Hard to believe three weeks have flown by already, but they have! The good news is that the positive energy just keeps flowing! I've been able to get out into classrooms to read, attend athletic events, and student/staff meetings and can say with confidence that all our schools are incredible places to be right now (per usual)! Let's check out some great pictures taken these past two weeks across our schools to show you what I mean!
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)
I've also included what the question itself will look like on the ballot. Please see image below and note that this is NOT THE OFFICIAL BALLOT. You need to either request an absentee ballot from the Town of Gorham or you must show up at the polls on Nov. 8 to vote to view the official ballot.
Please see the Town of Gorham's Website by CLICKING HERE to access information on voter registration, polling locations and how to access absentee ballots if you are interested.
I encourage anyone with questions regarding Question 2 on our local Gorham ballot to please reach out! My email address is heather.perry@gorhamschools.org!
GORHAM SCHOOLS ANTI-RACISM & EQUITY COMMITTEE UPDATE
As a reminder, the Gorham School Committee passed it's Anti-Racism Policy, Policy ACA back in December of 2020. With this policy, there are several specific actions and expectations that are laid out by the School Committee regarding this important work. In order to advise and support the administration in administering this policy, the School Committee also created the Anti-Racism & Equity Committee as an "Ad Hoc" Committee of the Gorham School Department. This subcommittee has been meeting since that time.
The Gorham School Committee stands on the principle of rejecting all forms of "racism as (it is) destructive to the district's mission/vision, values and goals." The Anti-Racism & Equity Committee continues these efforts by establishing a path to eliminate racism, intolerance, inequity, and disparity in the school system. Doing this work ensures each school creates a welcoming and equitable culture, with an inclusive environment that reflects and celebrates the growing diversity of the district's student population, their families, and the community - all within an environment that reflects our Gorham Schools Code of Conduct in action.
Over the past few years we have been working with the Maine Intercultural Communications Consultants (MICC) to facilitate the work of this group. As a single organization, MICC no longer exists, although its overall work continues. As a result, we had to spend some time this summer working to find a new facilitator for the group. I am happy to report we have been able to find a talented new facilitator. His name is Dustin Ward. We would like to welcome Dustin to working with the incredible community of Gorham in this new role. James Ford will also work as a support facilitator as he has the past two years.
At our first meeting planned for Oct. 19, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. we will begin by reviewing some draft goals for the group's focus during this school year. Those include (in draft form), the following:
1. Students, Students, Students - The Anti-Racism Committee will build upon its already vast interaction with students, allowing them to continue to tell the narrative of their own identity and what they desire from their school experience and environment.
2. Community Engagement - This aligns with our overall district goal of increasing community engagement. The Anti-Racism Committee will look to establish a link to the work of the District, the School Committee, and the larger Mission and the reason for the work being undertaken with our community.
3. Building Trust - The Anti-Racism Committee in its own construction will work to build trust among its members to establish a foundation for future members to be effective at carrying out the District's Anti-Racism policy and the larger Mission of the Committee and Community. It also will set a focus on how the District and Community can build trust overall.
4. Processing the Mental Health, Trauma, and Healing - The Anti-Racism Committee will look to fortify a way for students, teachers and administrators who have been harmed through discrimination, bullying, racism or other traumatic events, a way to work through and find a path towards healing.
5. Reaching Families with Learned Lessons - The Anti-Racism Committee will look to strengthen the communication, and advocacy, that families obtain for their student and child, and understand how they too can build upon a lens of Anti-Racism and embrace one's full identity.
If you would like to get involved - I have good news! We are CURRENTLY, LOOKING FOR THE FOLLOWING STAKEHOLDERS TO JOIN OUR COMMITTEE:
- One (1) K-5 Parent
- Three (3) 9-12 Parents
- Three (3) Community Members
If you are interested in serving in this capacity and in helping to actualize the vision for the work in our schools as outlined in our policy, please reach out to Superintendent Perry via email (heather.perry@gorhamschools.org). Please know that in filling these slots, we will be mindful of the make-up of the group in trying to ensure the group reflects the diversity of our community as well as the diversity of stakeholders. Individuals will need to be able to commit to meeting at least once per month with the potential for an additional meeting in between. The commitment will be for one year.
SEPTEMBER'S CURRICULUM CORNER!
As was shared in my last blog, one of my formal annual goals for this year is as follows:
In my last blog I shared an open survey with parents/guardians and community members that asked the following question:
This survey was shared via my blog, and via our social media posts. So far, we have had 24 participants in the survey who have asked some great questions. My intention is to share questions and answers gleaned from this survey each month as part of my blog. Below are FOUR question that were asked with corresponding answers:
Question #1: Can you define the term Anti-Racism?
Answer: The Gorham School Department uses the Webster's Dictionary definition of Anti-Racism which is seen below:
Question #2: Could you explain how your vision of anti-racist compares to Ibram X. Kendi's definition of anti-racist?
Answer: Kendi defines an anti-racist as "Someone who is expressing an antiracist idea or supporting an antiracist policy with their actions". He goes on to state that he defines an antiracist idea as "any idea that states the racial groups are equal."
The School Board, in its Anti-Racism Policy outlines the following vision for the work:
"The Gorham School Committee and the Gorham School Department reject all forms of racism as it is destructive to the district’s mission, vision, values, and goals. This policy is established in an effort to eliminate all forms of racism, intolerance, inequity, and disparity in our school system. We aim to ensure that each school creates a welcoming equitable culture and inclusive environment that reflects and celebrates the diversity of the district’s student population, their families, the community, and an environment that reflects our Code of Conduct. The School Committee is committed to the following principles:
1. Building, strengthening, and sustaining a school community that shares the collective responsibility to address, eliminate, and prevent actions, decisions, and outcomes that result from and perpetuate racism.
2. Eliminating inequitable practices whenever detected.
3. Continue to create equitable practices in order to cultivate the unique gifts, talents, and interests of every child in accordance with the district’s mission, vision, values, goals, objectives and curriculum.
4. Respecting and championing the diversity and life experiences of all community members to support and strengthen/enhance the district’s mission, vision, values, goals, objectives, and curriculum.
5. Acknowledging that racism is compounded by other forms of discrimination, including, but not limited to those protective classes as specified by federal and state statutes and school policy.
6. Recognizing this work is complex and requires patience, flexibility, and compassion in order to carry it out."
Question #3: How are materials selected by teachers and librarians? Is there oversight or doublechecks about anything potentially controversial and how often are they reviewed after being added?
Answer: Any purchase for instructional supplies or books follow a strict purchase order (PO) process that ensures every item is approved by the building principal prior to the item being purchased. This is our typical procurement process for any instructional supplies. When it comes to purchasing of core curriculum materials, there is a curriculum review committee that meets and reviews materials and works within an established content area review process that rotates approximately every six years. This is for large scale curriculum purchases like Reveal Math or Writing without Tears. Additionally, curriculum standards and performance indicators are reviewed on an annual basis.
In regards to specific library materials purchase processes, I thought that our GHS Librarian Sandra Rockett did a TREMENDOUS JOB reviewing the processes she uses for materials selection at GHS in June of last school year. She gave a presentation to the School Committee so its on video if you'd like to watch! You can view the presentation by CLICKING HERE. If you view topics under "Administrator Reports" you'll see it listed to save you time!
Question #4: Do all classes have a syllabus? Can the syllabus be sent home to parents for review?
Answer: At the high school level, yes all courses have a syllabi and they can actually be found on our website. Just go to www.gorhamschools.org then click on "Our Schools" then go to "Gorham High School" and then click on "School Info." and you'll see the option to click on "GHS Course Syllabi"
At the Elementary and Middle School level, we do not have specific course syllabi as courses are more general in nature. If a parent is curious about overall course content and topics to be taught throughout the year, you may certainly email your child's teacher and ask for this information and they should be able to provide a general overview. Additionally, we encourage parents/guardians to talk openly with their children about what they are learning. Its a great way to get insights, not only as to what students are learning, but what they think about it!
If you would like to ask questions to add to my ongoing list, feel free to use the same survey link shared before. I will be continually "culling" questions from this and sharing them each month via my blogs!
Survey Link: https://forms.gle/6baVMTDM3Qgvi2Jk8
F.O.A.A. REQUESTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE!
Just to be clear - FOAA stands for the Freedom Of Access Act.☺
Over the past year, and continuing into the 2022-23 school year, the Gorham School Department has been inundated with public records requests. Searching for and assembling records in accordance with state law is very time intensive and expensive for the school district.
You can now view all FOAA requests on our website by CLICKING HERE. This page contains the date of the FOAA request, the name of the individual making the request, the topic of the request, when the request was completed, a link to the completed materials shared, and a listing of the estimated time it took to produce the materials requested.
Greetings everyone,
It has certainly been a joyful and busy start-of-school for Aspire Gorham. Although we are only closing our 3rd week of school, there is much to report on.
Top 3:
The 2021-2022 Year in Review “Snapshot Document”
Gorham is launching two new grant-funded initiatives directly tied to Aspire goals:
Maine DOL Apprenticeship Grant
Maine DOE Extended Learning Opportunities Grant
Teacher-led Aspire collaborations are already being planned
Community Partnership Portal - Educator Dashboard
Our new tool for educators is completed and will be shared with teachers each month when I share the Aspire Gorham Newsletter. I still have some data entry to do, and then I will focus on making a Community Dashboard version that allows local businesses to find interested educators.
Community Partnership Portal: Educator Dashboard
Programmatic Updates
As alluded to earlier, Aspire has hit the ground running this year! Here’s a short synopsis of activities happening throughout the district:
Gorham High School:
Extended Learning Opportunities:
Eliza has 13 students taking the Workplace Learning Experience class, which is now in its third year. The timeline expects all students to be in their placements by October.
GHS has also onboarded its new ELO Instructor, Grace Olsen. We are so excited to have her executing the ELO grant. In her first week, she has already met with the school counseling team to identify the priority and secondary priority students, met with 9 of these students, and 1 is already placed at ODAT Machine. Grace is dynamic, organized, and skilled at connecting with students - what a dream!
Career X:
Eliza is developing 2-day career exploration events with interested departments. This is a huge undertaking and one that will have a significant impact on our students.
Currently in active development: Science X and Arts+Music X.
Gorham Middle School:
Try It Days / Amazing Race:
I sent a survey to staff about which Aspire events were most of interest to staff - while I got positive feedback about virtually every Aspire-aligned activity, there was a strong consensus from teachers that we should continue to use the Try It Day model for 6th grade and the Amazing Race for 8th grade. I was also able to solicit numerous staff members willing to help take on some responsibility for executing these activities.
Teacher-Led Collaborations:
In the past three weeks, I have received outreach from numerous colleagues at GMS:
Refreshing our library with a collection of relevant career exploration materials.
A field experience for the Alternative Education students to tour multiple businesses in the Gorham Industrial Park
Two career panels revolving around the theme of careers in the “Maine Outdoors”
And this is only about half of the requests I’m working on at GMS, in full collaboration with staff.
Elementary Schools:
Future Story Shirts:
The Class of 2035 will be receiving their shirts next week! I cannot wait to share photos.
Author Visit: Jennifer Nielsen
Popular young adult author, Jennifer Nielsen, will visit Gorham in April. This was spearheaded by a 4th-grade teacher at Great Falls and will be open to all students in grades 4-7 throughout the district.
Teacher-Led Collaborations:
We also have numerous new projects in the works at the K-5 level, as well as some educators who are seeking to repeat their successful Aspire field experiences from past years.
As each of these programmatic updates show, Aspire is truly impacting the culture of Gorham schools. Not only do the vast majority of teachers believe in our goals, but they also work to weave Aspire into the fabric of their classroom culture and the wider school culture.
One of the key goals for all Gorham schools in 2022-2023 is to reinvigorate connections to the community, and Aspire will be a core component of this work.
Aspire-Aligned Grant Work
MDOL Apprenticeship Grant:
Gorham has hit the ground running - there are 6 people who are in the Educator Apprenticeship pathway, and they have already gained 3 credits from SMCC and begun working throughout the district. Adult Education is also working to get the CNA Apprenticeship pathway up and running soon, and developing a CDL Apprenticeship pathway.
Our first Quarterly Report is due on 10/15.
MDOE Extended Learning Opportunities Grant:
Gorham has hired its new ELO Instructor, who will work closely with Eliza Kenigsberg to ensure that the GHS students who sought programs at the local CTE centers are able to get a relevant extended learning opportunity in an area of interest. Together, they will work to expand ELOs and workplace learning at Gorham High School, and spearhead the implementation of the Maine Career Exploration Badging, in collaboration with GHS’s core JMG Specialists, Ryan Chicoine and Mia Kaufman.
Upcoming Priorities
Pre-K Grant and Little Rams Vision work
Successful launch of ELO programming and Maine Career Exploration Badging
Facilitating teacher-led Aspire collaborations
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