The town joined other Mount Desert Island communities in sending the proposal to voters after a discussion about debt, property, and representation.
Aug 14, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Maine Seacoast Mission.
SOUTHWEST—Earlier this week, Southwest Harbor joined Bar Harbor and Mount Desert in ordering that the school reorganization article be placed on the November 3 ballot.
The plan—if approved by voters—would reorganize the property, administration, governance, debt, and reserves of the various schools in the Mount Desert Island region.
The board voted 4-1 to put the article to the voters during its August 11 meeting, though Chair Dan Norwood voted against it and others mentioned that they felt they had no choice but to put it before the voters despite their own questions about the plan.
There will be public hearings in the town prior to the November decision by voters. The Select Board intends to invite School Superintendent Michael Zboray back to answer questions.
After two postponements, the plan to reorganize how the island’s schools are administered will likely be voted on by all Mount Desert Island region towns in November. Proponents of the plan say that it will help put all MDI region students on a level playing field as they head into the regional high school and cut administrative redundancies.
The plan takes each individual school district in each town, dissolves it, and unifies them into one single regional school unit called an RSU.
If voters approve the plan in November, the RSU would manage all the public schools for the towns involved. Depending on the votes, those towns might be: Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, Cranberry Isles, Frenchboro, Southwest Harbor, Swan’s Island, Tremont, and Trenton.
Superintendent Zboray appeared before the Southwest Harbor Select Board, Tuesday, and fielded questions, which focused on some board members’ worries about Bar Harbor and Mount Desert’s debts (for a new school and repairs to a school, respectively) being absorbed by all towns; the governance structure and why Southwest Harbor would have two seats on it as opposed to Bar Harbor and Mount Desert’s three seats; how members to that board assigned to each town would be voted to their seats by all towns; lack of a middle school in the current plan; and cost of Coast Guard students being borne by Southwest Harbor.
Existing and future operational and capital debt would no longer belong to individual towns.
Instead, those costs would be absorbed by the new regional district and shared among participating communities using the same funding formula now used for Mount Desert Island High School.
OWNERSHIP OF PARCELS AND BUILDINGS
One of the questions posed by Select Board Vice Chair Natasha Johnson focused on the scope of the property transfer from the town to the district if the reorganization passes.
One of the finer points about the potential plan is that each school would no longer belong to its town, but to the RSU as a whole. This includes the land that the school is on, not just the building, Zboray has previously confirmed.
”My question to you is, in regards to that, because if you then start expanding that to the parcels that they could potentially be on or surrounding and being used, it’s vastly different within each town,” Johnson said. “I went on and started looking at all the different tax maps and assessment information for all of the different towns.”
Each town, she said, “has a varying number of parcels that the schools use in each one of those municipalities, whether it’s their school fields or a pool or a parking lot or something to that effect.”
She wondered how that would work both practically and if there was disparity in what each town was giving to the system when it came to assessed valuation of the properties.
“Because if you take title to all those parcels, it’s very different than if you take title to the buildings themselves and not the surrounding parcels. So in the town of Southwest Harbor, you may or may not know, in 2001 and prior, we have had a lease with Harbor House, for example. So you might assume that the primary playground is on school property. It’s actually not. It’s on a separate parcel,” she said.
“I have not looked at that directly when, you know, when you look at the law, it says assumes the school buildings,” Zboray answered.
“Right. Which is why I’m asking,” Johnson said.
In a July 15 email to Zboray, the Bar Harbor Story had asked, “If the reorganization passes, would the parcels that school buildings are on convey to the RSU or would it just be the buildings?”
“The RSU assumes the rights to the buildings and property. Which can only be used for school purposes,” Zboray responded.
The Bar Harbor Story then sent another email clarifying that “property” means “land.”
“Yes, land and buildings,” Zboray responded.
At the August Southwest Harbor Select Board meeting, Johnson asked why the island-wide district would have to own the land.
“Because you need to own it so you can care for it, basically,” Zboray said adding that he doesn’t believe the state law allows for it to just be leased from the towns to the school district.
THE COST
The plan estimates the changes for home owners in each town per $100k of their property value. If all the debt payment for Mount Desert and Bar Harbor is absorbed, the average home owner’s change in cost would be $101.75 in Bar Harbor for every $100k of their property value.
It’s estimated that even with paying Bar Harbor and Mount Desert’s debt service for a new school building (Bar Harbor) and repairs to an existing one (Mount Desert) some towns (such as Southwest Harbor, Tremont, Trenton, and Swan’s Island) would have decreased costs next year.
That number is an estimate and it does not include what might happen if Tremont, Southwest Harbor or Trenton schools—all which need varying repairs to their buildings—would occur after that first year.
BRADLEY ALLEN HIRED AS DEPUTY TOWN CLERK
Bradley Allen was appointed as the deputy registrar of voters and deputy town clerk.
HARBOR COMMITTEE FEES
The Select Board approved the Harbor Committee’s recommendation to create an annual Commercial Fisherman-Limited Use Permit, for a maximum usage of ten times on the pier, at $40 for residents and $80 for non-residents.
The board also approved a late fee for delinquent annual mooring payments. Under this new policy, the town’s harbormaster would notify a mooring holder who is 30 days late on their annual mooring payment that there will be actions by the town for not paying the fee on time.
According to the manager’s notes for the meeting, “For any who are 60 days late, the mooring holder would be required to pay a $50 fine by notice of the harbormaster. 90 days late would result in suspension of access to harbor and facilities by the harbormaster.”
GRANTS
The town received two grants, which were accepted by the Select Board, which is part of the town’s grant process.
Southwest Harbor received a $79,200 Maine’s Community Action Grant though the Maine Office of Community Affairs. The state receives the funds from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Town Manager Karen Reddersen and the Hancock County Planning Commission worked together to submit the grant, which, according to the manager’s notes, “includes marine engineering and related planning work for raising and repair of the existing Manset Pier, to mitigate past damage and prevent future damage to this asset and support working waterfront resilience.”
The grant funds all of the projects and includes $5,000 for the town’s costs to manage the grant.
The board had already approved the Housing Authority submitting for a grant for the sprinkler system in the Ridges Apartment Complex. The $500,000 grant from the State Department of Economic and Community Development was awarded and accepted.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Split Bar Harbor School Committee Votes to Recommend School Reorganization Plan.
Aug 4
Southwest Harbor packet of information
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