High School Athletes Garner Many Awards For Fall Sports
High school administration and board starts to get ramped up for budget season
BAR HARBOR—The Mount Desert Island High School Regular School Board met November 13, and while the agenda was slim, the accomplishments lauded were not. During the principal’s report, Principal Matt Haney spoke about all of the fall post-season athletic awards that students earned this year. While the football team just won its first state championship this past Saturday, there are many talented athletes attending MDI High School and here is a list of most of the team and individual award winners for fall season sports.
Golf
PVC All-Conference Golf First Team: Shep Brown and Caden Braun
PVC All-Academic: Caden Braun, Kasch Warner, Joey Wellman-Clouse, Jameson Weir, Bayley Baldridge, Evan Beals, Nolan Sawyer, and Owen Kelly
Soccer
JV Girls Soccer Denny Harmon Classic Runner-up
JV Boys Soccer Denny Harmon Classic Runner-up
PVC All-Conference Boys Soccer: Miles Burr (first team) and Corin Barker (second team)
PVC All-Academic Boys and Girls Soccer: Ason Munro, Riley Donahue, Sig Reinholdt, Miles Burr, Kaden Sweet, Daniel Freudig, Elle Yarborough, Aleksandra Hanley, and Sophia Murphy
Volleyball
JV Volleyball Hancock County Runner-up
PVC All-Conference Volleyball: Hailey Vogell (second team) and Lauren Davis and Sharyn Lipski (third team)
PVC All-Academic Volleyball: Molly Redgate, Denali Wagstaff, Sharyn Lipski, Kaya Watson, and Hailey Vogell
Cross Country
Girls JV XC PVC Champions
Boys XC PVC Champions
Boys XC Northern Maine Regional Champions
Girls XC PVC Champions
Girls XC Northern Maine Regional Champions
Boys XC Individual Northern Maine Champion: Liam McKernan
Girls XC Individual Northern Maine Champion: Amelia VanDongen
PVC All-Conference Boys XC: Lucian Avila-Gatz, Liam McKernan, and Patrick Saltysiak (first team) and Chris Cooper and Tryg Soares (second team) and James Goddard and Jay Haney (honorable mention)
XC Boys Runner of the Year: Liam McKernan
XC Boys Coach of the Year: Desiree Sirois
PVC All-Conference Girls XC: Seneca Haney, Sage Sartin, and Amelia VanDongen (first team) and Hope Lemoine, Emma Simard, and Fiona St. Germain (second team)
XC Girls Runner of the Year: Amelia VanDongen
PVC All-Academic Boys and Girls XC: Jay Haney, Feleke Lynch, Liam McKernan, and Emma Simard
Girls New England Qualifier: Amelia VanDongen placed 33rd overall
Football
Northern Maine Regional 8-man Large Division Football Champions
8-man Large Division State Football Champions
Campbell Conference Football All-Conference: Spencer Laurendeau, quarterback (first team offense), Jacob Shields, defensive back and Aidan Jeffers, defensive tackle (first team defense), Joey Bennett, offensive tackle and Cal Hodgdon, tight end (second team offense), Spencer Laurendeau, defensive back and James Downey, defensive end (second team defense), and Nate Olson (honorable mention).
Campbell Conference Football All-Academics: Joey Wedge
PRELIMINARY BUDGET OUTLOOK
Haney presented a very preliminary budget summary which he called a quick little look at what they think the carryover is actually going to be as they build the new budget and a look at what they are anticipating for spending this year.
Haney said that their projected carryover was $741,582, but they believe it will be closer to $1,245,700 for an underestimation of $504,118. Haney also cautioned that the auditors are not done yet, so this amount may change. The major reasons for the carryover increase are below.
$126,000 Tuition – The high school received more tuition money than expected.
$58,000 State Subsidy – The high school received more state reimbursements than expected.
$250,000 All Salaries – Salaries were lower than expected, mostly due to two employees leaving and their positions not being filled.
$300,000 BC/BS – Blue Cross/Blue Shield is lower because of unfilled positions.
There were also a couple areas where spending was greater than anticipated.
$39,000 Bus Repairs
$24,000 Heating Oil
$82,000 Repair and Maintenance
In the budgeted amounts and anticipated expenditures section of the budget, there were two areas of note with the greatest increase of anticipated expenditures. The anticipated over expenditure for regular instruction teachers is $54,502. Haney said that a lot of this is due to them hiring highly educated teachers with a lot of prior experience that they have to pay higher salaries to.
The tuition for vocational education has an anticipated over expenditure of $30,000. Haney said that this is due to a huge increase in the popularity of the vocational programs being offered at the Hancock County Technical Center. Haney also said that they have no way to know how many students will opt for the vocational education track at the time that they are building the budget.
Overall, the total budget amount, $10,105,303 versus the anticipated expenditures, $10,113,289 is very close with an overage of $8,854.00. Haney said that there is no reason to believe that they won’t have a first draft of the upcoming budget at next month’s meeting.
SCHOOL BUS ROUTES
Haney said that he, Superintendent Mike Zboray, and Director of Operations Manager Eric Hann have been working on bus routes for high school students. “It’s always been pretty frustrating that you see a lot of buses drive by the same place less than half full and multiple routes covering the same thing,” said Haney.
Haney said that Hann did a really nice job working with all of the bus drivers from Cyr Bus Lines and all of the different towns that have their own buses to reorganize the bus routes, not for elementary students, but the bus routes for high school students so that there will be a lot of instances of drivers picking up students that are not in the town that they are from.
“For example,” Haney said, “There will be Tremont drivers picking up Southwest Harbor students cause it is right on their route to the high school. Likewise, there will be Southwest Harbor drivers picking up students in Somesville and Hall Quarry.”
These are simple examples that should cut down on the empty bus syndrome and should also get the students to school a little earlier. Currently some students are arriving at the last second before the start of their day. It should help use less fuel and less man hours, Haney said.
Haney said that after Thanksgiving, they will start testing these new routes and there will be notifications to parents and students that are affected by a change in bus time or bus route.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting of the MDI High School Regular School Board is scheduled for December 11. The time has not been decided but it is usually 5:00, and it usually takes place in the MDI High School library.