A Joyous Conners Emerson School Breaks Ground
Students Clean Litter, Plant Trees, And School Budget Process Begins
BAR HARBOR—The official groundbreaking of the new Conners Emerson School occurred Friday morning.
Golden shovels, cheers, and a close knit school community gathered for the small ceremony that had to be kept small due to a lack of parking at the site.
Site work has been ongoing for a month.
“This is your construction ambassador,” Dr. Heather Weir Webster, principal of the school said as she introduced Royce Rechholtz to representatives of Wright-Ryan Construction before the ceremony.
Rechholtz wore a yellow hard hat and vest and hung out with the workers as students and staff walked out to the sidewalks where they sat and watched fellow students (one from each grade) take a golden shovel and pitch some dirt to massive applause coming from their classmates.
Before the ceremony, the students chanted, “Harriman. Harriman,” the firm that designed the school.
“It’s kind of an exciting day,” Dr. Webster told the students. “We’ll be embarking on an incredible journey of transformation.”
Already, the students have witnessed the area change every day.
“The construction will take time,” she said, “but it’ll be totally worth it.”
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.
According to the project’s website, “The cost of building a new structure is projected to be 2.49% more than renovation.”
Dr. Webster told the seventh and eighth graders who will be at the school during its construction, but not completion, “This school will always be your school.”
To the rest of the students, she said, “This new school is going to be your home.”
Dr. Webster thanked former Principal Barbara Neilly who began the process of trying to secure a new school for the Bar Harbor students during her approximately thirty-years at the school. Neilly retired in 2021. Dr. Webster also thanked the students, staff, parents, workers, and community for their patience, flexibility, and care.
And of the new school?
She told the cheering crowd of almost four hundred, “It will truly be great.”
STUDENTS DOING GOOD
Last week, some Conners Emerson students and teachers made tangible efforts to make their community better.
On November 1, a group of students—fifth graders—went down Ledgelawn Avenue, which had hosted more than 1,300 trick-or-treaters the night before. They weren’t there to scoop up any remaining candy. They were there to scoop up litter.
“They wanted to say thank you to Ledgelawn for always putting on such a great community building night,” said Principal Dr. Heather Weir Webster.
Two days before that, three seventh graders—Blue Snyder, Lina Bodge, Lucie Pike— headed over to the ball field, walking from the school down to the field with their teacher. One parent waited for them along with a town manager, town council chair, head of the town’s public works, and two public work staff.
They weren’t in trouble. They were there to plant trees.
“The timing of our trees coming down at school as we are planning to plant trees is serendipitous!” said Conners Emerson teacher Elizabeth Gilman. The Conners Emerson property, where school is still being held in two aging buildings, has been preparing for the building of a new school. That preparation required pulling down some established and beloved trees on the site.
That’s not what inspired these students, though.
Last year, Gilman’s sixth graders participated in book clubs with groups reading different titles about environmental studies.
“One group read Drawn to Change the World: 16 Youth Climate Activists, 16 Artists by Emma Reynolds,” Gilman said. “Inspired by one of the young activists in the book, Leah Namugerwa from Uganda, they wanted to take action by planting trees.”
The students didn’t just talk about making positive change in the community; they took action, step by step. They organized a bake sale and raised $187 to buy saplings last spring. But then they needed a place to plant the trees and permission to do so.
“This is pretty special,” one worker said as he got the girls the shovels.
“I can do this!” each of the girls shouted at least once as they tried to use all their scant weight to get the shovels into the soil, to break the soil so that they could create life—trees that would grow and make the air better, that would provide shade, that would be beautiful.
“They’re so light,” someone whispered.
“But look at them go,” said the town council chair. “They’re doing it.”
“People are going to love these trees,” Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt said. “Look at those girls go.”
The girls would start the process. An auger would finish the hole. The girls would plant the trees, one after another.
THE BUDGET
Several members of the Warrant Committee’s subcomittee on education attended the school committee meeting on Monday as Dr. Webster presented the preliminary budget.
There are pieces of the budget still in flux, School Superintendent Zboray said. At the board’s next meeting, there will be an extensive over-sheet explaining the budget. The preliminary budget creates a 5.19% increase for town appropriations. They were looking at being close to 5. Last year it was $7,605,474. This year the proposed budget is $8,000,141, an increase of $394,667.
There is a mandated 7.58% increase in teacher contracts.
Dr. Webster explained the thoughts behind increases and decreases in each budget line item.
RSU VOTE
Zboray said he’s hoping for a summer referendum on an RSU vote about potentially consolidating the school district.
“Right now we’re talking about debt and what’s shared and what’s not shared,” Zboray said.
If it passes, the reorganization would consolidate the students, staff, and have one budget. It could potentially change what schools house different grades of students.
“It’ll be a single budget that will be approved,” Zboray said. “It’ll be one budget that everyone votes on at a time.”
ENROLLMENT
The current enrollment is at 347 students.
Staffing
Kurt Lockhart has given his retirement date of December 31. The position is being advertised, Dr. Webster said.
Parent-Teacher-Student Association
The PTSA raised over $28,000 through its fall raffle. This will fund student, teacher, and school projects.
The group also sponsored all students in grades 4-8 to attend a showing of Lost on a Mountain in Maine at the Criterion on Thursday.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Early release on November 8 at 12:30 p.m.
Eighth grade pie/bake sale in front of the Swan's building on Saturday, November 9.
Early release on November 22 at 12:30 p.m.
Spirit day on November 26 is pajama day.
Thanksgiving break—There is no school November 27-29.
All photos: Carrie Jones/Shaun Farrar/Bar Harbor Story
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
HOW TO DONATE TO THE SCHOOL
If you would like to support the school rebuild, you can write a check payable to the Town of Bar Harbor and mail it to Sarah Gilbert, Treasurer, 93 Cottage Street, Bar Harbor, ME 04609
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