Carrie Jones

Jan 17, 2026

SOMESVILLE AND BAR HARBOR—In a yurt, the children sit on a braided rug, hands on their hearts, excited to answer a question from their teacher Kreg McCune.

“Let’s think of that word, ‘was,’” Mr. Kreg says. “If you can think of a way to use ‘was’ in a sentence, put your hand on your heart.”

“There was a dinosaur a long time ago,” one student says, kneeling.

Another student sits still, her voice vibrating through the yurt. “I was beautiful.”

Wonderful. Wonderful, Mr. Kreg tells them. He pulls out an easel-style chalkboard, small enough that it’s not intimidating. He writes his own name, underlines the word “was,” and the children peer, leaning forward, one scooching across the colorful rug as Mr. Kreg fills in the last word.

“Kreg was sad,” he writes and seven small students are quiet for a moment, focusing on the sentence on the board.

“What is it?” one whisper-asks.

“What is it?” another echoes.

Led by Mr. Kreg, they sound out the word together, tapping it out, too.

“Sad! Sad!”

They move on, telling sentences about themselves using that “was” word, sentences that they’ll write out and draw, too, as they practice the word. Nick was a dinosaur. Juniper was a princess. Charli was a helicorn, which is her own personalized unicorn.

During all this, the youngest combined class at the Community School on Babson Creek on Mount Desert Island, is focusing on social and emotional independence, math, too, words, communication, but in a mellow and loving way. There is much joy in each class and much learning.

The Community School is about place-based education, which means that during their schooling, students’ sense of self, place, and community are fostered.

“We believe humans live and learn in community, through being in relationship with the many facets of the world. In our educational context, this means that instead of learning about things, we actively learn from and with the very people, places, stories, and ideas that make up our lives. We learn about the natural world by hiking through Acadia National Park with an ornithologist. We learn about the history of our island by meeting a firefighter who fought the 1947 Great Fire of MDI. We learn about land conservation by stewarding The Cooksey Drive Preserve for Maine Coast Heritage Trust. Learning becomes less about memorizing facts and figures and more about learning how to interact and deeply engage with the world,” the school’s website reads.

The educators follow the Common Core and Next Generation standards and guidelines that public schools do, but they get to those standards via community and place, trying to make learning as alive for its students as it can.

According to Sydnie White, administration and admissions director, there are 29 students currently enrolled.

“Sweet Fern Forest Kindergarten is The Community School’s (TCS’s) Kindergarten and Pre-K program and serves children ages 4-6 in a nature-based, integrated and multi-age Forest School model,” White explained. “Depending on age and development, students may spend one or more years in the Sweet Ferns before entering the grades at TCS.”

The school extends through eighth grade. Most students then attend Mount Desert Island High School. Children must be at least four by September 1, 2026 to apply to the Forest Kindergarten.

The Woodland class, which is first and second grades, are currently working on People of the Dawn, focusing on imagery and symbols on Wabanaki flags and how the past and the present connect through story and culture.

Quietly, they sit on a braided rug on a wooden floor. Paper snowflakes dangle from the ceiling. Blue construction paper science projects about clouds are tacked to the walls.

While their teacher, Alisa Hear, asks them a question, they gasp. They know the answer. Hands go to hearts as they wait for a moment to tell her what they think.

“If you were to design a flag for TCS (The Community School), what are some of the symbols you’d put on there?” Ms. Alisa asks.

“The mountain.”

“The mountain.”

“What mountain?” Ms. Alisa asks.

“The graduation mountain.”

That mountain is where classes reflect on their journey at the end of the year, teachers reflect with them.

More places are called out as special: the wolf pine, the creek, Grandmother spruce.

“We’re rooted in place and community,” Jasmine Smith, founder and executive director, tells the people gathered for a walkthrough of the grades, January 15. “That’s really what makes the learning come alive.”

According to educator David Sobel, “Place-based education is the process of using the local community and environment as a starting point to teach concepts in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, and other subjects across the curriculum. Emphasizing hands-on, real-world learning experiences, this approach to education increases academic achievement, helps students develop stronger ties to their community, enhances students’ appreciation for the natural world, and creates a heightened commitment to serving as active, contributing citizens. Community vitality and environmental quality are improved through the active engagement of local citizens, community organizations, and environmental resources in the life of the school.”

According to the Promise of Place, “Place-based education (PBE) immerses students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences, using these as a foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum. PBE emphasizes learning through participation in service projects for the local school and/or community.”

Autumn Soares leads an older group through a graphing exercise where they are working on landings in the area, including oyster landings and seaweed. They went to the College of the Atlantic and talked to Allied Whale staff earlier in the day.

Ms. Autumn leans across the table, helping and explaining and quietly motivating the students, papers on the table in front of them, ready to chart and graph and understand.

And out in another yurt, a group works on a science experiment about the transfer of energy. They’ll do the experiment and then data analysis led by Sam Murray.

“It was exciting because there was fire involved today,” Smith explained to parents and community members who were part of an open house and walk through for the grades.

A house and several yurts on Babson Creek, right by the Somesville bridge, host the school, which began in 2014. The house at 585 Sound Drive was once owned by Eben and Phebe Babson, built somewhere around 1850.

It’s Waldorf-inspired, fully-accredited, and first began with 13 students in Seal Harbor’s Abby Chapel. Since then, it’s been growing, adding classes, expanding through eighth grade.

In 2022, it acquired and conserved, with the help of Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT), 72 forested acres that it uses for its outdoor learning. MCHT holds a conservation easement on most of that land.

The Babson Creek Learning Forest, “will create opportunities not only for our students but for youth across Mount Desert Island and beyond to deepen their sense of place and stewardship for the special place where we live and learn,” Smith told the Bangor Daily News’ Bill Trotter at the time.

Like other schools, it has afterschool programs, but students also head to Conners Emerson for some afterschool sports and clubs as well as the MDI YMCA, Smith said.

“We hope to be a fixture in the community for a long time,” Smith said in a 2017 press release.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

The school is hosting a series of events throughout the winter with speakers and activities. The event on February 5 is with past students reflecting about their place-based education. Other events focus on kindergarten, middle school, and elementary time at the school and building resilience.

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

To learn more about the school.

Tuition and financial aid

To help support the school.

Email: OFFICE@THECOMMUNITYSCHOOL.ME

Unless otherwise specified, photos Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story.