A Few More Updates and Some Words from Dr. Tin (School Physician)

Good evening.  I wanted to get a few small bits of information out to you this evening.  First, a reminder to everyone that the Gorham Schools are closed for a two week period beginning tomorrow, Monday March 16 and going through Friday March 27, 2020.  As mentioned earlier we will be sending home additional and more detailed information to families about distance learning programs for our K-12 students on Tuesday and beginning said services by Thursday of this week. 

We will also be sending out a survey to families regarding School nutrition needs at some point tomorrow.  I ask that you please respond to that survey as quickly as possible (when it is sent out) as the results of that survey will help us to determine how our satellite school nutrition program for families in Gorham will operate. 

Finally, I wanted to be clear that although staff will be at our schools tomorrow, the schools will be closed to the general public.  If you need to conduct business with anyone at the school, I ask that you please reach out to the building principal before coming to the school.  Individuals who have not previously made arrangements with the Principal's office will likely not be admitted into the school as a means to help reduce the risk of exposure to our staff who will be working on site all day tomorrow.

Again, for families, please know we care tremendously for all of you and we are working hard to put the finishing touches on the systems we will put in place to ensure our schools can continue to support our community even while "closed".  Much more communication will be forthcoming over the next few days providing details on what this will look like and how to access these supports.  We are right here with all of you, standing side by side and shoulder to shoulder.  

As a means of providing specific information that I thought might be helpful to families, I asked our school district doctor (Dr. Tin) to write a letter that outlines some key pieces of information you should know and understand.  Dr. Tin's letter is below.  Please review and know I will continue to reach out as information becomes available.  THANK YOU!

Dear Gorham Public Schools families,

As COVID-19 spreads throughout our country and in our community, I would like to share with you some thoughts as the school physician for Gorham schools. COVID-19, while causing mild respiratory symptoms for most, can be a serious and even fatal disease for many, particularly the elderly and the immune compromised. It will continue to spread for the coming weeks and months, potentially overwhelming our hospitals and health system. As a community, it is imperative that we do everything we can to help limit and slow down this spread.

One important measure we can all take is to practice social distancing, or consciously reducing close contact between one another. There is a large window of time in which someone can feel and look well but still carry and transmit the disease, as the incubation period is 2-14 days. As schools close and many public events are canceled to help contain the pandemic, we will be craving social interactions. I encourage you to avoid large gatherings such as sleepovers, parties, large group sporting activities, etc., outside of school and to keep a distance of at least 6 ft. from others when out in public. There is varying guidance on what defines a large gathering. Some health experts recommend limiting the group size to 25; others suggest no more than 10 people. The “right” number isn’t known, but the more we can reduce the size of gatherings and maintain our distance, the better chance we have of cutting off the virus’ pathways to spreading.

Another important and proven way to decrease the spread of contagious diseases is to practice good hygiene. I encourage you use this opportunity to review the following guidelines with your children:

●      Wash your hands frequently with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds

●      Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands

●      Avoid close contact with people who are sick

●      Stay home when you are sick

●      Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then discard it in the trash

●      Clean and disinfect frequently-touched objects/surfaces

Many of us are grappling with how to manage social isolation and increased anxiety. Some ways to reduce social isolation include going outside for exercise (while maintaining social distance) and connecting virtually (FaceTime, etc.). Many are also wondering how to speak with our children about COVID-19 and the associated lifestyle changes. I think the two articles below have nice answers to many common parenting questions. As parents, we must be calm, provide reassurance, and share information in an age-appropriate manner.

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/13/814615866/coronavirus-and-parenting-what-you-need-to-know-now

http://theconversation.com/how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-covid-19-133576

Finally, if you do develop any symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, etc.), isolate yourself and contact your primary care provider for guidance and before going into the clinic.

These are difficult and anxiety-provoking times, and many of these changes in our lifestyles are burdensome for individuals, families and communities. Know that your teachers, school administrators and other local officials are working hard to lessen the impact, particularly for the most vulnerable. By implementing social distancing and proper hygiene as much as possible, we can all make a real difference in the spread of this disease in our community.

Sincerely,

Tin Ha-Ngoc, MD

School Physician

Gorham Public Schools

Gorham Schools Will CLOSE on Monday

Dear Gorham Schools families,

I am writing to let you know that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be closing all of our schools for two weeks beginning on Monday, March 16th and lasting until Friday, March 27th. This applies to all Gorham Schools facilities, including Gorham/Westbrook Adult Education and the Portland Arts and Westbrook Regional Vocational Center (WRVC).  Additionally, all outside facility uses will be suspended during this time. The district's Central Office along with each school's Principal's offices will operate with essential staff but will be closed to the public unless otherwise notified. Details regarding remote learning and meal programs will be shared with families on Tuesday afternoon via my blog with specific instruction and programming to be made available to families beginning on Thursday, March 19, 2020.

As you know, the plan is to utilize 1:1 devices and the platform of Google Classroom for continued instructional services for students in grades 4-12.  On Tuesday, we will send information out to families of students in grades 4-5 regarding how they may pick up these devices safely from our schools.  Additionally, GHS and GMS will provide details on how students who may have left their devices at school can pick them up over the course of the next few days.  Continued instructional services for students in grades K-3 will be conducted through "packets".  More detailed information on how packets will be communicated to families and how online learning will be delivered will come out on Tuesday via my blog.

As you know this has been a rapidly evolving situation.  While we have no cases reported in the Gorham Schools yet, there is one presumptively positive case of the virus in our region.  After consulting with area medical professionals, my administrative team, the state and other school district officials, I have determined that this closure is the only responsible action to take.  

This decision has been made with careful consideration of the options. We are aware of the fact that closing schools will be a hardship for all families.  For our most disadvantaged community members, it will represent an even greater hardship. While our team has been working diligently to prepare for school closings, we will not yet be prepared to provide alternate forms of education and nutrition on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of next week (March 16,17, or 18).  We intend to be ready to do that by Thursday, March 19th. On Tuesday, we will be sharing information on the educational and nutritional options that will be available for our students. 

It is possible that this closure will extend beyond the current projected timeline. It is important that all families practice and enforce strict social distancing during this time. If we want to prevent the need to keep our schools closed for an extended period of time, it will be incumbent upon us all to make the sacrifices required to contain the spread of the coronavirus. My blog posts to families will continue to share updated information regularly so please keep up to date with these.  Additionally, both the national CDC site and the state of Maine CDC have a wealth of information to assist families in staying up to date and continuing to learn more about the Virus.  One article that might be helpful more immediately on social distancing is LINKED HERE.

Please be safe.  I will continue to communicate regularly with our families during this closure.

Sincerely,

Heather J. Perry

Superintendent

COVID-19 QUICK Update

Parents and community members.  I wanted you all to know that I have been receiving A LOT of email communication lately, which is great (please keep that coming) but I haven't been able to keep up.  Please know I will respond to each at some point today.  In the meantime, I wanted to update you on our planning.

I am meeting with a group of health care professionals via zoom tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the +/- of School closures and the appropriate timing of said closures.  There is A LOT of information out there on this topic, and at best the recommendations are "mixed"...so I wanted to hear from our local community professionals on what they felt was best.  I am also meeting with Cumberland County Superintendents at 10:30 a.m. via zoom.  At that time all Superintendents will share what information they have gathered locally as well and share what they believe are the best next steps to move forward. 

I will then meet with members of the district leadership team to discuss the information and plan next steps - either what to do if school is open on Monday or what to do if we decide to close.  A message will go out via school messenger tomorrow evening one way or the other.  It would be prudent for parents at this time to think about the POSSIBILITY of child care coverage IF the schools were to close. 

Thank you for your patience as we continue to work hard to navigate this difficult situation and please know we are all here for one another, to support, to share information and to ultimately try and do what is best for our school and our community.  I suspect that whatever decision is made tomorrow will be much like a snow day cancellation, only times about 100!  There will be a group of people who are supportive and a group who are not.  Therefore, rest assured that whatever decision is made will be made based upon the best medical and scientific advice I have at the time and not on whether or not individuals will be upset or disagree.  I hope everyone can understand this piece.

THANK YOU ALL for following this information and for reading these blogs and staying informed.  I will reach out again tomorrow evening with a final decision for School on Monday. 

In the meantime. . . be kind to one another, look out for one another, and my best advice may be to stay off of social media! ☺

COVID-19 UPDATE March 13, 2020

Well it has been an interesting couple of days for sure!  I am sure many of you have seen recent announcements and news that indicate we now have a 2nd confirmed case of COVID-19 in Maine, this one from Cumberland County.  There continues to be a whirlwind of information out there, and NOT ALL OF IT TRUE.  So before I get into what the Gorham Schools are doing, I would just urge folks to check out the national CDC site or the Maine CDC site for reliable and factual information.  I would also encourage folks to take a moment and pause before posting things on social media that may contribute to the misinformation that exists.  I am not suggesting don't use social media...I am only suggesting that we become more mindful about the implications of what we post given the current situation we are facing as a community.  It is during difficult times such as these that communities either begin to tear each other apart, or they reach out to one another, comfort one another, celebrate the good and bring a community together more strongly.  In the past five years I have come to know just what a strong community Gorham truly is and I have full faith that our community is up to this particular challenge!

All that being said, I have a lot to share with you...so let me start.  I'll do my best to use headings that will help organize the information so folks can go from one piece to the next.  Here goes:

Consideration of School Closures

At this point in time, neither the CDC nor the Maine Department of Education is recommending broad closures of schools.  This morning, Superintendents of Schools from both York County and Cumberland County got together to discuss what kind of guidance we wanted to use to establish when/if we should consider the closure of schools.  There was agreement that in order to consider the closure of schools, Superintendents would need to be aware of specific information that would warrant such a large decision.  Such information might minimally include:

-  Knowledge of a large group of students or staff who have been tested for COVID-19 and are awaiting results, or

-  Knowledge of a confirmed case of COVID-19 in our community, or

-  Increases in staff absenteeism that might not allow us to continue operations of our programs.

At this time, the Gorham School Department has NO KNOWLEDGE of any of the three items listed above occurring in our community.  Therefore, it is our intent to open school on Monday, March 16, 2020 as planned.  Now, this information may change over the course of even this weekend, and if it does, I would use the same protocols as I do for snow cancellations to notify parents and students that school is canceled on Monday.  Until conditions change, however SCHOOL IS SCHEDULED TO OPEN ON MONDAY.

I know this may not be a popular decision among many in our community.  As is always the case, I want to make sure parents/guardians know that it is always within the right of any parent/guardian to make decisions that are different from the schools that you feel are in the best interest of your child.  This means that if parents/guardians wish to keep individual students home on Monday, this is your choice to make.  As with every decision that is made there are natural consequences.  Right now, I just want parents to be clear that if they are holding students out of school for reasons other than those outlined in our policy that make an absence "excused" we would need to record absent students as unexcused and follow our policies in this area.  I have linked the policies that I think are most pertinent to this below.  Please reach out to your school's principal if you have questions in this regard as they can help you to navigate these issues.

*  Policy JEA - Compulsary Attendance (near bottom)
*  Policy JHB - Truancy

All that being said, in order to feel as though we are protecting the health and wellbeing of our students, staff, and community most effectively we have made some recent changes to our daily operations in order to try and limit potential exposure to the virus.

Additional Restrictions to Limit Exposure for Students/Staff and Community

In addition to maintaining our focus on handwashing, appropriate coughing etiquette,  staying  home  when sick, and the twice-daily sanitization of our schools and buses by teachers and custodial staff we are also implementing the following changes IMMEDIATELY:

*  We are limiting visitors to our schools.  Any non-essential visitor (such as guest speakers, or recruiters, etc. - basically anyone other than a parent/guardian and the UPS/Fedex delivery folks) will not be admitted into our schools during the course of the school day.  Our Administrative Assistants will be monitoring all entrances and communicating with folks accordingly.

*  We are asking that our school volunteers stay home with just a few very unique exceptions.

*  We are suspending ALL FIELD EXPERIENCES for students in grades K-12.

*  The MPA announced today it is suspending the beginning of the spring athletic season for all HS sports programs until April 27, this includes try-outs, practices, and any other related travel.

*  We have suspended our GMS athletic programs for competition.  We are currently working to see if we can  set up an intramural (for only GMS students) program for after school activities so that we can keep our students active, but we are basically shutting down anything that has contact with outside districts or outside facilitators or coaches.

*  We are canceling or postponing any school-sponsored gathering that either occurs outside of regular school hours or involves "outside people" (anyone other than students and staff) that has more than 75 people in attendance.

*  We are closing down all outside use of the Gorham School Facilities to any outside organization.

In addition to these already made decisions, we are also CONSIDERING the possibility of moving to limit "intra-school" gatherings as well.  This would mean moving to cancel school assemblies, have school lunches eaten in classrooms vs. cafeteria spaces, etc.  these decisions will be made either over the weekend or during the early part of next week.

Protocols for Students/Staff Who May Be Sick

Any child exhibiting signs of COVID-19 (fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath) while at school will be kept in a safe area of the school away from other students and staff until a parent or guardian can take them home.  As a reminder, any student who is at home experiencing these symptoms should REMAIN HOME.  Similarly, any staff member exhibiting these symptoms while at school will be directed to the school nurse.  If, in the assessment of the school nurse, the staff member appears to have a communicable disease (including COVID-19), the staff member will be sent home.  Students and Staff who (1) have traveled to (2) have been exposed to others who have traveled to, or (3) have plans prior to the end of the school year to travel to countries or areas that the CDC has identified as having widespread ongoing coronavirus transmission, or have sustained community-level transmission should report this information to their administrator/supervisor.

If you are concerned about the health of a student or staff member in your child's school, please refer them to the school nurse or make the school nurse away through communication with your building principal.  Finally, please understand that this is an extremely fluid situation, and guidance may change at any time requiring revisions to protocols, so please continue to read these blog updates for updated information in these areas and any areas related to COVID-19.

School Closings A Possibility

Our school personnel are continuing to work with public health officials, municipal officials and others on this situation as mentioned above.  At  this time, we are not planning on closure of schools, but this could change at any moment.  If that does, the information will be shared with parents via our school messenger system similarly to how snow days are canceled.

If the Gorham Schools are closed, the following will be our guiding structures.  Please note that we are still finalizing details of this plan.  Also please note that the intent of the educational programming outlined below is to stabilize learning and to prevent regression.  It is not to advance learning in a similar manner as what would otherwise be accomplished under optimal learning conditions (in our schools).  This is important for parents to understand.  These educational programs will be delivered as follows:

*  Students in grades 4-12 will utilize 1:1 devices.  These devices will be distributed to students in grades 4-5 at the conclusion of the school day on Monday, March 16.  Students in these grades will have educational materials shared with them by their teachers using our google classroom platform.  Most students in these grades are already familiar with this platform if not, tutorials will be provided.

*  Students in grades K-3 will utilize instructional packets that will be emailed to parents by their classroom teachers.

*  The first 3 days of a long term school closure will be spent by teachers PREPARING materials.  Nothing will go home to students/parents until the 4th day.  This decision is made to allow our teachers ample time to prepare and ensure that their systems of communication and lesson delivery are fully functional.

*  After the first 3 days, online educational materials will be sent and communicated to students and families on a routine schedule as communicated by each teacher.  This schedule could be communicated as often as daily or as minimal as once per week.  The intention is that instruction will likely NOT be asynchronous in that there will likely be no times during which students are required to be working at specific schedules...only that the outcomes for the work are clear, that support is provided to students by teachers on a timely basis and that the work being asked for is completed.

*  For the first TWO WEEKS of school closures, special education teachers will be working to prepare specific methods within which the individual IEP's of students will be met.  Special education teachers are being given extra planning time before being asked to provide specific programming to students because the specialized requirements of programming for students with IEP's is a more complex requirement to meet.  Therefore, parents of students with an IEP should expect classroom teachers to reach out to students to begin regular education work, and then later on, within two weeks, for special education teachers to then add their required levels of services onto those regular education services.  MORE DETAILED INFORMATION WILL BE COMING OUT FOR PARENTS/GUARDIANS of students with special needs early next week so please stay tuned.

School Lunches and Food Insecure Families

At this time (and again conditions may change) - it is the intent of the Gorham Schools to continue to provide school lunches to families.  We are still working out the details, which will be ready early next week, but generally speaking, we are anticipating that minimally, an announcement will go out to families who are interested in having school lunches delivered to designated "satellite areas" in the community.  School Nutrition staff would then create bagged lunch meals.  We would then work with our transportation staff to transport these meals to these designated satellite areas for pick up by parents.  In the event of school closure we will communicate these protocols to families within the first three days (similar to providing prep time for teachers the first three days) and then begin operation of the program at that time.

In Closing:

There is no question these past few days have seen us become witness to historic events.  We are indeed in a challenging time in our community.  My hope is that the Gorham School Department can provide the structure and support our families and, frankly, our community needs during these difficult times.  We are blessed with a wonderful community.  We have incredible students, an extremely talented staff, supportive parents and a caring community.  These assets will come in handy as we continue to work together through these difficult times.  I urge you to continue to communicate your needs either directly to myself (heather.perry@gorhamschools.org) or to your building principals.  Please know we will continue to work tirelessly to provide the support that we can to our Gorham Community.  From what I have witnessed thus far...I have full faith the community of Gorham is up for the challenge!  I continue to be so VERY PROUD to be a  GORHAM RAM!

THANK YOU!

BRIEF Update COVID-19 After Gov. Mills Conference Today

Good evening.  I wanted to reach out with a VERY BRIEF update to the public regarding COVID-19 based upon Governor Mill's announcements earlier today.  My plan is to provide a more COMPREHENSIVE UPDATE to everyone tomorrow afternoon that will bring parents and community members completely up to speed with the Gorham School System's Pandemic Planning efforts.

As of today, Thursday, March 12, 2020, Maine has reported ONE presumed positive case of Coronavirus 19 (COVID-19).  That case is in Androscoggin County and the Maine Center for Disease Control (Maine CDC) says we currently are not seeing widespread community transmission in Maine.  However, the Gorham School Department is being vigilant in stepping up our own precautions to help prevent any spread of the virus in our community.

Today, a memo was sent out to all staff detailing clear expectations regarding sanitation practices, reporting of symptoms, and other early pandemic planning procedural expectations for staff across the district.  We also made decisions today to cancel the following events that were scheduled for either tonight, or tomorrow night, or that met the Governor's recommendations for canceling all "non-essential events involving 250 or more people":

*  GMS Swim meet
*  GMS track meet
*  GMS drama performance

I will be meeting with Superintendents from across Cumberland County tomorrow morning to make further decisions regarding other upcoming events and to work on the establishment of a common protocol for these decisions to be made across our region with local exceptions being made.  It is because of this meeting that I am waiting to update a full blog post to the public for tomorrow afternoon so this new information can be included and answers to questions about which events will still be held and which ones canceled may be answered more definitively.

Please know that neither Governor Janet Mills, nor the Maine CDC  is recommending schools to be closed at this time.  Our focus, therefore, is to keep our schools open while protecting the school environment so that our students and staff stay healthy and safe.  COVID-19 spreads through close person-to-person contact, so we are taking measures and precautions to address this.  We are stepping up our cleaning protocols and we are looking to limit public access to student gatherings as well as POSSIBLE cancellation of inter-district activities and field trips.  Again, tomorrow morning's meeting will allow me to finalize these decisions and report them to you by tomorrow afternoon in an updated Blog Post so please stay tuned and know that we are working on finalizing these decisions soon.

Also in tomorrow's blog post, I will outline the broad plans for how we MIGHT continue to provide instruction for students in Gorham if our schools are closed for an extended period of time.  This will be a very important blog post - so please stay tuned!

In the meantime, I have had some recent questions regarding parent/teacher conferences.  We spoke as an administrative team today and decided that we will continue with our parent/teacher conferences as they are such an integral part of what we do in our schools.  However, we have also placed some protocols in place to make these conferences safe for our staff and for all of you who will be attending.  First, it is important to know that our staff will be practicing social distancing as part of our conferences.  What this means is that the staff won't be rude, but they will not shake hands.  Also, they may sit on one side of a table with you (Parents) on the other side to provide the social distance recommended by CDC (approx. 6 feet).  We are also asking that if parents or children are experiencing any symptoms that you stay home and instead call your teacher to reschedule or possibly conduct the P/T conference via phone.

Again, much more will be coming out in my blog post tomorrow - but for now, I wanted to make sure to get this updated information out and to let you know MUCH MORE is coming once I have finalized decisions.

This is a constantly evolving landscape we are now entering.  It is going to require a strong community to help get us through the difficult time that is coming.  I have no doubt the community of Gorham is up for the challenge!    Please keep returning to this blog page for more updates...this will be my primary mode of communication for families where all notices can be archived, made searchable, and listed in chronological order (most recent at the top) for your convenience!

More tomorrow!  As always - any questions, please ask - heather.perry@gorhamschools.org

Gorham Schools Pandemic Planning Update

It seems there is just A LOT happening in our schools and community here recently and none more interesting than the looming questions that many folks may have regarding COVID-19.  I had sent out a parent letter last week providing some initial information regarding what the Gorham Schools are doing to prepare for this possible pandemic but since then we've learned a lot more and done a lot more as a school system to prepare. I wanted to try and bring parents and community members up to speed on where we are in this important work.

Please keep in mind that planning of this magnitude is never something that you can just sit, hold a meeting, make a few decisions and then call it a day.  This type of planning is constantly moving and flexing as information changes and as conditions that surround us change.

My goal is that through this blog post, I can help to keep all of you informed as we continue to ensure our schools are prepared for any eventuality related to this potential pandemic.  As always, I'll try to use clear headings to help folks navigate what is likely to be a lengthy post.  Here goes!

Best Resources for Up To Date Information on COVID-19

The best resource for up to date information on COVID-19 are from the CDC.  They have an incredibly robust website where you can learn all you want to know about the virus, how it spreads and specific precautions you can take to prevent it.  The site also provides travel advisories and other incredible resources such as a constantly updated Q&A sheet.  If you haven't already visited this site, I would strongly suggest that this site becomes your "go-to" site for up to date and even more importantly - ACCURATE - information on COVID-19.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

The Top Things YOU can do to Prevent COVID-19

The same things we have always done to prevent the spread of disease is what folks should be doing now...wash hands, wash hands, wash hands again, and then when you are really tired of washing your hands - wash them some more!

In addition to hand washing (which is the absolute best prevention), using proper coughing techniques is also very helpful.  Proper coughing techniques are to cough either directly into your elbow or cough into a tissue and throw the tissue away.  Other good "rules of thumb" include some more traditional good practices such as:

-  Don't drink after others
-  Don't eat after others
-  Use of social distancing (6 feet is a good rule of thumb)
-  Keep hands away from eyes, nose and mouth
-  Stay home if you are ill

If you would like some "decorations" to help spread the message around your own home for proper hand washing and coughing - similar to the ones we have posted all over our schools - feel free to click on the links below and print your own copies and place them near your sinks and in common areas of your home.

Adult Hand Washing Poster
Child Hand Washing Poster
Proper Etiquette in Coughing Poster

Our Pandemic Plan For The Gorham Schools

One of the first things that the CDC and the MDOE suggested schools do in preparation for COVID-19 is to review and "dust off" our Pandemic Flu Plans.  Back in 2009 when the H1N1 virus was going around, schools across the nation were asked to create Pandemic Plans and include them in their overall Crisis Response plans.  Gorham created this original plan in 2009.  During the past week, we did as instructed and we pulled it out and "dusted it off" to update the plan and make sure it was solid for the purposes of COVID-19.  I have to admit, whoever crafted the original plan in 2009 did a GREAT JOB because we just had to make a few tweaks here and there to the overall plan and it was all set.  This plan provides an awesome outline for how our schools should become prepared to deal with a Pandemic.

You can find the full copy of our Pandemic Plan on our website - LINKED HERE.  But generally speaking, there are three core parts to the plan that I will review below.

Pre-Pandemic Planning

The first part is what is called "Pre-Pandemic Planning".  In this part, we focus on things like making sure there are ample cleaning and other supplies, making sure there are clear protocols for handwashing and coughing etiquette, and training staff and students on these items and then ensuring staff/students actually do the things we are asking them to do to prevent the spread of any virus.  This part of the plan also asks that we put together a planning team(s) and that we review the plan and make adjustments as needed and that we are prepared to communicate with internal and external stakeholders.

For this part of the plan, we have already done the following:

-  Identified a Public Information Officer (Superintendent) and established a planning team(s).
-  Reviewed Pandemic Plan with Community Stakeholders (Fire Dept., Police, Town Manager, Facilities Director, etc.).
-  Reviewed Pandemic plan with school physician and nurses
-  Ensured each school's staff meets with nurses for "refresher" on proper handwashing and coughing techniques.
-  Placed posters prominently across all schools to remind students/staff on the importance of washing hands and coughing etiquette.
-  Ordered 6-8 weeks worth of cleaning supplies
-  Communicated with BSG on proper cleaning schedules.
-  Provided supplies and training to bus drivers to wipe down buses daily.
-  Refilling hand sanitizing stations.
-  Established communication protocols for tracking student illness.

What is Left to Do:

-  Finalize ordering of products for cleaning to be used by classroom teachers in the classroom setting.
-  Finalize plans to ensure all students are either washing hands or using hand sanitizer prior to eating lunch each day.
-  Continue ongoing conversations with staff regarding planning

Early In Pandemic Planning

The focus in this portion of the planning is making sure things are set to continue to operate schools even though absenteeism and illness may begin to have an impact.  In this section, we need to be prepared to track attendance data and symptom data for students and staff who are ill.  We need to be familiar with how to report to CDC if absenteeism rates rise above 15% for any individual school, we need to have established "isolation" spaces to house students/staff who are presenting possible symptoms as they wait to go home and we need to ramp up handwashing schedules for students and staff.  It is also during this time that we may think about altering schedules to limit large gatherings of students and staff by doing things like producing bagged lunches and asking students to eat in classrooms, or by limiting athletic events or other large gatherings.

For this part of the plan we have already done the following:

-  Changed voice mail messages to be consistent across all schools in asking for the same information of parents calling in sick students.
-  Developed "scripts" for Admin. Assistants who need to follow up with parents to gather additional health information.
-  Identified "isolation" spaces at each school.
-  Identified methods for nurses to conduct "morning checks" and "return checks" in collaboration with other staff to monitor symptoms.
-  Ensured 6-8 weeks of necessary supplies are on hand.
-  Have held initial conversations about how to limit large group interactions while schools remain open.
-  Have held initial conversations about how to provide educational programs if schools were to close 6-8 weeks
-  We have developed template letters for communication during all phases of a pandemic.

What is left to do in this portion of planning:

-  Identification of one staff at each school to assist nurses in taking temperatures and recording data.
-  Determine a cleaning agent to be used by classroom teachers in classroom setting and order
-  Develop a plan for how to require scheduled hand washing 3-4 times per day (if needed).
-  Finalize system of communication with neighboring school districts to track trends especially related to athletic & co-curricular activities.
-  Finalize plans for how to provide educational programs if schools were to close for 6-8 weeks to include special education, food service, and other support service provision.
-  Continue ongoing conversations with staff regarding planning

During a Pandemic Planning

The focus here is in assuming a full-blown Pandemic is in place and that there MAY be a need to actually close schools down for 6-8 weeks.  During this time, we need to find ways to avoid unnecessary travel, we need to ensure we have systems in place to still pay people and vendors for services, and most importantly we need to ensure there are systems in place to continue educational programming if schools are closed.

So far we have done the following for this phase of planning:

-  We have worked with business and technology offices to ensure remote access to all business functions.
-  We have begun discussions with Special Services, Technology & Principals/Teachers, and School Nutrition Programs regarding how too provide essential educational services if schools are closed.

What is left to do in this portion of planning:

-  Finalize plans for how to provide essential educational programming if schools were to close for regular instruction, special education/504 instruction, social services, and School Nutrition programs.
-  Continue ongoing conversations with staff regarding planning

At this point, we hope to have the early pandemic planning and pandemic planning completed by end of this week and we then plan on turning our full attention to nailing down already formed ideas on how to continue to provide educational programming if schools were to close for an extended period of time.  Certainly, this is not something we would do lightly, but it is something we have to consider and plan for.

Communication/Questions

As you can see, there is A LOT going on in the Gorham schools to help prepare for COVID-19.  With any luck, we will do all this work and then not need it...but just in case - it's always nice to know that our school community is prepared just in case we do!

As a parent/guardian you may wonder how you can expect to learn more about our work in this area and how you can ask questions.  It is important to know that during a Pandemic, our primary mode of communication with internal audiences (staff and students) will be via email while our primary mode of communication with external audiences (parents/guardians/community) will be via our School Messenger System and our school website (to include continued blog posts).  The school system may supplement communications using our social media platforms, but the primary methods will be through School Messenger and our website.

If you are seeing things "out and about" in social media land, I would say the best thing to do there would be to hold out a healthy dose of skepticism regarding the accuracy of whatever information that is, and instead, refer to our school website or blogposts for accurate local school information.

If you ever have ANY questions, I would strongly encourage you to reach out to me directly via email.  My email address is heather.perry@gorhamschools.org.

Well, I think that is enough for this update - at least for now.  Once we have more concrete and finalized plans for how we MAY continue educational programming IF our schools were to close for extended periods of time, I will definitely get another blog post out so everyone has a solid idea of what to expect.  You can expect that follow up Blog within the next two weeks.

THANK YOU!

Information Update: Narragansett Cafeteria/Kitchen

Given the Town Council Agenda item # 2020-3-7 and proposed Order # 20-035 on the Gorham Town Council agenda coming right up on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, I thought it might be prudent to ensure Gorham School families are accurately informed of what this proposed order is about, and its implications to our students so that you can decide whether you wish to become more involved as citizens of this community to express your opinions to our elected officials.  A copy of the language from the Town Council Agenda is below:

This agenda item may sound innocent enough, and if reading without context it may even seem supportive and helpful in continuing the work the School Department is undertaking to address our continued growth.  As helpful as this item may seem, and as may even be intended, the consequences of this item being approved have significant implications to our students that may not be as helpful as they appear on the surface.

A Little & Background Context

In order to understand this dichotomy, it is important to go back to where the story began to provide context.  This story takes us back to the spring of 2019 when the School Committee first brought the concept of the modular expansion to the Town Council to request a referendum for $2.8 million in funding.

The original proposal was to add 6 modular classroom spaces at Narragansett Elementary School along with bathrooms, mechanical spaces and a modular cafeteria space.  A drawing of the original proposal is below:

In the image above, you can see that the modulars are connected to the original building through a corridor that is located off the backside of the gymnasium.  The original plan developed in the spring of 2019 was to continue to use the existing kitchen space (which is located in the gymnasium) and to close down PE classes 2 times per day for a period of 10-15 minutes each.  This time was intended to allow us to prep food in the existing location space, transport the food via steam tables, etc. from the kitchen space to the cafeteria space, serve food to the students in the cafeteria space and then collect used trays, etc. and transport those back to the existing cafeteria to be cleaned.  In the spring of 2019, a full year and 1/2 away from when we planned on opening this expansion, we believed this plan could work programmatically.  Unfortunately, as often occurs, information changed and we became aware in mid-October of 2019 that this plan was not going to work as originally designed.  

What is the Problem?

The problem is that until this fall, we hadn't had a chance to develop the fully formed allied arts schedule (PE, Music, Art, Technology/Social skills, and Library) that we would need to have operational at Narragansett Elementary School with almost 100 more students for the opening of the 2020-21 school year.  It wasn't until this fall that we were able to ask Principals to identify the staff shifts that were needed, and to develop the detailed schedules needed to make a school of 380 students work, to include a fully developed Allied Arts schedule.  When we were able to develop this schedule, it became clear that we would NOT have the ability to shut down PE classes (as part of our allied arts schedule) for the times needed to safely transport food as we had originally planned, unless we significantly impacted the time students had for these important educational services. 

As you can imagine, changes to our allied arts schedules, which have staff that are shared between schools, and are also the manner in which we provide our teaching staff with contractually required planning time, can have significant impacts to the operations of our schools that spider out in very complex ways that are hard to predict.  Once we became aware of this problem, we immediately jumped into "problem-solving mode" to see if we could determine a way to address these issues and still meet the overall educational needs of the children we are charged to serve.  Through the hard work of our district leadership team, our facilities director, myself and our School Committee we were able to determine a solution that would not require us to ask the taxpayers of Gorham for additional funding in order to address and solve this problem that would otherwise negatively impact the educational programming for our students.

The Solution

The solution we have come up with involves going forward with a plan that we already had in mind for either Phase II or Phase III of the original modular addition plan.  This would involve moving the existing kitchen to a new location on the side of the modular cafeteria to create a fully operational kitchen that is adjoined to the cafeteria space to create one "cafeteria space" where food can be prepared and served to students in one location in such a manner as would not impact our PE classes going on in the existing gymnasium.  We would consider this a "change order" to our existing modular expansion project which has already been approved by voters via referendum last June.

Below is a drawing of what this kitchen space would look like:

The costs associated with this change order would NOT require additional taxpayer funding.  How is this possible one might ask?  Well let me explain the funding portion before we go too much further.

The Funding

The total amount that was approved by voters to spend on this project in June was $2.8 million dollars for the expansion of modular classrooms, associated mechanical spaces and cafeteria spaces.  Of that $2.8 million, we utilized $859,600.00 to lease purchase the modular spaces themselves.  We then bonded $1,940,000.00 to pay for the site work, mechanical work, connector work, etc. to take those spaces and make them functional for the purposes outlined (6 additional classrooms, bathrooms, mechanical spaces, and cafeteria space).

Within that $1,940,000.00 bond budget, we have identified "savings" within the existing project in the amount of approximately $480,000.00.  These savings have been identified because several of the subcontracted components of the work (connector, mechanical, building finishes, etc.) came in with bids lower than anticipated and because we had originally built in a contingency for the project in an amount of a little over $150,000.00.  Additionally, knowing that this was a complex project with many moving parts, we had built into our FY 20 Capital Improvement Budget, a line for "Narragansett School Modular Connector, Site work, and Building Outfitting" in the amount of $249,000.00.  This budget was approved by the Town Council and by voters via the budget validation referendum, also in June of 2019.

So when we combine the "savings" from the bonded funds in the amount of approximately $480,000.00 and the funds that sit in our FY 20 CIPS budget in the amount of $249,000.00, we get a total of $729,000.00 which is what we believe it would take to move forward with the movement of the kitchen space from its existing location to the new location adjoined to the cafeteria space.

The Complexities At Play

If we can do this work within the existing approved bond and/or FY 20 funds, one might now question WHY IS THE TOWN COUNCIL DISCUSSING ADDING A REFERENDUM QUESTION FOR VOTERS TO APPROVE THIS PROJECT IN JUNE?  A great question indeed, and one the School Committee has already wrestled with before making its decision on Feb. 26, 2020 in a vote of 6-1 to move forward with the kitchen move after having thoroughly discussed the complexities at play.

There is some argument that by utilizing the $249,000.00 in our FY  20 CIPS budget towards work associated with this project that we are in fact overspending the total project which was approved by voters in the amount of $2.8 million dollars.  The School Department's legal counsel and the School Committee disagree with this interpretation because of how we have divided the costs associated with moving forward.  You can view our full legal opinion by CLICKING HERE.  Basically, what we have done is divided the costs associated with this change order into two "buckets".  The first is the structural components of the additional space.  The frame, the floor, the electrical, mechanical associated with the construction of the "shell" of the kitchen.  These components are being paid via the remaining $480,000.00 in the bond.  The $249,000.00 from FY  20 CIPS funds would be used solely for the purpose of funding the wiring and mechanical/plumbing associated with the movement of existing kitchen equipment (stoves, vents, coolers, dishwashers, etc) into the new space and hooking them back up so that they are fully functional in the new space.  By making this distinction in funding sources we are in effect using the FY 20 CIPS funding for the appropriate purposes associated with annual CIPS funding which is approved annually by voters vs. for purposes that would require a separate voter referendum question.  Again, our legal council agrees with this interpretation.

To add to this complexity, and to be honest, to get at the crux of the issue itself and why the School Committee voted 6-1 to move forward is actually an issue not related directly related to funding.  The REAL ISSUE for the School Committee and for those of you who are parents is actually one of TIMING.

The problem is that if we put this question to a referendum in June, it would mean that we would have to halt progress on this work UNTIL JUNE.  Any of you who have tried to build anything in Maine understand the problem this creates...we would, in essence, lose 2.5 months of work time to complete this project and to ensure that the kitchen is fully operational for the start of school in late August 2020.

The reality is that if we don't move forward  NOW, we will miss the window needed to complete the work in time for school to begin in August.  If we miss that window, we will in effect be forced to go with our original plan which we realized earlier this year would not work due to negative impacts to students and overall costs.  Again, those negative impacts to students and to the school system are:

-  Having to reduce PE time for students at Narragansett School in order to allow food to be transported safely from the existing kitchen space to the cafeteria and back again.  This would create an inequitable situation between Narragansett School and the other two K-5 schools.
-  As a result, not having this time available to use to provide planning time for Narragansett teachers per the negotiated contract.  This means we would likely have to add additional staffing to provide this planning time, which would have the impact of reducing overall instruction time for all students at Narragansett Elementary in other areas.
-  Also as a result of this, we would need to hire additional kitchen staff for the year to assist in transporting food and other materials back and forth to the cafeteria.
-  Finally, we would have to purchase about $150,000.00 in additional kitchen equipment to carry out our original plans for transporting food from one location to another.

The Bottom Line:

The bottom line is that although the Town Council has every right to place a question on a referendum in June, the implications of the Town Council voting to do this at their meeting on  Tuesday night would not only increase overall costs, but also dramatically impact our students in a negative way.  Those negative impacts to our students would be:

-  Loss of instructional time at one school in the specific areas of Physical Education.
-  Loss of planning time for teachers, having impacts across all classrooms and the overall quality of our programming for students.

Please know that this information is being shared NOT to admonish the Town Council for doing their due diligence and for performing their fiduciary responsibilities as our elected officials.  I share this information so that parents fully understand the implications of this vote in a timely enough manner to be able to express your views to your elected officials if you wish to do so.

If you wish to share your views, you may:

-  Attend the Town Council meeting and speak during the public comment portion.  The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10 at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers
-  Email Town Council members.  You can do so by going to the site LINKED HERE.
-  Email School Committee members.  You can do so by going to the site LINKED HERE.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me at heather,perry@gorhamschools.org.

Please know that regardless of the outcomes of Tuesday night, the Gorham Schools will continue to strive to provide the best educational programming possible for all of our students.

THANK YOU!