The Conners Emerson Schools will close for two weeks beginning Oct. 26 as staff move into the new building, with local nonprofits offering programs for families who need them.
Sep 21, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by ArtWaves.
BAR HARBOR—The new building in Bar Harbor that will replace the Conners Emerson Schools is on track to open this fall with move in dates at the end of October.
That move, bringing classrooms and offices, from two buildings into one is a lot of work that requires a lot of logistics and last year the school decided that the best way to do that would be to close school for two weeks, beginning October 26.
That left everyone with a question: Where would the 336 Bar Harbor students go during the closure as the teachers and staff were moving into the new building?
Some kids will go on a family vacation. Some will stay with a caregiver. But for a lot of families those weren’t options.
So, a lot of nonprofit organizations in the community stepped up and offered programs for students when they are off from school for those two weeks.
The Jesup Memorial Library and the MDI YMCA stepped up. Camp Beech Cliff stepped up. SFOA stepped up. ArtWaves is also offering art adventure camps during that time period.
Vice Principal Michael Fournier said last week that they’re pretty confident that every kid who wants to head to one of those community partners will be able to.
“I can’t say how incredible these partners have been,” he told the Bar Harbor School Committee, Tuesday. “They handled the registration. We’re going to help with the transportation.”
In June 2023, Bar Harbor voters passed a $58 million bond to rebuild the ailing schools and support the town’s K-8 population. Broken boilers, rain inundation, a wall pulling away from the foundation, poor air exchanges, limited classroom space, and a lack of insulation are just some of the buildings’ recent problems.
The bond passed 1,005 to 502. The project had a groundbreaking ceremony that included the students in November 2024.
During the closure, the school will be working with Cyr Bus Lines for transportation and providing lunches from school. All four Cyr drivers returned for this school year, Principal Dr. Heather Weir Webster said, explaining how grateful and excited they were about that especially when there tends to be driver shortages throughout the school system.
During the two weeks of moving, there will be two transportation hubs for student drop off and pick up.
Those community partners have worked hard to minimize costs. The Jesup and YMCA program is free. CBC is trying to make very low costs. SFOA has scholarship opportunities.
The closure has been a worry for school board members.
“I can’t think of what else could be done,” Vice Chair Misha Mytar said.
It will be a challenge, they agreed, but it’s the best case scenario and it only happened because of the staff coordination and the local nonprofits stepping up to help.
Those community partnerships and many other factors are part of the reasons Conners Emerson students test well, Dr. Webster said.
“We’re consistently above state average, which is fantastic,” Dr, Webster said.
There’s not a week that goes by, she said, where kids don’t go out to the community.
Another large part of the reason for the exceptional testing “is truly the staff members” and also Julie Keblinksy, director of teaching and learning grades, 7-12.
“We had such a positive vibe the first couple of days,” Dr. Webster said of the beginning of the school year, where there are 336 students enrolled. “We are so fortunate in our school that we just have content-focused teachers.”
As they head into the new building, part of the goal is giving the middle school students getting that experience in what will now be a multi-grade school. Making those students feel like valued members is about building agency in each student.
“Every student every day” is the motto, she said.
A temporary boiler was installed this week and rain has infiltrated the old buildings in multiple places.
While there will be an open house style opportunity for the larger community to visit the new building once it’s done, the official ribbon cutting won’t be until next year when the whole project is complete.
“I’m really looking forward to our school building to be a community building,” Dr. Webster said. “It will be great.“
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