Major Changes Ahead? Regional Planning Committee Advances School Reorganization Plans
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Edward Jones Financial Advisor: Elise N. Frank.
AOS 91 REGION—The AOS 91 Regional Planning Committee (RPC) has been pressing forward and making consensus-based decisions on many important issues in a possible move towards reorganization of the AOS into an RSU. These decisions are only proposals that will be presented to the individual towns that make up AOS 91 and many are subject to change based upon resident feedback.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN AOS AND AN RSU
To understand the proposal to reorganize the schools, it’s important to start with the difference between an AOS (alternative organizational structure) and RSU (regional school unit).
AOS 91 is comprised of nine individual schools: eight individual town schools and MDI High School. In an AOS model, each town maintains control of its school and is responsible for an independent school board and the school’s budget.
The AOS governance structure is explained by the State of Maine as “a combination of two or more school administrative units joined together for the purpose of providing administrative and, sometimes, educational services. Administrative services provided by the AOS are system administration (a superintendent and the superintendent's office), special education administration, transportation administration and the business functions of accounting, reporting, payroll, financial management, purchases and audit.
“Each member entity maintains its own budget, has its own school board, and is operated in every way as a separate unit except for the administrative services and those educational services indicated in the AOS reorganization plan. Budget approval is by majority vote of those present and voting at district budget meetings. The member entities share the AOS costs based on a formula specified in the AOS reorganization plan.
“In addition, the AOS school committee is comprised of representatives from each of the member entity school boards and conducts the business of the AOS. All votes of the AOS school committee are cast in accordance with voting procedures specified in the AOS reorganization plan.”
If the reorganization is approved by town voters and moves forward, the district would become a regional school unit (RSU).
In an RSU model, the entire RSU is governed by one school committee and the RSU budget is shared amongst the member towns based on a predetermined formula. The RSU governance structure is explained by the State of Maine below.
“A regional school unit (RSU) is a combination of two or more municipalities that pool their educational resources to educate all students. One school committee (comprised of representatives from each of the municipalities) administers the education of grades K-12 through a superintendent of schools. Budget approval is by majority vote of those present and voting at a district budget meeting followed by approval at referendum. The member municipalities share the RSU costs based on a formula that may factor in state valuation and/or the number of pupils as specified in their voter-approved reorganization plan.”
PURPOSE OF REORGANIZATION
According to the MDIRSS website, the proposition of reorganization focuses around the following principles.
“To provide equitable access to the best educational programs and opportunities to all the students we serve, for example:
Stronger, better-coordinated curriculum experiences across schools.
More efficiently designed and delivered special education programming and services.
Greater access to extra & co-curricular activities.
More opportunities for students to form successful peer groups and be grouped for teaching in a manner that best meets their needs.
More efficient use of physical resources.
“To develop a system that would make excellence much more attainable and accessible to students no matter where in the district they live.
“Provide an opportunity for staff movement between schools without the loss of seniority and other earned benefits.
“Schools in which the administration can better focus its full attention on improving the quality of education rather than attending to a governance structure that is cumbersome, duplicative, and increasingly difficult to provide.”
TOWN POWER IN VOTING ON REORGANIZATION
The RPC reached a consensus to propose that while all eight towns in the AOS will vote on whether to support reorganization and join the RSU or not, five of those towns have the power to basically veto the proposal by voting against reorganization in the majority. Those five towns are;
Bar Harbor,
Mount Desert,
Southwest Harbor,
Tremont,
Trenton.
All five of the towns listed above must vote to support reorganization for it to pass and be enacted.
The remaining three towns—Cranberry Isles, Frenchboro, and Swan’s Island—will still vote on the matter and should the plan pass will be a part of the new RSU if the town voted in the majority to support reorganization. If reorganization passes but one or more of these three towns votes to not support reorganization, then that town, or towns, will have to figure out how to survive as a school unit on its own. There are many options for that independence.
DISPOSITION OF SCHOOL DEBT
The RPC had previously narrowed down the choices for disposition of debt. This is debt assumed by an individual town related to its school prior to the formation of the new RSU. Those two possibilities are:
The new RSU would assume “only a negotiated portion of the debt assumed before the formation of the RSU over a scheduled period of time” into the new RSU budget.
The new RSU would assume “all debt assumed before the formation of the RSU over a scheduled period of time into the new RSU budget.”
The RPC reached a consensus to propose an existing school debt plan that assumes all debt assumed before the formation of the RSU and incorporates a 10-year phased-in approach.
For example, in the first fiscal year of the RSU, if the plan is voted in, the RSU would take on 10% of Bar Harbor’s new school bond debt payment, both interest and principal. This debt assumption would continue to increase for the following nine years by 10% a year until 100% of the debt has been absorbed into the RSU budget.
Because of having to meet state timelines and having an administrative adjustment planning and a budgetary planning and approval period, School Superintendent Mike Zboray was not able to give an exact starting fiscal year for a proposed RSU budget before this story’s publication.
A new RSU budget would most likely start in FY2026/27 and that fiscal year is used as the starting point for the purposes of the amounts listed below. The table below shows the amount of Bar Harbor’s new school bond debt that the RSU would absorb, by year, during the first ten years. After year ten, the yearly amount would be the full debt amount which will have very little fluctuation from FY35/36 until being paid off in FY2054/55 (June 30, 2055).
There is also an associated $4,116,600 bond that was taken out to pay for planning and architectural planning of Bar Harbor’s new school build. Zboray has not been able to confirm if this additional debt would be absorbed under the same incremental plan as the main new school bond as of press time.
Should it be fully absorbed by the RSU budget, these payments decrease by approximately $6,000-7,000 per year. This bond will be paid off in FY2043/44 (October 15, 2043).
The share that each town pays for this bond absorption will be a percentage based number based upon the formula described in the next section.
Existing lease agreements for individual schools such as bus leases, portable classroom leases, etc. are also proposed to be absorbed into the RSU budget.
RSU FUNDING MODEL
The RPC reached a consensus to propose that funding for the RSU follow a model similar to the current high school funding model. In the first fiscal year of the RSU, the funding formula would be the same as it currently is for the high school and that model determines the amount, by percentage, that each of the four island towns pay using a formula based on pre-K-12 (currently ninth through twelfth grade for the high school) enrollment and the town’s state valuation.
The funding model for the RSU would be expanded from the high school model so that it includes all eight of the member towns (or however many towns are part of the RSU) should reorganization occur.
In the first fiscal year of the RSU, the formula would stay the same as it is currently for the high school. This formula is broken down into 33% student enrollment (pre-K-12) and 67% state valuation by town.
In the second fiscal year of the RSU, the formula would switch to what it is proposed to be for perpetuity after the first year. That formula is broken down into 20% student enrollment (pre-K-12) and 80% state valuation by town.
The formula above is called the similarly situated taxpayer model.
“The idea being that you want to get as close as possible to all of the taxpayers in each of the towns paying similarly to the cost of education for the entire school unit,” said Zboray.
Trying to avoid a situation where “somebody with a $400,000 house in Tremont is paying a thousand dollars more than somebody in Bar Harbor with a $400,000 house” is the goal. The 80/20 split gets you closer to the similarly situated taxpayer mark than the 70/30 split, according to Zboray.
Also, according to Zboray, “each school would build its budget locally, send its recommendations to the RSU board for consideration, and then it would be added to the RSU budget to be voted on at a school budget meeting and then by validation referendum.”
If reorganization occurs, there will no longer be a separate high school funding item for the four island towns because the RSU budget covers all schools in the RSU. However, the towns that currently have a choice in where to send their students for secondary school (high school), will retain that choice.
PRE-K THROUGH EIGHTH GRADE BUILDING USE FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS UNDER REORGANIZATION
The RPC reached a consensus to propose what they call “model 5B.” Under this model, all seventh and eighth grade classes would be consolidated and the students would attend Pemetic Elementary School in Southwest Harbor.
Under the plan, Pemetic students in grades pre-K through sixth grade would be sent to Mount Desert Elementary School.
The average pre-K through sixth-grade population for 2024 for Pemetic is 106 students and for Mount Desert Elementary that population is 127, which would bring the amount of Pre-K through sixth-grade students attending MDES to approximately 233 students.
The total number of students in the AOS, for 2024, in grades seven and eight that would be attending Pemetic is 194 students.
Zboray said, model 5B was proposed by the committee “recognizing that there is no appetite to have another building, a large building project for taxpayers to try to swallow, (the alternative) is to utilize an existing building. Can you find one of our school buildings that can serve the purpose of the importance of educating our middle school students in a different facility? Southwest Harbor was picked particularly because it is an in-town school.”
With the school being in town, the committee felt that there were many opportunities for “outside the walls” learning. In close proximity to Pemetic is the Southwest Harbor Library, MDI Community Sailing Club, Charlotte Rhoades Butterfly Park, Harbor House, and Wendell Gilley Museum. They reasoned that these establishments could lend themselves to walkable opportunities for important transition experiences for students preparing to enter high school and could also offer opportunities for internships, community service, and independent student agency building.
Additionally, Pemetic was formerly a high school and has the space available to accommodate expanded learning and programming opportunities.
For students that are pre-K-6 from Pemetic, there is also a possibility of school choice. Meaning, if parents or guardians work in Bar Harbor and it is easier for them to drop their student off at Conners Emerson, the student could go there or if they live closer to Tremont then to Mount Desert, then the student could go there. This is an example of something that could be proposed and decided upon by public input.
GOVERNING BODY UNDER REORGANIZATION
The RPC has proposed a regional governance model for the RSU that is a 15-member school board. The number of members from each town was chosen by the RPC based upon the town’s percentage of the district’s total population and the town’s state valuation.
Each board member position would be held by a person who is voted onto the board. While the member must have residency in the town they are representing, it is an “at large” voting model, meaning that the election of members will be decided by ballot vote and each member’s name will be on the ballot in every town that is a member of the RSU. The total amount of votes from every town in the RSU in favor of any candidate will be the deciding vote number.
This differs from the current method in which individual school board/committee members, who are required to be residents of the town they represent, are voted onto those boards/committees only by voters in the town that the school serves.
SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCILS
School advisory councils will be similar to existing school leadership teams. Zboray said that school advisory councils will be sort of an expanded leadership team.
The school advisory councils will consist of an RSU school board member who resides in the town that the school is in, a community member, teachers, and school administration for the particular school.
The role of the school advisory councils will be to help with planning and goal setting for their schools, looking at the budget for their schools, and providing local representation for each school. The school advisory councils are only advisory and the RSU school board member that is on each school advisory committee will act as the communication conduit between the committee and the RSU school board.
BUSING AND STAFF JOB RETENTION
The RPC and Zboray will be working with the AOS transportation coordinator to prepare a couple of busing and transportation models to present to towns once individual town presentations begin. They will be trying to show what it looks like in terms of time on the buses, timing for bus routes, and the possibility of shared buses where younger students are riding with older students.
As far as potential job loss for teachers under reorganization, Superintendent Mike Zboray said, “The goal of reorganization is not to relieve teachers of their duties but to create a better educational model for student learning and for teaching.”
Zboray said that the RSU will assimilate the current teachers into whatever the new model turns out to be and let normal attrition take place during the transition periods.
NOVEMBER BALLOT TARGET DATE
The current plan, according to Zboray, is to start making presentations to share all of the RPC’s proposals with individual towns in April and continue through the summer with the potential goal being a vote in November.
LINK TO LEARN MORE
Much of this information can be found on the AOS 91 website under the AOS reorganization tab.
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Wild ideas. Not helping to double down on what is not working. SWH k-12 again would return to the good old days where community was everything.