February Update

Introduction and THANK-YOU's:

This blog post will focus mainly on providing K-5 families an update on our Attendance zone shifts and where we are with planning associated with this change in preparation for the opening of the 2020-21 school year.  I'll have several other updates in this blog post as well and will use clear headings to hopefully allow readers to thoroughly review the parts that interest them, and skim through the rest.

Before I get to the "meat" of this update, however, I wanted to share a few "Thank You's" to folks that have helped me remain focused on the right things as an educational leader recently.  The pace of this work is pretty fast, and the pressures are often pretty strong since in this job we don't work with building "widgets" but in building young adults and preparing them for their successful futures.  No small feat indeed, but one I am proud to say I believe we here in Gorham do a very good job of.

This success does not come without a cost and often the cost is emotional stress, burnout, and all the negatives associated with performing such an emotionally charged job day in and day out.  For me, the only way I remain focused on the "right things" (supporting our students and staff) is by getting out into classrooms, interacting with students and staff and seeing for myself what their needs are.

Recently, I had the awesome experience of shadowing Elijah from GHS.  Elijah is a student at GHS who also attends the Plumbing and Heating Program at Portland Arts and Technology High School (PATHS).  When I shadowed Elijah he was learning about how to solder pipes in order to install heat into a modular home they were building that will eventually be sold to an actual home buyer in the area.  The instructor was incredible and the students were awesome!  What a great program and what incredible learning experiences we are able to offer our students who participate in Career and Technical Learning at either PATHS or Westbrook Regional Vocational Center (WRVC).  Thank you, Elijah and team, for an awesome day of learning!

I have also recently had the opportunity to participate in reading aloud to students as part of Great Fall's "One school one author" program and more recently as part of World Read Aloud Day and the "Read To ME" challenge.  Please know the crown was a gift from students and when I was done reading, I challenged all my building principals and AP's to read aloud to classrooms as well. If you are a twitter follower, you can check #ReadtoME to see how this program is spreading across the state!  I'd encourage you to read to a child, post a picture/video with that hashtag and challenge your own friends/family to do the same!

THANK YOU to the classroom teachers who invited me into their classrooms to read.  I will often tell students when I come in to read that reading to them is like "recess" . . . it is FUN for me to get out and see them and to laugh and learn with them.  Although this is absolutely true, the reality goes deeper than that.  It is only through experiences like these that I can remain grounded as a leader.  These experiences help me to get through the more stressful parts of my job and to focus on what really counts - SUPPORTING OUR STUDENTS and OUR STAFF!

Now on to the "meat" of this post...

K-5 Attendance Zone Planning:

In my last posting regarding the K-5 Attendance zone shifts, I stated that during the month of February, I would be prepared to share what we anticipate to be the staffing shifts for 2020-21 associated with the K-5 attendance zone change.  As promised, those changes are outlined below.  

Before I share those, just a quick clarifying statement. . . These staffing lists are our best attempt to make assignments for the 2020-21 School year based on what we currently know.  THESE ARE NOT YET FINAL, nor can they be until we complete the FY 21 budget process.  Therefore, please understand that these assignments are still subject to change as we move through the FY 21 budget development process.  

With that caveat in mind, here is the staffing list we anticipate for the 2020-21 school year across each of the K-5 Schools:

* Sue Small above should be "Sue Speed" - apologies!

Those names that are highlighted in yellow are teachers who will be changing assignments in the 2020-21 School year.  If they are coming from another school that is noted in the parathesis and if they are moving grade levels, but within the same school that is also noted.  These will be the grade level teams at each school for 2020-21 barring adjustments that may need to be made as part of the FY 21 budget development process.

Now that we know grade-level assignments, we are prepared to work through student assignments to specific classrooms in a similar manner to how it has always been done at the K-5 levels.  The only difference will be that we will be cognizant to place students who may be moving from one school to a  new school in groups of peers who are experiencing the same shifts and with the teachers who are most skilled at working with these types of transitions.  As parents, if you have any questions or concerns, I would urge you to reach out to your school's principal.

In my last blog post, I also promised an update to K-5 parents on the various transition activities that are being planned for the spring to assist students, families, and staff in making this transition as positive an experience as possible.  Please know that the list below is not an "all-inclusive" list.  It is constantly being discussed and revised as we work through the spring.  I hope this list provides at least a starting point for conversation and an understanding of the types of things we are trying to do to assist families in this transition process.  Also, please note that some of these activities are "typical" activities that each school plans annually.  Principals are noting these activities both for new families that might want to join in on these activities, but also to know that for those families who may be having to move that they are still welcome to attend and in fact, encouraged to do so as a way to help children "let go" of one school and embrace a new one.

Here's the list:

2019-2020 K-5 Transition Activities
Dates	Students	Parents/Families
Nov. 4 - June 2020	Ongoing Building Tours for New Families at Narragansett Ongoing Access to Principal Remick RE: Transition and Individual Student Needs cynthia.remick@gorhamschools.org  or (207) 222-1250 Invitation to follow Narragansett’s Social Media Sites Facebook: Narragansett Elementary School@narragansettgorham Twitter: Narragansett School@Narragansett_ES Instagram: Narragansett School@narragansett.gorhamschools.org/
	Family Movie Night at Narr. (6:00-8:30) has been moved to Feb. 28 due to recent snow days.  Admission is FREE!
Week of Feb. 10, 2020	Student to Student Welcome Letters will be distributed
Feb. 10, 2020		Invitation to attend Narragansett PIE Meeting (6:00-7:00, Library)
Week of Feb. 24. 2020	Cross grade level lunch groups (GF)
Feb. 28, 2020	Great Falls One School/ One Book Family Literacy Night	Great Falls One School/ One Book Family Literacy Night
March 3, 2020		Kindergarten Parent Information Night (5:30, Gym)
March 9, 2020		Invitation to attend Narragansett PIE Meeting (6:00-7:00, Library)
March 10, 2020		K-5 Parent Information Night RE: Cyber Safety at Narragansett (6:00-7:00, Library)
March 27, 2020	Invitation to attend the Narragansett Family Skate Night (or Bowling Night) (We are looking for a replacement event for going to Happy Wheels)
March 30 - June 9, 2020	K-5 staff will share known information regarding Individual students across schools as applicable to assist with the classroom placement process. Some Narragansett staff members (social worker, special education, etc.) will visit Great Falls and Village to meet select students	Principal Remick will invite families to share information regarding individual students to assist with the classroom placement process, as well as the transition to Narragansett School
April 3, 2020	Village School Family Movie Night (6-7:30 p.m.)	Village School Family Movie Night (6-7:30 p.m.)
April 1  - May 3, 2020	Invitation to participate in the Narragansett 5K, 1-Mile & Fun Run Event on May 3rd
April 13, 2020		Invitation to attend Narragansett PIE Meeting (6:00-7:00, Library)
April 15, 2020	Invitation to attend the Narragansett Talent Show (6:00-7:00, Gym)
April 16, 2020	Invitation to attend the Elementary Musical ~ Wizard of Oz at GMS
Late April & May	Transition Visits for Individual Students with staff from the sending school
May 3, 2020	Invitation to attend the Narragansett 5K, 1-Mile & Fun Run Event (8:00-12:00)
May 8, 2020	Great Falls Family Fun and Wellness Night	Great Falls Family Fun and Wellness Night
May 11, 2020		Invitation to attend Narragansett PIE Meeting (6:00-7:00, Library)
May 14, 2020		K-5 Parent Step-Up Night for Grades 1-5 (6:00-7:00)
May 21, 2020	Invitation to attend the Narragansett Art Show and Spring Picnic (5:30-7:00)
May 2020 TBD	Village School Celebration of Curriculum	Village School Celebration of Curriculum
May 27-June 3, 2020	Grade Level Field Days at USM
June 2020 TBD	Village School Spring Fling	Village School Spring Fling
June 2020 TBD	Great Falls EOY Family Picnic	Great Falls EOY Family Picnic
June 2020 TBD	Step Up Day for Current Grade 1-4 Students; All students will receive a small gift

Once again, please reach out to building Principals if you have any questions regarding any of these activities and know that this is not an all-inclusive list.  We will continue to update this list and get information out to parents via Thursday folders regarding these opportunities and others that may be added throughout the course of the spring.

FY 21 Budget Development Information and Timeline:

It is definitely that time of year again as we work with staff, administrators, the School Committee, Town Council and the Gorham community as a whole to develop our school budget for FY 21 (2020-21 school year).  This process begins each year in November as we ask teachers and other staff to think about what they need to operate their programs for the following year.  Building principals and program directors then work diligently over the course of November and December to put together their proposals.  Then in January, each principal and program director meets individually with myself, assistant superintendent Record and business manager Hollis Cobb to review each request line by line by line.  Once that process is completed, we then put together an initial proposed budget and then work together as a district leadership team to clarify priorities, make adjustments and create what is called the Superintendent's Initial Proposed budget that is presented to the School Committee in February.  

That is where we are in the process right now.  The Superintendent's proposed budget will be presented to the School Committee on Feb. 12, 2020, for review.  The School Committee will then meet for a full day budget workshop on Feb. 29, 2020, and then for one or two more meetings (as needed) to make adjustments to the initial proposal so that by the end of this work, they approve of a proposed budget in April 2020.  This budget then becomes the School Committee's proposed budget.  This budget is then sent on to the Town Council.  The School Committee then meets jointly with the Town Council to review the proposed budget in May 2020 and then the Town Council votes on a final budget in June.  The final budget approved by the Town Council is then sent on to the voters of Gorham via a validation referendum also held in June.  Although the Town Council can't make line item changes to the budget, they can increase or reduce the proposed budget.  Whatever final budget they approve must be "validated" by voters via referendum or the whole process repeats itself until a budget can be passed by the School Committee, the Town Council and validated via referendum.

For those interested in the specific dates/times of meetings, I've included the Budget Development Timeline for FY 21 LINKED HERE.  All meetings will be either lived streamed or recorded this year using GoCat.  I will also make sure to upload information as we move through the process to the district's website which is LINKED HERE.  Finally, I encourage anyone with questions to please reach out to me via email to ask any questions you may have, big or small.  There is nothing worse than misinformation so please don't be shy in asking questions if you have them.  You may not always agree with my answers, but I promise to always respond to your questions honestly!

School Committee Public Information:

Recently, I've had several questions from folks about how best to follow some of the big-ticket conversations that the school committee has been undertaking in order to ensure we continue to offer the best possible educational programs for our children.  I thought it might be a good idea to run through the best places to find information related to the work of the school committee in one location.  So here goes.

First, for those of you that would like to have regular meeting agendas sent to you via email, you can sign up on the Town's website for that.  Just CLICK HERE and once on the town's site go to the bottom of the page and click on "Subscribe"...when you get to that page, just fill in your email address and then under "Meeting agenda" select "School Committee" and you will be good to go to have agendas sent directly to you.

Of course, seeing the agenda is just part of the equation.  Seeing agenda packet materials will give you more detailed information if you want to dig more deeply into a topic the school committee is considering.  In order to see the specific agenda packets provided to the school committee for all regular meetings, CLICK HERE to go to our website where you can view all regular and special agendas, all regular and special meeting notes, and where there is a specific link to click into the board packets themselves.

Another great way to follow the work of the School Committee is to follow the work done within its various subcommittees.  The School Committee has several standing committees and ad hoc committees.  You can view agendas and meeting notes by CLICKING HERE.  

Finally, if you ever want to reach out to members of the School Committee to ask questions or to share your ideas, you can CLICK HERE to view their names and contact information.  I typically advise folks that wish to communicate directly with school committee members to please email the chair (Stewart McCallister) and then cc the remaining members and myself on your message.  That always seems to get the best and most efficient response.  Please know that even though you may email all SC members, you will only get a response from either the chair or myself.  This is simply intended to ensure that a consistent message is being sent to folks with questions and does not mean that every member of the school committee hasn't read your email or correspondence, because trust me, they have.

Well I think that is enough information for this month's blog post.  Next month I'll spend some time providing more detailed information regarding the proposed FY 21 budget, I will update folks on how we are moving forward with addressing the capital facilities needs of our schools and whatever other timely topics come up between now and then!

Thank you for reading!

QUICK Update on Recent GHS Building Project & Planned Next Steps

I wanted to be sure to get information out to parents regarding what I perceive were the results of last night's joint meeting between the Gorham Town Council and the Gorham School Committee on the proposed GHS building project.  I've already heard a nice little "buzz" on social media today - so I wanted to try and get some factual information out there for folks, as best I could.  I also wanted to encourage folks that have questions to please reach out to me with those questions so I can answer them accurately.  Nothing worse than misinformation in the age of information for sure! ☺

The first piece of misinformation I wish to correct would be the headlines in today's American Journal that state the GHS project was "shot down"... nice headline, but not fully accurate.

Before I give a rundown of the outcomes of the meeting itself, I wanted to be sure to share all the informational materials that were shared last night with the Town Council and members of the public who attended.  CLICK HERE to see the meeting agenda and resource material links found at the bottom of the agenda.  There is LOTS of information there - but I think it is labeled clearly enough so folks can follow along if you'd like.  If you run into questions - again - please ask!

Overall, I believe the meeting went as well as could be expected when upwards of a $72 million dollar capital building project is being requested by the Gorham School Committee to meet the needs of our overcrowded and aging high school.  This is no small "ask" being made by the School Committee who thoroughly understands both the implications of moving forward with this plan and, often just as important, the implications of NOT moving forward with this plan. 

As can be seen when you view the timeline (linked here) the School Committee has spent a great deal of time and energy on this topic over the past ten years in order to try and find a way to address the identified needs of our high school building (linked here) while attempting to balance those needs with the overall needs of our other school facilities (a quick list is linked here).  These needs are primarily being impacted both by an increasing student population and insufficient budgetary resources to support the annual capital renewal and replacement needs of our district's facilities which are currently valued at well over $141 million dollars.   I mention this value only to point out that based upon that figure, we should be reinvesting almost $ 3 million annually in these areas when budgets the past 10+ years have struggled to support $800,000.00 for these purposes.  All of this is of course context for the larger discussion about what to do to address the needs of our high school.

There was some "good news" that came from last night's meeting and some "bad news", all of which I am optimistic about in regards to being able to eventually find a way to solve our growing facilities problems while balancing those needs with the implications of cost we all know too well.

The "good news" was that:

*  The Town Council and School Committee made it clear that jointly there is no question regarding the need for a capital project to address the growing needs of our aging and overcrowded high school facility.

*  The Town Council and School Committee made it clear that jointly there is no question that we will need to make significant investments in our other four facilities to address aging systems and increasing student populations over time.

*  The School Committee's Facilities Committee and the Town Council's Facilities Committee have agreed to meet jointly to accomplish two specific things:  (1) To hire a third-party consultant to conduct a comprehensive facilities study that will result in the creation of a comprehensive school and town-wide facilities plan for the next 10-20+ years.  Both the Town Council and the School Committee agreed to conduct this study jointly and to do their best to adhere to the recommendations that will be contained within the final report as a guide for planning and decision making moving forward.  It will take about 1 year to complete this study. (2) To develop a list of "smaller" facilities needs across the other four school buildings that will be brought forward to voters in November 2020 to address the growing systems needs of our other facilities while we work out plans to address our high school building.

*  There was a renewed commitment by both boards to work TOGETHER to address the overall facilities needs of our continually growing community.

The "bad news" was that:

*  A clear message was sent by the Town Council that they believe strongly a $72 million dollar project could not be brought forward at this time or any time without further thought on all of our parts as to how to creatively finance such a project and how the funding of such a project would fit into the larger scheme of community facilities needs over time.  The School Committee agreed to set aside a formal request to push this project on to voters in favor of trying to find a way to work together as a whole community to address our overall facilities' needs and better plan together how to finance them in a sustainable way. 

*  The facilities needs associated with the GHS building proposal do not simply go away because we agree to take a step back to jointly problem solve.  As we continue to address these issues together, the price of doing anything increases.  Long story short - the costs associated with our continued growth will continue to grow as well.

Overall:

I walked away from last night's meeting with a sense of OPTIMISM.  I know that may sound crazy to folks who think that somehow the GHS project is now "dead".  IT IS NOT. 

What occurred last night was an agreement between Gorham's leaders that to bring forward that specific project proposal without a more comprehensive town-wide approach that is more broadly planned between the town and the schools was not in the best interest of the community as a whole. 

Our community does not exist in a vacuum, nor do our schools.  Our schools are as strong as they are not just because of our parent and staff support and our incredible students, but also BECAUSE OF OUR COMMUNITY'S SUPPORT.  To risk pushing forward without a stronger sense of how this project fits into the Town's overall comprehensive facilities plan (which we have yet to build) would be in no one's best interests.  Therefore, the School Committee and Town Council agreed to create this much needed comprehensive facilities plan, and to think more closely about how to pay for a project of this size on top of addressing all the other facilities needs that exist in Gorham.  The best part of all is that they agreed to do this TOGETHER rather than to allow this type of conversation to split our community apart. 

To be honest, I walked away from that meeting PROUD TO BE A GORHAM RAM more now than ever.  No one "shirked" their responsibilities by saying this project is not needed.  Instead, I felt as though everyone in that room stepped up, agreed to roll their sleeves up and work to solve these problems as only Gorham can - by bringing the community together!

Bottom Line:

Yes the possibility of a GHS building project has effectively been put off for at least a year while we conduct our new study and complete a comprehensive town-wide facilities plan, but we have a little time to play with - not a lot - but a little, and keeping this awesome community together is well worth that time.  No one would question that.  I truly believe that together we will find the right path forward that addresses all of our community's facilities needs.  We will find the "right" solution, but that right solution rightly takes time.  For now, we have that time and I am happy to use it.

Again, I urge folks that may have questions to please reach out to me at heather.perry@gorhamschools.org for answers.  I am ALWAYS willing to chat! 

Thank you and GO RAMS!

Information For Parents on Vaping and Other Updates

Hello everyone.  It has been a while since my last blog post!  My apologies!  Once the Holidays begin to roll in, things get pretty busy around our schools as there is just so much to celebrate and be thankful for!  I hope everyone has enjoyed their Holidays and are now ready to get back to learning!

As usual, I am going to focus this blog on one major topic and then provide a series of short updates with clear headings afterward.  The topic I am selecting to focus this blog post on is one that has become more and more important in schools across the state of Maine, Gorham included.  It is the topic of the increasing problems associated with vaping among our youth.  If you have read recent headlines and thought that Gorham isn't experiencing vaping as an issue, that is simply not the case.  Granted, the issue in our schools is not as prevalent as it may be in other schools but that doesn't mean the issue isn't here and it also doesn't mean that makes this issue any less important to focus on.

If through sharing information and being vigilant on this topic together as parent and school communities, we can prevent just one young person from taking up this nasty habit, I believe our efforts are worth it.

In a recent article from the Bangor Daily News, the newspaper cites data from the state's most recent (2019) Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey (MIYHS) that shows that 28.7% of high school students used e-cigarettes (also known as vaping) in Maine within a 30 day period last spring.  This data is up from the 2018 data which showed only 15.3% of Maine's high school students had self-reported vaping within the last 30 days.  The number of high school students across the state who have tried vaping also increased significantly from 33% in 2017 to 45% in 2019.  Similar trends are seen at the middle school levels across the state and right here in Gorham.  You can view the complete article by CLICKING HERE.

What is causing a certain "allure" for our teenagers towards vaping is that there is a strong perception among teens that vaping is "harmless".  That e-cigarettes are just flavored water vapor and that there are no harmful or addictive substances in e-cigarettes like there are in regular cigarettes with nicotine, tar, and the other myriad of chemicals we are all too familiar with in traditional smoking.  The bottom line is that our children seem to think that vaping is safe.  The facts, however, demonstrate very clearly that this perception couldn't be further from the truth.  Here are just a few of those facts:

*  Most (95%) E-cigarettes contain nicotine.  Nicotine is harmful to the developing brains of adolescents whose brains continue to develop well into their early 20's. Nicotine can negatively impact memory and concentration.  Finally, Nicotine is also addictive so once a teen begins vaping, it is hard to stop.

*  Vaping increases exposure to harmful chemicals.  The specific chemical makeup of e-cigarettes varies greatly and there is little to no oversight to ensure harmful chemicals are not contained within the vapors themselves.  Random testing of e-cigarettes has found heavy metals in the vapor ranging from nickel to tin and even lead.  The long term effects of vaping on the human body are not known.

*  Many e-cigarettes use Diacetyl as a flavoring chemical in their products.  Diacetyl is a chemical linked to serious lung disease.

*  Recent research has shown that adolescent vaping acts as a "gateway" to smoking of tobacco and drugs.

So how did vaping come about and where did this message of harmlessness come from?  E-cigarettes were initially created for current smokers as an alternative to smoking by "Big Tobacco" companies who were losing money as we became more clear about just how dangerous tobacco is.  When a smoker moves from smoking tobacco-based cigarettes which contain more than 599 deadly chemicals to e-cigarettes, there is clearly a benefit.  But this benefit is only for those that are already smoking.  That doesn't mean e-cigarettes are safe, they are simply less deadly than cigarettes, but somehow this message of harmlessness has gotten out and is most prevalent among teens.  Many people believe that companies who make e-cigarettes are specifically marketing to teens to send this message.  "Here's a cool way to smoke that doesn't harm you like tobacco does."  This is simply false and a message that many believe is being spread to make a profit on the backs of our unsuspecting teenagers.  Did you know that Altria, the company that owns Marlborough, is the largest investor in JUUL, the largest manufacturer of e-cigarettes?  HMMMM.

So what are we doing in our schools to try and combat this false message of harmlessness?  Our policies forbid the use of e-cigarettes in any school facility, on school grounds, on school buses or during school-sponsored functions.  We are using time during advisory periods for all GMS and GHS students to talk about vaping with our professional staff.  We are using time during our health classes at GMS and GHS to talk about and inform children on this important topic.  Our social workers and school substance counselors are working hand in hand with our school resource officers to talk with students at our elementary schools on this important topic and to work with individual students or small groups of students who may be having direct problems with vaping in grades 6-8.

Overall, we are working hard to educate our students about the harms associated with vaping, but WE NEED YOUR HELP!  We need parents, all parents, to also have these difficult conversations with children.  Below are just a few resources that parents might find helpful in talking with their children and in learning more about the harms of e-cigarettes and vaping:

*  https://www.lung.org/assets/documents/stop-smoking/how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-vaping.pdf

*  https://e-cigarettes.surgeongeneral.gov/documents/SGR_ECig_ParentTipSheet_508.pdf

*  https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/index.htm

*  https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/10/06/766971966/how-to-talk-to-teens-about-vaping

*  https://www.commonsensemedia.org/kids-action/about-us/our-issues/anti-big-tobacco#

These resources are just starting places for an ongoing conversation that we all need to have with our children regarding these very harmful products.  Please know the schools will continue to do what we can to help educate and we welcome any feedback or suggestions you may have to support this ongoing conversation.  Also, please know we are here to support you having these conversations with children, so please reach out if you have questions.  Thank you.

Now it is time to go into other updates that I hope you will find useful.   I have used headings below to hopefully aid in your ability to skim materials so you read what you are interested in and can skip information you may not be interested in.  As always, if you have any specific questions I can help with, please let me know.

Communication Procedures If a School Bus Is Involved in An Accident While Students Are On Board:

This topic came up recently when we had one school bus bump into another school bus a week or so before the Holiday break.  This minor accident occurred on an afternoon run between two buses.  One bus had no students on it while the other bus had 15 students on it.  This was a minor accident and there were no injuries even though the news reported it literally as "Two Buses in Gorham Collide This Evening".  A slight overstatement for sure, but this is our media nowadays so to be expected I suppose.  Since this minor accident occurred, I thought it would be a good idea to remind parents about what our communication protocols are in these types of cases, whether the accident is as minor as this one, or not as minor.

First, whenever there is an accident involving a bus the driver is trained to make sure students are safe first.  This may entail an evacuation of the bus, or not, depending upon the severity of the accident.  While a driver is ensuring the safety of students, they are trained to make their first call to 911 to alert police and other first responders to the scene.  This can be done either via radio, or phone, whichever is most available at the time for the driver.  Bus drivers practice these kinds of emergency drills with students at least once, but often twice during the beginning of each school year.  Once the police have been notified, the driver continues to ensure student safety and works to ensure an accurate count of all students who were on the bus at the time of the accident.

Once the police arrive on the scene, they take over.  The driver provides the police with the names of each student on the bus and the police at that time determine next steps as to how to address any potential injuries, etc.  The police often take the time while right there to interview the driver to find out what occurred.  This first part can sometimes take some time.  The primary concern of the driver and of first responders at this point in the response process is to ensure everyone's safety.  It is not to communicate with families, at least not yet.

At some point (as determined by either the driver or the police or both) once everyone's safety has been verified, the driver or the police will reach out to the transportation office dispatch to let them know what has occurred.  The bus driver will call the transportation dispatch and provide the accurate names of all students who were on the bus at the time of the accident.  Once the transportation office has this information, they then begin to reach out to each school to contact families and let them know what has happened.  If the accident occurs beyond the time that coverage may be at the schools, the transportation office has access to contact information themselves and will make contact with families directly as needed.  The bottom line is that any family of a student involved in an accident, even a minor one, will be contacted directly by either the school or the transportation office.  This is important to note because if you are a family who has not been contacted, this likely means your child was not on the bus when the accident occurred or was on an entirely different bus. If at any time a parent has any questions about the safety of their child on a Gorham bus, please call your school's office or if after 4:00 please call the transportation office directly.

While this initial push to communicate with families is occurring, the transportation office is also reaching out to my office to apprise me of the situation.  Based on the information given at that time, we would then make a determination as to whether to broaden the communication or not.  If the accident is minor then we would likely only call those families whose students were directly involved to let them know.  If the accident were more serious, we would likely send a message out to all parents to apprise folks of the situation and to let parents know how to get more detailed information.

Based upon the earlier outline of initial responses, it can take some time for these phone calls to go out to parents.  This is not because we don't care about communicating with our families.  We do.  It is just that we concentrate first on making sure those involved in the accident (big or small) are safe.  Once the safety of students is verified, then communication with families becomes the next priority.  Depending upon the circumstances, this communication with families could happen relatively quickly (within 10-15 minutes) or it could take a little longer.

Of course, with today's communications, the reality is that a student on whatever bus is involved is likely already on the phone with their parents letting them know what is going on way before 10-15 minutes.  This is good, and in fact,  is encouraged.  Just know that official school communications can take a little longer than that, but ultimately it will occur and when it does questions can be asked and answered at that time.

I will share with you that after our last minor bus accident (by the way we typically have between 5-8 minor bus accidents per year, not all of which involve students on the bus) we are once again, reviewing our communication protocols to see what we can do to speed things up for families who are rightly concerned about the safety of their children.  Just know that as we review and tighten these protocols up as much as we can - our primary focus is on that very thing as well - keeping your children safe each and every day!

K-5 Attendance Zone Changes for 2020-21

The K-5 Principals and I have been working diligently to determine necessary staffing changes associated with our K-5 attendance zone shifts.  This is not as easy a task as it may sound, mostly because in order to do this we have to do a full projection of enrollments across each school for the 2020-21 school year in order to determine the total number of classrooms we will need at each building on top of knowing how many classrooms will be added to Narragansett as a result of the attendance zone shifts.

This work, at least in its first draft, has almost been completed and we are now ready to begin to share this information with staff during the next several weeks for their input and feedback before finalizing draft assignments for 2020-2021.  I had originally wanted to get information out to parents about staffing assignments by the end of January, but because we feel it is so very, very important to have an appropriate amount of time to share our initial thinking with staff and to gather their input and feedback to inform final decisions, it will be the middle of February before I can release this information to parents.  Also, keep in mind that even once this initial listing is released to parents, nothing is final until the FY 21 budget is final.  Therefore, when staffing assignments are announced publically in February, they will still be subject to change.

Before we announce this draft staffing list for 2020-21 we will be ready to release a calendar of planned transition activities for K-5 parents/guardians.  We will likely announce these activities by mid to late January 2020 so please be looking for those details in my next blog post.

Dunk and Discuss Events

My "Dunk and Discuss" events are intended to create small, informal settings where parents or community members can meet with me to discuss any topics that they would like related to the Gorham Schools.  The last few times I have scheduled these series, I have gotten some feedback from parents saying that early morning is not the best time to schedule them due to parents needing to get kids ready for school and/or leave for work.  Therefore, I am purposefully scheduling this series of "Dunk and Discuss" meetings in the early evening in hopes I can catch folks on their way home from work and hopefully before the mad rush for most to make dinner.  I hope these times work better for at least some folks.  Here are the dates I have planned:

*  Monday, Jan. 13 from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. at Aroma Joe's in Gorham.
*  Tuesday, Jan. 21 from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. at Aroma Joe's in Gorham.
*  Thursday, Jan. 23 from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. at Aroma Joe's in Gorham.
*  Monday, Jan. 27 from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. at Aroma Joe's in Gorham.

I will likely plan another series of "Dunk and Discuss" talks in March as well.  Again, these are times where I plant myself at Aroma Joe's for an hour to talk "school shop" with anyone interested on any topic of interest to you, so feel free to stop by and enjoy a cup of evening coffee (possibly decaf) and get a chance to share your thoughts with me or get your questions answered.

K-12 Lunch Balances

We have updated our procedures for the collection of outstanding balances on school lunch accounts.  These new procedures end with sending names of families who owe more than $125.00 to a collections agency.  I will outline the new procedure below and then you can feel free to call our school nutrition office if you have questions.  This new procedure is in effect beginning January 1, 2020.

The following steps will be taken to collect unpaid school lunch balances in Gorham:

Step 1:  Each school's cafeteria manager (K-8) will send home weekly low balance letters when a student's meal account is negative. Students in grades 9-12 are expected to be able to track their own balances.

Step 2:  An automated message will be generated (telephone and/or email), notifying the parent/guardian when the student's balance reaches a negative $10.00.  This message will go out weekly for all families K-12.

Step 3:  Principals/Assistant Principals will mail low balance letters home when the student's meal account reaches a negative $25.00.

Step 4:  A New automated message will be generated notifying parent/guardian when a student's balance reaches a negative $25.00.

Step 5:  Principals/Assistant Principals will call parent/guardian when the student's meal account reaches a negative $50.00.

Step 6:  Food Service Director will call parent/guardian when the student's meal account reaches a negative $125.00.  A phone call will be followed up by a letter home stating that the account is being sent to debt collection if not resolved within 2 weeks.

Step 7:  If the Food Service Director's call/letter goes unanswered and the balance is not paid within two weeks, the balance will be sent to a collections agency.

Please know that payment to meal accounts can be made at the school or through our online payment system.  Paypams is free, convenient, and can be set up to automatically deduct money when the student's meal account gets low.  Please contact the School Nutrition Office at 207-222-1375 or email rainalee.cooper@gorhamschools.org to learn about our Paypams system or to learn about our Free and Reduced Lunch Program.  WE ARE HERE TO HELP!

Well, that's enough information for today...You can stay on top of all the "happenings" in Gorham by going to our website (www.gorhamschools.org) or by following us on Twitter or Facebook.  As always, if you have ANY questions, please don't hesitate to email me at heather.perry@gorhamschools.org.

THANK YOU!

Update on GHS Building Project and Other "Odds-n-Ends" To Share

Good afternoon everyone.  Hard to believe we are going to be honoring our Veterans this coming week and then celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends shortly thereafter.  This school year is certainly going by quickly with much to celebrate!

Recently I've been hearing a lot of questions regarding our GHS building project and where things stand on this complex and important issue for the community of Gorham.  I've heard some speculate that the project "is dead".  I've heard some speculate that the school committee and town need to "go back to the drawing board," and I've heard others question why they didn't see something on the most recent November ballot.  I've even seen some recent signs around the municipal center saying "Save Robie Park".  I thought with all these questions and thoughts swirling it might be a good idea to get a comprehensive overview out there for folks on the topic of the GHS building project.

As is usual, I'll include a few more topics on this blog post than just an update on the GHS project.  Rest assured that I'll use clear and bolded headings so people can skim through, skip what your not interested in and dive more deeply into those things you are.  Here goes!

Update on GHS Building Project

First, and foremost it is important to know that we are keeping our website up to date with comprehensive information on this work - so if your questions aren't answered via this blog...then please CLICK HERE to learn more!

At this point in time, the GHS Building Committee has come to consensus on which concept design option (of the options discussed mind you) they are recommending to the Gorham School Committee to move forward with, if (and that is a big IF) the Gorham School Committee were to decide to move forward with this specific project.  Now if that isn't vague...what is right?  Well, allow me to give a little history in an effort to be more clear...

Three years ago now, the Gorham School Committee, in collaboration with the Gorham Town Council concluded a feasibility study regarding several options that both groups wanted to explore.  This feasibility study was conducted by Oak Point Associates out of Biddeford, ME.  They studied three basic "options" to see which one might be the best match and the most efficient way to address our growing issues regarding overcrowding of the school and overall growth within the community.  Those three options were:

-  Building a brand new high school

-  "Flip-Flopping" the high school with the Middle School

-  Renovating the existing GHS building on the existing site

I won't go into too many details (If you want the details please CLICK HERE to view the study) but suffice it to say that the least expensive option was clearly to renovate the existing GHS building on the existing site.  So in the fall of 2017, we worked with the Town Council and hired on Harriman Architects to help us create a concept design that would do that very thing.  Since the Fall of 2017 that is exactly what the GHS building committee has been doing.  They have not considered other options because that was not the task given to them.  The task given to them was to develop the best concept design that met the programmatic needs of our growing high school as efficiently as possible on the existing site.  Now, along the way we've had some great public forums and opportunities to talk to students, staff, and community members broadly to hear thoughts/concerns and to work within the constraints of our purpose to develop that best design.  During this process, we have heard thoughts/ideas such as:

-  "Wouldn't it be cheaper to build a brand new high school?"

-  "Why can't we use the municipal building as an "annex" to the high school and build a new municipal building?"

-  "Why can't we build a new high school off-site and then move one of the elementary schools into the high school and avoid having to build a new elementary school?"

And more... And please know that although we have not acted on those ideas - YET - we certainly haven't dismissed them.  But, we had a specific task to complete and that was the goal of this phase of the work.  The task was to develop the best concept design that met the programmatic needs of our growing high school as efficiently as possible on the existing site. This is what we believe we have accomplished, at least to the best of our ability.

That "best option" is what those of us on the GHS building committee fondly call "Option 6" - and yes, that means there were 5 other full-fledged concept designs built before we got to this one. 

Option 6 has us constructing common spaces within the GHS building for 1100 students to meet our growth projections because these are the hardest spaces to try and "go back" to add to later.  It adds a new classroom wing along Morrill Avenue that, in conjunction with other renovations, would allow us enough classroom spaces for 950 students with a specific design that would allow us to add 6-8 additional classrooms onto this wing for very little cost moving forward.  Option 6 keeps Access Road open (an earlier version had us closing Access road down and moving all traffic to Ball Park which was not well received) and Option 6 has us using only a very small portion of Robie Park for us to move tennis courts onto which we felt was a strong alignment of use with the park's original intent.

As always, I think pictures are worth 1000 words...so here you go...the "Option 6" site plan looks like this:

Overall Site Concept Design Plan

As you can see, things are jammed in there pretty tightly, but it all works and it even adds 161 new parking spaces to boot!  In order to see how we've addressed other needs, you have to look more at the details.  For example, when you look below at the first floor layout you can quickly see how we addressed the safety needs of one main entrance, how we addressed the needs of having to add a second gym space for PE classes, you can see how we addressed the need to expand the cafeteria, to make many of our classroom spaces larger and to add in much needed choral and art spaces.

First Floor Concept Design

All told, this concept design allows for 35 regular education classrooms, additions of 2 new science rooms, 1 art room, 1 choral room, additional special education spaces, and updated technology spaces.  Below is a picture of the second story where you get a slightly better sense of additional science spaces, and some of the additional mechanical spaces which will also be upgraded.

Second Floor Concept Design

All in all, the design is nothing special, and it certainly is no "palace"...but it does meet the programmatic needs of our high school now and into the future and it invests in a building this community has already invested in time and time again.  

Because we are also preparing to launch a capital athletic campaign called the "Gorham Pride" campaign, we have also gone so far as to create artist's illustrations of what the new athletic fields and the new building with this option 6 design might look like.  I think when you see it, you will see that what we are looking to do in this design is really nothing "over the top"...it is nice, and it meets our needs for sure.  It is utilitarian, but definitely not cosmopolitan! ☺  Here's a better look:

Artist Rendition #1 - Elevated View

Here is another view from a slightly different angle...

Artist Rendition #2 - Athletic Field View

Of course, here comes the problem...this design, as utilitarian as it is, is still estimated to cost almost $72 million dollars.  Now, I come from Washington County...and I KNOW that is A LOT to ask local taxpayers to pay for.  But I also know that the community of Gorham is pretty much stuck (as my father used to say) "between a rock and a hard place" and something must be done to address the current needs at GHS and the overall needs of our growing community.  The overall question remains NOT whether we should do something to address facilities needs at GHS and facilities needs across our growing school populations, but WHAT we should do.  Not an easy question to answer for sure...but one that the work outlined above at least provides specific detail and insight into helping the school committee to do that very thing.  This is a heck of a lot further than we have gotten in this conversation so far and this conversation actually started over 10 years ago now!

Next Steps for the School Committee:

The School Committee will meet again on November 20.  At this meeting, they will review option #6 again to be sure they are clear on what the design accomplishes and that it does indeed meet the programmatic needs of our students.  They will then review the list that they tasked our facilities director (Norm Justice) and I to create at the last meeting.  This list is an estimated list of facilities needs in the following categories for the next 10-15 years across ALL SCHOOL FACILITIES:

-  Roofing

-  Mechanical/HVAC

-  Electrical

-  Site

-  Security

-  Plumbing

-  Finishes

-  Building Envelope

-  Code requirements

That list will provide the all-important context for the next item for discussion.  What does the School Committee want to do next?  Options could be as follows, but certainly, it is the School Committee that will ultimately determine which ones to consider...

1.  Move forward to Town Council to request that the Option 6 concept design be placed on an upcoming referendum for public vote.

2.  Request the GHS Building Committee to go back to the Option 6 design and determine what items (specific programs) would need to be reduced from the scope of work in order to meet a specific spending target - for example:  What would we have to lose to get the costs down to $60 million?  $50 million, etc. and then once this is determined meet again to determine next steps.

3.  Do nothing, which really isn't an option because we know the growth is coming and SOMETHING must be done.

4.  Decide to "scrap" this work for our "on existing site option" and go back to the drawing board to research other possibilities such as designs for a new school off-site or designs for use of the municipal building.

5.  Request to work with the Town Council to jointly hire a contracted service provider to come in to do a comprehensive facilities study of all Town and School facilities and to create a priority list of items and associated costs that need to be addressed along with a realistic time frame for doing so that can be adopted by both boards and followed (P.S. - this was done about 15 years ago and resulted in some really good collaborative work).

6.  Develop a plan for modular expansion project similar to Narr. Elementary School project but one that would require either the full use of Robie Park, or the movement of athletic fields off-site.

7.  Decide to conduct a comprehensive public information series to gather feedback from community members to better understand what the community feels we should do moving forward before "turning the wheel" in any further direction.

All in all, I hope folks understand that the ongoing work of the building committee has been very fruitful and has put us in a position where we now thoroughly understand what our needs are and the positives and negatives of addressing them through the renovation of the building "on-site".  This is a complex issue for the School Committee and for our community to wrestle with.  We have filled in some very important information "gaps" through the most recent work resulting in our "option 6" design.  The GHS building committee has accomplished the task set out for them.  It is now up to the School Committee, in collaboration with the Town Council to determine the best "next steps".  

Luckily we have time to do this important work...but to be clear, that time is not "unlimited".

If you have specific thoughts about the GHS building project, please reach out to me at heather.perry@gorhamschools.org and I will be sure to share those thoughts with the School Committee.

OTHER QUICK  ITEMS OF NOTE

Narragansett Modular Expansion Project

The modular project is moving right along on schedule.  We will be receiving delivery of the first two modular spaces tomorrow (Thursday, 11/7) that will be used to construct the planned cafeteria space.  Additional modulars will be delivered to a site set aside at GMS, and will then be moved from there to Narragansett when needed.  This may cause some disruption for staff parking in the parking lot next to Narragansett School in front of the playground, but we hope to prevent disruption for parents who are parking to pick up and drop off students in the morning and afternoons.  

Mrs. Remick will be communicating to staff and parents when deliveries are planned so we appreciate the flexibility of folks in advance as these deliveries occur.

K-5 Attendance Zone Changes for 2020-2021

New attendance zones were announced at the end of October.  We are currently working to identify staffing for this change.  Once we have identified staffing, we will communicate those changes first to the staff who are involved and then to the public in the form of announcing grade-level teams across all three schools for the 2020-21 school year.  Once this is done we can begin in earnest more specific and targeted transition activities for families.  Additionally, these staffing assignments will be used to identify budget development processes and needs in lots of other areas such as Allied Arts, support services such as learning labs or resource room needs, etc.  

I want to take a minute while on this subject to simply say publicly that I have been so thoroughly impressed at the level of thought and care that that has been taken by our staff towards impacted families during this initial informational period.  I have also been thoroughly impressed with the families that are impacted by this change.  Every single conversation that has been had has been focused on open and honest communication, provision of necessary supports, and how we can help one another to make this necessary move as positive as possible.  

I shouldn't be surprised because this is - after all - Gorham, but as with all other difficult times...the community as a whole has simply reached out, extended open arms to one another and are working diligently to support one another as whole families and as whole communities.  I have been a part of these kinds of shifts in previous districts and have never seen it so well done by all involved.  I guess it really is true as Roland Barth said:  "What comes out of you when you are squeezed is what is inside of you."  Gotta LOVE what is inside of the community of Gorham!

Honoring Diversity and Difference

The Code of Conduct has been a very strong and valuable tool here in Gorham for many years and it continues to be so.  However, as our community grows and changes it is likely time for us to really spend some quality time thinking about how these changes impact our schools, our school cultures, and the overall learning experience for all our students using the lens of diversity and difference.  We take our relationships very seriously here in Gorham and we absolutely work hard to support and love everyone but there is always room to grow in our understandings of each other.  Our relationships are worth working on...and that is what we will endeavor to do so that we ensure they remain strong and vibrant.

As a means to this end, the Gorham Schools has entered into a contract with the Maine Intercultural Communication Consultants in what will be a two year partnership focused on first helping our staff, and then our students and then the greater community to better understand what it means to create a truly inclusive environment for our students.  An environment free of bias and one where positive relationships with all students and families reign.

We are taking this important work slowly, mostly because we know this is not a "one time", "sit and get" kind of training or conversation with folks.  We want to first identify where our areas of challenge may be and then we want to use these initial conversations to learn more about how to deal with issues of diversity and difference appropriately in an educational setting.  Then we want to put these new learnings into action for our students and the greater community.  

I am a strong believer in "starting at the top" for these important conversations so the first phase of the work will begin this month with our District Leadership Team.  Once this team has been trained, we will then branch out this spring to work with GMS and GHS staff and then to K-5 staff next fall.  Once all our staff has been provided this important training and time to learn and understand the complexities of this topic, we will then begin working holistically with students, families and the community using our student's very own voice to help "light the way" forward.

More information will be forthcoming in school level communications.  I just wanted you all to be aware we are embarking upon this journey together - a very important journey indeed!

Well, this post is way too long already.  I will stop here.  As always, please reach out to me with any concerns, questions, or comments.  You can always reach me via email at heather.perry@gorhamschools.org.  

Thank you for "blogging" with me once again...til next time! ☺

Draft K-5 Attendance Zone Changes for 2020-21 Announced

As you are likely all aware, the Gorham School Department has been working over the past several years to address issues of growth at the K-5 levels.  Over the past 5 years we have added just under 300 students to our K-5 schools and as you might imagine, that has caused some significant strain on our existing facilities infrastructure across all three of our K-5 schools.  In that same time frame we have struggled with large class sizes and finding spaces in our buildings not only to house classrooms, but also to house the necessary support programs that are required to operate the high quality educational programs that we do.

Last spring, the Gorham School Committee announced a long-term plan to address these issues which involved the following:

-  Build a $2.8 million dollar "Phase I" modular addition onto Narragansett Elementary School to open in the 2020-21 School Year.

-  Shift attendance zones to reduce enrollments at both Great Falls and Village Elementary Schools (to give room to grow, especially at Great Falls) while pointing additional growth towards Narragansett Elementary School.

-  Plan on a Phase II of a modular expansion at Narragansett Elementary School to occur within 3-5 years and a possible Phase III (If needed) modular expansion to occur within the next 10-15 years at the same site to allow for continued growth in our community.  The intention is that NEITHER of these additional phases will involve another shift of attendance zones.

-  Plan a long term, state approved, capital project to build a new K-5 elementary school on the existing Narragansett site to house future growth within the next 10-15 years and beyond in order to address our community's long term needs at these grade levels.

The first phase of this plan, approved by the voters via referendum in June, 2019, allowed for the construction of our modular expansion (Phase I).  This modular expansion is now under construction and on time to open for the 2020-21 school year with 6 new classroom spaces and a brand new cafeteria space at Narragansett.  These spaces will provide the necessary infrastructure to allow for regular instruction to occur, for lunches and gatherings, as well as freeing up valuable gymnasium space for the delivery of physical education classes.

This is all good news, however there are implications for some of our families that cannot be avoided.  The implications are that in order to carry this plan out, we must shift our attendance zones beginning in the 2020-21 school year.  This means that some families will be moving from their current school zone to a new one in order to make all this work.  We have been working over the past several months to decide where best to place these new boundaries in a way that makes sense not only with our current situation, but with our future situation, some of which cannot be clearly anticipated.

In communications this spring, summer and fall, I predicted we would announce these new lines by the end of October to the public.  This blog post will serve to provide this information to our community.  Please know that all families impacted by these changes have already received a memo from myself and direct communications from our building principals and are aware of the fact that they have been impacted by these changes.  After this public notification Mrs. Remick (Principal at Narragansett Elementary School) and the Narragansett School Family will begin to reach out to new families with a welcome letter and important information about Narragansett Elementary School.  This will begin our transition work together and will be our ongoing focus throughout the remainder of the year with much more to come.

Our Target Populations:

Our current projections show that we are anticipating a total K-5 population of 1356 students for the 2020-21 School Year.  Target populations for all three schools are as follows:

Great Falls - 517 (current population is 580)
Narragansett - 409 (current population is 291)
Village Elem. - 429 (current population is 439)

In order to do this, we had to move our attendance zone lines.  Our current attendance zone map is as follows:



Yellow with green icons are Village Elem. students within the Village Elementary School Zone.  Blue with blue icons are Great Falls students within the Great Falls attendance zone and purple with purple icons are Narragansett students in the Narragansett attendance zone.  These original lines were drawn when Great Falls Elementary School was first opened and we first created our three K-5 community schools back in 2011.  Please note that each icon seen does not necessarily represent individual students.  There are often multiple students represented within each icon.

In order to make the population adjustments needed to meet our target populations, we moved the lines for 2020-2021 to the following:



Once again, the yellow represents the Village Attendance zone, blue is Great Falls and the purple is Narragansett.

These lines were adjusted in a manner that allowed us to meet our intended targets while also considering proximity to schools, the future growth of our communities and using "natural" landmarks and roadways to create new boundaries.

As you can see the largest impact to our attendance zone change will be those families located to the left of Gray Road, seen above as blue icons in the now purple Narragansett attendance zone.

This proposed change requires 84 students to be moved from the Great Falls Elementary School attendance zone to Narragansett Elementary School and 9 students from the Village Elementary School attendance zone to Narragansett Elementary School.  By doing this, we are able to meet our targets for each of our three K-5 Schools, provide for continued reasonable classroom student to teacher ratios and provide all three of our schools room to continue to grow as we predict they will.

Next Steps:

I will be meeting with each school's P.I.E. group to personally share information, answer questions and outline more detailed plans for how to move forward.  Dates for these meetings will be as follows:

*  Great Falls Elementary School - November 5 at 6:00 p.m.
*  Village Elementary School - November 13 at 5:30 p.m.
*  Narragansett Elementary School - November 18 at 6:00 p.m.

Narragansett Elementary School Principal, Cynthia Remick, will send out welcome letters to new families and begin to work with families to transition.  These transition activities will continue to be our focus throughout the remainder of the 2019-20 school year to ensure that families feel welcome at their new school.

The Administrative Team will focus on identifying specific staffing needs and staffing assignments for the new classrooms at Narragansett Elementary School to include support staff and other necessary supports for these new classroom spaces.  These changes will be solidified as part of our FY 21 budget development process.

Transition activities will continue throughout the remainder of the 2020-21 School Year and into the summer of 2021.  Specific K-5 classroom placements will be made for all students across the district by June, 2020 and announced to parents.

In Summary:

The entire Gorham School Department administrative team and staff understands the difficult nature of the change we are undertaking for our K-5 learners and their families.  This is not a change we are making lightly.  These changes are being made to address the very real issues associated with our growing student populations that if left unchecked would result in large class sizes and lack of space to effectively operate our educational programs to the high standards we expect.

All three of our K-5 elementary schools are incredible schools filled with incredible staff who care tremendously about every child that graces our hallways.  Our School Committee, our administrative team, our teachers and our support staff as well as our K-5 families stand ready to support those families impacted by this change as we make these necessary transitions.

If anyone has any questions, I encourage them to reach out directly to me via email (heather.perry@gorhamschools.org) or via phone (222-1012).