BAR HARBOR — After getting off to a slow start, Mount Desert Island’s regional planning committee (RPC) is ready to discuss the ramifications of one of six different school district consolidation models members considered during initial meetings this summer.

At its next meeting, set for Wednesday, Aug. 22 at 7 p.m. in the library of Mount Desert Island High School, RPC members will hear a presentation on an organizational and budgetary model number 4. That meeting is open to the public.

“Model four looks as much like the current (school) system as possible,” RPC chairman Gail Marshall, of Mount Desert, told the Union 98 board members at Monday night’s meeting.

Ms. Marshall said that after hearing the presentation, the committee would discuss the impacts of the model on the communities and schools involved, as well as the impact on communities outside any proposed new Regional School Unit (RSU).

“From there we can go to whatever model we want to,” she added.

She said there was a broad range of opinion among members on the RPC regarding how best to pay for high school education. On one extreme, she said, there are members who want towns to pay on a per pupil basis, and on the other, payment based entirely on appraised property values.

At issue for the four MDI towns that started the high school is developing a fair and affordable way to share the operating and capital costs. Towns may choose to join the MDI RSU or send students by paying tuition,

On Monday, members of the high school board signed a letter of intent, as required by the state, informing education officials in Augusta that they are currently involved in discussions regarding a proposed RSU. The towns involved include Cranberry Isles, Frenchboro, Swans Island, Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, Southwest Harbor, Tremont, Trenton and Lamoine.

Southwest Harbor has already filed its letter of intent, Gail Royal indicated Monday.

Representatives from Lamoine have been attending MDI RPC meetings this summer but they are also attending meetings in Ellsworth and elsewhere.

Mr. Liebow said he thought it would be unlikely Lamoine would want to join MDI. Every budgetary model the RPC has come up with shows Lamoine taking a “major hit,” he said, because joining with MDI would cause the town to lose its significant state subsidy for education, and require the district to raise salaries in the elementary school to equalize employee pay scales.

Trenton options

Gary Webber, chairman of the Trenton school committee, attended MDI’s first RPC meeting as a non-voting member but did not return to two subsequent meetings.

“Trenton has been explicitly invited to join our table,” said RPC member Brian Hubbell of Bar Harbor.

But Trenton, like Lamoine, is weighing its options.

In its letter of intent to the state, Trenton reported it is having discussions with Union 96 (Ellsworth) and Union 98 (MDI) and is also considering staying the same, in a revised configuration of Union 92, said Mr. Webber.

According to models supplied by the state, Lamoine would need to raise an additional $528,000 and Trenton, an additional $388,000, each year as members of the MDI RSU. 

Trenton and Lamoine each contribute more than 11 percent of the students attending MDI High School.

“They have enough students to stay separate,” said Ms. Marshall.

Whether or not they choose to join an RSU, the new school consolidation law allows them to continue to enjoy school choice for their high school students.

“The islands are still with us,” said Ms. Marshall, referring to the outer islands around MDI which are sending representatives to RPC meetings. But it may not be advantageous for the outer island schools to join an MDI RSU, she pointed out, as they are exempt from minimum school size requirements and might choose to contract out for administrative services.

“It still feels like we are at the beginning stages of this process,” said RPC member Amy Young.

The school board discussed the best speed at which the RPC should proceed, given that the state legislature reconvenes in January and may make changes to the school consolidation law.

“It’s to our advantage to create the best system we can before any changes are made,” said Mr. Hubbell.

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