Jun 05, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Bar Harbor Music Festival.
BAR HARBOR—A meeting between Bar Harbor School Board Chair Marie Yarborough and Town Manager James Smith has both reinforced town process and eased some concerns about students’ safety getting to and from school.
This past year, the school committee had formalized the Town of Bar Harbor and Conners Emerson School Safety Topics, a list of recurring concerns about student safety that’s been compiled by the committee.
“Every single one of these was on his mind or public work’s mind,” Yarborough told her committee members, June 1.
None of the items on the list were a surprise and Smith understood that the committee had been talking about it for a long time.
She felt like it was a great starting point.
The discussion between Yarborough and Smith ended with the next steps of having Principal Dr. Heather Weir Webster continue to reach out to public works, while cc’ing Smith in communication, and keeping the information and requests coming.
The committee and parents’ job is to continue to support the topics and support Dr. Webster as much as possible in their roles. That would be advocating for Dr. Webster as she advocates to move the topics forward and possibly help her engage with DOT’s safe routes to school program.
“It was a great meeting. We talked about everything,” Yarborough said.
One of the points in the plan is vegetative management.
It reads, “Vegetative management: what are paths and the respective landscapes under the town purview and how can the Town and School Committee work together to enhance/support responsible and safe community vegetative management along critical walking and biking paths to and from school?”
That management is also mentioned in the town’s newly adopted Bar Harbor Vision Zero Safety Action Plan.
Another action in the town’s plan is “Implement Pedestrian Safety Improvements Around Uncontrolled Crosswalks.”
However, school committee members were concerned that several key crosswalks by the school and along the Mount Desert Street corridor (where students head to get to the ball fields, library, playground, and YMCA) have not yet been repainted.
“It’s June! It’s June today and it’s still not painted,” School Committee Vice Chair Misha Mytar said. “It’s demoralizing.”
She added that the lack of crosswalk painting “puts our kids in a really dangerous position.”
Committee members agreed that there might be a disconnect for people despite the sign that says school children crossing but there are no visual clues that there is a school right up on the hill.
The committee asked the principal to email the public works director about the concern and to include Smith in the cc.
The next day the crosswalks were painted.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Bar Harbor’s Safe Streets For All Website
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