The board also reviewed a new school safety program, staffing changes, and building-related preparations.
Aug 11, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Bar Harbor Bicycle Shop.
BAR HARBOR—The new school year is getting closer, but one question that has been officially hanging over Bar Harbor schools for nearly a year still does not have an answer: Who will get younger students from school to the YMCA after the final bell?
The Bar Harbor School Board returned to that question during its August meeting, even as members recommended that voters approve a regional school reorganization plan, discussed new safety protocols for the school, reviewed staffing changes.
That’s because the board is waiting for the town and MDI YMCA to finish a memorandum of understanding (MOU) governing the nonprofit’s relationship with the town.
The transportation question is part of a larger relationship—defined by the MOU—between the town and the YMCA, which operates on town-owned land and receives municipal funding through a newly designed community-service partnership system.
It has traditionally received money each year from the town. It’s just the system that is different.
The YMCA received $180,000 from Bar Harbor for this fiscal year, but its small afterschool bus has not been used to transport students for years, leaving the school to piece together transportation through the regular school bus schedule.
With school about to begin, board members said they still had not received an update on whether the service would return. Meanwhile, the town is negotiating an MOU that will eventually go directly to the Town Council for approval.
Under the process, the contract (MOU or memorandum of understanding) between the town and the nonprofit Y, which sits on town-owned land and is currently planning an expansion, is meant to be updated by the town manager and approved by the Town Council. This is because each year, the town allocates funds to support the YMCA’s operations.
It’s part of a restructured funding process approved by the Bar Harbor Town Council in October 2025.
The simplest way to think about it, Town Manager James Smith had said at the time, is that those three agencies deliver services that are often delivered by towns or cities.
Bar Harbor residents can use the YMCA, Jesup Memorial Library, and Island Explorer, which are private entities. The library is free. Island Explorer is free. The YMCA has a sliding scale for its use and some free programming.
Smith said, August 10, via email that each MOU is still being worked through and each are at different stages.
“We think the more streamlined approach would be to enter into MOUs with those entities, set the expectations that the council and the community has for those services that substantiate and justify their level of funding,” Smith had said in October.
The requests and memorandums the town receives from these three organizations are now considered community service partnerships. They’d previously been considered cooperating agencies and the policy that governed that has been repealed.
Since at least 2025, the Bar Harbor School Board has expressed its wish that the YMCA could use its small bus to bring students back to the YMCA after school days, part of the service that it had provided the town for years, but has stopped.
“We’ve been trying to have the Y restore the services to drive the kids from here” to the afterschool program, School Board Chair Marie Yarborough said. “This has been on the agenda for a year.”
Will they have the bus this school year?
“We’re still asking that question,” Yarborough said during her comments at the school board.
Board members asked Conners Emerson principal Dr. Heather Weir Webster if she’d received any updates from the town about the MOU and situation with the short bus as the summer months tick closer to the beginning of the school year when transportation will again be needed to get students to the YMCA’s afterschool activities.
“I have not gotten anything,” Dr. Webster said.
The transportation gap created is being filled to some extent by the bus schedule of the school bus trying to accommodate kids, but it’s hard to do that, Vice Chair Misha Mytar said.
The concern is for the younger students who might have to walk. There have been typically 24-27 students who would use the bus on varying days throughout the school year. At times, the need goes down to 12, it was said at an April 2025 School Board meeting.
“We try to make up the difference as much as possible, but it’s not where it should be,” Dr. Webster has said.
Yarborough asked Superintendent Mike Zboray and Dr. Webster to email the town manager again.
“Sorry, but it’s been a year,” Yarborough said.
And it’s time to know, she added, if they are going to have services that were supplied for a decade and are no longer happening or will not happen again.
The school administrators intend to walk the route from the school to the YMCA with School Resource Officer Elias Burne and look at any potential safety issues before school starts.
SCHOOL SAFETY—I LOVE YOU GUYS
The school continues to look at using the “I Love You Guys” school safety program that school administrators, teachers, and the town’s Police Chief David Kerns have encountered at multiple conferences.
Dr Webster has met with Chief Kerns and Bar Harbor Fire Chief Matt Bartlett about the program.
“We’re super excited about this,” Dr. Webster said.
“It’s really pragmatic and thoughtful,” Vice Principal Mike Fournier agreed.
The goal is to make it easier for staff members, safety teams, students, and parents during crisis—or potential crisis—situations. As the students, staff, and faculty transition to its new school (under construction and scheduled to open in early November), it seemed a perfect time to think of how the school manages its safety protocols, Dr. Webster has said at past school board meetings.
According to its website, “The ‘I Love U Guys‘ Foundation’s programs for crisis response and post-crisis reunification are used in more than 78,000 schools, districts, departments, agencies, organizations, and communities around the world.”
They’ll have the summer, Dr. Webster said, to determine that security plan for the new school and figure out what it’s really “going to look like,” she explained.
“It’s the perfect time to help our staff with new procedures and protocols,” Dr. Webster said.
The program focuses on job specific actions rather than person specific actions.
“That’s a real change from how we’re looking at it now,” Dr. Webster said. “It’s just really a proactive approach rather than having a plan then putting it on the shelf and hoping you’ll never lose it.”
It also breaks down the current plans and communication a bit more.
“It’s turnkey,” Fournier agreed.
STAFFING NEWS
Sheila Irvine has sent a letter of retirement for October 31. Grace Witham will return as a sped ed tech 3 and the school has hired Ana-Maria Gott as a sped ed tech 3.
It is currently advertising for a reg ed tech that supports its K-4 Interventionists. There is also a regular special education teacher available. The school is hoping to interview all the ed techs to see if they want to apply for that teacher position.
Teacher Renee Quebbeman has moved back to grade 4.
Amanda Dyer, Mary Mackay, Leslyn Shea, Cheri Brown, Julie Fulton-Kelly, Susan Gieb, and Angie Bouchard all retired at the end of last school year.
SCHOOL CALENDARS
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