LOTS of information to share ("big" and "small") in this blog, so I'll get right to it by starting with my usual pictures highlighting students learning across all our schools from the past two weeks...
INCREDIBLE PICTURES! From GHS homecoming to our class of 2035 showing off their "Future Story" T-shirts and lots of smiles in between! Now on to the information!
A QUICK REMINDER, OUR CHILDREN ARE WATCHING US!
Please take a moment to watch this
BRIEF video message from me reminding us all of our School's Code of Conduct and how important it is to model for our children even when it may be difficult to do so!
ARE YOU THE PARENT OF A TEEN IN GORHAM?
Then you need to consider attending this event sponsored by G.A.T.Y (Gorham Action Team For Youth) In partnership with the Opportunity Alliance! Check out the flyer below for more details!
UPCOMING BOND REFERENDUM QUESTION FOR 3 SCHOOL CAPITAL PROJECTS
A request for a school bond of $10,523,215 to fund three much needed projects will be question #2 on the local ballot on November 8, 2022.
PLEASE BE SURE TO GET OUT AND VOTE!The Three projects are as follows:
1. Gorham High School HVAC Project - $4,300,000.00
2. Gorham High School LED Lighting Project - $423,215.00
3. Narragansett Elementary School Modular Expansion Project (Final Phase) - $5,800,000.00
The Town is currently estimating a ten year bond at 2.85% interest which would equal an additional $1,798,995.57. That would bring the total bond request to an estimated $12,322,210.57. A sample view of the question as it is seen on the ballot can be seen below:
I've had some folks ask,
what would that annual payment have for an impact on taxes, especially given recent impacts of the new re-evaluation in Gorham? So first, please understand that ALL OF THIS IS AN ESTIMATE because we won't know exact numbers until we are able to go out to bond and lock down interest rates, etc. With that being said, based upon the figures estimated above, we would look at a first full year payment (which would occur in FY 25) of approximately $1,350,000.00 on this bond. Using this year's newest mil rate of 12.85, that would mean an increase of .46 on the mil. Again this is clearly an estimate as the mil rate will change for FY 24 (when we have an interest only payment on the bond) and again in FY 25 (when we will have the first full payment for the bond).
Based upon that information, we then can estimate that the average home in Gorham valued at $450,000.00 would see an annual increase of $210.00 per year for the anticipated ten year life of the bond. Of course, this would go down over time as we pay down the interest for the bond.
As a school, we know that this is a lot to ask, especially during a year that folks may be reeling from the impacts of the recent re-evaluation. However, we also know the short, mid and long term range capital needs of our facilities and while investments now may be painful, costs for these needed projects are not going down and will only increase over time. Our choice is to invest these funds now, or invest more later.
This $10 million request is part of a much larger ten year capital outlook that was developed in coordination between the Town and School. In our recent joint facilities work with the Town Council, the school has identified over $50 million dollars worth of needs for our buildings in just a ten year time frame. You can view the ten year plan by CLICKING HERE. This work was based off the completed CHA facilities study that was conducted by the joint facilities committees. You can view the CHA report by CLICKING HERE.
I've also heard recent questions about why these projects are needed if our overall enrollments in 2022 are about the same as they were in 2015?
Well, first, let's take a look at the facts...
Our enrollments in October of 2021 totaled 2755 students K-12. In 2015-16 our total enrollment was 2674. That is an overall increase of 81 students between 2015-2021.
At the height of our recent growth in 2019-20 we had 2,799 students. Our anticipated enrollment for Oct. 2022 now stands at 2,739. That is an overall reduction of 60 students. At first glance, this would indicate that we are no worse off in terms of overall capacity than we were in 2016-17. The problem is that total student enrollments do not tell the whole story. It doesn't tell the story of how our student populations are changing, and how we must therefore utilize that pre-existing space differently than we did even just six years ago! Let's use Special Education as an example to demonstrate my point:
Our special education populations in Gorham continue to increase at a rate that outpaces our regular education population. These are some of our most vulnerable students, who need additional support in order to be successful in learning. Special Education students often require additional spaces for services to be provided, either in resource room settings or other specialized service settings.
Between 2018-19 and present, our special education population has looked like this:
That is a growth of over 83 students in specialized programming in just 4 years. In terms of space utilization this has an impact on how we utilize our classroom spaces in each building. For example, having to add additional resource room spaces, which then means we have less space to utilize for regular classroom spaces.
One of our specialized programs that requires a significant need for additional space above and beyond what a regular classroom or resource room would require is our K-5 Autism program. This program is centrally housed at Great Falls Elementary School in order to most efficiently deploy our resources. This population has seen a significant increase over the past few years, which once again has an impact on how we can utilize other spaces within the school. Here's the data since 2017-18:
It may not seem like an increase of 8 students in this program is a lot, but please know that these students often require 1:1 services and typically house just 4-5 students in a single classroom space due to programming needs.
The point that I am trying to make is that although overall enrollment numbers may not be as high as they were in 2019-20, HOW we have to use our buildings has changed significantly since then in terms of required support services provided to children. The pandemic has also not eased these challenges.
Couple these changing needs with the overall age of our buildings and mechanical systems - we simply need to invest funds into our buildings to keep them fully and safely operational for our children. This $10 million dollar request is just one step in addressing a multi-year list of needs that can be seen by fully viewing the CHA facilities study document linked above.
To learn more about the three projects and their specific impacts, please
CLICK HERE. And please reach out with questions if you have them! Remember....social media land may not be the most accurate place to gather data! ☺
GORHAM SCHOOL COMMITTEE APPROVES NEW 2022-2027 STRATEGIC PLAN
During their meeting held on Oct. 5, the Gorham School Committee voted unanimously to approve of a new 2022-2027 Strategic Plan for the Schools. I would encourage staff, students, families and community members to please view the full plan document by
CLICKING HERE and reach out with any questions!
It is exciting to be on the other side of the pandemic and to have such an incredible document to assist us in prioritizing our work with children moving forward! I thank the hundreds of students, parents, and staff that worked over the course of the past year to pull this document together!
If you'd like to know a little more about the process to create the new Strategic Plan, please
CLICK HERE to view a summary presentation delivered to the School Committee at their Sept. 14 meeting.
RECENT THOUGHT EXCHANGE SUMMARY DATA COLLECTED!
The results from our most recent Thought Exchange survey have been collected and compiled! I will plan on sharing these as part of my "listening tour" (See below) but also thought folks might like to see the results in advance and be given the opportunity to ask questions.
As a reminder, the question that was asked was: "What can we do to make our schools more welcoming to students, staff, and families of all diverse backgrounds and identities?"
As you can see we had some really great participation rates from folks...so the data was very interesting!
When you are reviewing the summary data, I'd like to point out slide number 19. This is where the software system we utilize identifies key topics that have very different viewpoints from constituents and then looks to find the common ground between those constituent responses to the survey and how they rated the thoughts of others.
It is so important to try and see other's viewpoints and work to identify common ground. I don't know about you, but I love that our common ground on what can be very polarizing conversations is to "Emphasize Kindness". That seems to me to really reflect the true nature of our incredible community!
SUPERINTENDENT'S LISTENING TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED!
As a refresher, one of my goals for the 2022-23 School Year as approved by the Gorham School Committee is as follows:
You can view my complete goals by
CLICKING HERE for reference.
One of the specific action steps outlined in this goal was to "Implement a Listening Tour to hear from Gorham Parents/Guardians about what they are interested in learning more about regarding our K-12 curriculum."
I wanted to give it a few weeks to get settled into our new school year before launching such a tour. I also wanted to have a chance to complete the most recent Thought Exchange survey and to review data to help better inform this process. I think it is now a great time to launch such a tour.
My listening tour will focus on assisting myself and the Gorham School Committee in answering the following question from the perspective of our families:
What do YOU want to learn more about regarding our schools and our curriculum?
We know that as a result of the most recent pandemic, our parents and families feel less connected to our schools than pre pandemic times. We also know that the past three years have been some of the most tumultuous years in our community, our state and our country on many different levels. We want to make sure that our families feel as though you know, understand, and support the curriculum that is being taught in our schools at the local levels and I want to use this listening tour as a means to better understand what our families are "wondering about" so that I can ensure that any potential "clouds" of uncertainty are lifted and that folks can at least say with assurance that they understand what is currently being taught in our K-12 classrooms and why this curriculum is in place. For now, that is the focus of this tour.
This will indeed be a LISTENING TOUR. Although I may start each session with a brief overview of the results of our most recent Thought Exchange to set some context, I will not spend a lot of time talking. Instead, I want to hear from parents/families what your genuine questions might be regarding what is taught in our schools, at what age levels, and why. My plan would then be to compile these questions and to use them to create themes that can be shared with the School Committee. I will then work with the School Committee to determine how best to keep the conversation moving forward in achievement of the goal outlined above.
I will use a hybrid meeting approach that will focus on meeting in person, but allow individuals to participate via zoom as well if their schedules do not allow for in person attendance. I will not record meetings, just because the hybrid approach may not provide the best quality of access to a recording.
I have scheduled 1 meeting at each school. Parents who can't make the meeting at their assigned school may absolutely attend another school's assigned meeting night if that is preferred. Each meeting will take place from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. at a location designated at each school. Here are the dates for each school:
Great Falls - 11/16
Narragansett - 11/14
Village - 11/7
GMS - 11/2
GHS - 11/15
The General Agenda will be as follows but this can be maneuvered based on actual participation, either in person or via zoom as needed:
- Opening Welcome & Introductions (5-10 min)
- BRIEF overview of recent TE survey data (5-8 min)
- Discussion using 3 question prompts listed below(can take place either as whole group or at tables with chart paper and report outs depending upon size of group). . .
1. If you had to identify your ONE biggest "wonder" about what we teach in our schools what would it be?
2. If you had to identify ONE way in which we could improve communication to parents/families about what their children are learning across our schools what would it be?
3. When your child(ren) walk across the stage to receive their diplomas as GHS seniors - what skills do you want them to have?
4. When you think of that senior graduate - how would you measure "success" for the Gorham Schools?
At the conclusion of the meeting, data will be gathered, summarize, and reported back at the conclusion of the tours to the school committee and shared publicly via my blog.
Because I'm not sure how many people to expect, I likely will not provide food at these meetings, but I would encourage folks that want to "paper bag it" to please do so...I know we all have very busy lives so no shame in eating in front of one another while we converse! ☺
Hope to see you there!
OCTOBER'S CURRICULUM CORNER
As a quick reminder, a survey was sent out to families in September asking folks the following question:
"What Do You Want to Know Most About Your Child's Learning In Our Classrooms?"
I have collected responses to this survey from 94 different families and have promised to select 2-4 questions from the results of this survey each month to outline answers to the best of my ability. I'm calling this my "Curriculum Corner" for each month's blog post. So here goes for this month! Please see the questions highlighted from the survey below along with my best answers!
Question 1: How often do middle schoolers read a book as a class?
Answer: Our students read A LOT! Our emphasis is on making sure that students are reading books that they are interested in and that connect to the larger curriculum. The middle school has a 24 minute period Monday, Tuesday and Thursday known as SSR (Sustained Silent Reading). During this time, students are asked to have a book of interest or a class book available to read for that period. Students also read frequently across their core content classes. Sometimes a book is read as an entire class, but more often than not, students are selecting books of their choice (either individually or in small groups) within specific connections to the curriculum they are learning in their core content areas.
Question 2: Aside from standardized tests, how does the school system evaluate whether students are on track with their learning?
Answer: At the individual student level, grading is an essential part of our learning system. It provides a means for communicating progress towards achievement of standards along a developmental learning continuum. Our instructional content and assessments are aligned to grade level performance indicators (standards). Formative assessments (used to inform next steps in learning) occur very frequently and could be in the form of an exit ticket, observation, quiz, etc. Summative assessments (used as assessment of learning) take place less frequently, and capture the level of proficiency of content covered thus far. Summative assessments could be in the form of a quiz, test, presentation, project, etc.
At the program evaluation level, we believe strongly that our students are much more than their state assessment scores. When we evaluate the success of programs and our overall learning systems we utilize a more wholistic approach based on our "Metrics For Success" that were created an approved by the Gorham School Committee prior to the Pandemic. This framework is then used as the foundation for our "State of the Schools" report that is delivered annually to the Gorham School Committee.
Question 3: Do the academic programs provide supplemental learning opportunities for struggling learners?
Answer: YES. Our K-5 core reading and writing curriculum are designed to assess and instruct students at their individual level. Our K-8 math curriculum incorporates intervention lessons within each unit. In addition, we have digital supplemental platforms, IXL at K-5 and ALEKS at 6-8. In addition, K-12 offers a full program of Multi Tiered Levels of Support (Our Response to Intervention or RTI supports). RTI provides specific and individualized instructional programs for students in need of additional academic support across grades K-12.
Question 4: What does Maine require for standardized testing? What subjects will this occur in and at what ages/grades will the children be in?
Answer: During the 2022-23 school year, the state is requiring standardized testing in the areas of reading, math and science. NWEA Reading and Math assessments are given to grades 3-8 and grade 10 in the spring. The Maine Science assessment is given to grades 5, 8, and 11 in the spring as well.
NOVEMBER 8 REMINDER & WHAT TO EXPECT FOR SNOW DAYS THIS YEAR!
Nov. 8 Reminder...
First, just a brief reminder that Tuesday, November 8, 2022 will be a non-school day here in Gorham. This decision was made by our School Committee this past spring because two of our schools are now used as official polling locations by the Town of Gorham (GMS and Great Falls Elem.). As you may or may not know, polling locations require operations on a slightly different set of rules than do public schools, especially when it comes to the conduct of those who may be coming in to vote. The rules for polling locations may or may not align with the rules our public schools must follow.
Last fall we had a few issues at our polling locations while students were in attendance at school. Nothing too big, but enough to indicate to us that having students at school while the school is also being used as a polling location is not a great combination for our students.
Because our Municipal officials have made it clear that our schools are NEEDED as polling locations due to inadequate facilities within the town to better serve as polling locations, we decided it was best to simply not have school on this day for all students. This allows for our facilities to be used as polling locations without the presence of students, which is better for both our students and those who are participating in our important electoral processes.
Snow Days...
Please CLICK HERE to review our general snow day procedures. Similar to last year, our plans are to utilize "traditional" snow days for the 5 days that are built into our school calendar for the 2022-23 school year. Once those five days have been utilized, we would then look to utilize remote learning days for any additional needs to keep students home due to inclement weather. By doing this, we ensure that our school calendar's anticipated end date for the 2022-23 School Year remains the same and is not extended into future days/weeks of the summer.
SUBSTITUTES ALWAYS NEEDED & VALUED!
Each school year, we begin the year drawing from our substitute pools from the previous year. It takes us a little while to figure out who remains on the substitute list and where our needs may be. Although we have begun the year with 90+ folks on our substitute lists, it has become clear early on that that number may not be currently available to sub in our schools for various reasons. Because of this, WE ARE ONCE AGAIN IN NEED OF SUBSTITUTES in our schools! Of highest priority are those substitutes willing to work in our specialized programs. Please know that if you sign up to substitute teach in one of our specialized programs, you often do NOT have to take on the roles/responsibility of the teacher. In most cases, what we do is utilize an already existing Educational Technician to take on that role as they are most familiar with student needs and programming, and then ask that the substitute work in replacement of the educational technician for the day. This is a very strong arrangement which ensures that our students and staff are successful even when a specialized teacher may be absent.
So, if you are interested in substituting in our schools - in specialized programs or not - please complete an application TODAY! Our applications are on our website (www.gorhamschools.org then click on "Human Resources" and then click on "Employment Opportunities" and go from there). If you have any difficulties completing the online application, please reach out to Rhonda Warren at 222-1012 and she can help trouble shoot any issues or questions you may have.
Our current pay rates are:
- $120.00 per day for certified teachers
- $115.00 per day for substitutes who have completed our sub training course (see below).
- $105.00 per day for all other substitutes - Min. Requirement = HS Diploma or equivalent.
We will be putting together a new sub training course for the beginning of November. If you are interested in participating, please email Assistant Superintendent Brian Porter at brian.porter@gorhamschools.org.
THANK YOU!
ASPIRE GORHAM NEWSLETTER READY TO VIEW!
Each month our Aspire Gorham program puts out a newsletter helping to showcase the incredible work going on across our schools in the area of building student aspirations. You can view our most recent newsletter by CLICKING HERE and I'll be sure to share each month via my blogs so you can stay current with this incredible work!
IN CLOSING...
Shawn Moody is once again opening up his incredible space at his racetrack area to celebrate Moody's 45th anniversary this weekend and he's invited the entire Gorham Community to attend! There will be racing, music, a bonfire and fireworks! Moody's sure does know how to celebrate! If you are looking for a fun family oriented event this weekend...check it out - flyer with more information is below!
That's plenty for this blog! My next blog will go out on Oct. 28, 2022. In the meantime, if you have questions - please reach out! heather.perry@gorhamschools.org. THANK YOU!
