November 3 Post

To start this blog post, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the events of Oct. 25, 2023 in Lewiston Maine.  

No community should have to endure what the community of Lewiston and surrounding communities have had to endure this past week.  While there are no words to describe the negative aspects of this tragedy, what we have all witnessed since then has been some of the best Maine has to offer.  Communities helping communities, people helping people, organizations coming together for a common purpose - in support of those impacted.  

There have been tears, there has been anger, there have been hugs, testimonials, and much support.  We have all had the unfortunate experience of watching just how quickly a community can be torn apart, but in just a short period of time we have also had the pleasure of watching how communities in Maine band together to support one another and roll up their sleeves to heal and rebuild.  

As we all continue to send our support to the community of Lewiston, and as people are looking for specific ways to help - I thought I'd share this information link created by Governor Mills that provides some ideas on what we as individuals can do to assist.  

Page Link:  https://www.maine.gov/governor/mills/lewiston

Another idea from Tree Street Youth is also below, although this may be a little late.  They are sponsoring a "Love Lewiston Day" going on TODAY (Friday, Nov. 3) til 6:30 p.m.  

Love Lewiston Day Link:  https://treestreetyouth.org/love-lewiston/

Finally, if you want to support some of our students working to support Lewiston, please participate in this fundraiser being conducted by our GHS Interact Club Students called "Just a Kid From Gorham".  Proceeds from this fundraiser will go directly to support Lewiston and/or mental health needs in our community.  

CLICK HERE to learn more about this Interact Club Fundraiser and then use the link below to order if you are interested.

JUST A KID FROM GORHAM ORDER LINK

Let's make sure we all continue to roll up our sleeves and do what we can to support our neighbors!  Thank you!

Our Schools have continued to be busy places of learning even with two unexpected days away from one another last week.  Check out the images below to get a sense of what's been happening in the Gorham Schools these past few weeks...

Now on to the information!

CONTINUED FOCUS ON MENTAL HEALTH & FREE UPCOMING RESOURCE FOR FAMILIES

Our recent Alex Boye visit was VERY WELL received by our students and staff.  Those families that were also able to attend his evening performance enjoyed his music and message too.  Below is a quick excerpt from the student survey:

It is clear our students are talking about their mental health and they want to learn more about how to support each other and themselves in these sometimes difficult to talk about areas.  

In keeping with our work to continue to support families in having these important conversations with their children - we would like to invite ALL FAMILIES to attend an upcoming FREE zoom webinar sponsored by parentguidance.org and the Cook Center for Human Connection on the topic of Anxiety.  This webinar will be held on Monday, November 6 at 6:00 p.m.

This program will help parent’s support their child(ren) to identify anxiety and develop tools to manage it. This program is beneficial for parents with students of all ages. In order to participate, please sign up by clicking the link below. 

Sign Up Link: http://cookcenter.info/Nov6Gorham

You can also learn more by viewing the flyer below and using the QR code to sign up.  For families raising children of any age right now - I would strongly urge you to take advantage of this FREE resource!  

We will be hosting another similar FREE event for families on the topic of social media later in January.  

These are high quality programs!  Please take advantage!  Our children need all of us to lock our arms together and wrap around them to support them in these important conversations!

As another FREE resource for families, the Cook Center is sharing with us a monthly newsletter.  Each newsletter has a specific topic focus for parents.  This one is for the month of November and the focus is on managing financial stress.  Financial stress can significantly impact mental health, and as a parent, you play a crucial role in helping your child navigate these challenges. Understand the profound link between financial stress and mental well-being. Gain insights into strategies that can equip your child with the resilience to face financial challenges head-on. Learn how to foster a healthy financial mindset in your child, setting them on a path to a brighter future. 

CLICK HERE to view the Newsletter

As always, check out the ParentGuidance.org resources where you can access free courses led by licensed therapists on more than 50 topics. To access the course, simply navigate to ParentGuidance.org and click courses. 

UPDATE ON SCHOOL CONFIGURATION STUDY & TIMELINE FOR NEXT STEPS

I wanted to take a moment and provide an update to families on the configuration study process I described in my September 22 blog post earlier this fall.  As a quick recap - the Gorham School Committee has been looking at data to try and determine if the community may be better served with a different grade configuration system.  This preliminary work is focused on gathering just enough initial data to assist the School Committee in determining if it may be financially worth it to "veer" from our original long term facilities plans and instead move in the direction of a possible grade configuration change.  This move would only be made if there were enough cost savings to warrant such a move as determined by the School Committee.

If folks are wondering what the original plan is that would need to be "veered from", the original plan that we have been working from for the past 5 years now is to complete the third phase of modular expansion at Narragansett Elementary School.  Once done we would then shift attendance zones one more time (first time was in 2020) to push growth towards Narragansett and to free up continued growing space at Great Falls and Village that should last approximately 6-8 years.  This attendance zone shift is scheduled to occur this fall if we stick with this original plan.  This would in turn "buy" us enough time to apply for and hopefully receive approval from the MDOE school construction program to build a new PK-5 school that would consolidate Narragansett and Village into one school.  Applications for the state construction process will be opening this spring (Spring, 2024) and we would know how we rank by spring of 2025.  If we were to score in the top 10 across the state we could see a project come to fruition as described within ten years.

We have been working since August to pull together the data needed for this initial configuration study.  This information was presented to the School Committee at its last workshop meeting held on Oct. 25, 2023.  You can CLICK HERE to view the video recording of that meeting.  You can CLICK HERE to view the data spreadsheet that was presented.  You'll find the topic of School Configuration study starts at about the 21 minute mark on the video.  My apologies in advance for the volume - we had to move the meeting to GMS last minute so it wasn't the best conditions.  If you crank the volume though you should be able to hear what is being discussed.  I am also more than happy to answer any questions folks have so please reach out if you have them. My email is heather.perry@gorhamschools.org.

The next steps in the decision making timeline are that the School Committee will make a determination at its November 8 regular meeting what direction they would like to pursue.  Option #1 - dig more deeply into possible configuration changes that could be implemented in Fall of 2025.  This would be selected if the School Committee feels there is enough evidence to suggest that a significant savings could be found by moving in this direction.  Option #2 - continue on the original path towards attendance zone shifts, state capital construction project applications and hopefully a state funded project that would consolidate two of our elementary schools into one over the next 10 years or so.

If Option #1 is selected, we would then dive much more deeply into studying the programmatic impacts and conduct larger scale financial analysis of a possible reconfiguration.  This work would involve the larger community and would likely take the remainder of this year and the beginning of next year to complete with a possible move to adjust configurations in the fall of 2025.

If Option #2 is selected, we would move forward to determine needed attendance zone shifts this winter.  We would bring a plan forward to the School Committee to vote on in January/February of 2024 and we would then work diligently with staff and families impacted in order to make the needed shifts for Fall of 2024.

This is pretty "big stuff" - so please reach out with questions if you have them!  I will do my best to continue to keep folks informed as we go!

A REMINDER - REMOTE LEARNING DAY PLANS!

If there was one good thing that came from COVID, it was the ability to add remote learning days to our "toolbox" when it comes to dealing with unplanned events that may require us to close school to in person learning.  Remote learning days are not necessarily something we WANT to use often (because we all know that in person learning is the best for our children and families), but it is nice to know we can use these days if we need to.

Because we want to make sure to have these days in our toolbox - I wanted to take a moment to remind families what the expectations would be if we used a remote learning day for school.  Each grade level is slightly different, so I've included an overview for each below.

Please know that our plans are to only use remote learning days as a last resort.  For snow days, we would use all five of our traditional snow days in the calendar before moving to remote learning days.  If we used all five of our traditional snow days and then still had to cancel school due to snow, we would then use a remote learning day so that we did not have to extend the school year further into the summer in June.  On remote learning snow days, school lunches would be provided to students on the day before if families indicate they want to have lunches provided via a survey that will be going out soon.  Please keep your eyes open for that survey.  In the meantime, review the expectations below and reach out to your child's school(s) with any questions you may have!

K-5 Expectations:

Within 24 hours of a teacher being notified that a student will be absent for longer than three days…

Teachers	Prepare current, in class work to be completed at home. Consider providing independent reinforcement activities. Communicate with the family that students should complete work only if they feel well enough. Arrange for materials to be picked up, if needed.
Students	If feeling well enough, engage in work sent home.

2032-24 Short Term Full Remote (Snow Day, Teacher Shortage, Outbreak Status), K-5

Teachers	Prepare 2-3 days of tasks that reinforce/maintain learning Send home with students to keep at home just in case, with communication If well, and school is not closed to all staff, engage in PLC work
Students	Bring home, and keep at home, 2-3 days of independent work Utilize packets and teacher directions to reinforce/maintain learning

GMS Expectations:

GHS Expectations (From Student Handbook)

During a remote-learning day, GHS teachers will provide asynchronous activities that are meaningful and designed to ensure students progress in the curriculum. By 8:00 AM, teachers will email their students or post to their Google Classroom the plan for their classes. Each plan will include a lesson (e.g. a presentation, video, reading, etc.) or instructions for an activity and “office hours” (a minimum of two hours) when the teacher will be available to assist students, answer questions, or provide feedback. “Office hours” are intended to be a block of time when students know that their teacher is available to respond in a timely manner to questions or to meet via Google Meets or Zoom for help.

Students are expected to have their iPad and check their email and each of their teachers’ Google Classroom to find out what the lesson or activity is that they need to complete before the start of the next class period.

When students are engaged in remote learning, either synchronously or asynchronously, school expectations still apply. Students attending virtually over mediums like Zoom or Google Meets are expected to:

• Arrive to class on time
• Be prepared with class materials
• Follow school dress code expectations
• Limit distractions around you and direct attention to the class. 
• Be in an environment conducive to learning (IE: desk, kitchen table, workspace, etc). Students should not be in their cars, in bed, or other places that are not conducive to learning. 

Students violating school policies and procedures will be held accountable consistent with the student handbook.

ANOTHER SUBSTITUTE TRAINING CLASS IS AVAILABLE!

Our last substitute training class offered just two weeks ago FILLED UP!  So we already have plans to hold a SECOND substitute training class for individuals that would like to substitute in the Gorham Schools!  Please see the flyer below for details and help spread the word.  

You can complete the intake form here:   https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSega6xalNFImiJ9ThUKbsMPogl4xOUk1wofa0feCKl_u06WtA/viewform 

You can register for the new class here:  

https://gorham.coursestorm.com/course/substitute-teacher-training4#!

This course is for existing substitutes that would like to get a "bump" in daily pay (from our base of $105.00/day to new rate of $115.00/day) or it is for folks that might want to start subbing so you can learn more about expectations and processes and feel more confident to boot!  And yes - the bump in pay is good for new folks too!

We can ALWAYS use more substitutes!

FY 25 BUDGET DEVELOPMENT WORK HAS BEGUN! 

I know, I know!  It seems like we just passed the FY 24 budget...but alas...it is already that time to begin in earnest the hard work required to build our FY 25 proposed School Budget.

There are MANY many steps to our budget development process.  You can CLICK HERE to view a detailed timeline of what to expect, but generally speaking we start now to work with staff at the school and program levels to build our initial draft budget.  Those school and program level budgets are due to my office by mid-December.  We then spend a full month meeting individually with building and program leaders to review each and every request to ensure need and to ensure alignment with our mission/vision and strategic plan as well as with our budget priorities.  

At the same time all this is happening, the district leadership team has already met to establish draft budget priorities for FY 25.  These draft priorities will be shared with the school committee at their informal "kick off" to budget season meeting we call our "Dessert & Discuss" meeting.  That meeting is scheduled on Nov. 16 at 6:30 p.m.  Additionally the school committee has met to establish an initial budget development target that will also be reviewed at the Dessert & Discuss meeting.  You can listen in on the School Committee's initial conversation about establishment of a target by watching their Oct. 25 meeting (same link as above).  This discussion begins at about the 58 minute mark.

As Superintendent, I use all this up front work to build my initial draft budget that is presented to the School Committee in early February.  Once this budget is presented to the School Committee they will then meet several times over the course of the next 2 months to mold my proposed budget into their proposed budget.  In April the School Committee votes to approve a proposed budget.  That budget is then delivered to Town Council in May and voted on.  The results of that vote is then brought to voter referendum in June.

My fingers get tired just typing that timeline...but its important that you all know just how thorough a process this is, and how important it is to stay informed and follow along as we go.  If you are waiting to see what happens at the end and then think you can catch up on the important information to inform your vote in June - well - you can try, but you will be missing a lot of important information to help in your decision making process if you do.  A school budget is a complex budget and the best way to thoroughly understand it is to follow its development from initial "birth" (my proposed budget to the School Committee) through to its "infancy, childhood and even teenage years" (School Committee's budge work) and then on to its "maturity" (Town Council and voter referendum).

I'll continue to update folks via this blog as we go.  You can also follow along as we get deeper into the process on our website where I will post all the work from my initial proposed budget through voter referendum.  If you CLICK HERE you will see FY 24's information.  I'll add to this same page as we go for FY 25.  

BEST PLACES TO WORK IN MAINE DATA HIGHLIGHTS

As you may have heard from earlier this year, the Gorham School Department was named one of Maine's Best Places to Work for 2023!  Well over 120 large businesses in Maine participated in this program and we were selected as one of the top 26 - competing against large employers like Bath Iron Works, Bangor Savings Bank, and others. To say we were extremely honored to be in the top 25 of this group in our first year of participation is an understatement!  Congratulations to Consigli Construction Company with offices here in the Portland area for taking the top spot among large employers in 2023.  The Gorham Schools ended up ranking #25.

The reason why the Gorham Schools participated in this program has little to do with the accolades we wound up receiving as a result.  Instead, the major reason we participated in this program was to learn more about what we can do to strengthen our already strong school cultures for our staff and to make sure that Gorham remains a place where employees want to come and work and stay and work!  As traditional educator recruitment pipelines slow to a "trickle" the Gorham School Committee wanted to get ahead of the curve in this important work.  This is just one way in which we are doing that very thing.

As part of this program we had to have at least 40% of our almost 700 employees voluntarily participate in a survey to collect perceptions data directly from staff.  An independent third party ran the survey anonymously and compiled the data.  It is the collection of this data that was the driving force behind our participation in the program.  This is our first baseline year - but it certainly showed us some really great things that we should celebrate, and some areas that we need to continue to improve upon if we want to remain one of Maine's top "Best Places to Work"!

There were three major reports that were shared.  The summary data for each is linked below for you to view at your leisure if you are interested, but I will also pull out just a few key "nuggets" that we have identified as points of emphasis moving forward.

-  Gorham Schools Detailed Report - This is the summary data from only Gorham participants in the survey. You can see results broken out by topic headings, by individual questions, and by some of the key demographics of the respondents.  

-  Gorham Schools Narrative Report - There was one open ended question that was asked of all survey participants.  This is the raw narrative responses from Gorham staff that participated in answering this question.

-  BPWM Benchmarking Report - This report compares Gorham School's results with all other large employers that participated in the program.  

Key Take-Aways Thus Far:

The question that was asked in the narrative portion of the survey was this:  What does this organization do that makes it a place where people would want to work?

When we take all the narrative responses and we pull those into a word cloud - this is what the results look like:

What you can see in the results is a strong sense of community, the ability to work with positive, caring people, solid leadership, good support structures and a sense of pride in what staff are able to accomplish with students.  These are all at the heart of what our staff feels makes us a "best place to work" in Maine.

In the other data, one can see the following highlights of both organizational strengths and challenge points that we should continue to focus on moving forward:

Another pattern in the data that was seen was when the data was broken out by demographics.  When looking through this lens, a piece of data that jumped out and is likely in need of further conversation moving forward was that our overall engagement numbers were high (92%), but when we look across that data through years of experience, we notice a troubling trend that those scores drop off in the 5-10 years of experience category before jumping back up again after ten years of experience.  We will dig more deeply into this data set to understand more of what we can do to remedy those numbers for sure.  

There is so much more that can be gleaned from this data, but I don't want to take up a whole blog post!  

Overall - please know that we will continue to use this data to inform our processes moving forward!  As is always the case - data is only as good as how an organization uses it to improve their practices!

REMINDER - IMPORTANT CODE OF CONDUCT THOUGHT EXCHANGE OPEN NOW THROUGH NOVEMBER 17!

Parents/Guardians and Community Members - WE NEED YOUR VOICE! We have opened an important Thought Exchange Survey on the topic of our Code of Conduct that we need your input on! Data collected will be reviewed by the COC steering committee to determine what the priority areas may be to strengthen our existing Code of Conduct and ensure it remains rock solid for another 20 years in our community!

The leading question is this:

Schools should be safe, caring, respectful, and welcoming. As we refresh our current Code of Conduct to address the unique conditions within our schools and community today, what are some important areas that we need to consider and why?

You can view our CURRENT Code of Conduct by CLICKING HERE.

You can enter the Thought Exchange Survey using the link below. Staff, families, students and community members are encouraged to participate!

Remember, first share your answers to the leading question and then go in and rate the thoughts of others. Then don't forget to wait a little bit and log back in to rate more thoughts as we go! The Exchange will remain open until Nov. 17, 2023.

Survey Link: https://tejoin.com/scroll/577970716

or you can use the QR code below to access the survey...

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THIS IMPORTANT CONVERSATION!

P.S. - Feel free to share with others in Gorham and encourage them to participate too!

SUPERINTENDENT'S UPCOMING LISTENING TOUR REMINDER

Please feel free to refer back to my Oct. 6 blog post for more details.  The cliff notes version is this:  I am going to be hosting a series of FOUR "listening tour" meetings with the community of Gorham.  Any Gorham resident is invited to attend.  The overall purpose of these meetings is for me to LISTEN to you as community members so that I can gain better understandings of what YOU want for your community and how our public schools here in Gorham can work to strengthen alignment to those needs. 

I will begin each meeting with a very brief "state of the schools" introduction that highlights some key areas that I think members of the public should be aware of to better understand the conditions within which our current public schools must operate.  After that introductory piece, I will use three guiding questions to engage the community in conversation and then my role is to simply LISTEN and take good notes that can be compiled and reported back to the District Leadership Team, to the Gorham School Committee, to the Gorham Town Council, and more broadly to the public.

Those three leading questions are purposefully broad because this isn't really just about our public schools.  This is about our whole community and then secondarily the role our public schools can play in continuing to support our community.  The three questions are:

1.  What are the top TWO  things you value most about living in our community?

2.  What are the top TWO things you find challenging  about living in our community?

3.  If you had a magic wand and unlimited funds - what ONE thing would you do in our community in order to maintain our vibrancy over the next 3-5 years?

I hope folks are interested in participating.  Here are the logistics for these FOUR listening meetings.  I'll get flyers and other materials out via social media as we get closer...

Dates  

-  November 13, 2023 (Yup - that is coming right up)

-  January 22, 2024

-  March 26, 2024

-  May 20, 2024

Times

-  All meetings will begin at 6:00 p.m. and last no longer than 1 hour.

Location

-  Summit Community Church, Gorham ME. (26 Cressey Road, Gorham ME)

Note:  I may move the location for each meeting just to get different audience members.  This will be the first location for sure.  After that - stay tuned for possible change in locations.

Food

-  Light munchies, coffee, tea and water will be provided

Please mark your calendars and feel free to spread the word!  It would be hard for me to listen just to myself!  Even I get tired of that! ☺

A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT'S DREAM REMINDER!

GHS Theater students are working hard right now practicing scenes and creating sets in order to prepare for their upcoming performance of a classic Shakespeare play!  Performances will be held on November 10, 11, and 12.  Check out the flyer below for more details!

26th ANNUAL BURN OFF THE TURKEY RUN 

COMING SOON!

If you have never participated or watched this fun annual event here in Gorham...you should!  The run will take place on November 25, 2023.  Details are below as well as a link to register if you are brave enough to participate!  It is certainly fun for all ages!

Burn off the Turkey 5k race start at 9:00am
$100 Prize for men and woman
$250 prize for winners who break a course record!
Record times (Ryan Jara: 15:08 - Christine Snowe-Reaser: 17:34)
Race results will be published on www.active.com
Online registration closes Nov 20th! 
Race day registration 7:00am to 8:00am Saturday morning at Gorham Recreation
Race fee with shirt for first 150 registered - $25
Race fee with no shirt $15.00
Free registration for those over age 65 (no shirt) 
Race fee after Nov 21st - $25.00 for all registrations (no shirt guaranteed)

Kids Fun Run
Distance: .5k around Robie Park
Start time: 8:15am 
Cost: Free

Link to Register:  https://gorhamme.myrec.com/info/activities/program_details.aspx?ProgramID=14960

CONGRATULATIONS GHS VOLLEYBALL TEAM!

I would be remiss if I didn't take the time to congratulate our GHS Girls Volleyball team for their state championship win on Tuesday night.  I was so impressed with our student section who decided to dress up in Blue and White colors to honor their neighbors in Lewiston.  I was also so impressed with our student athletes.  Not only did they play well, but they represented our values well too as they have all season long.  Over the course of the season these athletes have demonstrated passion, commitment, teamwork, perseverance, and a willingness to roll up their sleeves to work hard in attainment of a common goal.  As if that weren't enough they've accomplished what they have accomplished with our Code of Conduct at the forefront.  Demonstrating Courage, Respect, Honesty, Compassion and Responsibility!

Check out this brief video Mr. Parvanta put together honoring their accomplishments!  GO RAMS!