High School Public Budget Meeting Gives Voters a Chance To Have a Say
Not an "out of our hands" situation
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Side Street Cafe.
BAR HARBOR—Local school budgets make up a large portion of the town budgets for all four towns on Mount Desert Island. Every year, these budgets are proposed and then scrutinized by warrant committees and select boards/councils before being approved to be put on a town’s town meeting warrant.
Each of these local school budgets include parts of the overall AOS 91 budget and the MDI High School budget. Every year members of these municipal bodies say, “there is nothing we can do about it,” or “it’s, out of our hands” in regard to these two budget pieces, but registered voters can have an impact on these budgets.
As registered voters, residents have the annual opportunity to weigh in and to approve, or not approve, those school budgets at their town’s annual meeting. Similarly, both the high school budget and the AOS budget are approved at public town meeting style events.
The high school’s budget meeting where voters of four island towns can have that approval or rejection is on April 2 at 6 p.m. at MDI High School.
While not under the jurisdiction of any one town government, the high school board is made up of the five members of each of the four individual town school committees that are residents’ representatives in school matters, including the budget.
Only 10 of these school committee members, three from Bar Harbor, three from Mt. Desert, two from Southwest Harbor, and two from Tremont, can vote on issues for the high school board throughout the year. These elected school committee members are the towns’ representation in school-related matters but just like any other municipal official, they may make decisions that residents don’t agree with.
The high school board approving a budget does not ratify it. The high school budget must still go through a public meeting process where the public (registered voters of any of the four MDI towns) gets the opportunity to attend, ask questions, and vote on whether or not the budget gets final approval. This is the opportunity for registered voters of each of the towns to have a say in the high school budget and how it affects their property tax burden.
In the last few years, public participation outside of school board members and school administration and staff, has been incredibly low.
For example, at the AOS annual public budget approval meeting, which has no quorum requirement and which occurred on Wednesday, January 22, had a total of 26 voters and very few of them were not related to the school system by virtue of being a board member or employee.
One difference in this annual public budget meeting is that all of the towns that are a part of the AOS are allowed to participate rather than just the four Mount Desert Island towns for the high school’s annual public budget meeting. Another difference is that the high school’s annual public budget meeting does have a quorum requirement of 10 voters total and there must be at least one from each of the four island towns.
TOWN ASSESSMENTS
In terms of town assessments, Southwest Harbor has the largest increase for the proposed fiscal year 2025-26 MDI High School budget with a 15.89% increase.
The overall proposed FY25/26 budget is $16,172,865 which is a $1,682,709 increase over the FY24/25 budget of $14,490,156. The total proposed assessment to the towns for FY25/26 is $12,380,774 which is a $1,011,744 increase over the FY24/25 budget town assessment of $11,369,030.
Each town’s portion of the high school budget is based upon a formula that uses the town’s assessed value (according to the state) and the enrollment of students from each town. Based on 100%, the state assessment carries 67% of that weight and the student enrollment of each town carries 33% of that weight.
By town, the FY25/26 assessment percentages to be paid by each town and the change in percentage from FY24/25 are below.
Bar Harbor – 38.52% – ( -.15%)
Mount Desert – 34.71% – ( -.41%)
S.W. Harbor – 15.87% – ( .96%)
Tremont – 10.90% – ( -.40%)
The total projected FY25/26 assessments, assessment increase from FY24/25, and the percentage of the assessment increase from FY24/25 to each town are below. Southwest Harbor had a revaluation in 2024 which increased its assessment percentage by a greater amount than the other three towns increased.
Bar Harbor – $4,769,337 – $373,171 – 8.49%
Mount Desert – $4,296,932 – $304,057 – 7.61%
S.W. Harbor – $1,964,656 – $269,378 – 15.89%
Tremont – $1,349,848 – $65,138 – 5.07%
By town, the additional taxpayer burden per $100,000 of property value for the proposed FY25/26 budget is below. Southwest Harbor had a revaluation in 2024 which increased its assessment, in dollars per $100,000 of assessed property value, by a greater amount than the other three towns increased.
Bar Harbor – $14.43
Mount Desert – $12.18
S.W. Harbor – $23.72
Tremont – $8.24
WARRANT ARTICLES AND INCREASES, IF ANY
By warrant article number the increases are as follows.
Article 2, “regular instruction” has a proposed increase of $344,922. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $5,348,840 to a proposed $5,693,762 for FY25/26.
Article 3, “special education” has a proposed increase of $413,633. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $2,354,196 to a proposed $2,767,829 for FY25/26.
Article 4, “career and technical education” has a proposed decrease of $25,000. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $75,000 down to a proposed $50,000 for FY25/26.
Article 5, “other instruction, co-curricular/summer school” has a proposed increase of $81,593. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $951,855 to a proposed $1,033,451 for FY25/26.
Article 6, “student and staff support” has a proposed increase of $202,122. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $1,771,924 to a proposed $1,974,046 for FY25/26.
Article 7, “system administration” (MDIHS share of AOS expenses) has a proposed increase of $98,177. This brings the FY 24/25 budget of $232,869 to a proposed $331,046 for FY25/26.
Article 8, “school administration” has a proposed increase of $121,067. This brings the FY 24/25 budget of $745,377 to a proposed $866,444 for FY25/26.
Article 9, “transportation and buses” has a proposed increase of $298,623. This brings the FY 24/25 budget of $350,104 to a proposed $648,727 for FY25/26.
Article 10, “facilities maintenance-operations and maintenance of the plant/capital outlay” has a proposed increase of $187,613. This brings the FY 24/25 budget of $2,319,947 to a proposed $2,507,560 for FY25/26.
Article 12, “other expenditures, food service” has no proposed increase. This keeps the proposed FY25/26 budget of $150,000 the same as the FY24/25 budget of $150,000.
Of the total $1,682,709 proposed increase, $1,215,752 of that comes from just four budget factors.
Salaries account for $650,700 of the proposed increase.
Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance coverage increases account for $120,313 of the proposed increase.
AOS 91 assessment to the high school accounts for $146,116 of the proposed increase.
Transportation accounts for $298,623 of the proposed increase.
The annual public budget meeting for the high school budget is scheduled for Wednesday, April 2, from 6 - 7 p.m. and will either be in the high school library or the theater.
Disclosure: Shaun Farrar is an elected member of Bar Harbor’s warrant committee.
All photos: Shaun Farrar/Bar Harbor Story
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