School Waiting For Forever Chemical Report
New teachers hired, COA commencement ceremony celebration
BAR HARBOR—These first weeks of June saw graduations, meetings of school boards, and an approved $58 million dollar construction bond to rebuild the Conners Emerson School. Here’s a quick roundup of events and updates
MDI Regional High School Regular School Board
The MDI Regional High School Regular School Board met Monday night, June 12, in the MDI Regional High School library. The meeting was called to order at 5 p.m. and moved quickly through the first four items on the agenda. Call to order, approval of voucher, approval of minutes from May 11, 2023, all passed without comment and there was no public comment.
MDI High School Principal Matt Haney then gave his reports and updates.
Graduation
Haney said that they finished the school year with 494 students and a little more than 130 graduated. Haney also said that they had a big senior class and they could probably expect to see a little bit lower numbers in the fall and that all four grade levels will most likely be in the 118-120 student level. That would mean a drop of about 15-20 students, but those numbers could change because of new student registrations.
Haney said that graduation went very well and the gym was more full than it has been in a while for graduation. There were three student speakers, one who graduated as a fifth-year student and had dropped out of school during the COVID-19 pandemic and then ended up coming back to school and successfully graduating.
There were 153 students in the 2022 cohort. That number reflects the students who started as freshmen four years ago and either stayed in school at MDI the whole time, those who came in later, but with the same freshman starting date, and those who left during that time. Of those students, 138 graduated on June 11, 2023. That is just over a 90% graduation rate.
Additionally, four more students from the 2022 cohort graduated with an adult education diploma; there were two students who graduated as fifth year students, and two who graduated as sixth year students. Haney said that there are six more students from the 2022 cohort that will most likely graduate next year. This will bring the 2022 cohort graduation rate to over 96%.
Building Project Update
Haney said that they are still in a holding pattern on the project until they figure out the entire process.
Wastewater Management/PFAS Update
Superintendent Mike Zboray said that they are in a contract with Haley-Ward and they are beginning their work to get an understanding of the current conditions of the wastewater ponds. They have completed testing of the seven points that were previously discussed and are awaiting results so that they can compile the data so that it can be analyzed.
Zboray also stated that they were awaiting an expected report from the Maine DEP regarding a self-reported violation. Whether or not there was an actual violation is unknown at this time because it was self-reported and they have not yet received the DEP report. Board Member Marie Yarborough asked for clarification to what had happened because she was confused by what she had read in the Mount Desert Islander.
Zboray said that the school had self-reported a possible leak from one of the ponds when they were trying to drain pond number three by pumping it into another pond and this self-reported possible violation was the only potential violation at this time.
Another board member asked about a timeline for receipt of the data from the tests and Zboray said that he will be looking into that this week as well as the report form the DEP.
The same board member then asked about contact from the neighboring property owners and Zboray said that he would be meeting with them soon to give them an update but in previous discussions they had agreed to wait until the end of the school year when all of the kids were gone and things were slower.
The next public PFAS meeting is scheduled for August 21, 2023.
MDI High School Board of Trustees member Keri Hayes said that if people wanted to know about PFAS, they should come to the trustees meeting on Thursday, June 22.
Action Items
Eliza Bishop was elected as the High School Board’s vice chair.
The board then nominated and elected the following new teachers:
· Andrew Carlson – Special Education
· Karina Guzman – World Language
· Philippa Adam – Art
· Matthew Mayo – Music
· Jacob LaMontagne – Music
Zboray said that he approves all five new teacher nominees. A motion was made to accept all five nominations as recommended by the superintendent, the motion was seconded and passed after a little discussion regarding housing for and the teaching experience of some of the candidates.
Haney said that there were still a few open positions but hopefully they could get them filled during the summer months.
The board then unanimously approved Zboray to continue hiring during the summer months and approved a $33,000 transfer to the bus reserve.
There was no other business and the next meeting date had not yet been determined so the board entered executive session for a personnel evaluation at 5:28 p.m.
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND REGIONAL SCHOOL SYSTEM-AOS #91 MEETING
The Mount Desert Island Regional School System (AOS 91) Board also met Monday night at the MDI High School library. This meeting is also viewable on YouTube.
BUDGET AND REORGANIZATION UPDATES
All the school budgets except for Frenchboro have been passed with the vote for Frenchboro on June 21. Frenchboro is also the final town Zboray needs to get a letter of intent to submit to the state about the reorganization of the school district. He expects to be able to start meeting about potential reorganization of the schools in August.
MTSS
Director of Teaching and Learning for Grades 7-12, Julie Keblinksy reported about the school’s alignment and efforts with the state-mandated multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), which is a law that was passed in response to what the state was seeing in schools, she said. When kids weren’t learning, they were automatically sent to special education. MTSS is about putting systems in place to see who is learning and who isn’t and to try to use that system to be collaborative and work as a team that pays attention to students and supports them.
“This year we decided we really need some outside help,” she said. They are having an administrative team retreat on June 22. They’ve also contracted with a coach to help them.
Part of their focus is both academic (core reading from K-12) and behavioral. And part of that focus is on being more preventative than reactionary so that students are set up for success.
REVISION TO POLICIES
The group unanimously approved the policy revisions below. Member Jamie Whitehead noted that two policies conflicted each other. This will be corrected, Zboray said.
· JIC - Student Code of Conduct
· JICH - Student Substance Use Policy
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE SALARIES AND CONTRACTS
After two executive sessions about contract negotiations and personnel evaluations, the group unanimously extended the contracts of central office administrators and staff as well as approved their salaries.
COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC COMMENCEMENT
College of the Atlantic welcomed its 50th graduating class during an energetic commencement ceremony held on a beautiful spring day before hundreds of family members and friends June 10.
Uplifting speeches by COA President Darron Collins ‘92, keynote speaker Julietta Singh, and several members of the 90-strong COA Class of 2023 highlighted the ceremony. The Anah Highlanders bagpipers opened the proceedings with a procession led by three grand marshals—retiring librarian Jane Hultberg and retiring professors Stephen Ressel and Davis Taylor—along with Collins, Singh, and honorary degree recipient Donald Soctomah.
“The experimental, ecologically based education that each graduate here today has received at College of the Atlantic has primed you to live your lives with intention, with ethically motivated purpose, with a commitment to the whole environment, in all of its social, political, and earthly manifestations,” Singh told the gathered crowd. “This moment is a palpable opening toward a life that follows but also departs from the one you’ve been living. It is saturated with everything you’re about to discover and, just as significantly, with everything that will discover you.”
A total of five students spoke as part of the ceremony. Ninoska Isaias Ngomana ‘23 gave the student welcome, and sharing student perspectives were Lisa-Marie Kottoff ‘23, Maria Fernanda "Mafe" Farias Briseno ‘23, and Silas Sifton ‘23. Liv Soter ‘23 introduced Dr. Singh.
Collins commended the class on their focus and resilience in the face of the three-year-long COVID-19 pandemic that colored their time at COA.
“This cohort, more than any other, has worked through the entirety of the pandemic as COA students. Like our struggles with equity, we struggled together during the pandemic and took collective risks together, not unlike the first 32 students, faculty, staff, and trustees who took the risk of starting this place in 1972,” he said. “Our own collective struggle and collective risk made something magical, if not, at least, alchemical.”
In acknowledging that COA is on the traditional lands of the Wabanaki people, Collins called out the need to support tribal sovereignty, and announced that COA has established a full scholarship for tribal members.
“The Passamaquoddy, the Penobscot, the Micmac, and Maliseet are a lifeforce, shaping and being shaped by this place for millennia. We must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Wabanaki and their fight for tribal self-determination and self-governance,” Collins said. “As a more immediate and more concrete step toward equity, we are establishing a full scholarship to College of the Atlantic for tribal members who are admitted to COA. And when I say ‘we,’ I don’t mean some faceless, boastful administration, I mean you, graduates, and your student colleagues, all the faculty and staff, all of us who have been wrestling collectively across your entire experience here, with the deep and oftentimes painful questions of equity, and race, and diversity, and oppression. This small, but important step forward is your work, it’s part of your mark on this amazing, however flawed, institution.”
A grand feast at the center of campus followed the ceremony.
College of the Atlantic was founded in 1969 on the premise that education should go beyond understanding the world as it is to enabling students to actively shape its future. A leader in experiential education and environmental stewardship, COA has pioneered a distinctive interdisciplinary approach to learning — human ecology — that develops the kinds of creative thinkers and doers needed by all sectors of society in addressing the compelling and growing needs of our world. For more information, visit coa.edu.
CONNERS-EMERSON NEWS
As reported earlier, Bar Harbor voters overwhelmingly approved a $58 million school construction bond to rebuild the ailing Conners Emerson buildings. The buildings are expected to take two to three years to build.
Construction is expected to begin next spring.
Updates and information about the project are here.
Students also had their last days of the school year with eighth grade’s promotion ceremony on June 8.
Fourth graders visited Swan’s Island to learn about the island history. Second graders explored Albert’s Meadow. Fifth graders headed to the Bar Island sand bar for a science trip and eighth graders had an overnight rafting trip at Adventure Bound in Caratunk, which was organized by Ms. McConomy.
Schools Start Talking Reorganization
The Chemicals That Don't Go Away
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