Jan 09, 2026
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—After months of debate and revisions, the Southwest Harbor School Committee voted, January 8, to approve having a school resource officer in the school, leaving Tremont as the only Mount Desert Island school currently without a school resource officer.
Southwest Harbor committee members emphasized that the decision hinged on the specific qualifications of the officer and the revised and scrutinized memorandum of understanding (MOU) that narrows the role’s scope and authority.
“I think it’s important that we actually make a decision on this, either way, and vote on it before the school year is over,” committee member Clifford Noyes said.
The committee members did decide, the approval coming during its January 8 meeting. When the school resource officer will be visiting the school will be determined with conversations with the principal. School resource officers on Mount Desert Island typically are not at schools during all school hours.
The Southwest Harbor seven-page memorandum of understanding has been discussed, tweaked, debated, and reviewed for multiple meetings since August 2025 according to Noyes.
“Either yes you want it or no you don’t. We’ve picked and micromanaged this thing almost to death,” Noyes told his fellow committee members.
For committee member Jacques Newell Taylor, his yes vote was about the quality of the candidate, Officer Kristen Roulet, who has extensive teaching and social sciences experiences along with her law enforcement skills.
Taylor said, “We’re extraordinarily lucky that this person is as qualified as they are.”
Her skill sets are exceptional, he said, and align with what the school needs. In the future, they should make sure any future SRO is as qualified and vetted and has similarly wonderful relationships with the students as she does.
“The problems that I did have have kind of been taken care of,” he said of the agreement.
There are very specific and positive circumstances because of Officer Roulet’s experience and personality, he said.
“My overall pushback about it is that I’ve never understood why a system that has been designed—that just hasn’t worked historically—is embedded in our school; the criminal justice system is embedded in our school,” he said.
He said he truly had a lot of respect for Officer Roulet.
“I support what we have crafted because of the way we have crafted it,” he said of the MOU. “I appreciate all of the hard work that everyone has put into making this workable.”
Police Chief John Hall said after the meeting, “I’m deeply grateful for all the hard work and excellent questions that the board asked. They (the committee members) stated that Officer Roulet has set a very high bar and that really goes a long way to her dedication to this position and the process it takes to get there.”
Officer Roulet’s qualifications was testified to during multiple meetings by school staff and community members. Many cited anecdotes about her skills with children in both calm and normal settings and fiercely frightening accidents.
“We have the person who is going to set that bar really high,” Chair John Bench agreed.
Officer Roulet has been in the Pemetic Elementary School multiple times though not as a resource officer, which was part of the reason, the school committee said, for creating a MOU, which covers the school’s liability and formalizes an arrangement with the town’s police department. When she is at the school, her presence is usually greeted with cheers when class isn’t in session or high fives, hugs and questions about what it’s like to be a police officer, staff members have said.
“Why are we against it? The other schools have them. The other schools have Elias so why is this school against it?” Jason Gordius asked at a December meeting. “We want equity in all the schools. Northeast. Bar Harbor and the high school have one. How come we don’t have one?”
The goal, proponents of the position said, was to build relationships, to have someone in the school and out in the community, someone they recognize, for when things go wrong for MDI kids.
Those against the position say that they aren’t comfortable with a consistent law enforcement presence in schools, worry that a school resource officer might not be the appropriate person for kids’ needs rather than a social worker or other specialist, and have also worried about school resource officers being in uniform or wearing guns.
Recent changes to the agreement include language about students and their families’ immigration statuses.
“The SRO will not inquire to a student or student’s family, citizenship or immigration status. In the event that information is known to the SRO, the SRO will not release this information to any other law enforcement agency. The SRO will be mindful when querying students and/or student’s family members, personally identifiable information in records management systems outside of our local law enforcement systems,” it reads.
Another change specifies that the officer “will not conduct or participate in a search of a student’s person, possessions, or locker.” Previously, it had state that an officer may conduct a search (or assist) if there was probable cause or evidence that the student was committing or had committed a crime.
It also specifies that any complaints of the SRO’s misconduct will be investigated by the Southwest Harbor police chief.
QUICK NOTE: We’ll have another story about the budget discussions and rest of the meeting later this weekend.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Pemetic School’s website.
BRIEFS AND PRESS RELEASES FROM YESTERDAY
You can find all of our briefs/press releases and past news stories here. Just the briefs are here.
Bar Harbor Bank & Trust Pledges $5,000 to Five Hancock County Food Pantries.
Coffee Clash Rescheduled Due to Flu at Birch Bay
Resources for Laid Off Workers in Maine
MSP Investigating Tractor Trailer Crash in Clinton
Pingree Secures $14.3 Million for Maine’s 1st District
King, Murkowski Criticize Trump Administration’s Greenland Posturing
All photos: Carrie Jones/BHS
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