

March is Youth Art Month at the Portland Museum of Art, when students from throughout Maine submit original works for possible display throughout the month.

This year YHS student artists Mackenzie Lentz' and Elisabeth Rugh have had their pieces chosen for display from hundreds of entries.

Mackenzie's Digital Photograph, 13" x 19", titled "Everything Under the Sun" (below, left) and Elisabeth's Porcelain, 9" x 9" (below, right) demonstrate the keen eye and versatility of the artists at YHS.

A celebration for the students at PMA was held on Saturday, March 14th.

YHS seniors Morgan Goodrich and Sally McGrath have had their work selected for display in the Maine K-12 Clay Exhibition, opening Friday, March 20 (5:30-7:30, Barkan Gallery, Edgecomb) and on view through April 17.  This exhibit is sponsored by Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, a nationally known ceramic arts center located in Edgecomb.

Pictured below is Morgan's "Shavan," stoneware, glaze, wire, fabric (left), and on the right is Sally's "Brackish Waters," porcelain, underglaze.

The Captain's Crew at Rowe School recently raised more than $400 for the Yarmouth Food Pantry as part of their service learning project.

Captain's Crew is a rotating group of first graders who meet with Rowe Principal Kelli Rogers (front) to learn about leadership and service to others.

Congratulations are in order to the following students who have earned spots in the MMEA 2026 Honors Jazz Ensembles.  The students will work with guest conductors April 13 and 14 and perform a concert the evening of April 14 at Greely High School.

Honors Jazz Band

Finn Marianski, grade 12, tenor sax

Ryan Key, grade 11, electric bass

Honors Jazz Choir

Lily Kew, grade 9 ,soprano

Sheldon Hubbard, grade 11, soprano

August Flynn, grade 12, alto - highest scoring vocalist

Allegra Vitalius, grade 9, alto

Jasper Keller, grade 10, tenor

Coltrane Vitalius, grade 11, bass

Antonio Velazquez, grade 12, bass

Cole Rutberg, grade 11, drums

On Saturday, March 7, 13 Yarmouth Robotics teams (5 high school, 8 middle school) competed at The Point in South Portland in the 2026 Maine VEX Robotics State Championship. Yarmouth left the event with a lot of hardware!

At the high school level our YHS team - "Infinite Improbability" - won several awards:

First and foremost, congratulations to Teams 1764P, "Paradox" and 1764V, "Voyager" (Adlai Goodwin, Noah Van Allen, Henry Hallagan & Collin Swank) , who capped a dominate season (9 tournament championships between them) respectively by soundly beating the competition enroute to their State Championship title!

The Build Award was captured by Team 1764M, "Marvin the Paranoid Android" (Julian Lamson-LaPlume, Peter Ericson, Andy Jiang & Sterling Palladino).

Robot Skills Champion was presented to Team 1764P, "Paradox" (Reid Garofoli, Crosby Ney, Will Huckel-Bauer, Pablo Sonenberg).

Harrison Middle School's "Clipperbots" also had an amazing day at the VEX Robotics State Championship, as seven out of our eight teams advanced to the quarterfinals and three teams walked away with awards:

The Sportsmanship Award went to Team 7831A, "Super Screwjoints" (Patrick Dillon, Finn Miller, Nora Costello, John Coffey, Ben McCormack, Avery Crawford, Lexi Favreau & Georgia Felmly).

This year's Judges Award was presented to Team 7831X, "The Fritos" (Gareth Davies, Patrick Gerrard, Sylvie Lemay & Robyn McCollar)

Team 7831Y, "Kinetic Collision" (Ryan Decourcey, Kellen McPhetres, Nathan Patstone, Gabriel Balduf, Oliver Copsey & Grant Chadwick)  had an outstanding run, qualifying as Tournament Finalists.

With these accomplishments, teams 1764P, 1764V (from YHS) and 7831Y (from HMS) have all qualified to compete over April Break at the 2026 VEX Robotics World Championships at the America's Center Convention Complex in St. Louis, Missouri.

Not surprisingly, given all this success, Yarmouth's lead coach, Jay Harrington, was presented with the2026 Volunteer of the Year Award.

Congratulations to all robotics participants, and good luck at the World Championships!

The Yarmouth High School Playmakers' presentation of "The 39 Steps" (adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan) claimed First Place in the Maine Principals' Association Regional Drama Festival. The troupe will now compete in the State Drama Festival on March 20 and 21 at Windham High School.

The Yarmouth Playmakers will perform at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.

For more information on the festival, visit the Friends of Playmakers Facebook page. For tickets, visit the MPA Go Fan site.

On Friday, March 13, fifth grade students at Yarmouth Elementary School amazed the crowd with their talent and enthusiasm as they brough Lion King Kids to life in the YES gym. As shown here, everything from the costuming to the choreography was performed in typical Yarmouth theatrical fashion, and it is clear that the Yarmouth Playmaker tradition of excellence will continue in the future!

Yarmouth definitely has talent - as you can see from this newsletter - and we're ready to show it off with the 2026 version of Yarmouth's Got Talent!

YGT is open to students with any kind of talent: music, dance, arts, magic, comedy or any other creative endeavor that will win over the audience!

Auditions will take place as follows:

Monday, March 23 (Snow date Tuesday, March 24)

Starting times:

YHS - 3:00

HMS - 3:15

YES - 3:45

Rowe - 3:50

Show Date and Times are as follows:

Friday, March 27, 4pm and 7pm (Snow date Saturday, March 28)

Cash prizes based on audience vote. A first and second prize will be awarded for each age group. 

View official rules at YarmouthsGotTalent.org

Entry Forms: Click here for the YGT 2026 Entry Form or use the following QR code. Entry forms must be submitted by Thursday, March 19.