BAR HARBOR—The schools in the Mount Desert Island Regional School System may be organized a bit differently in the future now that the Maine Commissioner of Education has given the okay for the system to create a Reorganization Planning Committee. That committee would create a proposal to restructure the school system.
That’s just one step of many for a school restructuring to take place. The restructuring would have to eventually be approved by voters of each town that is impacted. It also means that if approved there would be just one budget for the schools and just one school board for the system rather than Bar Harbor having its own board and Trenton having another. That board would be elected by the voters of the towns involved (Bar Harbor, Cranberry Isles, Frenchboro, Town of Mount Desert, Southwest Harbor, Tremont, Trenton, and Swan’s Island). Similarly, teachers and staff would not be employed by each school but by the district.
The committee itself must have members that represent each school, the towns, and the public.
According to an article today by Dick Broom for the Mount Desert Islander, Superintendent Michael Zboray expects it to be a year-long process involving public meetings to get the plan in place and find out which options feel the best.
On March 29, the MDIRSS-AOS 91 School Board held a workshop discussing a potential school reorganization of Mount Desert Island schools and Trenton.
Currently the schools are in AOS 91, which allows each town to have a separate budget. According to the documents shared at the meeting, the reorganization effort “is to reorganize its current structure from a collection of individual schools into a coherent and more equitable model to better serve our students and educators. It makes sense to look at how we can provide the best education for everyone with our collective resources.”
Reorganizing requires the creation of a regional school unit (RSU). There have been several possible reconfigurations of the schools previously mentioned, which are also in the March 29 meeting documents (all linked below).
Maine statute lays out the procedures to form an RSU. Some of that is detailed in the images below. The AOS has also presented a potential timeline, which begins with the March 29 workshop and has individual boards vote to sign a letter of intent to form a Regional Planning Committee (RPC), which does not mean that the boards are now committing their towns to joining a RSU. The timeline has the plan ending in spring or fall of 2024 with town votes about joining a newly formed school district.
TEACHERS AND STAFF WELCOMED BACK WITH THE RED CARPET
The Conners Emerson PTSA made signs and rolled out the red carpet for teachers and staff members as they headed into the Bar Harbor School for its first day.
Images courtesy of Jen Dougherty
“We had such a lovely morning welcoming staff back. New ones we’re surprised and returning teacher’s mention being excited for this tradition. Red carpet and all, these teachers are the celebrities of Bar Harbor,” said Conners Emerson PTSA President Jen Dougherty.
Images Courtesy of Jen Dougherty.
NO MAJOR STAFFING SHORTAGES FOR BAR HARBOR SCHOOLS
The first day of public school happened today, and island students and parents began another school year, but this year, Bar Harbor schools are bucking a trend: there is enough staff.
The Conners Emerson School only has listed openings for substitute teachers. Trenton doesn’t list any openings. Mount Desert Island High School only has listed opening for after school support for student athletes and coaching opportunities.
via the MDIRSS website
Throughout Maine and the country, schools are short-handed and there is a continued educator shortage. This is often linked, as it is in a recent Rand study, to COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on education as well as salary levels, long hours, and stress.
According to an August 28 article by Lana Cohen for the Portland Press Herald,
“The minimum salary for teachers in Maine is $40,000, lower than teacher salaries in any other New England state and in the bottom half of starting salaries nationally. Maine’s livable wage – the amount of money one must make to cover basic needs – for a single person is $34,382, according to data from World Population Review.”
The typical starting salary for a teacher starting their career with a bachelor’s degree is between $40,000 and $50,500. According to the National Education Association, the Maine wide average for all teachers is $58,757.
According to an article in the Washington Post, by Moriah Balingit,
“Tuan Nguyen, a Kansas State University education professor, last year set out with two colleagues to collect statewide data on teacher shortages. They counted more than 36,500 vacancies in 37 states and Washington, D.C., for the 2021-2022 school year. Wednesday, they published updated data and found that teacher shortages had grown 35 percent among that group, to more than 49,000 vacancies.”
Grayson Staggs heading to the first day of fifth grade. Photo courtesy of Mike Staggs
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