New school system structure proposed
BAR HARBOR — As currently structured, the Mount Desert Island Regional School System is cumbersome, inefficient and an absolute bear to manage, according to a committee of school board members.
Of course, school administrators and board members have known that for years. But now the committee has recommended a specific alternative – the Regional School Unit (RSU) model.
Nearly everything about the way the individual schools currently operate would remain the same. In each town, the school principal would propose and the elected school committee would adopt an annual budget.
But instead of the budget being voted on at the town’s annual Town Meeting, each school’s budget would be folded into a single district budget, which residents of all the member towns would have an opportunity to vote on at a district-wide meeting.