School System Likely To Look At Potential Bussing Changes
Bar Harbor New School Construction On Track
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Bank.
BAR HARBOR—The island-wide school system, which also includes Trenton, will likely begin to study how students are bussed to school throughout the island and there is potential for changes, School Superintendent Mike Zboray told the Bar Harbor School Committee members at their January 6 meeting.
The MDI High School and AOS boards are evaluating the overall efficiency of the students getting to the high school. Zboray wanted the Conners Emerson School Committee to understand that the process is about exploring the possibility of making the bus routes throughout the MDI region more efficient.
That might mean a Tremont bus could potentially pick up kids on Indian Point Road or a Mount Desert bus could be picking up Bar Harbor kids if the bus was going through Otter Creek. It could also include high schoolers and kindergarten kids riding at the same time on the same bus.
The Mount Desert Elementary and Pemetic Schools have agreed to the exploration already. Conners Emerson board members seemed okay with the discussion, however, they wanted to put a hard no to any possibility of changing the start and end times for the elementary school’s schedule.
“When you’re adding high school kids to the run, what does it do to the length of the bus ride,” Principal Dr. Heather Weir Webster said was a question to consider. “How would this affect our Cyr bus contract?”
Bar Harbor has its own contract for drivers with Cyr Bus Lines, which is a family-owned business based in Old Town.
School board member Misha Mytar wondered if Bar Harbor’s situation is different from other towns because of its enrollment.
There could be a solution for other towns and its efficiency and bus passenger composition that is different than Bar Harbor’s.
“We’re the closest to the high school, we wouldn’t be as impacted as Tremont,” Dr. Webster said.
“Or Trenton,” Zboray agreed.
Mytar asked if there are other reasons that having busses that serve more than one town in the district has not worked in the past.
“Part of it was driver preference,” Zboary said. He added that it was a mindset that it was a town’s responsibility to do the bus routes rather than the AOS telling them what to do. There also had been worries about flexibility. Bus drivers, he said, need to be part of the process to clarify and understand potential routes and changes.
For any changes to occur, the routes would go through computer modeling, then there would be discussion with bus drivers, then proposals would come back to the boards to talk and think about. A plan with pros and cons and costs attached will be brought to each board.
”We look at every single run. We look at every single stop,” Dr. Webster said about the current situation in Bar Harbor at the beginning of each year, and she feels confident in the town’s Cyr drivers.
NEW BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
Concrete and foundation work for the new Conners-Emerson building is on schedule, Dr. Webster said.
“We hope the drilling and blasting are completed, but we may have a few more before this phase is over,” Dr. Webster wrote of the preparations for the site off Eagle Lake Road where the construction has been radically transforming the space while the two original buildings are still being used.
“You can see the foundations getting higher and higher,” Zboray said.
There are some good moments and stories that come through during the process.
Ms. Sweeney's fourth grade class decorated sugar cookies that a student’s relative had made and delivered them to the construction workers before leaving on winter break. According to the workers, they were both adorable and delicious.
The foreman thanked the school and class for the cookie kindness.
“I told them that I think they’ve been adopted by fourth grade,” Dr. Webster said.
ENROLLMENT NUMBERS AND STAFF SICKNESSES AND A RESIGNATION
There was some discussion about enrollment numbers, which have gone slightly down since the beginning of the school year to 342 from 348.
Two more students will be taken out of the school system once report cards are out in January. Some students have moved. One student whose family is traveling is registered as home school during that time. Another who has moved to another state for a few months will be enrolled there and then coming back.
“Attendance is ever changing and so is keeping track of it,” Dr. Webster said.
The school population is rather seasonal with shifts that reflect the shifts in Bar Harbor’s population.
“Once April hits and the season is kicking off, we do get an influx of people coming,” Dr. Webster said.
There had been some staff sickness in the beginning of December, but Dr. Webster said she feels like the school is in a better place than they were before because it is currently fully staffed.
“It feels that way across the district,” Zboray said, but when waves of viruses go through, he and Dr. Webster agreed, it is more difficult. There was some discussion about staff attendance.
Ed Tech Liz Shaffer resigned due to family reasons. The school will not be filling this position.
BUILDING ISSUES IN CURRENT SCHOOLS
“We had a faulty valve in our old boiler. Luckily, a part was near by and it was only down for an hour,” Dr. Webster said and also wrote in her principal’s report. “We have ordered extra valves to have on hand because this has happened before.”
“This seems to be the same fix multiple times,” Dr. Webster said of the boiler valve.
The school’s dumpster was moved to the parking lot so that custodians didn’t have to go inside the fence perimeter during construction.
“It’s not a great place to have it, but it seems to be working right now,” Dr. Webster said.
Over the vacation, the custodians gave the bathrooms a make-over with new paint, new ceiling tiles, fixed broken things, moved out extra equipment, etc..
“We are now waiting on new locks for the Emerson bathrooms,” Dr. Webster said. Those are going to be the ones that say ‘vacancy’ and ‘occupancy."‘
SCHOOL CULTURE
The school said goodbye to its long-time janitor Kurt Lockhart at Pizzeria 131. In November, Dr. Webster had told board members that Lockhart had given his retirement date of December 31
“Kurt’s family was there and it was a great time. We had almost 50 staff members attend, which was fantastic,” Dr. Webster said.
The school had a 5-8 grades assembly on Friday about bathrooms (changes made, changes coming, and bathroom etiquette) and gave out GOAT (greatest of all time) awards to students that have shown school spirit, have shown empathy, or had an amazing holiday costume.
“January is a hard month because you’re coming off vacation, you’re starting new units, but you’re also doing report cards,” Webster said.
To deal with that, the school leadership team is doing a “wellness” day instead of its regular staff meeting this month. Hiking, meditation, setting up a regulated classroom, crafting. This day is designed to help staff members connect and blowoff steam during this stressful month when report cards are due.
There is a district professional development training on AI (artificial intelligence) in the morning of January 22. In the afternoon, professionals return to the school to talk about school goals, review the semester, and their plans moving forward.
“There’s ten sessions that are happening,” Dr. Webster said of the AI discussions, and it will mostly be focused on how to use AI in education in positive ways and streamline educators’ work.
The school is transitioning to reusable trays instead of paper trays in the cafeteria.
This is possible because of Kathy, a bus driver, helping in the kitchen, doing dishes, on days she doesn’t have a field trip, Webster said.
“We have a great kitchen team right now. They are on top of it,” Dr. Webster said.
BUDGET TIMELINES
Zboray shared budget timelines with school board members. Schools present budgets to town councils or select boards in each town. Those bodies then move those budgets to town meetings where voters approve (or not) the budgets.
PTSA NEWS VIA TIGER TALK
The next Parent Teacher Student Association meeting is Tuesday January 7, 3:15-4:15 p.m. (more info here)
MITTEN & GLOVE DRIVE: As the temperatures drop, the school is still in need of mittens and gloves (new, or clean and gently-used) for nurses to provide to CES students. A collection box is located by the main office (Conners building) for easy drop-off.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Spirit Day on January 17: Dress as a teacher/staff member or dress as a student
January 20 is MLK Jr. Day: No school
January 21 and 22 are teacher workshop days: No school
February 7 is and Early Release Day @ 12:30
February vacation is February 17-21
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Look up “bussing” ! Funny typo!