Rising housing cost behind Pemetic's enrollment decline? Many think so
Southwest Harbor only town on MDI with no strategy for affordable housing
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - Pemetic School, which once was a high school, is now the smallest public school on the island in enrollment, eclipsed even by neighboring Tremont for the first time in history.
Taking pre-K out of consideration because it gums up historical comparisons, Pemetic is down to 108 students in the latest report from the MDI superintendent’s office, compared with 120 in Tremont.
It is an important data point for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that the school administration and committee here just submitted a $4.3 million budget - a 5.29 percent increase after a 10 percent increase the year before. How much longer can it expect such increases in the face of declines in student population?
Pemetic is the only elementary school on the island experiencing this kind of sharp decline, although all the schools have seen declines the last 25 years.
The high school is another worry, especially since it wants $26 million for an update. It lost 7 percent of its students in one year to 474. Ten years ago it was at 538.
But Bar Harbor and Tremont both showed a slight increase since 2021, and Mount Desert declined by only four students, not counting pre-K.
Most everyone I interviewed pointed to one culprit for SWH’s enrollment decline - housing cost.
“Tremont school has experienced steady and even increasing enrollment most likely because there is slightly more affordable housing available in Tremont, which encompasses a larger geographic area, than SWH,” stated Jessica Stewart, chair of the regional school board known as AOS 91 and a Tremont resident. “An enrollment study done several years ago predicted the Tremont school age population would grow for this reason.
“Southwest Harbor has not experienced this growth probably, as I mentioned earlier, due to somewhat greater availability of housing in Tremont.”
Select board member Natasha Johnson agreed that cost of housing was a major driver behind some of the demographic changes.
“So to me, it would make sense that you're going to see an uptick in the Town of Tremont, as well as other towns, and a decrease in the Town of Southwest Harbor just because the demographics of the people that are living within these towns are changing regarding how much people can afford to live where.”
SWH probably has more pressure on its housing stock than any other MDI town.
Johnson referenced the amount of public housing in town which are not prevalent in neighboring towns.
In addition, SWH has the highest number of short-term rentals per capita - 360 according to AirDNA in a town with a population of 1,900 residents - while Bar Harbor has 645 with 5,500 residents.
In addition, SWH businesses such as the Claremont Hotel have chewed up inventory of homes to house seasonal workers. Tremont does not have a significant business sector. More than 90 percent of its tax base comes from residential properties.
Mount Desert select member Geoff Wood, who taught in Tremont for eight years, said,
“It's certainly easier easier to find a place to live in Tremont for a young family. Both affordable property and the existence of rental property are much greater. And they still have rentals, whereas that is really not the case anywhere else.”
Southwest Harbor is the only town on MDI which has not had a serious conversation about affordable housing. I reported in November 2022 that AirDNA targeted SWH as one of the nation’s Top 10 markets for short-term rentals, prompting out-of-state investors to buy up year-round housing here.
Even Tremont has begun the process of regulating STRs - weak as it is - to seek a town meeting vote on whether to register them. Mount Desert select board this week reviewed the strongest ordinance yet on MDI, to license owner-occupied STRs and investor-owned rentals under 28 days and to cap all STRs at 9 percent of the housing stock, similar to Bar Harbor’s.
Mount Desert is proposing a $275 registration fee for what it calls “traditional” use of summer rentals - owner occupied - and a $500 fee for commercial renters. (Both are at $250 in Bar Harbor.) The fees will help pay for a new employee to oversee the program.
Town Manager Durlin Lunt said once the ordinance is approved, he expects it will take up to a year to develop an administrative process on how to monitor compliance.
The ordinance was discussed at the select board meeting Tuesday. Member Rick Moores raised questions about its constitutionality. Moores did not disclose that he is a short-term rental landlord, as he did previously when the matter was under consideration by the Land Use Zoning Advisory Committee, which has as a member the town’s largest real estate agent for summer rentals.
A proposed ordinance amendment from that committee was eventually rejected by the select board as having no teeth. The same ordinance is being considered in Tremont, where a majority of the select board own summer rentals. The Tremont ordinance was crafted by land-use consultant Noel Musson, who also oversaw the version rejected in Mount Desert. Musson owns a summer rental in Tremont.
Select member Martha Dudman led the effort for the select board to take over the drafting of a STR ordinance out of the hands of the LUZO committee.
(Southwest Harbor has at least one select member who is a summer rental landlord.)
Bar Harbor voters approved its ordinance in November 2021. A spike in registration temporarily brought the number to 733, but it settled at 645 last year - or about 20 percent of the housing stock. May 31, 2024 will be the first real test of the ordinance to see if it would reduce overall STRs.
But it’s already had the effect of arresting the growth of STRs there. According to AirDNA (chart below) Bar Harbor’s stunning STR growth was halted after passage of its ordinance whereas neighboring Trenton, Ellsworth and Southwest Harbor became hotbeds for the spillover of investors seeking nearby alternatives
If school enrollment is an indicator of affordable housing, then Bar Harbor appears to be holding its own with a slight growth to 347 students from 334 in 2021. In 2019 it had 358 students.
In Southwest Harbor there are only seven kids in Grade 4 which prompted Pemetic to consolidate it with Grade 5 under one teacher this year after the fifth grade teacher resigned last year.
Local Hero: Kim Schroeder, Grade 4 and 5 teacher, Pemetic School
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - In seventh grade I was asked to draw a mountain on the blackboard by the art teacher. I had been a closet drawer until then, sketching away with my pencil of soldiers, horses, castles and any ruminations of a young boy who found escape in art.
The teacher complimented my drawing and said, “so you are an artist … it’s obvious from your strokes.”
The power of that affirmation, confirmation and validation from a voice of authority in front of my classmates was one of my enduring memories of childhood. She created a safe space for me to stretch my creativity.
I have a fondness for every teacher who left such an indelible mark in my formative years, and even into grad school.
Teachers were my second parents.
That’s how some colleagues and parents describe Kim Schroeder, who took up the additional task of teaching another grade at Pemetic School after the Grade 5 teacher left unexpectedly in October.
The seven students in Grade 4 were merged into one classroom.
“She’s a phenomenal teacher,” said select board member Natasha Johnson. “My son had her last year and I think for him there’s something to be said for that kind of consistency.”
Superintendent Mike Zbora echoed that description. “I wish I could clone Kim Schroeder across the district.”
Johnson added that in the combined classroom, “There's a lot of different learning levels going on. I hope that she is receiving the support that she needs.”
“I started teaching at Pemetic the fall of 1993. It has been my home away from home ever since,” Schroeder wrote at the beginning of the school year in her online profile on the school website. “Over the years, I have taught 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade math and science. My first 10 years here at Pemetic I was a 4th grade teacher. I am the 4th grade teacher this year. I absolutely love teaching math! Over the years, it is a joy to watch the progress made from the beginning of the year all the way to the end.
“Outside of school, I like spending time in my gardens, knitting, sewing, scrapbooking, and being with my family.”
Schroeder lives in Ellsworth with her family.
TRIBUTE: Ernest Alton Campbell Jr.
1950 - 2024
BASS HARBOR- Ernie A Campbell Jr, 73, passed away on January 8, 2024 after a courageous fight against kidney disease at the Bangor VA . He was born on April 10, 1950 in Bar Harbor, the son of Ernest Alton Campbell Sr and Helen Kelley Anderson.
Ernie served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Ernie worked for the Swans Island Ferry Service for many years before beginning his 30+ year long career at the Tremont School as the Head Bus Driver and Custodian where he retired. Ernie had the opportunity to have kids on his bus from kindergarten thru high school. He was able to influence and be a constant presence in the lives of many children. Ernie cared for his brother David Campbell and mother Helen for many years. Ernie spent every weekend with his grandchildren, he loved Westerns, I Love Lucy, Elvis, King books, cooking, gardening, his dog Coco and his favorite holiday, Christmas Eve
Ernie is survived by his first wife Terry Hopkins Mclaughlin and their 3 children; 2 daughters Dawn Johnson Gray of Palm City and significant other Howdy Goodwin of Tremont, Melanie Lemoine and husband John of Ellsworth and son Chad Campbell and wife Michelle of Lamoine; sister Brenda Harkins and husband Norman of Seal Cove. 14 Grandchildren, Samantha, Codie, Sarah, Mckenzie, Alexa, Matthew, Jared, Trevor, Jamie, Payton, Kilee, Evan, Suri, and Cooper, many great grandchildren, nieces, nephews & life long friend Kinny Corthell. Ernie is also survived by his current wife Linda Campbell of Bass Harbor. He was predeceased by his sister Nancy Litttlefield, brother David (Jed), mother Helen, father Ernest Sr and beloved companion Coco.
A graveside burial service will be held 1pm June 1, 2024 at Head of the Harbor Cemetery, 44 Marsh Rd, Tremont and following the service we will gather at the Tremont School in the gym were we will have photos and refreshments to celebrate Ernie’s life.
Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com
FOOTNOTE: Thurston’s Lobster Pound in Bernard was the subject of a report on WFVX TV Bangor after the aftermath of the recent storms.
Surely Southwest Harbor needs affordable housing, but housing is but one of several factors contributing to the dwindling school-age population across the entire island. Whatever happened to the independent MDI school consultant’s plan to combine Southwest Harbor school district with Tremont? I hope Lincoln can update his excellent comprehensive blog that he previously published some time ago regarding this issue. The rapidly escalating school budget increases for smaller and smaller enrollments makes no common sense, and is bordering on lunacy..
Lincoln M is too polite to call out this consolidation solution, but he lets you read between the lines.
What Charles Richard stated is indeed true about the state of affordable housing and past island neighborhoods being independent, politically/socially. There is a reason the island has so many post offices, people stayed in their community. That time has passed. lf the island would attack the housing problem head on (as a collective force >>> it could happen), it needs to build modern, affordable, "housing project(s)"; for year-round residents (police, teachers, town workers, clerks, etc.). As for schools (and post offices), consolidation is a start...