Bar Harbor School Board Continues to Hope YMCA Will Reestablish After-School Route
BAR HARBOR—The Bar Harbor School Board on Monday afternoon expressed again 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.
The YMCA sits on town-owned land on Park Street and has had a memorandum of understanding or contract with the town for many years. The town also supports the YMCA financially each year. A portion of the land is considered a brownfield.
The town council has allocated $180,000 for the YMCA in its budget. The YMCA had asked for $200,000, up from $150,000, a 33% increase. The warrant committee has recommended $165,000. That budget will be approved (or tweaked) by voters in June.
The bus to the YMCA from the Conners Emerson School was a staple for many years and its return has been a recurring hope at school board meetings.
School Superintendent Michael Zboray said he talked to the YMCA, which said they do not have a usable bus with a driver with a commercial license.
However, school board members said, they do have a small bus which does not require a special license and could bring students in two quick trips in the afternoon.
Staffing the bus might also be an issue, Zboray said.
“They are struggling with hiring,” Zboray said.
Zboray said he hopes still to meet with Bar Harbor Town Manager James Smith and the MDI YMCA’s CEO and Executive Director, Anne Tikkanen and potentially have conversations about the ability to share costs so that it isn’t solely on the school. He said he needs to have a better sense of what the town’s position is.
Tikkanen did not mention staffing, April 10, but did mention the current small bus as an issue.
“Some time ago, our community Y had a school bus and we managed to have non-CDL staff drive the bus to and from Conners-Emerson for pickup,” she said. “Today, we have a decommissioned small school bus in need of repair, and are about to rent a van just for the Y's summer day camp program (which can safely be driven by summer camp counselors). The needs of the community and services the Y can provide continue to evolve. We have a good working relationship with all of the schools on MDI. For example at this very moment, we have 30 grade-4 students participating in their twice a week phys. ed class.”
Historically, the Y provided a big bus and then two runs on the smaller bus.
Vice Chair Marie Yarborough said the small bus used to be the Sharks’ swim team bus. It was used for lots of things. Anyone free for the 20-minute loop that it takes to go back and forth to bring from the locations could bring 24 kids without a special license. She said the need often went down to just 12 students in the spring.
Yarborough would not like to see another incurment of school funds when the school has an arrangement with the Y, which has consistently received increased funding from the town.
“That’s how it was done for a really, really long time,” Yarborough said.
School board member Misha Mytar said that the programs (such as the ones at ArtWaves) that require transportation from the YMCA don’t start until 3:45, which she thought was scheduled that way so that the Y could use the bus for its primary purpose—to bring kids from the school to the YMCA.
“This was a long negotiated partnerships that we’ve had,” Yarborough said.
Zboray said he remembers the bus existing in 1998 when he came to the Bar Harbor schools and still in 2014 when he left.
In April 2024, the YMCA announced that it had applied again through Senator King and Collins’ offices for federal congressional-directed spending funding to help further its community service impact specifically to construct a new addition, the Community Youth Development Wing. That money is considered earmarks. Earmarks are portions of spending bills where Congressional members push funds for specific projects in their states.
The Y said that it has more than 1,820 individuals of all ages participating in Y programs.
Tikkanen said at the time, “Senator Collins’ and Senator King’s representatives have been very supportive of the important work of our community Y, and we are optimistic that the $982,773 of funding that we seek will be leveraged with existing MDI Y financial resources in order to better help the families, children, and seniors living and working on Mount Desert Island.”
OTHER SCHOOL NEWS
March tends to be a tough month for staff members and students, but the school had pranks that went on including tin foiling the vice principal’s half of the office.
“It was great,” Dr. Heather Weir Webster said of the April 1 pranks. One included an email that said the decal for the gym, which features the Conners Emerson School (CES) Tigers, the school mascot, was unable to be done in time for the new school and that they’d have to pick a brand-new mascot.
“We got some real funny ones,” Dr. Weir Webster said.
One of those? The CES-cargots.
When people caught on it became even funnier, she said.
Pranksters also tin-foiled half of the administrators’ office: Vice Principal Michael Fournier’s half.
In other school news, Ms. Roths took 4 students to Girls Day at the State House and sixth graders visited the Abbe Museum as part of their Wabanki studies unit.
There is a family STEAM night coming up next Thursday.
“It was very successful,” when they had it last year, Dr. Webster said. It’s more life science and nature based this year. Last year it was more engineering focused. “It’s going to be a great night.”
Bar Harbor is the fiscal agent for Title I and Title IIA Funds each year. They are used by all the schools every year in the AOS.
It’s about $170,000 for all the schools. Even if those moneys didn’t come from the federal government this year, Zboray said that he’s guessing that each school would find that money to cover needs.
NEW TEACHER
The school board appointed Sheila Irvine for special education teacher for 2025-2026 school year.
“ I feel that the BH school system is very lucky to be receiving a very experienced special educator.” Zboray said.
Irvine was the director of special services for Union 93 for a number of years and wants to come back to the classroom, Zboray said. Five people were interviewed for the position.
“Sheila is absolutely lovely. I can’t wait to work with her,” Dr. Webster said. “I’m thrilled. I’m absolutely thrilled to get her started.”
The board appointed Dr. Natasha Neal, M.P.H., D.O., as its school health advisor.
EXTRACURRICULAR UPDATES
The Conners Emerson Show Choir scored a gold rating at the state competition with two individual awards given.
The jazz band received a Bronze rating at the state competition with one individual award given for musicianship.
The Math Counts team scored third in the state and had one student score second in the state individually. She will be heading to the national competition in Washington, DC.
The Science Olympiad team has its state competition in the next few weeks with their goal of qualifying for the national competition in Oklahoma.
“They are working so hard,” Dr. Webster said.
PTSA EVENTS
“The PTSA is on fire lately,” Dr. Webster said.
The PTSA is hosting a movie night this Friday in the cafeteria. A family night will be in May.
There are 20 families signed up, Mr. Fournier said, to showcase their traditions and culture. There are 13 different languages spoken in the hallways.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
UPCOMING EVENTS
PTSA Family Movie Night 4/11 from 6-8 p.m.
STEAM Night at CES on 4/17 from 5-7 p.m. with an eight-grade spaghetti dinner fundraiser
Early release day 4/18 @ 12:30 p.m.
No School- April Vacation 4/21-4/25
Family Festival Night on 5/1
Community/ Parent/ Teacher Workshops:
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