Good afternoon everyone! Sorry for the longer span of time between posts as I was out on a much needed vacation last week where I actually truly "unplugged" for the full week! No really! Turned my notifications off on my phone, left my laptop at home and went to camp and spent some quality time with family! I am happy to be back at it now though...and there is plenty to talk about - so let's get to it!
IMPORTANT NEW K-12 PARENT THOUGHT EXCHANGE SURVEY NOW THROUGH 10/14/20
We have gone through four full weeks of school here in Gorham using our hybrid model approach and now that we've worked out a good number of the initial "kinks" in our systems - we are definitely ready for some constructive feedback to help improve our processes and see what is working and what may still be challenging for Gorham families and staff in this brave new COVID19 world! With that said, we have launched a new Thought Exchange Survey and would love to see ALL K-12 Gorham Parents Participate! Yes, that means parents of our remote learners as well - we want ALL feedback!
If you haven't already participated, please do. If you have, please log back in and rate the thoughts and ideas of others! The link is below and the survey is open now through October 14, 2020. Your voices are so very important to us - please share your thoughts!
Survey Link:
https://my.thoughtexchange.
We have surveys also going out to all K-12 Gorham Staff and to all Grades 6-12 Gorham Students.
WHERE ARE WE WITH THE QUESTION: TO GO GREEN OR NOT TO GO GREEN?
I've had several parents reach out to me recently to ask where we are with this particular conversation. I am sure it is on the minds of many so I thought I'd just get it out there - the truth - we haven't moved much further on this question now than we had when we considered it over the summer. This is NOT because it isn't constantly on our minds as we all want our students to return to school 5 days a week as soon as is safely possible. It is more because conditions haven't changed enough to allow us to even consider it.
The MDOE rules/guidelines remain the same, the numbers of students we are working with remains the same, the total square footage of our buildings remains the same, and the total number of buses and (more importantly) bus drivers remains the same. And to be even a little more discouraging, numbers of COVID 19 cases, especially for our York County neighbors seem to be increasing making it even more difficult to consider.
The two biggest barriers remain unchanged as long as the MDOE rules/guidelines remain unchanged. Those are:
1. Transportation: Right now things are running relatively smoothly with just 1/2 the population attending school each day...but if we go green, that would double the number of students needing transportation each day yet the requirements would not change so we would still be limited to just 22 students on a bus. This means we either need more buses and bus drivers or we would need to significantly alter the school day itself in order to allow for multiple rounds of routes. We COULD add more buses...unfortunately those buses do us no good unless we have more bus drivers and that is ultimately where the problem lies as we have just enough to make things work now and there seems to be no pool from which to draw to hire more. This has been a problem well before COVID-19...but it is an even more clear problem now.
2. School Nutrition Service Times: Again, right now things are running relatively smoothly with just 1/2 the population attending school each day. We are able to maintain the full 6 ft. physical distancing required for our students to remove their masks to each breakfast and lunch each day. If we go green, we would double the number of students in our schools but our square footage wouldn't change. We could try to put some students in classrooms to eat while others are in the cafeteria, but even that isn't enough square footage to make things work while still allowing time to sanitize and time for staff to have their lunch breaks too.
Additionally, the current plan as approved by the Gorham School Committee is very clear about the use of six feet of physical distance at all times. Again, this works with 1/2 our population in the buildings at any given time, but would not work with all students in the building.
I certainly don't want people to think we are just throwing out excuses and barriers and not trying to focus on solutions...because we are. The district's leadership team continues to grapple with this issue. Additionally, our new "Pandemic Operations Committee" will be taking this up as well to try and offer further insights and possible solutions. Bottom line is - we haven't given up on this conversation by any stretch...we just also haven't made much headway so far either. We will keep working though and if there is a SAFE solution - rest assured we will find it!
UPDATE ON ANTI-RACISM WORK
Just wanted to spend some time updating folks on this very important work, what has been accomplished thus far, and what our plans are for continued next steps. As we all realize, this conversation is not a "short term" "to do list" kind of conversation. What we are talking about here involves culture so it is difficult work that involves significant commitment over time. There is no question it is important work, so most definitely worth the effort!
For the past few months we have been focusing our efforts in three key areas. First, has been the work of the School Committee to develop a new "Anti-Racist" Policy for the Gorham Schools. It is the role and the responsibility of the School Committee to set our vision and to drive our policies which in turn determine how we operate our schools. It is important for the School Committee to set the tone for this conversation through policy so this is where we have been focused.
The School Committee's policy committee first worked with a draft resolution created by several of our GHS Student Civil Rights team members last spring to craft initial draft policy language. Since then they have met with some interested students and staff to review the draft language and to assist in making revisions. This newly revised, but still draft policy, will next be brought to the full School Committee for what is called a "first reading". This is a typical policy approval process that is specifically structured to ensure that the public has opportunity to weigh in and discuss policies the committee creates. By putting an item on the public agenda for first reading, we are announcing that we want our stakeholders to weigh in on the draft language. This feedback is then brought back to the policy committee for specific changes and adjustments so that the draft policy can then be brought back again to the School Committee for a 2nd reading. When a policy is voted on at its second reading (if approved) it becomes a formal School Committee policy. Due to the significance of this conversation and because of the election of new school committee members, the School Committee is purposefully placing extra time between the first reading (which will occur on Oct. 14, 2020 at its regular SC meeting) and the 2nd reading (which will occur on Dec.9, 2020, also at its regular SC meeting).
You may view the Draft Anti-Racism Policy that will be presented to the School Committee on Oct. 14th by going into the public School Committee folder and viewing materials for the Oct. 14th regular meeting. Those are typically placed in the folder by the Friday before the meeting (which in this case will be Oct. 9). You can CLICK HERE for the link to that public folder.
The Second key focus area has been on providing professional development to School Committee members, members of our district leadership team and to our staff in the important areas of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. So far our district leadership team and school board members have had the opportunity to participate in the first of a series of 8 training meetings offered through the Maine School Superintendent's Association called the "Cultural Competence Institute". This institute will continue to provide trainings throughout the school year. Additionally, we have been working with the Maine Intercultural Communications Consultants (MICC) group to organize a series of specific trainings for all K-5 staff. These are the same trainings that were completed by grades 6-12 staff last year. While the K-5 staff complete their trainings, MICC will be working with our middle school and high school staff and students to create "Cultural Competency Leadership Teams" for both schools. These teams will work in conjunction with already existing groups (such as our Civil Rights Teams which already exist at each of our five schools) to take the lessons learned through their training and work to actualize new skills in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion across students and staff in both buildings.
The Third key focus area has been on improving our diversity hiring practices. We have identified a consultant to work with our district over the course of the next few months. This consultant just so happens to be a fairly recent graduate of GHS - Humza Khan (class of 2015). Humza will work with our leadership team and central office team to conduct a thorough study of our existing hiring practices through the lens of diversity. This study will culminate in the form of a report that will be delivered to the School Committee late this fall/early winter. The report will outline existing strengths in our practices, challenges, and highlight recommended next steps in improving our practices to recruit a more diverse staff across all components of our organization.
There is much more going on as well - the biggest of which will be a "listening tour" that I hope to launch soon (so keep your eyes out for that) as well as a review of our K-12 curriculum through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. Please stay tuned and I'll continue to update you all on this important work!
COMMUNITY SUPPORT COORDINATOR FB GROUPS READY TO SEE ACTION!
If you recall, we've been working with an incredible group of parent volunteers to create community based Facebook Pages geared towards helping parents help one another get through these difficult times together. Our pages are all ready for service so please - CHECK THEM OUT!
- Gorham Community Support: Great Falls Elementary K-2
- Gorham Community Support: Great Falls Elementary 3-5
- Gorham Community Coordinators Village K-2
- Gorham Community Support Village 3-5
- Gorham Community Support Narragansett K-2
- Gorham Community Support Narragansett 3-5
- Gorham Community Support GMS Gr. 6
- Gorham Community Support GMS Gr. 7
- Gorham Community Support GMS Gr. 8
- Gorham Community Support GHS
UPCOMING BOND QUESTION ON NOV. 3 BALLOT
PART II.
In my last blog post from September 18 you learned about two of the projects that comprise the bond requested on the November 3rd ballot for the Gorham Schools. As a quick reminder, this potential bond, if approved, would fund six much needed Capital projects. Those six projects are outlined below:
The Sept. 18 blog post focused on the Narragansett Bus loop and sidewalk upgrades and repairs as well as on the middle school side walk repair. This post will go more deeply into the GMS HVAC Heat Pump Upgrades and Repairs and the Field Lighting Safety Repairs for Competition field, etc.
Project #1: GMS HVAC Heat Pump Upgrades and Repairs - $2,65,000.00
* Heat recovery systems
* Heat Pumps
* Water Heater
We will also look to update the control systems to gain better efficiencies and to add boilers and mini-split units to replace aging components and gain efficiencies in operations.
Especially in the year of COVID-19, we need to ensure our HVAC systems are operating efficiently and effectively. This project will ensure those very things.
Project #5: Field Lighting Repairs for Competition Field, baseball, softball, and tennis fields - $1,275,000.00
If you have been anywhere near the GHS athletic fields over the past few years, you shouldn't need much explanation regarding why the request to repair our field lighting. As you know, we had been trying to incorporate this much needed work into a capital project at GHS, but while that has gone on hold, the need for field lighting has not.
At this point, we have had to remove the lighting almost entirely from the Baseball and Field Hockey fields due to squirrel infestation and rot in the wooden poles that have been used for too many years. Here are some pictures of some of these poles that were removed two years ago:
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