School Reorganization Planning Committee Gets Started
High School Budget Proposes 7% increase, public meeting April 3
BAR HARBOR––The AOS 91 School Board met on Monday night, March 11, in the high school library and among other business, heard from School Superintendent Mike Zboray.
Zboray said that the Regional Planning Committee (RPC) is ready to begin its work. It had its first meeting Wednesday, March 13.
The RPC is a subcommittee of the AOS 91 School Board and their meetings are not open to the public, the administration said. However, the public is represented via the makeup of the committee which includes two members from each town in the AOS. One of those people will be from the AOS 91 School Board and one will be a community member or member of the town’s council/select board.
Why should the AOS reorganize? The AOS’s answer to that question is available at the AOS 91 website where there’s more information about the reorganization plan.
The statement reads, “AOS 91’s effort is to reorganize its current structure from a collection of individual schools into a coherent and more equitable model to better serve our students and educators. It makes sense to look at how we can provide the best education for everyone with our collective resources.”
It lists the AOS’s whys and why nows of reorganization. The why’s include:
“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.”
When it comes to the timing, the document lists four bullet points.
“The current organization creates separate and unequal budgets that lead to disparities in educational programming and opportunities and is redundant and costly to taxpayers.
“Downward population pressures have slowly created smaller and smaller schools, which in turn need to provide an ever-expanding range of services while at the same time experiencing chronic staffing shortages, which all create greater school-by-school challenges.
“We have reached the outer limits of our capacity for efficiency and effectiveness within our model.
“Addressing these issues proactively is optimal rather than waiting for a bigger crisis or legislative mandate.”
It also has bullet-pointed goals.
“Form one school system in which every child, no matter where they come from, has equitable access to opportunity and resources to thrive and grow to become positive, contributing members of our community.
“Create schools that can successfully respond to the changing demographics of our communities and the chronic staffing challenges that exist.
“Become a single employer to better support the needs of staff professionally, economically, and educationally.
“Create one budget that is shared equally so that no matter in which community you live, the value of your property means that you pay the same amount toward education.”
Finally, the AOS document says what its creators believe will happen if nothing is done.
“Changing demographics will put increasing pressure on our schools, with limited resources to address them.
“Student access to resources will be driven by the economic factors of the town in which they live rather than what they need to be successful.
“Staffing and programming constraints will significantly curtail student opportunities.
“Taxpayers will continue to pay unnecessarily for redundant and duplicative services.”
HOW MIGHT THE REORGANIZATION LOOK
Reorganizing requires the creation of a regional school unit (RSU). There have been several possible reconfigurations of the district put forth for consideration by the RPC. The numbers in parenthesis represent the projected student population based on current student populations.
Of course, after the RPC has done its work, nothing can move forward without voter approval. The finalized plan will eventually need to be approved by voters from all of AOS 91 member towns; Bar Harbor, Mt. Desert, Southwest Harbor, Tremont, Trenton, Cranberry Isles, Frenchboro, and Swan's Island.
OTHER INFORMATION FROM ZBORAY’S REPORT
Zboray said that he will be creating a report template for the superintendent’s report that will be attached to the AOS 91 School Board agendas and meeting minutes so that the public can more easily access the information in the report.
Zboray also said that this new reporting style will also include job openings, of which there are currently quite a few throughout the district. The current job openings include teacher and educational technician positions, a school nurse, bus drivers, and more. Those employment opportunities can be found at any time on the AOS 91 website.
Some other quick facts from the report;
Enrollment has increased by eight students throughout the school district,
Philippa Adam, a new art teacher at MDI High School received a Maine Art Education Association award in recognition of being a new art teacher,
According to Zboray, all of the electric buses have been inspected and have the green light to be functioning on the road,
According to the new Center for Disease Control guidelines, staff and students may return to school after an illness and having been symptom or fever free for 24 hrs. without the use of medications.
MDI HIGH SCHOOL REGULAR SCHOOL BOARD
The MDI High School Board also met on March 11, prior to the AOS 91 School Board, with a short agenda that included a principal’s report, a NEASC report, and one action item. That action item was the signing of the warrant for the annual budget meeting.
At the end of the meeting, the warrant for the annual budget meeting for the high school’s budget was passed around to be signed by board members. That annual budget meeting will take place on April 3, at 6 p.m. in the high school theater.
The budget as presented marks a 7.1% ($960,973) increase over last year with the overall budget increasing from $13,529,183 to $14,490,156. The assessment to towns’ portion of the budget climbed from $10,540,101 to $11,369,030 for an increase of 7.86% or $828,929.
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.
Below is the breakdown of the towns’ high school budget based upon the formula for the towns.
This budget effects taxpayers from all four of the island towns and registered voters from these four towns are able to participate in the approval, or non-approval, of the budget. All they have to do is show up at the annual budget meeting and vote. This is the voter’s chance to accept or reject the affects that the high school budget will have on their town’s budget. Historically, according to High School Principal Matt Haney and Zboray, with few exceptions, these annual budget meetings are attended only by school board members.
PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES
During the principal’s report, it was mentioned that parent-teacher conferences had taken place during the previous week. 200 of those meetings were in person and 261 of those meetings took place virtually.
Bar Harbor School Board Vice Chair Marie Yarborough commented that she thought that the emails that were sent out notifying parents of the parent-teacher conferences were a little misleading and that she felt that when, how, and where a parent can meet with a teacher should be more fully explained in coming years.
Updated: This article has been updated to show the most recent reorganization models.
Disclosure: Shaun Farrar is on the Bar Harbor Warrant Committee, which makes recommendations to Council and voters about the budget.