Tremont School Committee meets with select board members for school tour and budget talks.

Shaun Farrar

Jan 12, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Paradis Ace Hardware.

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TREMONT—It was formerly the cleaning crew’s supply closet and now it is the occupational therapy room and designated deescalation space for the Tremont Consolidated School. Small and barren, it contains a few chairs, a small desk, and a wall clock, but this is where some students that attend the school spend a portion of their time.

The supplies that were once kept there—some of them now partially block the handicap accessible lift used to access the art room—others are scattered throughout the school, tucked away in small places.

At the Tremont School Committee meeting held on January 6, Principal Jandrea True gave members of the Tremont Select Board a tour of the building to show some of the circumstances and conditions that she wants to improve for her students and staff.

After the tour, school committee members and select board members returned to the portable classroom where school committee meetings are often held to have a discussion about the proposed school budget which currently sits at a 12.15% increase reflecting a proposed 12.55% increase to the town appropriation. This equates to a $72.92 per $100,000 increase in property taxes.

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SCHOOL BUDGET

Like any other school budget, the largest increases come from salaries and benefits for existing teachers, supplies, and the occasional staffing change, whether it be a new position, a loss of a position, or a change in position.

The current proposed budget for the 2026/27 school year for the regular instruction budget line is 15.11% or a $304,292 increase from $2,013,204 this year to $2,317,496 proposed next year.

The proposed budget for the 2026/27 school year for the special education budget line is 10.02% or a $151,421 increase from $1,511,603 this year to $1,663,024 proposed next year.

The facilities and maintenance budget represents the largest increase by percentage, but not dollar amount.

The proposed budget for the 2026/27 school year for the facilities and maintenance budget line is 24.76% or a $104,996 increase from $423,958 this year to $528,954 proposed next year.

In the facilities and maintenance line item are two subcategories, “operations and maintenance” and “capital outlay.”

Operations and maintenance represents the normal day-to-day operation of the school and most of the increases in this category are due to increases in supply charges such as electricity and oil with a total proposed increase of $16,496.

Capital outlay includes the payment for the lease of the portable classroom, planning for future improvements, smaller building projects, and maintenance equipment purchases.

Currently the capital outlay budget has a proposed increase of $88,500 with the majority of that being consulting fees for Harriman, a consulting firm that is helping the school plan how to maintain and continue to utilize its aging building. This is the same firm that consulted with Bar Harbor for the reconstruction of the Conners-Emerson School.

“Watching the budget go up over the last few years is not what anybody wants to see, but I can tell you that Tremont has been significantly underserved for years, under resourced, and that was considered okay because it was Tremont,” True said. “I think what we are watching, unfortunately, I mean I know budget has gone up over the years, but we are also watching the performance of students that has increased and also just the outlook on their school and the way that people are feeling about our school is shifting.”

True wants all students from the most gifted and talented to the most resource dependent to have an equal learning opportunity in Tremont as they would in other schools.

“I hope that the resources that we are putting into educating students in Tremont is paying off and is a necessary part of leveling the playing field for our students,” True said.

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BACK TO THE TOUR

The tour started at True’s office which is conveniently located next to a bathroom. The school is in need of a more centrally located bathroom that can be used by a staff member and a student at the same time because some students need help with toileting, and there is a lack of bathrooms that can accommodate this need.

The other bathroom that can used for this specialized need is across the school and through the gym in the SUN (students with unique needs) room.

So, the convenience in the location of True’s office is not about being able to easily use a bathroom, but because it abuts a bathroom that is large enough to be subdivided into two bathrooms, one with total privacy for a staff member and student. Additionally, a separate entry door can be installed in the back corner of True’s office to enter the new bathroom section.

The real convenience is because the water supply and wastewater outlet pipes are buried in the concrete foundation throughout the school and utilizing a space that already has that infrastructure within it would greatly reduce costs for demolishing the concrete slab to install or modify the plumbing.

The trade off for this plan is that True would be displaced and have to find a new office space for herself. Being displaced is nothing new for True because her office is also the conference room where as many as 14 people can be packed in for a meeting.

True has a mobile office trolley so that she can take her computer and other necessities with her when she has to leave her office. This is a common occurrence.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “In 2022–23, the number of students ages 3–21 who received special education and/or related services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was 7.5 million, or the equivalent of 15 percent of all public school students.”

Also, according to that same data, in 2023, Maine ranked highest, alongside Pennsylvania and New York, in the percentage of publicly enrolled students aged 3-21 “served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).”

Like the rest of the nation and Maine, Tremont has seen a rise in students with special needs. While statistically, a large portion of those students may need assistance due to a specific learning disability, the percentage that require more intensive care and/or supervision has also grown.

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ANOTHER OLD AILING SCHOOL

Special needs students are not the only factor at play in the lack of space or the need for maintenance and improvement at the Tremont Consolidated School.

Age itself plays a large factor as school designs and education methods differ from the past and spatial requirements and standards are harder to meet.

A number of the current classrooms are combinations of classrooms and closets and other previously existing spaces. This tends to make classrooms that, rather than being one large open space, have walls and doorways between them or have oddly shaped additional spaces such as long and narrow rooms.

In order to access the SUN room where many of the school’s most vulnerable students learn, students and staff must go through the gym and through two doors to get into the main space and then through another door to get into the additional classroom area. The office for the SUN room is a closet with a small desk and supply storage.

Besides space issues and basic needs, one corner of the building is settling and sinking into the ground. True said that in some rooms on that side of the building gaps are starting to form between the baseboards and the walls as the foundation gets lower.

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All photos: Shaun Farrar/BHS

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RECENT BRIEFS

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