Years ago, at the time when the effort was being made to create a consolidated high school on this island, the town of Mount Desert had recently built a new school. At the same period of time, Bar Harbor was in need of a high school. Southwest Harbor was satisfied with their Pemetic High School which included students from Tremont. Mount Desert had no need to consolidate, since it had a new school of its own. But the advocates for school consolidation convinced the general public that by doing so more and varied courses would be made available at presumably no additional costs. Before approval to consolidate was agreed to by all four towns, a method of how to fund the new school had to be determined.

An article published by the Bar Harbor Times in 1958, that I obtained from records at the Bar Harbor Historical Society, reported on the efforts of the committee chosen to recommend a funding method. Initially the formula was to be composed of three factors: property valuation, student enrollment, and each town’s 1958 expense for is high school education. The value applied to each town for each factor is the percentage that value bears to the island as a whole. The third factor referred to as the “present cost” factor was ruled out when it was realized that the 1958 cost would not be representative in future years. At this point the article stated, and I quote, the “enrollment” factor will still account for one-third of the cost of the high school: the state “evaluation” factor will increase to two-thirds of the cost. The article continues to say that little change in valuation and enrollment was assumed and little change would exist from the beginning in the proportions each town would be paying. It is not clear to me when the “present cost” factor was dropped why the “evaluation” factor was increased to two-thirds. In any event, the arbitrary assumptions made have not held true.

At the time of the attempt to create MDIHS, the valuation of Mount Desert and Bar Harbor was about the same. If I recall correctly, one town was going to refuse to vote in favor of the consolidation unless Mount Desert would accept the formula. Obviously the proponents of the merger convinced others to agree and, with 100 percent acceptance, the state Legislature created the special act that established MDIHS.

I obtained high school budget information for the following years: 1970, 1972, 1981, 1982, 1983, 2008. During the early years, the cost-per-student for Mount Desert was anywhere between 25 to 50 percent higher than for Bar Harbor. Today that cost is almost 110 percent higher. In 1970 the valuation of Bar Harbor was $13,400,000. and Mount Desert was $11,500,000. Today Bar Harbor is $1,358,000,000. and Mount Desert is $1,873,750,000. The cost-per-student figures in any budget year reveal the costs to be approximately the same for the other three towns, but Mount Desert is significantly greater and increasing every year.

In my opinion, these results show the formula to be flawed because, unless the ratio of enrollment to property valuation remains basically the same for each town, the results are unfair.

To demonstrate this logic, Bar Harbor has a cost-per-student in this budget year of $10,514 based on an enrollment of 209 students, Southwest Harbor’s figure is $11,493 based on 90 students. Tremont’s figure is $10,407 with 82 students. But Mount Desert’s cost-per-student is $21,998 with 104 students. In other words, Bar Harbor – with more than twice the resident population of any of the other towns and with twice the number of students – pays less per-pupil than Southwest Harbor, nearly equal to that of Tremont, and less than half of what Mount Desert pays.

With all the motels, businesses and summer properties that exist in Bar Harbor, its valuation ought to be greater than Mount Desert’s but it is not because of the fact there are more than 200 non-profit organizations existing there. Whenever I discuss the issue of school funding with anyone from Bar Harbor, the usual response is we should pay more because of all the wealthy summer folk who own property in Mount Desert. My response is their presence in town has caused inflated property values such that young and working-class people who provided the services needed in the community cannot afford to settle here. Residents pay taxes with the same mill rate as the wealthy summer people.

I believe some day in the future the four towns on this island may consolidate into one town in order to conserve costs of services such as fire prevention equipment. If and when that day comes, we will all be funding our school system with one mill rate and not a formula. The state mandates that towns which do not have a high school of their own must tuition their students to a school of their choice and dictates how much the cost-per-pupil will be. To send our pupils to private schools, colleges and universities, we all must pay on a tuition basis. In my opinion, the same method should exist for all towns (including Trenton and Lamoine). It is obvious that if property valuation is used in any method to provide school funding, Mount Desert will always be paying more than any other town.

I would like to stress one other point. I believe that the new school consolidation law makes the legislative act that created MDIHS null and void. If the law is not repealed, we move ahead as an “alternative organized structure” (AOS) with the addition of Trenton. The AOS board members are responsible for creating a budget of administrative cost to be submitted to the towns.

At this point it seems to me the AOS budget will contain some administrative costs associated with Trenton, and when submitted to the high school the budget will be dealt with by the formula and paid for the island towns. This is a direct violation of the legislative act. The act does not include language dealing with the expenses of another town nor does it refer to accepting tuition students.

George Peckham is a former Mount Desert Island High School Trustee who lives in Mount Desert.