FY 19 School Budget Update

Good morning! I thought I would share with you a copy of the transmittal letter that was sent by the Gorham School Committee to the Town Council along with the proposed FY 19 Gorham School Budget. This letter provides a succinct overview of the proposed FY 19 School Budget for those that might be interested in the "cliff notes" version of information!

A link to the full budget document is at the bottom of the page. Here's the letter:

April 19, 2018

To:  Ephrem Paraschak, Town Manager & Members of the Gorham Town Council

From:  Darryl Wright, Chair, Gorham School Committee

Re:  FY 19 School Department Budget

Dear Mr. Paraschak & Town Council Members,

Enclosed and submitted for your review and consideration is the FY 19 School Department Budget that was approved by the School Committee on April 11, 2018 by a vote of 6-1.

This has been yet another challenging budget development year for the Gorham School Department.  While we work to address the needs of our growing student populations, we are simultaneously seeing our state subsidy go down significantly due to our increasing property values and the state’s increase in the minimum mil expectation.  

On the expenditure side of the budget, there are three key factors influencing our FY 19 proposed budget.  Those are (1) maintaining costs associated with existing staff, (2) addressing the needs of our increasing student populations - especially at grades K-5, and (3) addressing the needs of our struggling learners through special education and other required student support services.  

The cost to simply maintain our existing staff is approximately $920,000.00.  This is due mostly to contracted salary increases (2.0% plus steps, GTA, 2.5% no steps Admin., 2.5% no steps Central Office Support, and two contracts that are still in negotiations - MBCC & SAA) as well as increases to health insurance (9%).  In terms of our student populations, we are anticipating an increase of 77 students across grades K-12, but an increase of 96 students in just grades K-5. This has caused us to have to add 3 more K-5 classroom teachers and to add 2 portable classroom spaces (1 at GHS and 1 at Village Elem.).  Our special education populations have grown from 342 students in 2010-11 (when we had a Director and an Assistant Director) to 355 students in 2017-18. Our numbers of students in 504 have grown from just 43 in 2010-11 to 121 in 2017-18, and our Gifted and Talented student population has also increased from 250 in 2010-11 to 319 in 2017-18.

Our per pupil expenditures (which are 12th out of 13 Cumberland County School Systems) were $13,811.00 per pupil in FY 18.  If you add 77 students and multiply that times that per pupil amount you would expect an increase in the budget (with no other changes) of $1,063,447.00.  The total projected increase in the budget for FY 19 is $1,666,912.00. The difference between these two figures is $603,465.00. This would be an increase of just 1.6% due to CPI.  To us, this demonstrates that the problem with the FY 19 budget is NOT an expenditure problem, but a revenue problem.

On the revenue side of the budget, our challenges are significant.  All told, Gorham is losing $1,282,170.00 in state subsidy in just one year!  This loss of state subsidy is due mainly to things that are far outside of the School Department’s control.  There are two key factors contributing to our loss of subsidy: (1) The increase of the minimum mil expectation, as set by the state annually, from 8.19 mils to 8.51 mils.  This is the amount the state requires us to contribute locally in order to receive state subsidy dollars. (2) The increase of Gorham’s state property values by 6% between FY 18 and FY 19.  

State property values are used by the State within the EPS funding formula to determine a community’s ability to pay for public education.  As your property values go up, the state believes you can contribute more locally to fund public education. The increase in the min. mil expectation from 8.19 to 8.51 resulted in a loss of just over $500,000.00 in state subsidy.  The difference between this figure and the total loss of $1,282,170.00 is primarily due to Gorham’s overall increase in state property values. In effect - a “double-whammy” for sure.

The School Committee, in consultation with the District Leadership Team, spent 5 grueling meetings (one full day Saturday) reviewing and analyzing our proposed FY 19 budget in great detail.  Between both groups, we either deflected or cut almost $1.3 million dollars from the Superintendent’s original proposals.

This proposed budget totals $39,288,505 and represents a 4.43% increase in expenditures over the final approved FY 18 Budget of $37,621,593.  This budget requires a 16.12% increase in the local appropriation. Assuming General Purpose Aid (GPA) is finalized at the proposed level, and the actual FY 18 property tax increases by a little over  $30 million in FY 19, the impact of this budget on the mil rate is an increase of 13.96% or $1.55 on the mil. In review of the FY 19 budget summary page in the booklet you will see the increase in the local appropriation is $2,887,024.

During the past year, the School Department has continued to review all programs, personnel, facilities, and attendant infrastructure to assess their utility and their value in advancement of a high quality, comprehensive educational program for all our students.  The School Department began a study of its K-5 school configurations this past spring, which resulted in a 40 page report distributed to the School Committee in November, 2017. The School Committee has worked on this report and determined that it needs to do additional study so that it may form a long term plan for our K-5 schools, which would inform how we want our schools to be configured in both the short and long term.  The School Committee has commissioned a demographic study as well as a long range facilities planning study for our K-5 schools that we hope will inform this long range plan. Those studies will be completed in Fall of 2018.

With a dramatically shifting landscape at the state and local level, with our continued increasing enrollments, and with our need to maintain our aging facilities, the Gorham School Committee voted 6-1 to bring forward the proposed FY 19 budget to the Town Council.  We believe it represents the funds necessary to continue to support the high quality educational services we strive to provide for our community’s most precious resource - its children.

We look forward to the joint TC/SC FY 19 Budget Workshop scheduled for May 15th, 2018.  In the interim, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Finance Officer, Hollis Cobb and/or Superintendent, Heather Perry.

Thank you,

Darryl Wright, SC Chair

Here's the link to the FY 19 Proposed Gorham School Department Budget Booklet.

Information for Gorham Parents Regarding Bullying

Good morning everyone.  I hope you all are well and enjoying what seems to be (knock on wood) the beginning of some spring weather here in Gorham!  With weather being mentioned, and as a quick follow up to my last blog post - I did want to update parents that as of right now, we have used 8 snow days here in Gorham and the last student day will be June 19 barring any other potential school closings.  June 19th will be an early release day for students.

With that important update out of the way - I wanted to take a minute to address a difficult topic that is much more complex than the term itself can ever communicate - the issue of bullying.  I want to be upfront in letting all of you know that the purpose of this communication is not to try and say that bullying does not occur in the Gorham Schools.  Bullying can occur in any setting where children group together.  These settings can be in community locations like recreation department activities, they can be in schools, they can be on buses, and they can be online and just about everywhere in between.  Bullying is a community-wide issue that absolutely impacts schools and many other locations & activities within our community.

The Gorham Schools deal with issues related to bullying on a monthly if not weekly basis.  So far this year, our schools have received 23 bullying complaints, of which, after complete investigations by school administration, 15 were confirmed cases of bullying and were treated as such while another 8 were not confirmed.  These figures are accurate up through March as compared to full-year data from 2016-17 that showed 21 reports of bullying across the district with 12 of them being confirmed as bullying.  I share this not because I think these are "good" numbers because even one case of bullying in our schools is too many cases.  I share this because I want parents to know that not every instance of bullying that is reported is indeed bullying and because I want parents to know that when reported, we do investigate each report and once facts from all sides have been gathered, we then respond to each reported case.

It is difficult to talk about the issue of bullying for lots of different reasons.  Here are a few of the ones I find most difficult:

1.  Bullying is a term that is often overused and unclear, and many people don't know exactly what it means,
2.  Bullying, even when it is found to have occurred is almost never a "black and white" issue with clear lines of delineation between the "victim" and the "bully", and
3.  Communication is difficult on this issue, especially from schools where rules of confidentiality are paramount.

In order to assist with addressing the first problem, I thought it might be helpful to try and be more clear about what bullying is according to the definitions contained within our school policies.  I also thought it might be informative for me to describe how the schools respond to a report of bullying using our policies and procedures so that parents can see the steps that are typically taken by our schools regarding reporting, investigation, and discipline.  Finally, I wanted to end this post by providing an overview to parents on where we tend to spend most of our energy here in Gorham - prevention.  Let's start with our policy definition of bullying first.  Here goes!

The two policies for the Gorham Schools that deal with bullying are policies JICK - Bullying, and Policy JICK-R - Bullying Procedures.  I have provided hyperlinks to both so that you can review them in more detail if you are interested.   The most informative one for parents is likely the JICK-R Bullying procedures policy.  In this policy bullying is defined as:

“Bullying” includes, but is not limited to a written, oral or electronic expression or a physical act or gesture or any combination thereof directed at a student or students that:

A.  Has, or a reasonable person would expect it to have, the effect of:

1.  Physically harming a student or damaging a student's property; or
2.  Placing a student in reasonable fear of physical harm or damage to his/her property; or

B.  Interferes with the rights of a student by:
1.  Creating an intimidating or hostile educational environment for the student; or
2.  Interfering with the student's academic performance or ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities or privileges provided by the school; or

C.  Is based on:

1.  A student's actual or perceived characteristics identified in 5 MRSA ss 4602 or 4684-A (including race; color; ancestry; national origin; sex; sexual orientation; gender identity or expression; religion; physical or mental disability or other distinguishing personal characteristics ( such as socioeconomic status; age; physical appearance; weight; or family status); or
2.  A student's association with a person with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics or any other distinguishing characteristics; and that has the effect described in subparagraph A. or B. above.

As you can see, this is a pretty lengthy definition.  It is also important to note a separate section in the policy that makes it clear that bullying can occur either in person (with physical proximity), or it also may occur online by what is commonly known as cyberbullying.  It is also important to note that because of "Section B"'s portion of the definition, issues that may occur outside of school often may still be investigated by the school as potential bullying behaviors because they may still have an impact on how a student feels while at school.  Because of that effect, these circumstances are now also considered instances of bullying that if reported, the school must investigate.

It is equally important to note that not every "mean" behavior is to be considered bullying.  The threshold for bullying is really created by taking the three aspects of the definition together with how the reported "victim" perceives these acts to impact them in order to meet the definition of bullying.  As I hope you can see, this is definitely not a "black and white" rule that can be interpreted the same way for each individual circumstance.  

What can be applied the same way to each individual circumstance, however, is the processes we use to report and investigate these complaints.  This is where our policies come into play.  The Gorham Schools have policies JICK, JICK-R, JICK-E1, JICK-E2 and JICK-E3 that guide our work in this area.  Although the specific paperwork associated with these procedures may differ slightly, the steps are all consistent.  Here is a summary of the step by step process that occurs at all Gorham Schools whenever a report of bullying is received:

Step 1:  A bullying report is filed (JICK-E1).  This can be reported verbally or in writing.  If reported verbally, the administrator who completes the investigation will reduce the report to writing so that there is a written log of a report being filed.  ANYONE can report an issue of bullying.  The "victim" can report, another student can report, a parent/guardian can report, a staff member can report, and even anonymous reports are accepted by school administration.  Any school staff who may witness bullying are required by law to file a report.  

Step 2:  The report is given to school administrators who are required to conduct an investigation of the report. Schools use the same format for documentation of the investigation as can be found on form JICK-E2, however some schools have digitized the process so a paper form is not utilized, but rather a google form, or other digital record keeping tool.

Step 3:  After completion of the investigation, the administration makes a determination as to whether the report of bullying is substantiated or not (JICK & JICK-R form the basis for this determination).  This determination is communicated to both the alleged "target" and their family as well as to the alleged "bully" and their family.  If the report of bullying is substantiated, the administration will also determine any measures that are taken to ensure the safety of the "target" and also communicates those measures to the "target" and their family.  Finally, if the report of bullying is substantiated, the administration will determine what consequences are most appropriate for the "bully" and communicates those to the "bully" and their family.  This communication is done using form JICK-E3, although once again, some schools have digitized this process so the form this information takes may look a little different.

Step 4:  At the conclusion of the process, a copy of all completed forms, regardless of determination, is sent to the Superintendent's office for review and reporting to the Maine Department of Education.

It is important to note that throughout this process, school administration works diligently to ensure the confidentiality of information for all students that may be involved.  We communicate with the families and students directly involved as required by policy, but we cannot communicate information about student behavior more broadly.  This is the reason why when a circumstance of alleged bullying comes up in the media, schools are not allowed to make comments beyond explaining general processes and procedures that are used to address bullying behaviors.  The confidentiality of student information remains paramount throughout the process.

This brings me to the final part of this blog post, and where the Gorham Schools tends to place much of its focus regarding the issue of bullying in our schools - prevention.  There is no single method or "pancea" that can be used to prevent bullying.  Although I wish this were possible, it simply is not.  Instead, the Gorham Schools provide a multitude of programs and staffing aimed at prevention of bullying.  Much of this work begins with our emphasis on the Student Code of Conduct:

RESPECT:  A person who is respectful of oneself, others and the environment

Does Not. . .	Does. . .
·       Verbally abuse self or others. ·       Physically abuse self or others. ·       Cause damage to property.	·       Demonstrate polite and appropriate interactions with others. ·       Value themselves and others. ·       Care for surroundings.

HONESTY:  A person who is honest in all endeavors

Does Not. . .	Does. . .
·       Plagiarize the work of others. ·       Engage in deceptive, blaming or sneaky behavior ·       Take the property of others.	·       Seek to tell the truth. ·       Accepts ownership and responsibility for actions and work. ·       Maintain trust in all relationships

COURAGE:  A person who is courageous in the face of ethical challenges

Does Not. . .	Does. . .
·       Submit to peer pressure. ·       Avoid challenges. ·       Sacrifice aspirations when confronted by setbacks	·       Stand up for what is right, even when unpopular. ·       Take appropriate risks. ·       Seek advice when making difficult decisions.

COMPASSION:  A person who is compassionate

Does Not. . .	Does. . .
·       Ignore another’s pain, suffering or needs. ·       Hurt other’s feelings ·       Take advantage of others	·       Show empathy by being sensitive to the perspectives, needs and feelings of others. ·       Care about others and help them. ·       Reach out to those in need.

RESPONSIBILITY:  A person who is responsible as an individual and as a member of a community

Does Not. . .	Does. . .
·       Project blame on others. ·       Exploit others ·       Ignore assumed duties or neglect obligations	·       Demonstrate accountability for personal behavior. ·       Take initiative to do the things that are expected. ·       Follow through with commitments.

This code of conduct is used across all our schools K-12.  It creates a common language and a common set of expectations for student behaviors in all our schools.  We celebrate it when we see it being demonstrated, and we are clear with students when it is not.  This "Code" forms the foundation of our prevention work and can be seen in just about everything that we do with students.

Additionally, we have specific staffing and programs at each grade level that also focus on prevention:

K-5:
-  Second Step Curriculum (delivered to grades K-5)
-  Guidance Counselors who work with large group instruction, and small group social/emotional learning environments.
-  Structured recesses
-  Social Workers who work with small groups and individual students in the area of social/emotional learning.
-  School Resource Officer (Officer Coffin) who works with large groups, small groups, and individual students on this and many other topics.
-  School-based Student Civil Rights Teams
-  Various school-wide assemblies.
-  Our incredibly talented teaching and administrative teams

6-8:
-  Guidance Counselors who work with large group instruction, and small group social/emotional learning environments.
-  Social Workers who work with small groups and individual students in the area of social/emotional learning.
-  School Resource Officer (Officer Coffin) who works with large groups, small groups, and individual students on this and many other topics.
-  Health Curriculum Units (delivered to grades 6-8)
-  Common sense media curriculum work for grades 6-8 (focus on cyberbullying prevention)
-  School-based Student Civil Rights Team
-  School-wide use of Restorative Practices (Restorative Justice Program)
-  Various student leadership group focus such as student council
-  Various school-wide assemblies.
-  Our incredibly talented teaching and administrative teams

9-12:
-  Guidance Counselors who work with small group social/emotional learning environments.
-  Social Workers who work with small group and individual students in the area of social/emotional learning.
-  School Resource Officer (Officer Drown - "Pooch") who works with small groups, and individual students on this and many other topics.
-  Health Curriculum Units (1 credit required for all students)
-  Youth Court
-  60+ student clubs and activities such as interact club, civil rights team, Key club and many more.
- Captains club meetings of all athletic captains to focus on leadership and positive culture development.
-  Various student leadership group focus such as student council, school council, etc.
-  Various school-wide assemblies.
-  Our incredibly talented teaching and administrative teams

These are just some of the basic things we do to focus on building positive school cultures here in Gorham that work to try and prevent bullying behaviors, among other things.  This is not an exhaustive list, and we add things as needed.  We take great pride in our overall positive school cultures in Gorham.  We want to make sure that each and every student knows that they have someone here that they can turn to if they are experiencing any problems, including bullying, while learning within the Gorham Schools.

I would encourage parents to continue to learn more about bullying.  There are lots of great resources and tools online.  Here are just a few:

https://www.stopbullying.gov/what-you-can-do/index.html

http://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/5-ways-to-stop-cyberbullies-0

http://www.safekids.com/bullying-cyberbullying-resources/

https://www.wizcase.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-online-browsing/

Finally, I would encourage any parent or community member who may be worried that someone they know and love in the Gorham Schools is experiencing bullying to please reach out to our school staff.  I hope you can see from the information above that we take each report very seriously and although not every report winds up turning out to be bullying, every report does result in opportunities for further learning, growth and development for our youth.

Thank you!

Random Updates From Winter, 2018!

Here I sit, working from home as another Noreast'ah bears down upon us dumping 12+ inches of snow!  I am not sure about anyone else, but I know that I am most DEFINITELY ready for spring at this point!  It has just been the strangest fall/winter when it comes to weather!  An indication of that is that today's snow day will be snow day #7 here in Gorham.  This is an all-time high for me in my 13 years of being a Superintendent in the state of Maine.  The sad part is that tomorrow might be another snow day and I am now hearing rumors that they are tracking another storm for early next week!  Arghhh!  Maybe if we all wish for spring together it will come - so keep wishing!

As a result of all these snow days, I'm sure many of you are wondering what my plans are for the end of the school year and the potential to try and make up some of these days.  I will be honest, as of right now, I do not have a solid plan, only ideas, and possibilities.  As of today's snow day, the last student day in Gorham would be Monday, June 18 with no changes or adjustments.  Of course, if we have another snow day tomorrow, that would change to Tuesday, June 19 as the last student day.  I would prefer NOT to go past Wednesday, June 20 as the last student day.  That being said, I have been thinking about possible contingency plans should the need arise that range from the utilization of  a planned Early Release Day in May to the movement of the last staff workshop day in June to the possibility of extending the school day by 1 hour each day for the week prior to April break to make up 1 student day.  At this point, my goal is to get through the month of March and re-assess where we stand at that point, make a plan, and communicate it to everyone as soon as possible once "Ole Man Winter" finally releases his grip on us (we hope) - so please stay tuned!

There are several other things I want to make sure to update all of you on so here goes:

FY 19 Budget Development Processes:

I presented my proposed budget to the School Committee on Wednesday, February 14.  Since then the School committee has met twice.  Once, during a full day budget workshop on March 3 and a second time just last night.  The initial proposed budget reflected an increase in expenditures of 6.45% over last year, primarily due to increasing student populations.  At its meeting on March 3, the School Committee directed me to work with the District Leadership team to develop a "reductions list" that would bring our overall expenditures down to a 4% increase over last year.  This required us to work to find approximately $900,000.00 worth of proposed reductions which were delivered to the School Committee last night.  The School Committee will now take these proposed reductions and work to decide what remains in the proposed budget and what does not over the course of their next several planned meetings (March 19, March 26, and April 2nd).  All budget meetings are held at 7:00 p.m. Upstairs in the municipal building for those of you interested in attending.  If you can't attend, but would like to follow the work, please visit our website LINKED HERE. 

The School Committee is scheduled to approve of a proposed FY 19 budget at their regular meeting held on April 11, 2018, starting at 7:00 p.m. in council chambers.  Once the School Committee approves of the budget, it will then be sent on to the Town Council for their review.  We will meet jointly with the Town Council on May 15 at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers, and then the Town Council will vote to approve a School Budget on June 5.  Finally, Gorham voters will be asked to validate the budget on June 12, 2018, via referendum.

If anyone has any questions about the proposed FY 19 budget, please do not hesitate to ask!  You can email me directly at heather.perry@gorhamschools.org.

Gorham Schools Strategic Plan

The School Committee voted in December to approve of a new five year Strategic Plan for the Gorham Schools.  It has taken a little time to "pretty up" the document, but it is now ready for public consumption.  You can find it by CLICKING HERE.  Again, any questions, please feel free to email me!

K-5 Configuration Conversation

The School Committee has decided NOT to make any changes to the K-5 configurations for the 2018-19 School year.  However, this does not mean that changes may not still be on the horizon for following years.  The School Committee agreed that what it was lacking was a long-term plan for their K-5 facilities and has committed to creating such a plan before taking these conversations back up again.  The goal would be to create this long-term plan and to then use the long-term plan to "plan backward" for short-term action steps that help move the district towards the realization of its long-term plan.  In order to create this long-term plan, the School Committee has requested two significant "studies" to be completed. 

One will be a "Demographic Study".  This study will be completed by the New England School Development Council (NESDEC), the same organization that has been completing our enrollment studies for the past two years.  NESDEC is a highly recognized leader in these types of consulting services for schools.  A demographic study is a much more in-depth form of an enrollment study.  Officials from NESDEC complete a "deeper dive" into our enrollment data to check for trends.  They look at the data from a whole community perspective, but also by our attendance zones which feed into each of our three elementary schools.  They work directly with the Town's Planning Department to gain a stronger sense of not only the number of permits being issued for developments but also the locations of those developments and study more deeply the implications for numbers of children that may enter the community.  The study takes several weeks to complete and is in "the works" right now.  Once completed it will give us a much more detailed view of what to expect over the next 10 years for increasing enrollments and where to expect it.

Another study that will be completed will be a "Long Range School Master Plan".  This study will also be completed by NESDEC.  This study would create a profile of the present state and future plans for the educational programs for each of our three elementary schools and our middle school.  It would map out our existing facilities in terms of square footage and usability and model different possible scenarios for grade configurations that would most efficiently use our spaces.  Finally, it would help provide several different scenarios for future plans, complete with potential implications of those scenarios to the School Committee.  This study takes upwards of 6 months to complete.

As you can see, the two studies requested will take some time to complete.  I would envision that these two studies can be completed and presented to the School Committee by the Fall of 2018.  Once the information has been gathered, the School Committee would then need to use that information to finalize their long-range facilities plan for our K-5 facilities and then move forward from there.  All meetings to discuss this information will occur at the School Committee level so keep your eyes open for agenda topics and feel free to pop in on meetings if you'd like!

School Day/Start Time Discussions

To be honest, there is not much to report on this topic, but I did want to make sure everyone knew it hadn't just disappeared.  If you recall, I let folks know about this work this past fall in one of my earlier updates.  The School Day Committee reported out its findings on November 29, 2017, to the School Committee.  Since then, the School Committee has been grappling with the K-5 Configuration discussion, and now is very busily working to develop a proposed FY 19 budget.  Because of this, this work has not yet been brought back to the table by the School Committee for discussion.  I suspect this will occur, however in April/May after the SC has approved of their proposed FY 19 budget.

That being said, if you recall, the committee that studied this important topic found two things:  First, that the science behind the importance of sleep for adolescents is very real and is very compelling indicating that waking an adolescent up at 7:00 a.m. is like waking an adult up at 4:30 a.m. every morning.  They simply are not ready to wake up at that time, and if they do wake up, it may not be the optimal time for them to learn.  Secondly, the Gorham Schools has the shortest instructional day of any school in Cumberland County.  We differ by as little as 10 minutes per day in some areas, but by as much as 30 minutes per day in other areas.

The Committee researched these facts very deeply and came up with a recommendation for the Gorham School Committee to:

*  Consider "flip-flopping" the start times of our GMS and GHS students with those of our K-5 students to begin in the Fall of 2019
*  Consider increasing the length of our K-5 school day by 15 minutes each day and require detailed studies of our GMS and GHS schedules for optimal use of our instructional time.

These recommendations were presented to the School Committee in November and it is these recommendations the SC will take up in April/May of this year.  Just to be clear - NO DECISIONS HAVE BEEN MADE at this point.  I just wanted to make sure folks realized these conversations are still occurring and these recommendations are still being considered.  There will be ample time for a more public conversation later this spring so please stay tuned!

GHS Building Project

The GHS Building Committee and Athletic Capital Campaign Committee continue to meet jointly on this project, although without much success due to recent weather!  We are next scheduled to meet on March 27 at 7:00 p.m. to review the first draft of overall program space needs with assistance from our partners at Harriman Associates.  Once program space needs are agreed upon, that document will then be used to develop our first series of possible concept designs to make these space needs work within existing constraints.  Our hope is that we can finalize these program needs by early April and begin looking at concept designs by May. 

In the meantime, we've been hard at work on multiple other fronts.  We've been working to develop a community survey that we hope to launch later this spring.  We have also been working with the Town Council and other community members to nail down use of possible adjacent spaces to the high school in our design plans and finally, we have been working closely with GHS staff to develop an in-depth understanding of what they feel the program space needs are so that those may be incorporated into our planning.

We will continue to work on finalizing our program space needs and hopefully get to some conceptual drawings later this spring.  Once we have conceptual drawings we will have a stronger sense of potential cost estimates for the project.  Right now we are working with a target of bringing forward a public referendum for this project in June of 2019.  Of course, this target date may change as we work through the complex tasks required to make sure that what we bring forward best balances the needs of our students with the needs of the taxpayers who so strongly support us!  Please stay tuned!

As you can see, the Gorham Schools are constantly seeking to improve so that we may best support our incredibly talented students.  There are always great things going on in our schools and I encourage you to follow us on our district and school Facebook Pages, Twitter pages, and Instagram pages.  You can also always find upcoming events listed on our district website, or if you want to see what is happening at each school, just click on the school's webpage as well.  There is never a loss of things to be involved in so check it out!

I'd like to end this post by just sharing a video that was put together by GHS students and staff showcasing our incredible high school.  To me, this video exemplifies how incredibly talented and caring our students and staff are across grades K-12!  I don't know about you - but I am most definitely PROUD TO BE A RAM!  Check it out!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dKHtt5wpwAxfvPpzHrhFK1-frTJmuIzW