Also makes decision to submit original proposed budget to select board

Shaun Farrar

Jan 21, 2026

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

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TREMONT—After months of discussion and comments made by school staff, parents, and town officials, the Tremont School Committee unanimously approved the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Southwest Harbor Police Department for a school resource officer (SRO), 5-0.

A motion was made to accept the MOU as written for the SRO, seconded, and two comments made before the vote.

Member Eliza Bishop said, “I have really appreciated this discussion. I think it has been really fruitful, and I have talked to my kid and their friends about the officer, and I am opposed to law enforcement in schools.”

Bishop went on to say that the way the MOU is written that it makes the position less like a law enforcement position and more like just another adult in the school who is supportive and effective and compassionate.

“I think it (the discussion) has been genuinely illuminating and great and I am in favor of this MOU,” Bishop said.

“I have been against law enforcement in schools for many years,” said School Committee Chair Keri Hayes. “I don’t like the idea of a firearm in the school. I have made that very clear. I don’t necessarily like the idea that kids are given this false idea that police officers are always their friend.”

Hayes explained that she had a personal experience when her child was 17 and the child was questioned by law enforcement without any parent present. Hayes thinks that it is a dangerous precedent “especially for kids who are kids of color, kids who are from backgrounds where things can be said that can hurt themselves or their families.”

She continued, “I also take it very seriously that I am a representative voted in by our entire town. I have had people write to us who have said that they don’t agree with it, and I wanted to make sure that we did have a strong and thoughtful conversation about this and that we have looked at all the angles and that we have asked for all of the things that we needed and I agree with Eliza. I feel like we have done a really good job. I am really disappointed with some of the comment that we have received, not tonight, but at other meetings where I felt pressured; I felt belittled; I felt intimidated, threatened, but I will vote for this because it’s what our town seems to want.”

Both the Tremont Consolidated School and the Pemetic School have the same MOU.

Swh Tremont Sro Mou Draft 2025

213KB ∙ PDF file

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Some additions and deletions were made to the MOU throughout the process. One of the changes made was because the officers in Southwest Harbor work under a union contract.

Southwest Harbor Police Chief John Hall stated that the recent loss of an officer by the department (Sgt. Ryan Blakeney who was terminated) would not effect the ability of the SRO, Officer Kristen Roulet, to be present in the schools.

Hall also said that he still needs to meet with Tremont Principal Jandrea True and interim Pemetic Principal Carolyn Todd to discuss what each of their needs are for their schools before determining how many days per week Officer Roulet will spend in each location.

With the approval of the SRO MOU by the Tremont School Committee, there is now an SRO in every school on Mount Desert Island on a part-time basis.

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POTENTIAL BUDGET ADJUSTMENTS

At the school committee’s last meeting on January 6, the meeting started off with a tour of the school for three Tremont Select Board members so they could get an idea of the needs of the school for improved spaces for both students and staff.

Once the tour was complete, the regular school committee meeting took place in the portable classroom that serves as the school’s library. Part of that meeting was discussion about that proposed budget which on January 6 showed a 12.15% overall increase reflecting a proposed 12.55% increase or $578,277 to the town appropriation. This equates to a $72.92 per $100,000 increase in property taxes.

According to True, during that budget discussion between the three select board members and the Tremont School Committee, “the select board was hoping to wait until the RSU vote had taken place in June. Once the vote had taken place, the select board was willing to hold a special town meeting for the purpose of funding to move forward the process of planning for a building project at Tremont school.”

At the January 20 meeting, True presented the school committee with two alternative budget proposals.

One of these alternative budgets removes $85,500 in proposed consulting fees for Harriman, a 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.

This would be the lowest of the three proposed budgets showing a 10.56% overall increase reflecting a proposed 10.70% increase or $492,777 to the town appropriation. This equates to a $62.14 per $100,000 increase in property taxes.

The second alternative budget also eliminates the $85,500 for Harriman but keeps the addition of one special education teacher. The original proposed budget from January 6 also had this new position proposed in it but eliminated one ed. tech position at the same time bringing the total number of ed. techs employed by the school down from 16 to 15.

Because this proposed budget alternative adds the new special education teacher position but does not eliminate one ed. tech position, it falls in the middle of the three budgets with a 11.54% overall increase reflecting a proposed 11.84% increase or $545,192 to the town appropriation. This equates to a $68.75 per $100,000 increase in property taxes.

After much conversation regarding the physical needs of the school and the needs of the students in both physical spaces and teacher resources, the committee made the decision to present the original proposed budget from the January 6 meeting to the select board.

One worry for the committee was the progress that has been made in planning with Harriman and not continuing to fund that planning process into the next stage.

The issue of reorganization was brought up as a solution to some of the budgetary aspects of the school improvement projects and taking some of the burden off Tremont taxpayers. However, there was also a general concern about where Tremont would end up in the hierarchy if reorganization was to happen: would the work that had been done so far now be mute and would the Tremont Consolidated School be pushed back even further before physical improvements could be made?

Additionally, True said that the current plans for reorganization have Tremont projected to continue to be a pre-K through grade 8 school, so the space issues and needs would remain without the possible relief of some students attending another school such as a regional middle school.

One committee member said that unlike the select board that has to look out for the good of the taxpayers in general, committee members were voted in to advocate for the school.

“The Tremont community always rallies around their kids,” said True, who, along with some committee members, also said that they had received supportive and understanding comments about the needs of the school as far as tax increases are concerned and even offers to help in various ways.

“I just want to reiterate that we need people to be at that February 2 (select board) meeting to advocate for the Harriman portion if that’s what we are going to do because it can’t just be Jandrea asking for it, it’s got to come from the board,” said Hayes.

The committee decided that “this is the direction that the committee wants to move in.” That direction would be staying with the original proposed budget from January 6, keeping Harriman funding in the budget along with a new special education teacher and reducing ed. techs by one.

For a maximum difference of $10.78 per $100,000 the school committee made this decision having faith in the support of the property tax-paying residents but not wanting to push the increase higher by also keeping the ed. tech position.