BAR HARBOR – The Union 98 school board Wednesday approved a budget of nearly $820,000 for administration of Mount Desert Island schools next year.

Only about half the school board members showed up for the annual meeting and the town of Tremont was not represented at all. The budget approval was unanimous.

The budget for the 2004-05 school year will increase 2.4 percent over the current budget, with staff receiving 3 percent pay raises.

The budget covers only the administrative cost of running the island’s four elementary schools and the regional high school in Bar Harbor, in addition to special services that are shared by all the schools.

Each of the four island communities elects school boards to govern the elementary schools.

All of those board members, in addition to those from the outer islands of Frenchboro, Swans Island and the Cranberry Isles, compose both the Union 98 board and the MDI High School board.

Superintendent Howard Colter made another pitch for a mentor for new teachers, noting that the Union 98 board had been talking about the idea “forever and a day.”

He did not include it in the new budget, but urged the board to fund it in the future. The union has hired about 100 teachers in the past five years because of retirements and turnover, and many of them are either teaching without a full certificate or teaching a subject they are not schooled in.

Nationally, half of all teachers don’t stay in one district for more than five years, Colter said. He said veteran teachers could be taken from their classrooms for a year and assigned to help new teachers with everything from discipline to how to develop class plans or deal with special needs children.

“Teaching is incredibly complicated work,” Colter said. “I find it very serious that we are by and large putting [unprepared] teachers in the classroom.”

The position would cost about $70,000 a year, Colter estimated, including benefits and travel expenses.

The union would save some money because the teacher who replaces the mentor is likely to be less experienced and therefore command a lower salary.