Efficiency Maine Grant Still Up In The Air for Bar Harbor School
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Window Panes Home and Garden.
BAR HARBOR—A potential Efficiency Maine Grant that could have brought up to $300,000 to the new Conners Emerson School has encountered some issues, Conners Emerson School Board members learned from Superintendent Mike Zboray Monday.
“As of now, we’re not getting the Efficiency Maine money….We didn’t meet the criteria based on whatever calculations they do for use of energy, particularly electricity,” Zboray said.
However, Kate Rankin, of Efficiency Maine said Wednesday morning that the school’s application has not been denied.
“It is still being evaluated because the initial design was not cost-effective, which is a necessary requirement to receive funding from us,” Rankin said, referring to the system and application. “My understanding is the project team is still working on alternatives.”
Zboray said the building team will be reaching out to Efficiency Maine again and that he’ll also be contacting Senator Angus King’s office with Scott Watson this week as a follow-up toward trying to find some federal funds.
School Board member Misha Mytar asked if there was a timeline to resubmit for the Efficiency Maine funds.
“The biggest issue,” Zboray said, is that the school is supposed to have the money in hand prior to purchasing the equipment involved. The company doing the install wants to make those purchases before the beginning of the year. “It could have been up to $300,000 potentially.”
“The Efficiency Maine Trust (Efficiency Maine) is the independent, quasi-state agency established to plan and implement energy efficiency programs in Maine,” according to its website.
It has specific programs geared toward schools including decarbonization programs and funding opportunities for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, lighting, water heating, and refrigeration.
Schools are targeted for programs because, according to the Alliance to Save Energy, “school buildings are the third largest commercial building energy users, and nearly 30% of that energy is used inefficiently.”
In better news, Harriman has hired Scott Johnson as clerk of the works for the project to build a new school to replace the current aging Conners and Emerson buildings that house the town’s K-8 students.
“Every day looks different,” on campus, Dr. Heather Weir Webster, Conners Emerson Schools Principal said. “Today was the first day that we heard the dump trucks back. The blasting is probably the most exciting thing that happens all day.”
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.
To help keep morale up while the construction is taking place the school has had multiple spirit days and events.
“A fun one was a staff “undercover” spirit day where staff dressed all in black (shadows) to see if the kids would notice. Third grade was on it,” Dr. Webster wrote in her principal’s report.
They are also doing a monthly raffle for teachers that carpool or take the bus to school.
What Else is Happening at CES:
Dave Tomlinson has accepted the position of custodian and will be starting mid-December. He has worked both at the Conners-Emerson School and Trenton School before.
The school also participated in the turkey basket program, Weir Webster said. “The reaction from the boxes. People actually look at the boxes before they look at the food inside.”
Those boxes brought Thanksgiving to 189 families that signed up for a Thanksgiving basket. The volunteer program, centered at the Bar Harbor Congregational Church, is believed to be in its 27th year.
“It’s such a huge community effort!” said Cristy Benson, one of the organizers. “We received tons of food. Anything that we didn't pack into baskets was donated to the Bar Harbor Food Pantry.”
At the Conners Emerson School, groups of multiple ages worked together and built relationships while decorating the baskets.
The Leadership Team is planning an “All About Us” festival in May.
“We hope to celebrate the histories and heritages of our entire student body in May,” Dr. Webster wrote. She said there are 12 different languages spoken in the schools’ hallways.
Teachers are meeting monthly with each of the multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) interventionists to go over student data and progress.
According to Reflex, “MTSS is an educational framework designed to support all students academically, behaviorally, and socially-emotionally through data-driven decision-making. As the name implies, this tiered framework helps teachers and administrators address and identify students’ varied needs to provide proactive, systematic support.”
“Our K-4 Interventionists have been building clear protocols and procedures to help staff identify and determine which students in K-2 that might benefit from a ‘second year,’” Webster wrote.
When it’s determined that a second year is a good idea for a student, they’ve been working on how to make sure that second year isn’t just a duplication of the last year.
WINTER CONCERT AT THE HIGH SCHOOL
The winter concert will be held at MDIHS in their auditorium on December 19. The Conners Emerson School staff had been worried about the lack of parking due to the construction, but the high school offered its space.
“It is going to be fantastic,” Dr. Webster said. “It’ll be a logistical . . . adventure.” But she’s looking forward to it.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
A group of teachers attended a conference on brain research, social and emotional learning, and resiliency in Cambridge last weekend.
“They will be sharing what they learned with peers in the next two months and what strategies we can successfully implement,” Dr. Webster said.
PTSA:
In January, the PTSA is looking to host a fundraising event for the “CES Cares” that will involve games, prizes, and a raffle. The program helps to make sure that Conners Emerson School families who might need extra help for the holidays in order to have a memorable holiday receive that help.
“We have some families in our Conners Emerson School community who struggle during the winter months,” it reads in the school’s Tiger Talk. “In 2018 the PTSA introduced CES CARES, a program that distributes gift cards to help support CES families in need at this time of year. The holidays are a perfect time to spread goodwill, so if you are able, please consider making a donation to lend a helping hand to members of our CES family. 100% OF YOUR DONATION will go towards purchasing gift cards to be distributed to families who could use some extra support around the holidays.”
Donations can be brought to the school in an envelope marked “CES CARES” with a student, drop off at the main office, or people can mail donations to:
Conners Emerson School
Attn: PTSA
11 Eagle Lake Road
Bar Harbor, ME 04609
Checks can be made out to “CES PTSA” with “CES CARES” in the memo.
BUDGET
The school board continued to discuss the draft proposed budget. The capital improvement portion for the proposed school budget is still a bit in flux. Special education budget lines may need adjustment from the initial draft because of potential out-of-district placements, Dr. Webster said.
The preliminary budget presented in November looked for a town appropriation of $394,668 for a total of $8,000,141, a 5.19% increase more than the 2024-2025 $7,605,474 total.
Mount Desert Island Regional School System budget’s mid November proposal calls for a 24% increase from each member school, to cover the $594,000 over the previous year’s budget. That increases the Conners Emerson budget by approximately $48,000.
A Child Developmental Services (CDS) need for pre-school children with disabilities is part of that increase. A staff member needs to be in place to meet those children’s needs until those children become school age.
The need is due to state legislation which overhauled CDS, which is Maine’s state-run agency that provides early services such as physical therapy and speech therapy for children with disabilities. That service is from birth to kindergarten.
Schools are responsible for those services.
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Acadia Brochures of Maine.
If you’d like to donate to help support us, you can, but no pressure! Just click here (about how you can give) or here (a direct link), which is the same as the button below.
If you’d like to sponsor the Bar Harbor Story, you can! Learn more here.
Why not use some of the unused Solar Bond Funds.