The school year continues to roll on here in Gorham in a positive way. There's lots to talk about and share, so let's get right to it. Of course, before we do that, we have to start with some pictures from our schools!
On Wednesday, February 8, 2023 The Gorham School Committee was presented with their INITIAL Proposed FY 24 budget booklet. From this point forward, the Gorham School Committee has 5 intense budget workshop meetings scheduled (see schedule below) to "dig in" to the specifics of the initial proposal created by the administrative team. During that time the School Committee works to make adjustments as they feel necessary to finalize the School Committee's proposed FY 24 budget that will eventually be voted on by the School Committee in April,. The budget is then voted on by the Town Council in May, and validated by voters in June, 2023. More on the specific process shortly.
Each year the Gorham School Committee wants to ensure the most transparent budget development process possible. As just one means to this end, I wanted to make sure that folks knew that you can view the initial proposed budget by CLICKING HERE, but before you do - I'd ask that you understand a few key aspects of the process at these early stages:
1. This is just the first step (among many) of the budget process. The numbers you see on this initial proposed budget WILL NOT be the final numbers voted on by the School Committee in April, and may very well also not be the final numbers voted on by voters via referendum in June.
2. There are still A LOT of "unknowns" regarding the revenue side of the picture. This information typically does not become more clear until closer to the end of March as we get a more solid sense of total town value, state subsidy, and other information. This side of the budget is something I typically direct the School Committee not to focus on until after the 3rd budget meeting or so as the potential for significant movement is so great.
So bottom line, feel free to view the numbers, but know that these will not be the final numbers and that the School Committee will work diligently to do as it annually does - produce a proposed budget that they feel best meets the educational needs of our children while doing our best to balance the ability of our incredible community to support these needs via taxation.
During this process, the School Committee will remain focused on its FY 24 budget priorities which are:
1. Strengthening and broadening student access to learning experiences that partner academic excellence with real world applications while supporting SEL needs.
2. Ensuring that our learning environments are welcome and accessible for all students in ways that celebrate the diversity of our students, our families, our community, and our world.
3. Ensuring that our facilities provide safe and engaging learning and working environments.
4. Improving workforce development by recruiting and creatively working to retain excellent employees.
5. Working to remain competitive with surrounding schools and changing trends within business/education.
This WILL BE yet another challenging budget year for Gorham. In fact, this is gearing up to be the most challenging budget development season I've ever experienced in my 16 years of being a Superintendent of Schools in Maine. There are several key reasons for this, which include the following:
* State property values in Gorham increased by 8%, resulting in a requirement for the community to pay $1.5 million more to support schools in order to be eligible to receive state funding.
*. GMS school's bond payments ended last year, which results in an almost $700,000.00 loss in state subsidy.
* Just moving forward existing staff 1 year (which we call our "status quo" budget) is a 5.93% increase on its own (over $2.1 million dollars)
* Significantly increased costs for utilities (almost $400,000.00 in electricity alone).
* A significant increase in special education needs, especially in our autism program at the elementary level.
Much more detailed information can be found in the budget booklet - but the bottom line is that costs are increasing significantly just to do the same things we've always done, let alone work to address the new and emerging needs of our students. Add this onto the fact that the community just went through a property re-evaluation last year, and certainly the complexities of the process increase.
Even with these challenges, I have great faith in our budget development processes and in the fact that our processes are transparent and welcome the voices of many stakeholders. At the end of this grueling process, I have always believe that the "right" budget is always passed for our children and for our community. Please know that the Gorham Schools Administrative team, the School Committee, and others are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work so that this year's process will have that same important outcome.
If you want to get involved, we encourage you to view our upcoming budget workshop meetings and to share your thoughts with myself or members of the Gorham School Committee directly. All of our budget workshop meetings this year will EITHER be live streamed or recorded and posted online and shared. The schedule is below. I'll keep you informed along the way!
The agenda for the evening will be to welcome everyone, provide some overview information, and then to simply take open questions from the audience and answer as many as we can! Check out the flyer below for details.
Answer: First, your child needs to be 4 years old, but not 5 years old by Oct. 15, 2023. Above and beyond that ALL Gorham 4 year olds would be eligible to attend. However, we have a limited number of slots so we will have selection criteria for those slots. A certain number will be set aside for CDS eligible families, a certain number will be set aside for income eligible families and the remaining number will be open slots for all interested families. I would STRONGLY SUGGEST that if you are even a little interested in the program and you will have a 4 year old that meets the age criteria described above, that you complete the initial interest application and then we can go from there. We will be launching the initial interest application on Feb. 17, 2023. Details of this process will be shared at the "Listen and Learn" event.
Question: Will there be any options or partnerships for aftercare/before care?
Answer: Yes. In partnership with some of our local early care providers we have thus far identified 16 slots for interested families and hope to identify additional partnerships before the end of the school year for those families who are interested.
Question: Once we have completed the initial application, When will we find out if our child was accepted into the program if they are currently working with CDS?
Answer: We will notify all families, regardless of CDS eligibility by early May, 2023 whether or not your child was accepted into the program.
Question: Will the program eventually expand to offer more slots at school?
Answer: No. Our schools simply do not have the space to offer universal Pre K to all 4 year olds (typically over 200 students each year). HOWEVER, we do anticipate significant increases in the number of private partner slots that will allow Pre K eligible children to attend public Pre K over time.
That's it for now...hope to see folks at the "Listen and Learn" event on Monday for more!
REMINDER - SURVEY OPEN TO FAMILIES TO ASK ADDITIONAL CURRICULUM QUESTIONS!
I put this out in my last blog, but thus far have had just 8 parents participate. I can't imagine there aren't more questions out there that families are curious about regarding what we teach in our schools (i.e. curriculum) across grades K-12!
So I just wanted to remind families who have questions, to simply complete the anonymous survey below to ask those questions and I'll include them in my upcoming "Curriculum Corner" blog posts each month. I have enough questions for one more blog post from our first round of questions. I would love to have enough questions to keep it going at least through the end of the school year - so don't be bashful...ask your questions both big and small and I'll do my best to answer them! Link is below:
https://forms.gle/g6sRuDd4Cvc4zerPA
EXCITED TO LEARN! SAN ANTONIO HERE I COME!
As the lead learner in the Gorham Schools, it is important for me to continue to learn and grow as an educational leader. Goodness knows I can always learn something new, and improve in areas that I need to work on as a leader. This isn't a sign of challenge as a leader - its a sign of strength to continually be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking.
Next week I will be heading to San Antonio, Texas to attend the National Conference on Education. This conference is sponsored by AASA the National Superintendent's Association. It is two days worth of the most intense professional learning possible for those of us in the highest leadership positions in our public schools. This conference brings in national speakers and experts on the most cutting edge educational approaches from across the country. We can learn with large numbers of our peers in settings with keynote speakers such as Alex Boyle, a performer and mental health advocate or in smaller settings with break out groups facilitated by Superintendents sharing their skills and expertise with their peers and everything in between! Last year almost 6,000 educational leaders attended the Conference in Nashville and this year looks to be shaping up to perhaps top that historic number!
Also during the conference there will be great focus on this year's theme of "Live Well, Lead Well". Encouraging Superintendents to figure out ways to better take care of ourselves so that we are able to take care of others. The conference offers a Health and Wellness center and may different session break outs to learn more about this important topic for us all.
Awards are also given out during this conference for the National Superintendent of the Year and each State's Superintendent of the Year is celebrated. In Maine, that would be Jeremy Ray, Superintendent of Schools in Biddeford, Dayton, and Saco, ME. Other awards such as our humanitarian award are also presented during this conference so we can be sure to celebrate the great leaders of our public schools from across the country.
Finally, another important aspect of this conference is in working with our Governance Board. Governing Board members from AASA come to the conference a day early to participate in discussions regarding our legislative agenda and priorities and help to ensure our organization remains focused on its overall beliefs and values as we advocate for the needs of children across this great country.
This will be my second year in attendance at the National Conference and I must say that last year I came back energized and full of new incredible ideas about how we can continue to improve our public schools to better serve our students and families. The ability to talk with peers and learn with peers from school districts of 100,000+ students to districts with just 200 students is something only a conference of this caliber can provide. It is also a great time to "brag" a bit about some of the awesome things happening in Maine's public schools and for me, more specifically about the awesome things happening in Gorham. It is always a rush to go to a conference like this to learn about "cutting edge" educational programs that we have already been doing here in Gorham for several years - like ASPIRE!
I will be blogging each day from the conference and individuals can follow the events from the conference by CLICKING HERE. If you want to know what I am learning about - check it out on the site linked - otherwise, just wait a little bit and I'll be sure to bring those incredible ideas back to Gorham and you'll see them soon!
ASPIRE NEWSLETTER READY TO VIEW
Click here to View January's Aspire Gorham Newsletter - you will be surprised at just how much this program is doing in our schools and community! Check it out!
A FEW SUMMER CAMP OPPORTUNITIES
As the month of February all too quickly begins to come to a close, I know many families begin thinking about summer learning opportunities for their children. I came across these TWO the other day that I thought were worth sharing for those that might be interested. Check them out!
USM Music and Theater Camps:
Telling Room Camps:
MARY POPPINS - THERE IS STILL TIME!
There are TWO MORE SHOWS, one tomorrow night (Saturday) and one on Sunday afternoon. If you haven't seen it - you should - it is an incredible show! Our GHS musical students outdo themselves this time. Incredible stunts, incredible set design, great acting, awesome singing and dancing. Fun for the whole family! Check out the flyer below and enjoy!
That's it for this Blog! Next one will be March 3 due to the Feb. date being over the vacation. Feel free to reach out with any questions you may have in the interim!
