SOUTHWEST HARBOR — Physically, the Pemetic Elementary School and the Tremont Consolidated School are 2.7 miles apart. But as recent forums about consolidation in Southwest Harbor and Tremont have srevealed, philosophically they are much closer than that.

Driving the consolidation discussion is the fact that costs are increasing and enrollment decreasing at both schools. However, school officials have maintained that residents should consider first any educational advantages of combining the schools before looking at saving money. The forums were scheduled to get input from residents on four possible scenarios for the schools.

Many of the comments at the Southwest Harbor forum on Jan. 14 echoed those made a week earlier at a session in Tremont. At both forums, some sort of consolidation between the schools seemed welcome, if only by the fact that two scenarios – closing the Tremont school and maintaining the status quo – were the least palatable options.

“It’s really complicated, shutting one school down,” Union 98 superintendent Rob Liebow told the 40 people attending the Southwest Harbor forum. “So that’s probably off the table in most people’s minds.”

As for the remaining two scenarios, the jury is still out. Those options will be discussed in more detail at a joint forum for residents of both towns scheduled for Thursday, March 19, in Tremont. The joint forum was planned for Jan. 28 but school officials rescheduled to collect more accurate data on costs and benefits.

One of the scenarios has the kindergarten through the fourth grades from both towns attend the Tremont school; and the Pemetic school would become a middle school for the fifth through eighth grades in both towns. The cost savings would be modest – about $185,000 annually – but there would be significant educational value, school officials said.

“I think educationally a K-4 operation and a 5-8 operation separately makes the most sense,” Mr. Liebow said. Each grade level would have two classes, opening the possibility of team-teaching and allowing greater flexibility in grouping students according to their abilities, learning styles and interests.

One benefit in consolidating according to the elementary-middle school model is the increased social and extracurricular opportunities available by having more students in each grade, parents said at both forums.

“We do have a chance to offer more extracurricular activities with a middle school because we don’t have extra costs,” Tremont resident Keri Hayes said at last week’s forum.

School officials said they decided that fifth grade should be the transitional year because that is when students get their first opportunity to participate in show choir, band and sports.

The other scenario would be to have students in kindergarten through fourth grade stay at their respective schools and have the Tremont fifth through eighth grades attend middle school at Pemetic. This option gives the middle school students the same educational and extracurricular opportunities as the other split-school scenario.

School officials said that Tremont could save as much as $475,000 annually with this scenario. Costs would increase at Pemetic by about $130,000 annually because of the extra staff needed for the additional middle school students.

What these figures don’t take into account is how the funding would work. Tremont could pay tuition to send their fifth through eighth graders to Pemetic. Another option would be to become a consolidated school district (CSD) and determine some sort of cost-sharing formula for the towns. Either way, there would probably be cost savings realized for both towns. One reason school officials decided to wait until March for the joint forum is to get more accurate figures on costs and related potential savings.

Mr. Liebow said his preference would be to form a CSD.

“I think to have a school system that is regionwide or areawide is a healthier situation than splitting along town lines,” he said.

Kristin Hutchins, chairman of the Southwest Harbor Board of Selectmen, said she would like to see school officials adopt the scenario that affords the greatest savings. Money is sorely needed to make improvements to the infrastructure of Southwest Harbor, she explained.

According to Dianne Helprin, principal of the Pemetic school, and Dianne Waters, principal of the Tremont school, enrollment is expected to drop at both institutions and then level off. The enrollment at Pemetic, which currently has 160 students in a school built for 300, should stabilize at 145 students. Tremont now has 130 students in a school that once held 200 students. Admittedly, school officials said, these predictions are difficult to make accurately.

Skip Strong, who is a member of the Southwest Harbor School Committee, said he is concerned that, as the population ages in the town, it has been getting more difficult to pass the school budget at town meeting. Some form of consolidation could make the budget more agreeable to taxpayers, he suggested.

Southwest Harbor resident Mike Magnani, who is a member of the town’s comprehensive plan committee, said he expects the trend of decreasing enrollment and increasing costs to continue at the school. He could have been speaking for many at the forum when he said the situation must be addressed.

“At some point, hard decisions have to be made,” Mr. Magnani said. “Basically families of childbearing years can’t cut it here. One of these choices will have to be made sooner than later.”