Returned check policy and annual report memoriam also approved
Feb 12, 2026
TREMONT—At its February 2 meeting, the Tremont Select Board approved the proposed Tremont Consolidated School budget which has come down by more than 3% in the town appropriation line.
The town appropriation has gone from 12.55% in the first proposed budget to 9.30% in the newest iteration of the proposed budget. This corresponds to a reduction in tax appropriation from $72.92 to $54.01 per $100,000 of valuation.
Tremont Principal Jandrea True explained some of the larger increases to the select board by article.
Article one, regular instruction, has an increase of $304,292 or 15.11%. A large portion of these increases come from salary, benefits, and insurance increases.
True said that it has been proven that the school has the ability to move students from the lower academic levels up through the ranks and help them become better learners.
The school’s music teacher, who has 40 students in band, is the only music teacher in the district that is not a full-time music teacher because she was also providing gifted and talented services. So the school is proposing to add a position that will be 50% gifted and talented and 50% math interventionist.
This would give the music teacher the ability to be full time and would provide a dedicated position to not only give attention to struggling students but also to the school’s highest performers.
Article two, special education, has an increase of $151,421 or 10.02%. Again, a large portion of these increases come from salary, benefits, and insurance increases.
Another increase would be the addition of a new special education teacher while also reducing educational technicians by one. Special education needs for schools are on the rise across the nation and Tremont is anticipating a special education student population increase.
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.”
This is an increase of 1.1 million students over the 2012-13 school year.
The addition of a special education teacher gives the school the ability to provide greater support for those students.
For articles two and four, summer school contributions increased for both special education and regular instruction students.
Article nine, facilities maintenance, has an increase of $104,996 or 24.76%.
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.
There is only one bathroom in the school for students that need staff assistance with toileting. That bathroom is across the school and through the gym in the SUN (students with unique needs) room.
The school is looking to use True’s current office to help create a second toileting assistance bathroom 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.
A portion of the second grade classroom that used to be the library, and is very large, would be divided and become True’s new office and a conference room.
The largest portion of the increase for article nine is $85,500, a portion of which is for continued planning and design work with Harriman, and a portion of which is for the bathroom remodel and the moving of True’s office.
Harriman is the architecture and design firm that the school is currently working with. Bar Harbor also worked with the firm to design the new Conners Emerson School, which is currently in construction.
This $85,500 was the subject of the majority of the budget discussion at the February 2 meeting due to the fact that at the January 6 meeting, the select board members who were present and the school committee had come to an agreement to remove the Harriman funding and fund the projects through a different mechanism, most likely involving a special town meeting with voter approval.
“I think that we’re all kind of in agreement that at this point, something does have to happen in the building,” True said.
Vice Chair McKenzie Jewett asked, “The three of us (Select Board Chair Jamie Thurlow, member Kevin Buck, and Jewett) were at a (school committee) meeting a while back and I thought, you can correct me if I am wrong, when we left that meeting the Harriman component of this had been taken out. I felt like we had an agreement, Jamie even suggested a special town meeting going forward. What happened there?”
“We didn’t want you guys to think that we were just blowing off, whatever, we have got like so many letters from teachers about wanting us to move more quickly on this. I think maybe Jandrea said there was (at) one time seven or eight teachers, you know, they were cornering us in the line. So, I think that is part of the reason, is that we are feeling . . . “ said school committee member Jessica Stewart.
“Do the teachers understand that a special town meeting was an option? It wasn’t that we flat out said no, it was sort of paused?” asked Jewett.
“I did speak to the original letter that came in, I had spoken to that staff member. and I think it is just the frustration, I think, of what they are feeling is we are watching a lot of other schools where that is getting approved, and I think the other part of it is that those budgets get approved before ours do,” True said. “So, the concern there is some of those budgets are getting approved and then that gets folded into the budget that you see now and by the time we go to present ours, those funds are already solidified.”
“We are questioning whether or not we can continue to serve all the students in Tremont well enough in our own building,” True continued.
Jewett said, “I felt like we sort of had an agreement.”
“I did too,” said Buck.
Jewett asked what the school had received in return for the $83,000 that it has already spent with Harriman and asked if they had received any sketches or drawings.
The school has received multiple layouts and proposals from Harriman so far, True replied.
“They (the select board) haven’t seen any of those.” Jewett said. “We have been talking about this for a long time.”
Thurlow then spoke about the difference in experiences between what the school is experiencing with Harriman and what the public safety building committee is experiencing with Hedefine Engineering & Design, Inc as far as what each entity has received for product versus the money spent so far.
According to Thurlow, the town has just received its first bill for $5,800 from Hedefine and has already gotten a number of site plans and rough building designs.
It has spent $83,000 with Harriman and received a number of potential layouts and proposals.
After much discussion about different options for school renovations, where money for renovations should be in the school’s budget, and creating a more directed approach to the renovations project, two motions were made.
Buck made the first motion, “I move to request the town manager to include $5,034,430 as the Tremont school fund appropriation in the fiscal year 27 budget.”
The motion was seconded by member Eric Eaton and passed unanimously.
Buck then made a second motion to “set up a reserve account for building plan design (by whichever firm performs the work) to set aside $85,500 from the proposed school budget.”
Eaton again seconded and the motion passed unanimously.
RETURNED CHECK POLICY
Town Manager Jesse Dunbar told the select board that there has been an increase in returned checks being sent back to the town for different types of payments this year. Normally the town has one check a year returned but has already had six returned so far this year.
Dunbar explained that the town does not have a returned check policy to create a concrete process for which different types of payments by check are handled when the checks are returned.
The select board reviewed a proposed policy presented by Dunbar that was unanimously approved by the select board.
ANNUAL TOWN REPORT MEMORIAM
The select board unanimously approved the town’s staffs’ proposal to make the Annual Town Report memoriam for former Tremont Code Enforcement Officer John Larson who died December 3, 2025.
Member Howdy Goodwin had an excused absence from the February 2 meeting.
The next meeting of the Tremont Select Board is scheduled for February 17, 2026, at 5 p.m., in the Harvey Kelley Meeting Room at the town office.
All photos: Shaun Farrar/BHS
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