The Town Council unanimously recommended rejecting a plan to create a single regional school unit, setting up a region-wide November vote.

Carrie Jones

Sep 02, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Bar Harbor Historical Society.

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BAR HARBOR—The Bar Harbor Town Council members unanimously voted against recommending the school reorganization plan to voters, September 1.

That means when Bar Harbor voters head to the polls, November 3, they’ll see three sets of recommendations about the plan to reorganize the Mount Desert Island region’s schools into a different sort of system.

Those recommendations will be from Bar Harbor’s Town Council, Warrant Committee, and School Committee.

Voters in each town in the region (not just Bar Harbor) will have a say on whether or not they want their town to be a part of the proposed organization. If voters in one of the following towns—Bar Harbor, Tremont, Mount Desert, or Southwest Harbor reject the plan—it can not go forward. All those votes will occur on the same November date.

The plan to reorganize how the island’s schools are administered was developed through a multi-year process by the School Reorganization Committee, which is comprised of school board members and other representatives from island towns.

The vote on the plan has been postponed twice as the plan was tweaked and changed and explained to voters and officials in public meetings.

The state-approved plan would take each individual school district in each town, dissolve it, and unify them into one single regional school unit called an RSU.

Proponents of the plan say that it will help put all students from all towns on a more even playing field before heading to the unified high school and cut administrative redundancies.

The Bar Harbor Town Council’s negative recommendation follows the town’s Warrant Committee, August 24, resounding 12-1 vote to recommend the same rejection to town voters.

The Warrant Committee vote followed a Bar Harbor School Committee vote earlier this August where that split board voted 3-2 to recommend the reorganization.

There was little detailed discussion during the Town Council’s quick vote. Superintendent Michael Zboray had previously presented to the Council about the plan. He was not in attendance, September 1, during the vote.

“In many ways I like the reorganization,” Councilor Randell Sprague said, but he didn’t feel like it was a prudent time for it to happen.

Vice Chair Earl Brechlin agreed, but said, “I don’t think this is the plan to do it in.”

“I don’t think the public sees a driving need to do this at this time,” Brechlin said.

Brechlin encouraged continuing to have conversations around the plan.

Chair Maya Caines said that despite listening to several presentations about the plan, she still had questions and wanted more clarity.

“I’m not just thinking about Bar Harbor with this recommendation,” Caines said, but also how it might impact the other towns in the region.

She wanted to acknowledge the work and effort the committee put into the plan.

The plan creates a unified governing structure, is meant to allow more movement of staff between schools, less redundancies, and more equity of student services. It also shares debt and reserves from each town to the system as a whole, transfers town buildings and land away from individual towns to the school district, and changes the budget process each town takes for school budgets.

If approved, the high school board would dissolve and it would be part of the RSU.

But there would also be local school advisory councils—separate from the governing board—that provide input on the hiring process for school administration hires.

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WAY TO DISCUSS THE PLAN MORE

There will be a conversation about the plan whether or not to change from AOS 91 to a regional school unit (RSU) at the Jesup Memorial Library, Wednesday, September 16, at 5:30 p.m. All can attend.

It will not be available on Zoom.

Childcare with pizza will be provided.

If you would like to utilize the onsite childcare, please register online at www.jesuplibrary.org/events.

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

AOS 91 Reorganization Website.

Slide deck by the AOS about the plan.

Warrant Committee page.

The link to the Warrant Committee discussion on YouTube.

The link to Bar Harbor Council’s meeting on Town Hall Streams.

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