April 29 Blog Post

Good afternoon everyone!  I hope all are well and enjoying getting back into the swing of things since we have returned from our April break!  Just six weeks to go until the end of the 2021-22 School Year!  Where has the time gone?  What a great time of year for our schools, our students and our families.  Engines are firing on all cylinders for our students and staff that is for sure!  So much to do...so much to celebrate!  I encourage you all to buckle up and enjoy the ride!  

As usual, here's a few images from the past week or so in our schools!

Now on to the informational stuff!

THIS COMING WEEK IS TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK (May 2 - May 6)

National Teacher's Appreciation week is a time for everyone to thank the educators who work so hard to make our schools the supportive, caring, and positive learning environments that they are here in Gorham and across the nation.  

Whenever I think of Teacher Appreciation Week, I think of a song written by songwriter Barry Lane entitled "If I'd Never Had a Teacher".  It' a great classic song that really brings home the point of why our teachers are so important.  CLICK HERE to listen - it really is a great song!

These past few years have challenged all of us.  Parents, teachers, administrators, business owners, EVERYONE.  From that infamous day in March of 2020 through now, our teachers have met these challenges by rolling up their sleeves and opening their arms and hearts in even bigger ways than they ever had before!  Our teachers are the heart of our school system and WE HAVE INCREDIBLE TEACHERS.

I know not everyone has a chance to send a card or to find a way to more personally acknowledge our teachers.  If you can, I'd certainly encourage it next week...but if you can't...I wanted to create a quick and easy way for us all to share with our teachers how much we love and appreciate what they do for our children each and every day in Gorham.  So, I created a BRIEF  Survey that asks the question:

"What are the top three qualities that you love most about our Teachers?"

Please click on the link below...to respond to the survey.  I'll share the results across the district with our teachers on Friday, May 6 so they can see all your responses in the form of one big Wordle.  It will only take 5 minutes to respond and it will make all the difference in the world for our teachers to know just how much you care!

Survey Link:  https://forms.gle/mWh6iqe9NtvdQdnG8

COVID 19 PANDEMIC/ENDEMIC

There have been some recent announcements in the national media regarding formal movement away from a Pandemic here in the U.S. and towards entering the "endemic" phase of dealing with COVID 19.  Experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the President have recently announced that at least in the U.S. we are moving out of the Pandemic phase of COVID 19 in regards to new infections, hospitalizations, and deaths and that it appears we are making our way towards the virus becoming endemic.  What does this mean?  Well, is surely DOES NOT mean that COVID 19 has gone away.  An endemic means that the virus is still around but its at a level that is not causing significant disruption in our daily lives.  In essence, it means we are learning to live with the virus.  

As a school system, a lot of what this means is that more and more responsibilities are being placed with families regarding how to navigate the virus itself on an individual basis.  We continue to maintain all of our health and safety protocols, but much more of the daily navigation and decision making is on the part of the parents, like monitoring for symptoms and keeping children home who are sick or like if your child tests positive for COVID 19, letting the school know so that we can record and monitor active cases and maintain our website data to help inform other parents so that they can make informed choices.  If we have a circumstance where we know of 3 confirmed cases within 7 days within a specific classroom, we will continue to notify parents as well.

Overall, as we move into this endemic phase what should you be thinking about as a parent?

1.  Continue to monitor for symptoms and consider getting your child tested if they experience symptoms or have recently been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID 19.  

2.  If you have traveled and are worried about possible exposure, test upon return.

3.  If your child tests positive, follow the isolation and masking guidelines outlined on the CDC website (which still contains A LOT of excellent information to help guide you).  Also, let the school know so that we can report the active cases and communicate as needed.

4.  If your child has symptoms, keep them home until symptoms have improved and reach out to school nurses with questions.

5.  Monitor the school's active cases website (LINKED HERE)...and if you see cases start to increase, know that just because you or your child have elected not to wear a mask now, doesn't mean that you can't elect to wear a mask later.  In other words, follow the data and make your own informed choices about masking and know that that choice can be a fluid one.

6.  Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.  Reach out to our school nurses with questions.  They are here to help guide you and ensure the safety of your child(ren) and others in our schools.

If we all remain vigilant and mindful of these types of common sense approaches to dealing with COVID 19, we will help one another to stay healthy and to ensure that we continue to move down the path towards a COVID 19 "endemic" where our "little friend" may still be annoying, but is no longer ruling our lives.

'TIS THE SEASON FOR SPRING TESTING!

   

As we move into the last six weeks of school, we also move heavily into our spring testing mode.  It is so very important for us as a school system (now probably more so than ever) to be able to gain insight into how our students are performing in core academic areas so that we can best meet their needs now and into the future.

As a district we use various types of testing results to help inform our instructional practices at many levels.  From specific individual classroom instruction levels, to district wide curriculum purchases, staffing, and policy levels and everything in between.  It is important that students are well rested and present to take these assessments.  This isn't to put any undue pressure on our students mind you, and I hope parents think of testing in the same way.  We simply want our students to try their best so that we have the most accurate assessment of their learning so that we, in turn, can make the best decisions possible about our instructional practices.

The largest of these tests is our NWEA/MEA testing for grades K-11.  Testing for NWEA will take place across our schools between May 2, 2022 - May 27, 2022 being mindful to avoid testing during Eid.

You can learn more about Maine's Comprehensive System of assessment by CLICKING HERE.

As always, if you have questions, please reach out to your child's teacher and/or to your school's principal.

REMINDER - DISTRICT & SCHOOL CALENDAR OF EVENTS

As I mentioned earlier, these next six weeks are going to FLY BY and will be filled with MANY activities as we celebrate the end of another successful school year here in Gorham!  I know lots of information will be coming out to families and sometimes it may be hard to keep up.  I want to remind families that you can view the district's calendar of events on our main web page at www.gorhamschools.org.  But ALSO, don't forget to click on each school's page for their individual calendar of events as a great way to try and keep track of everything.  Finally, when in doubt...just reach out with an email or a quick phone call to your school.  We know you are all busy and are doing the best you can to juggle all you need to juggle as parents - give us a call with questions anytime!

EXCITING GRANT AWARD FROM DEPARTMENT OF LABOR!

The Gorham Schools just today received exciting news that our grant application to the Maine Department of Labor to strengthen and expand apprenticeship programs in our schools (both at GHS level and at Adult Education Levels) was approved!  The Gorham Schools will be receiving a total of almost $1.4 million dollars over the next three years to build out Apprentice programs in the following areas:

*. Learning Facilitator/Educational Technicians

*. CNA

*. Early Childhood Education

*. CDL Licensure

We will work with our already strong partnerships with our Gorham Business Roundtable, our Aspire Gorham Steering Committee, our Adult Education Program and CTE partnerships, and with our incredible partners at SMCC to conduct this important work over the next 3+ years.  We are hoping to serve at least 120 students by December of 2024 in apprenticeship programs.   This grant will allow us to build capacity and internal processes and procedures which we will then use to sustain and grow these programs over both the short and longer term!

More to come...stay tuned!

FY 23 PROPOSED GORHAM SCHOOL BUDGET FACT #1

As we move forward in our budget approval processes for FY 23, I will include a "budget fact" in each of my blogs between now and the June 14 validation referendum vote.  Please know these are just little pieces of a much larger puzzle.  You can follow all the information by going to our budget development webpage (CLICK HERE).  Or you can always reach out to me to ask any questions by emailing me at heather.perry@gorhamschools.org.

Did you know that the Gorham Schools has one of the LOWEST Per Pupil Costs in Cumberland County (#12 our of 13 school systems).  See data below for more details:

UPCOMING DUNK & DISCUSS MEETINGS WITH SUPERINTENDENT PERRY

As the year winds down, as we work to gain approval for our FY 23 Proposed School Budget and as we reflect and think ahead to goals for the coming year, I wanted to offer up an opportunity to just simply sit down with folks who might be interested to chat!  In the past, I've held these meetings early in the morning and have had some feedback that isn't the best time, especially for parents who are working to get their children ready for school.  So for these I'm going to try an after school time.  I realize that time can also be hectic and busy for folks, but perhaps a little more available.  We'll see.  

There are NO AGENDAS for these meetings.  I simply show up.  Individuals who participate can come with specific questions you may have, or you may share ideas or information you think is important for me to be aware of and to consider in my role as Superintendent of Schools here in Gorham.  These meetings are really more of just a conversation and an opportunity for me to LISTEN and for you to get any questions you may have answered.  The only "norm" I will insist upon is that all conversations are respectful and civil.  This is not a meeting to air your political beliefs or for me to air mine.  

Dates/Time/Location for three of these meetings are listed below.  I welcome anyone who cares about the community of Gorham to attend!  

*  Wednesday, May 4 at 7:00 p.m. at Aroma Joe's - Gorham ME.

*. Monday, May 16 at 4:00 p.m. at Aroma Joe's - Gorham, ME.

*. Thursday, May 26 at 7:00 p.m. at Aroma Joe's - Gorham, ME. 

Hope to see you there!

COMMUNITY RESOURCE - VOICES OF HOPE...THE RUGGED ROAD TO RECOVERY

For those of you who have ever been impacted by addiction and/or who are currently seeking resources associated with this important topic for you or others you may know and love, I wanted to share this resource.  

This website is dedicated to Reducing stigma associated with Substance Use Disorder (SUD).  It is focused on people telling their stories as a way of letting people know they are not alone and that there is indeed hope for recovery.  These are stories from right here in Maine and they are powerful.  Worth the time to check it out for sure.

Here's the link:  https://voicesofhopeandrecovery.org/

That's it for this installment!  More on my next blog scheduled for May 13th!  In the meantime, I leave you with a closing quote and best wishes for an awesome weekend!