June has arrived, and the end of the 2022-23 School Year is most definitely upon us! Some pictures below to get a glimpse into what our students are up to and then on to the important information! No time to lose! Here we go!
So much going on...I could have added more but I think two is a good sampling! Now on to the information!
PROPOSED FY 24 SCHOOL BUDGET INFORMATION
As a quick re-cap of the process thus far, we began our FY 24 budget development processes back in October of 2022 with the development of priorities and refreshers on process with members of the district leadership team. This work culminated in the Superintendent's initial proposed FY 24 budget that was shared with the Gorham School Committee in February, 2023. The School Committee then met over the course of 5 different meetings and cut almost $2 million dollars from the original proposal before voting unanimously on April 12, 2023 to approve of the proposed budget. The budget was then sent to the Town Council and on May 16, 2023 the Town Council voted unanimously to approve of the budget after it reduced an additional $800,000.00 from the proposed budget.
The total proposed budget for FY 24 now stands at $51,494,845 and represents a 10.91% increase in expenditures over FY 23's total budget of $46,427,320.00. This represents an approximate $1.31 anticipated increase in the mil rate for FY 24. For a home valued at $400,000.00 this would represent a little over $500.00 in increased tax for FY 24.
There is no doubt that this is a significant increase to taxes for FY 24, especially in a fiscal year directly after a re-evaluation year and the corresponding impacts to taxpayers that occurred as a result.
There is also no doubt that these funds are needed to provide adequate educational programming to our community's children.
The Gorham Schools continues to have the 2nd lowest per pupil expenditures in Cumberland County. Our staffing levels are the most efficient in Cumberland County according to the EPS funding formula. Our administrative costs at both the school and district level are either average or below the average for all other Cumberland County Schools and over 70% of our overall budget goes directly to support students in our classrooms.
If additional reductions are made they will result in larger class sizes, fewer course options for HS students, reductions to allied arts programs, and fewer overall supports for struggling learners (learning labs, 504 services, alternative education programs, etc.).
The School Committee and administrative team are committed to trying to find more creative ways to both reduce costs and increase revenues to offset continued needs. We will be studying the following methods of cost reduction (this is not an all inclusive list):
* Potential Movement back to grade level elementary schools
* Reductions to transportation routes
* Increased early intervention services
* Participating in Solar options and efficiency upgrades of mechanical systems
* Increased shared services
We will be studying the following methods of increasing revenue streams to offset taxpayer expense (again, this is not an all inclusive list):
* Increased collaboration with Greater Sebego Education Alliance Regional Service Center
* Increased tuition students
* Maine Care billing for medical service provision
* Child Development Services (CDS) billing for provision of services
* Creative agreements for solar energy and selling of Renewable Energy Credits
The School Committee has wrestled with this budget for several months. The Town Council has also wrestled with the implications of this proposed budget on the community. Both have voted unanimously to approve of this proposed budget while doing the best they could as our elected officials to balance the needs of the children with the needs of our taxpayers.
It is now time for the taxpayers of Gorham to decide to either "validate" the proposed budget via referendum, or not. On June 13, voters will be asked to either vote "YES" on the proposed FY 24 School budget, which means you approve of the budget passed by the Town Council on May 16 or voters will be asked to vote "NO" on the proposed FY 24 School budget, which means you do not approve of the budget passed by the Town Council on May 16.
If a majority of voters vote "YES" then the FY 24 budget will be validated and it will be fully passed. If a majority of voters vote "NO" then the FY 24 budget will fail and it must go back to the drawing board. The School Committee would then need to go back and approve a new proposed budget and bring that to the Town Council for approval and bring it back to the voters to be validated. A school budget is only fully approved after it has passed ALL THREE STEPS and the process must be repeated as often as is needed for this to occur.
GET OUT AND VOTE ON JUNE 13!
Hopefully you read the previous piece on the budget, so you know why it is important to get out and vote on June 13!
In preparation for your vote, I'd encourage folks to get informed by going to the district's website where you can review the following information:
- Videos of all School Committee budget meetings held
- Videos of all Town Council meetings held
- Q&A documents used by School Committee and Town Council to understand proposed budget and implications.
- Detailed Town Council Budget booklet
- One page summary data
and more!
Whatever your vote is on June 13 - let's be sure it is informed!
Check out the information listed above and much more by CLICKING HERE and then
BE SURE TO GET OUT AND VOTE ON JUNE 13!
SPEAKING OF VOTING - OUR SCHOOLS AS
POLLING LOCATIONS
State polling place regulations require specific conditions to be met in order to hold elections safely and securely each year. Elections are the lifeblood of our democratic processes and are therefore a very important part of our community's operation. Many of these specific conditions require accessibility for all citizens, access to restrooms, and specific square footage allocations for space. As you might imagine there are limited locations within Gorham that would meet these kinds of requirements for elections and our schools are most definitely one of them.
TWO of our schools are now used as local polling locations by the Town of Gorham for the purpose of general elections. Gorham Middle School has been used as a polling location for many years. During the Pandemic, Great Falls Elementary School also became a new polling location as our growing community outgrew the Little Falls building as a previous polling location for the residents in the northern part of our community.
As you might imagine, we spend a great deal of time thinking about the safety of our children and how that absolute priority interacts with the whole community's needs. At Gorham Middle School, we are able to very easily separate out those members of the public coming in to vote from the students who remain in the building for school on election days. In collaboration with the Town of Gorham and the Gorham Police Department, we basically turn the use of the GMS gymnasium over for polling purposes in November and June each year. VIPS personnel help to guide traffic and parking concerns and make sure that voters know to enter the gym doors and not the main doors. We move our gym classes outdoors for the day or to alternative indoor activities if the weather is inclement. We use town staff to monitor the gym doors in the interior of the building to make sure voters don't go into the school and students don't go into the voting areas. We have extra police offers on hand and it all works very very smoothly and safely.
Unfortunately, the same physical set up of the building does not exist at Great Falls Elementary School. There is no accessible way to require voters to enter the gym area directly and exit directly without going through the main part of the school. During the Pandemic we tried once to have students on site while voting was taking place using additional police and VIPs to try and direct traffic and prevent mixing between students and voters, but with the location of the cafeteria being where it is there was just no way to keep folks completely separated throughout the day. Since then we have made the decision that on election days our students will move to learning remotely for the day when the school is being used as a polling location.
Beginning with next year's school calendar we will be minimizing this interruption by moving one of our teacher professional development days to the November election date so that students will not be in any of our buildings on that day. This addresses one of the two typical days required for elections. The plan then is to continue to use these two schools in June as polling locations and to have students at Great Falls move to remote learning for the election day in June each year.
We understand that this is not an ideal situation, however we believe it is an appropriate balance between addressing the needs of our broader community while making sure that our students continue to learn in a safe and secure manner.
All this as a reminder that Great Falls Elementary School will move to a fully remote learning day on June 13, 2023 while the school is used as a polling location for voters.
If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to either myself or Ephrem Paraschak via email. Our email addresses are below:
- heather.perry@gorhamschools.org
- eparaschak@gorham.me.us
THANK YOU!
TWO MORE STUDENT VOICE VIDEOS!
We have two more student voice videos to share with you with this blog post and one more coming for my last blog post on June 16!
So far you have seen 4 student voice videos as linked below:
Episode 4 - Class of 2023 Video
Now we can share our NEW Episodes 5 & 6!
Episode 5 follows Maddie, a GHS student who loves music and the arts! Check it out using the link below:
Episode 5 - Maddie
Episode 6 follows Gabe, a GHS student who prides himself on being a student athlete! Check it out using the link below:
Episode 6 - Gabe
Our hope is that through these student voices videos you are able to get a sense of the student experience here in the Gorham Schools. We hope you see the array of learning opportunities that our students have to choose from in figuring out their "Future Stories" during their time with us! There is no question that we have incredible students here in Gorham, but that isn't by accident! That is because we have incredible families, incredible staff, and an incredible community all focused on modeling our Code of Conduct and making real the values contained within!
PROUD TO BE A RAM!
REMINDER - LAST STUDENT DAY WILL BE JUNE 16
Just a quick reminder that our last student day for the 2022-2023 School year will be Friday, June 16, 2023. Students will be dismissed using our early release schedule on this day. Please reach out to your schools with any specific questions you may have!
SENIOR WALK - JUNE 9 AND
GHS GRADUATION JUNE 11, 2023
GHS class of 2023 will be doing their senior walk on June 9, 2023. The walk will once again be live streamed using our district's FB site for folks that want to watch. We will begin at Great Falls Elementary School somewhere around 9:00 a.m. and then go from there to Narragansett Elementary School, then to Village Elementary School and then to Gorham Middle School after that. This is always a special treat for our graduating seniors and fun to watch so feel free to tune in!
Graduation for the class of 2023 is scheduled for Sunday, June 11. Folks with special seating arrangements will be allowed in starting at 2:30. The ceremony will begin promptly at 4:00 p.m. The event is scheduled to take place on the football field at GHS. If there is inclement weather the plan will be to move the ceremony inside to the GHS gymnasium and MPAC at the same scheduled time. Please stay tuned for communications regarding this event as we get closer and closer and know more about the weather.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR GHS SENIORS, THE CLASS OF 2023! You've not had an easy road during your high school careers (with a global pandemic) but you have represented our school system well and are ready to take on any challenge life has to offer you moving forward! We are proud of you and your accomplishments thus far and know you will have continued success in whatever you endeavor to take on next! I know our motto as a school system is to "Prepare and Inspire" our students - but I must say - YOU HAVE INSPIRED US ALL! We are all looking forward to celebrating your accomplishments on June 11th!
A REMINDER OF NEXT YEAR'S SCHOOL CALENDAR
As another school year is quickly coming to an end, we just wanted to take a quick moment to be sure folks have the calendar for the upcoming 2023-24 School Year.
You can CLICK HERE to view the calendar. Please note that we will use the same method we did this year regarding use of snow days. We have built five snow days into the calendar. We will use all five (if needed) as traditional snow days and then if we go over that, we will move to remote learning days. Therefore, the last possible student day for next year will be June 13 for those of you who are already thinking about summer of 2024!
OTHER GREAT HAPPENINGS
I just wanted to share a few more examples of other great happenings in our schools these past few weeks. Of course, this isn't representative of everything but its a great snapshot! For more information, I would encourage folks to continue to follow us on our social media pages!
GHS Students go back to Narragansett for Math in Nature Program!
Math in Nature Project detail:
9th graders on Academy M recently completed an interdisciplinary project in Math & English to create children's e-books. The books include original photography and writing that teach about math concepts found in nature. Today the GHS students shared their work with 3rd graders at Narragansett Elementary School. This was not only some relevant speaking & listening practice, but also rigorous math discussion, and new relationships were formed. Some of the GHS students were excited to be reunited with their former elementary teachers, too. Wonderful outdoor learning experience all around.
Odyssey of the Mind and Cube Projects:
Two huge 8th-grade projects have now come to an end: Odyssey of the Mind World Finals and the USM CubeSat Challenge.
Odyssey of the Mind team came in 26th place at the World Finals competition. They had a goal of beating half of the other teams, and they did exactly that. As a bunch of first-time OMers (myself included), they did an amazing job and worked so hard all year. I have created a presentation with pictures and videos documenting their Odyssey journey. Click on the link if you'd like to check it out: 8th-grade Odyssey of the Mind Slideshow.
CubeSat Project: I had a group of 4 eighth graders that competed in the UMS CubeSat Challenge. They won the Best in Show Award because their CubeSat design and build were exemplary. The motors, 3-D print, wiring, parachute design, etc. were all above expectations. To learn more about this project and to see pictures and videos please click on the following link: CubeSat Project
Congrats to all of our Odyssey of the Mind Participants this year! GO RAMS!
Adaptive Biking Event at GHS!
Recently our community based education students at GHS were treated to a learning adventure using adaptive biking equipment. Thank you to David and Northeast Passage of UNH for creating such a wonderful learning experience for those students that were able to participate!
Check out the video by CLICKING HERE!
GMS Students Featured on NewsCenter Maine for their Tick Research!
Students in Mrs. Gospodarek's Science classes at GMS have been participating in a year long study of tics. Check out the video below and try to focus on the incredible learning of our students during this project rather than the tics themselves!
CLICK HERE to watch the news feature!
PATHS Students (including GHS students) win Video Award!
PATHS New Media students earn first place for the second year in a row in the ABC CTE Works For Me video contest. Sadie Fiore, GHS, was a co-creator on this project.
CLICK HERE to watch the video!
Ultimate Frisbee Team!
The Gorham Ultimate Frisbee team swept the Class B State Tournament on Saturday at South Portland winning all 3 games!
OTHER COMMUNITY HAPPENINGS!
Baxter Library Summer Reading Series
Baxter Memorial Library is once again planning a spectacular summer reading program. The kickoff event is June 21st from 2-6 and includes many fun activities, music, touch a truck, snow cones, and hot dogs. You can sign up for the summer reading program and get your Bingo sheet at the event and online (soon). This year's theme is Power Up at the Library and activities will be largely superhero and STEAM themed! I'll even be present helping to serve hot dogs and snow cones - so definitely come out to enjoy the fun. See the flyer below for more details!
Our new youth services librarian at Baxter is Jill O'Connor. Stop by the event and introduce yourself!
Reminder - Food Truck Thursdays in Little Falls Has Begun!
The first food trucks showed up last night. They'll be coming back EVERY Thursday night through September 28! Check out the flyer below for details and be sure to check go visit!
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Well that's it for this installment! My last blog for the 2023-24 School Year will be on Friday, June 16th.
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