How is it already the end of September? I wonder if anyone else out there is like me and wishes time could simply slow down just a little bit? It seems like just yesterday that my granddaughter was timidly stepping on the school bus for her very first time and now, she is already a practiced "pro"! She is now confidently boarding the bus, going to school, interacting with her peers and her teachers and coming home brimming with excitement and sharing all that she did each day. I'm sure many of our Gorham Kindergarten parents - and even more likely - the parents of our seniors wish that time could just move a little more slowly!
Its been a great two weeks in the Gorham Schools and our students are most definitely back into the full swing of the new school year! Everyone is firing on all cylinders in our incredible learning environments! Check out some pictures below to see what I mean!
Now onto the informational part of this blog!
PLANNING FOR POSSIBLE PRE K EXPANSION
IN FALL OF 2023
One of my goals for the 2022-23 School Year is:
This goal has been a multi-year goal starting during the 2021-22 School Year as we worked together with the Little Rams committee to develop a vision for early childhood learning in the community of Gorham. This work was just completed and is culminated with a new report called our "Bright Futures For Little Rams: Gorham's Early Childhood Partnership Plan". This report will be presented to the Gorham School Committee at their upcoming meeting on Oct. 5, 2022. You can tune in if you'd like, but know there is much more information coming on this full report in my next blog. For now, I'll just entice you to review the plan, and understand that our Pre K expansion work is a part of a much larger vision for early childhood learning in Gorham!
So what does our Pre K expansion portion of this plan look like?
First, it is all about partnerships!
Quietly, behind the scenes, our schools have been working with our community early learning partners to develop partnerships and ideas for how we can work together to increase access to Pre K programming in our community. One small step was taken last spring when we (The Gorham School Department) entered into a public/private partnership with the Gorham Arts Alliance to offer up to 10 Pre K seats through their Pre K programming that would be publicly funded. With this small pilot we were able to work our way through the process of gaining Department of Education Pre K program approval, we developed Memoranda Of Understanding (MOU's), and we worked with the state to provide funding. This small pilot has helped us to learn a lot and we are now ready to take the next steps in this important work.
At this time, we are planning to expand public Pre K programs in Gorham in TWO important ways. We hope this expansion will begin in the fall of 2023, but final timing and details will be determined by Gorham School Committee and their approval will hinge strongly on whether or not we are successful in receiving a Pre K expansion grant from the MDOE. Here is what we are currently thinking (again, subject to School Committee approval and receipt of grant funding from the State):
1. The Gorham School Department would open TWO Pre K classrooms to be housed at Narragansett Elementary School.
- These two classrooms would serve a total of 64 Pre K students within half day (AM/PM) programs.
- These two classrooms would focus on serving CDS eligible children and families by targeting 50% of student served to be CDS eligible children. The other 50% will be comprised of non-eligible CDS children.
- Slots open for non-eligible CDS children would be filled based upon the economic need of the family.
- Transportation would be provided from home/child care to school and from school back to home/child care for each session.
- Facilities at Narragansett would be renovated to meet the unique needs of our early learners.
- Staff and services would be provided by the Gorham School Department.
- The "east wing" playground would be renovated to accommodate for appropriate play equipment for this age level.
2. The Gorham Schools will expand its public/private partnerships with the anticipation of adding another 32 available public Pre K slots through private partnerships with local providers.
- Additional MOU's will be created.
- Additional Programs will be approved via the Maine Department of Education.
If all goes well, beginning in the Fall of 2023, we hope to serve a total of 106 Pre K children in our community EITHER via on site programming at Narragansett Elementary School or via public/private partnerships with local providers. This is approximately half of the anticipated total Pre K population of children in Gorham. Our longer term goal will be to see our public/private partnerships increase to the point that we can say we are able to offer "universal Pre K programs" to all 4 year olds in Gorham! We certainly have some work to do to make that ultimate vision a reality, but hopefully with these planned expansions for Fall of 2023 we will make some significant progress!
Again, there is A LOT of work going on behind the scenes in this area between the Gorham Schools and our community partners and there is A LOT more work to be done! Please reach out with questions if you have them, and follow along as I continue to keep folks informed of our progress!
P.S. JUST A QUICK SHOUT OUT TO OUR EARLY CHILD CARE PARTNERS IN THE COMMUNITY OF GORHAM! FROM FAMILY CHILDCARE FOLKS TO CHILDCARE CENTER FOLKS, EARLY CARE ADVOCATES AND EVERYONE IN BETWEEN...IT IS CLEAR THIS COMMUNITY KNOWS HOW TO WORK TOGETHER TO MAKE POSITIVE THINGS HAPPEN FOR OUR CHILDREN IN COLLABORATION WITH OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS - THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO ON BEHALF OF OUR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN GORHAM!
UPCOMING BOND REFERENDUM QUESTION FOR 3 GORHAM SCHOOL DEPARTMENT PROJECTS
I shared this in my previous blog post, but sometimes repetition is good!
At the Sept. 6 Gorham Town Council meeting, the Town Council voted to approve moving forward with adding a referendum question to the ballot on behalf of the Gorham School Committee. This question will be Question #2 on our local ballot for elections that will be held November 8, 2022.
In preparation for the upcoming vote the Gorham School Committee has put together a "one pager" that outlines what each of the projects are that are being requested, and why they are so important to the support of our schools. Please view the one pager below (Or CLICK HERE for pdf Version)
Site Overview Image (New Modular Expansion in Brown)
Again, please reach out with any questions you may have and be sure to get out and vote on November 8!
THOUGHT EXCHANGE REMINDER
Just a reminder to everyone that there is an active thought exchange out there. The question that was asked is:
What can we do to make our schools more welcoming to students, staff and families of all diverse backgrounds and identities?
So far we have had great responses from our students...but would LOVE to see more from our parents and staff!
The survey is STILL OPEN! The Deadline to provide your ideas and your feedback is Oct. 5! Please take a moment and share your important thoughts! I would love to see that number of parent participants up closer to 500 and I'd love to see that number of staff participants closer to 200!
Here's the link to participate:
https://tejoin.com/scroll/151381365
You can also view a summary sheet of work completed thus far for reference by CLICKING HERE.
We really need YOUR VOICE to help drive our continued work! Please participate today!
UPCOMING NWEA TESTING DATES
Just a quick reminder to families that Fall NWEA testing will be occurring soon. This Fall NWEA testing is not the state's assessment. The state's assessment is done in the spring. The Fall NWEA testing is used by our schools for benchmarking purposes, and to assist us in tracking overall program, school and district level performance. We really do dig into the data deeply to help inform instruction from the classroom level all the way up to the district level.
Students in grades 1-10 will be participating in NWEA testing in the areas of math and reading during the following window:
- Oct. 3, 2022 - Oct. 28, 2022.
If you have questions, please reach out to your child's teacher to learn more!
UPCOMING LOCAL CANDIDATES NIGHT
Want to learn more about individuals running for your local School Committee and Town Council seats? GoCAT is sponsoring an in person meet the candidates night to be held on Oct. 11, 2022 starting at 6:00 p.m. at Baxter Memorial Library.
If recent times has taught us nothing, it is that the quality of leadership for local elected officials is of the utmost importance as our community continues to grow and thrive! Check out the flyer below for more details and mark your calendars to attend!
GHS INTERACT CLUB COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT NEEDS YOUR HELP!
Gorham High School's Interact Club is doing a community service project to benefit Maine Needs and they could use your help! The donation drive is being held in conjunction with the Homecoming and Senior Football night scheduled for Oct. 7, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. but you don't have to attend the game to help out! You can just drop off your items if you prefer! Check out the flyer below for more details and feel free to reach out to Neile Nelson, GHS Interact Club Advisor with any questions you may have! Her email address is: neile.nelson@gorhamschools.org! Thank you!
FALL PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCES COMING SOON!
Just a quick reminder that Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences will be coming right up. Our school calendar marks a single day for conferences (10/21), but our schools often open up evenings for a week or more ahead of this date in order to accommodate for parent's work schedules and ensure every parent that wishes to participate can participate. We definitely want to see you this year - and here's the good news - we will be offering face to face conferences this year! Whooo Hooo! and YEAH! ☺
Conferences are a great time for parents to learn about how their children are doing and what they are learning in our schools. When we think about transparency this is an EXCELLENT way to talk face to face with your child's teacher about how your children are doing, what they are learning now and what you should anticipate they will be learning about in the future! It is just a great opportunity for open dialogue and we'd love to see ALL OF YOU there!
Each school has a mechanism for parents to sign up...so please look for communications from your school, and reach out to your school's office with questions if you have them!
BUS DRIVERS NEEDED!
Some of you may have seen our buses parked out by Cherry Hill Farms! We still need bus drivers! We don't just need full time drivers...we also need part time drivers for things like Athletic trips or Field trips, and spare drivers to fill in when our full time drivers may need to be out! Its a great way to give back to your community and here's the deal - WE WILL TRAIN YOU AND PAY YOU WHILE YOU TRAIN! NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE IS NEEDED!
If you are interested, you can go online at www.gorhamschools.org and then click on "Human Resources" and then click on "Employment Opportunities" to apply today! If you have trouble with the online application process - don't give up! CALL US! You can call 222-1012 and talk to Rhonda who can help you through the application process!
Please feel free to spread the word...we offer VERY competitive pay and benefits...but even better than that - we just have GREAT STUDENTS who need your service!
Well, that's all I have for this blog post...in my next post I'll have a new "Curriculum Corner" piece for the month of October and I'll go more deeply into the Bright Future for Little Rams Report among other topics. In the meantime, there are lots of great things happening in our schools! Keep informed by going to our website and checking out our social media pages!
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