SOUTHWEST HARBOR—The Southwest Harbor School Committee has postponed the adoption of a tuition policy until a legal opinion regarding a proposal by the regional school system board is obtained.

The Mount Desert Island Regional School System (MDI RSS) board recently voted to have superintendent Rob Liebow seek a legal opinion on a proposed policy that would allow the child of any K-8 teacher in the MDI RSS system who does not live in the district to attend MDI High School as a tuition student. Currently, the children of K-8 teachers who live outside the district can attend the high school only if the town in which they reside doesn’t have a high school and must tuition students to another school system.

The school committee’s decision to allow the Lamoine student to attend Pemetic met with disapproval from the town’s board of selectmen, who questioned whether property-tax payers in Southwest Harbor should be paying to educate a student who is not their responsibility.

At an Oct. 14 meeting, school committee chairman Amy Young reported the MDI RSS board’s decision on the Pemetic tuition policy, saying she was disappointed with the outcome.

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