December 15 Blog Post

'Twas the week before vacation and all through the schools, every child was stirring and so were the adults!☺  But don't worry, plenty of great learning is still going on across each and every school in the district!  Don't take my word for it - check out the pictures below that show it! 

MID YEAR UPDATE ON SUPERINTENDENT'S 

2023-2024 GOALS

As you know, each year I work closely with the Gorham School Committee to develop annual goals.  These goals are developed each summer and then approved each fall by the Gorham School Committee.  It is these goals that drive the priorities for our work each year.  

Every year in December I also provide an update to the Gorham School Committee on the work associated with these goals so that they can see the progress that is made, or in some cases not being made.  That update was provided to the Gorham School Committee this past Wednesday night at their most recent committee meeting.  I thought it would be helpful to share the update with all of you as well.  Below are the overview slides for each goal.  You can also view the full document update by CLICKING HERE.  

Overall, things look like they are on track and moving forward as hoped!  I will provide a final update to the School Committee in June as part of my annual evaluation process.  I'll be sure to share then as well!

As I hope you can see, we are making good progress on each of these goal areas and we look forward to continued work in these areas for the 2nd half of the school year!

GORHAM SCHOOLS MID-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE

Similarly to the Superintendent's goals, we also work to provide an update to the Gorham School Committee each December (mid year point) and each June (end of year) regarding the ongoing priorities and work outlined in our district's strategic plan.  Our current strategic plan is a multi-year plan that has been in place since last year (Fall, 2022) and extends through Fall of 2027.  You can view the full plan by CLICKING HERE.

Our Strategic Plan has four major sections:  

1.  Our Students

2.  Our Learning

3.  Our Culture

4.  Our Human and Capital Resources

For each section, we have identified goals and for each goal there are several action steps that are outlined for completion along with listed resources, measurements for success and suggested timelines.

In the Strategic Plan Update shared with the School Committee on Wednesday night, a column has been added to the far right of each table that contains a written assessment of where the work stands and provides some additional narrative context for the ongoing work. 

Overall, when we review all action steps listed between 2022-2024, there are a total of 59 action steps.  Of those, 39 have been completed and/or are ongoing and another 16 are in process.  This means that 93% of action steps towards our goals for the time frame between 2022-2024 are either completed and ongoing or in process.  Considering that any strategic plan or vision documents are aspirational in nature, that bodes well for our continued work moving forward!

SAVE THE DATE - FREE FAMILY EVENT TO SUPPORT MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS!

As we continue our focus to support the mental health of our students, I wanted to make sure to remind interested families to save the date for a FREE webinar that will be offered to Gorham families on January 22 at 6:00 p.m. via zoom on the topic of "Social Media - Protecting Your Child."  More detailed information will come out after the holiday break.

Given the world we currently live in, if you are a parent/guardian of a school aged child this webinar is for you!  This webinar is being provided in collaboration with the Cook Center for Human Connection and parentguidance.org.  

While I'm reminding you to save the date - I also wanted to remind you that the parentguidance.org site has free videos created by professional therapists for families on a variety of important topics.  Its a great resource!  Check it out!

SO WHAT IS THIS A.I. STUFF AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR MY CHILD'S EDUCATION?

- Image created by MDOE using Canva.                                                                         

Ok, so I'll admit...that title may be a little misleading because I'm not sure I'm going to be able to answer all that in this one piece.  I'm not even sure I could answer all that in multiple pieces at this time because so much is changing and evolving in the world of A.I. each and every day.  But I thought that as the conversation about A.I. becomes more popular that many of you may be interested to know more and to begin to understand what are we doing here in the Gorham Schools to best utilize these new technologies to "Prepare and Inspire" our graduates for their future success.

So let's start with the basics...What is A.I.?

Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines.  It is a machine's ability to perform the cognitive functions we associate with humans such as:  perceiving, reasoning, learning and interacting.  Typically A.I. is broken into two categories:  "predictive A.I." and "generative A.I."

Now, predictive A.I. has been around for a long time.  Things like robotics, or chat bots are examples of predictive A.I.

What has caused the recent "boom" in the field of A.I. is not predictive A.I. but generative A.I.  See predictive A.I. relies on historical data as input to make predictions while generative A.I. uses just an initial input of data to plant a seed in the creative process which it then uses to generate and create.  In short, predictive A.I. makes predictions while generative A.I. can actually create deeper learning.

The world of generative A.I. is literally exploding with tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, or Google Bard just to name a few.  It is expanding so fast that many predict that in just a year we'll all look back at tools like ChatGPT mentioned above and think fondly of its quaintness similar to how our teenagers may now think of facebook (if they think of it at all).  Bottom line, it is moving fast!

Like anything in today's world, the use of A.I. can have negatives and positives.  It is a technology tool, so how it is used will depend a lot upon the humans that using it!  Some can think of A.I. and think of the negatives such as:  deepfakes, increased hacking, privacy violations, cheating/plagarism and the loss of current jobs that may go away because of A.I.  Others can think of A.I. and think of the positives such as:  its ability to automate repetitive tasks saving time for more important creative human interactions, or its ability to mine vast amounts of information for productivity increases, or its ability to personalize experiences to individual consumers even in education, or perhaps its ability to improve access to healthcare and much more.

Bottom line, A.I. is booming and it is up to us as humans to decide how best to use it.

So What Are Schools Thinking About A.I. and Its Future Uses in Classrooms?

Well I can tell you that the Maine Department of Education is taking a forward focused approach.  The MDOE states that...

  "It has consistently approached technology as an asset to education and serves to support school districts,     administrators, educators, and students in developing a healthy relationship with technology and using it     as a tool to enhance and transform teaching and learning experiences.  A.I. is being approached the            same way, we are working to inform our stakeholders of the value, importance and potential                      implications of this new technology and help them to integrate it into their learning experiences            similarly to all other technology.  In addition to this, we have ramped up our commitment to helping

    educators and students to be good stewards of technology and center their use of A.I. in digital                   citizenship best practices."

In Gorham we are currently focused on learning about A.I. and seeking to better understand its potential to support our overall mission to "Prepare and Inspire" our students for their future success.  We are encouraging our staff to attend workshops and conferences on the topic to learn more.  We are encouraging staff to attend webinars or to download ChatGPT (and other A.I. tools) for themselves and begin to "play" with these tools to better understand their implications to our overall mission/vision.

Later this winter/spring we will begin to work on the development of some initial draft guidelines for the use of A.I. in our schools that we know will continue to grow and change as the technology does over time. 

Similarly to the MDOE, we do not see A.I. as "something more" or "another thing" or something that is "good" or something that is "bad".  We see A.I. as a technology tool that will have vast implications to our children's futures.  We know that our role is to make sure that our students are prepared for their future success and there is no doubt that A.I. will be a part of that future whether we like it or not.  We understand that we must make sure our students are prepared for success in a not too distant world where the use of A.I. will become as "game changing" in their lives as the introduction of the automobile was in the early 1900's, or the use of household TV's were in the 50's or the Internet in the 90's or cell phones in the 2000's.

What Can Parents/Guardians Do To Learn More?

I think the biggest thing anyone can do right now to prepare for further conversations about A.I. and its place in our schools and in our communities is to LEARN.  There is lots of information out there right now about A.I. but one resource I'd point folks to to start would be a trusted friend in "Common Sense Media".  They have started their own A.I. initiative that provides a great place to start for parents seeking to understand A.I.  I'd encourage any parent to check out the link below to get started...and then go from there!

Common Sense Media:  A.I. Initiative - Understanding the Impact of A.I. On Our Kids

Stay tuned...most definitely more to come!

P.S. - I thought I'd share this cool clip from "The Today Show" back in 1994 on "What is the Internet Anyway" just to provide some laughs and perspective on the changing world of technology and how we can perceive it in the moment.  Check it out by CLICKING HERE...like I said, a great way to get a good laugh in - especially if you were old enough to remember these conversations! 

MULTILINGUAL LEARNERS IN GORHAM

On Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023 the Gorham School Committee was treated to an excellent presentation of updated information and data on our district's Multi Language Learners program in Gorham.  If you want to watch the full presentation, you can CLICK HERE and go to the recording of the meeting to view.  

I thought others might be interested in just checking our some of the "high points" of the presentation and the data though...so that is what I've shared below...

This chart shows historical data from 2017 - 2023 regarding overall ML students in our schools.  In that time frame the total population has grown from 78 to 102 ML students requiring language services.  What is more important isn't just the overall number but the very different TYPES of services that are required in our classrooms today as well.  What we are seeing today is more students coming into our schools needing levels 1,2,3 supports (which means they come in knowing very little english) vs. in the past we often had more students coming in at levels 3,4, and 5 (which means they could speak english, but mostly just needed content learning supports).  As you might imagine, services change significantly based on the level of english language students may or may not have coming into our schools.

This chart takes the same data as above but breaks it out by school so you can see the differences across our five schools.

This slide lists the different language that are CURRENTLY spoken across our schools.  There are 25 different languages.

This chart demonstrates that we are currently not fully meeting the needs of our ML families in the district due to the changing demographic of ML learners entering our schools with less knowledge of english.  Because of this, our ML staff are spending far more time accommodating for basic needs of families such as clothing, food, or just help in navigating our various community systems and less on direct instruction for students.  The blue lines are the recommended service times we should be providing based on language levels for students.  The green lines are what we are actually able to provide with our current 3 full time staff.

As one of our long time ML staff members (who is also a life long resident of Gorham) put it - "Our community is change and changing for the better, but our services have not yet changed to meet these needs".  Because of this, the school is placed in the position of being the primary service provider for these families.  Needs in this area will likely become a significant talking point as we work to develop our FY 25 proposed budget.  

TOWN COUNCIL MONTHLY REPORT - SHARED!

Each month the Gorham School Committee chair, Sarah Perkins shares a report with the Town Council.  Below is what was shared at their most recent meeting held on December 5, 2023.

1. Thank you!

Thank you for the opportunity to meet together earlier this evening in a joint workshop meeting to discuss our FY 25 budget development process.  We truly appreciate the feedback and open dialogue that was created via this meeting.  We will work to ensure your thoughts and ideas are addressed in the upcoming FY 25 budget development work. 

2. Dessert and Discuss

Thank you to Counselors Lavoie, Gagnon, Simms and Siegel who were able to attend the recent Dessert & Discuss meeting between the School Committee and District Leadership Team.  We very much appreciated having our “counselors’ corner” present to listen and ask questions.  For those of you that were unable to attend, a video recording was shared and is available online to view.  

3. Budget

The proposed FY 25 budget will be presented to the School Committee in early February.  The School Committee will then meet several times to review the proposed budget in depth. Those meetings are scheduled as follows for those that would like to follow along.  The meetings will be recorded and/or live streamed and linked to our website as well.

• 3/4/24 at 7:00 p.m. - Budget Workshop #1

• 3/11/24 at 7:00 p.m. - Budget Workshop #2

• 3/18/24 at 7:00 p.m. - Budget Workshop #3 (if needed)

• 3/25/24 at 7:00 p.m. - Budget Workshop #4 (if needed)

• 4/1/24 at 7:00 p.m. - Budget Workshop #5 (if needed)

The School Committee will VOTE on a proposed FY 25 budget at its April 10, 2024 

regular meeting.  We will keep you informed as we go and welcome questions along the way. 

4. Bond Payment

A reminder that in November 2022 the voters of Gorham voted to support the completion of our third phase of modular expansion at Narragansett Elementary School as well as to support much needed HVAC repairs and upgrades at GHS.  As a result, the first principal payment will come due for this bond in FY 25.  We estimate that payment to be just over $842,367.00.  Last year’s FY 24 budget only included the interest payment of $289,330.00 so this is an increase of $553,036.00 in FY 25’s proposed budget.

5. Elementary School Attendance Zones

The Gorham School Committee is preparing to make decisions regarding our upcoming PK-5 Attendance zone shift. This is anticipated to be the last attendance zone shift for several years. A decision making and communication time line is available via the Superintendent’s blog and will be updated as the process moves ahead.

6. Winter Athletics

Our winter athletic events are in full swing.  Please check out our website for full details on all of our winter sporting events for both GMS and GHS. 

7. Concerts Coming Up

Our music students are gearing up for some great concerts.  Here’s the schedule:

• Dec. 7 at 6:00 GMS Choral Concert

• Dec. 14 at 6:00 GMS Band Concert

• Jan. 9 at 7:00 GHS Winter Concert

• Jan. 10 at 6:00 Elementary Winter Concert

Any questions, please feel free to reach out:  Sarah.Perkins@gorhamschools.org. 

SOME INTERESTING DATA TO SHARE REGARDING PHONES AT GHS

Last year a GHS teacher shared the results of a survey her 10th graders took regarding their device usage.  

A few weeks ago she gave her students the same survey.  The results were noticeable different.  Now it is hard to say that this has anything to do with our new cell phone policy at GHS, but it is interesting to see the difference in the responses.   

The question:

The Teacher asked students the following, first regarding their phone use, then regarding their use of other devices.  

How much time do you spend on your (phone, question 1)/(other devices, question 2) on average per day?  Include all social media apps (TikTok, Instagram,  snapchat, etc) and games.  DON'T include time just listening to music or even watching TV or movies.

LAST YEAR's Results: Jan 3/4 2023: (64 current juniors, took survey as sophomores)

THIS YEAR's Results: Dec 5/6 2023: (60 current sophomores)

INTERESTING!  THANK YOU Mrs. Tierney-Fife for sharing!

ASPIRE GORHAM DECEMBER NEWSLETTER 

READY TO VIEW!

The December, 2023 Aspire Gorham Newsletter is ready to view!  Please click on the link below and check out all the incredible work going on to engage our students in exploring their aspirations across grades Pre K - 12 and beyond!

December Aspire Newsletter

SHARING MORE STUDENT VOICE!

One of the programs under our Aspire Gorham initiative is our Extended Learning Opportunities program (ELO's for short).  I thought it might be fun to share a recent piece of feedback from a student in our ELO program.  I think it speaks volumes towards the importance of ELO's and our overall Aspire Gorham initiative.  In our student's own words...

"The Extended Learning Opportunity (ELO) program at Gorham High School is an extremely valuable and life changing program. It truly has given me the opportunity to get a glimpse into my potential career and future. Focusing juniors and seniors towards a career path and helping them choose their career should be an extreme focus. I had the opportunity to do this program out of needing another credit and not wanting to take another class. I started off not caring that much about it but as it went on I began to really develop strong relationships with the students and teacher. I began to realize and truly value spending time with the children, and helping them work through problems and challenges.

I was able to work with the students on many different things: math centers, reading and writing journals, working through tests, playing games and many other things. I was given the opportunity to help lead a class along with teaching a small lesson. It was extremely valuable and gave me an immense amount of knowledge on my career. I think that this opportunity needs to be more widespread and I would love to help make this process easier for the students. Because, I genuinely think that this has been one of the most important and life changing things I have done in my life.

This process gave me a huge opportunity to look at a career and experiment and see what works for me. I now know what to do with my career and it has given me an incredible look on teaching and my distant future. I would tell other students to just give it a try even if they are nervous or don’t want to do it. They truly don’t know what they are missing as this is a huge opportunity."

Well that's enough for this post for sure!  Have a great weekend everyone and I'll see you back at the blog posting after the Holiday break!  HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!  Enjoy the extra time with family and friends!  

My next blog post will be on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024.  

December 1 Post

Another two weeks have gone by and there is much to discuss.  You would think that because we didn't have school for several days due to the Thanksgiving break that perhaps we'd have a hard time finding cool pictures of our students having fun learning - but nope - not the case!  Check out the pictures below and then on to the information!

UPCOMING DECISION MAKING TIMELINE FOR PK-5 ATTENDANCE ZONE SHIFT 

As has been shared previously, the Gorham School Department is seeking to shift our PK-5 attendance zones between our three elementary schools one more time as part of our long term capital planning.  This is being done in order to ensure all three schools have ample space to continue to grow over the next 10+ years.  The last planned attendance zone shift for our K-5 schools occurred in 2020.  The 2nd attendance zone shift would take effect for fall of 2024, this coming school year.

Our long term plan is to eventually gain approval for a state capital project that would consolidate Narragansett Elementary School and Village Elementary School into one new school.  Of course, this is going to take considerable time to bring this vision to a reality and in the meantime we need to allow all three of our schools additional room to grow.

The general standard for schools in terms of planning for future growth is that you should try to keep school buildings at 90% capacity or less.  This 10% then allows for that room to grow.  If we were to NOT make an attendance zone shift for the coming year, each school's capacity would be as follows:

-  Great Falls - 97%

-  Village Elementary - 97%

-  Narragansett Elementary (with additional modulars open) - 71%

Clearly, what this data says is that we need to drop enrollments at both Great Falls and Village Elementary School and increase enrollments at Narragansett in order to ensure all three schools have this needed room to continue to grow over time while we wait for this needed new consolidated elementary school. This has been part of our long term capital planning for the past 6 years.

In order to make sure we have appropriate time to make this shift possible in a well-done and positive manner for students and families decisions will be made starting soon.  We are currently working behind the scenes to determine best adjustments to our attendance zones as well as to determine what shifts will be needed in staffing across the three schools as a result of these changes for the coming year.  Decisions will be made fairly soon after we return from the Holiday break.  Because of this, I wanted to give all PK-5 families a sense of what to expect for communication from the School Department and what to expect in terms of a timeline for decision making.  Below is that overview:

-  January 17, 2024 - All Pre-K Staff meeting via zoom @ 7:30 a.m.  Superintendent Perry will review the following with staff:  WHY the attendance zone shift is needed; WHAT outcomes we hope to achieve; and WHEN we will be making decisions and communicating with parents and staff.

-  January 29, 2024 - All Pre-K Parent/Guardian meeting via zoom @ 6:30 p.m.  Superintendent Perry will review the following with families:  WHY the attendance zone shift is needed; WHAT outcomes we hope to achieve; and WHEN we will be making decisions and communicating with parents and staff.

-  February 7, 2024 - School Committee public decision to adjust attendance zones.

-  February 12 - 16, 2024 - Individual phone calls to impacted families will be made by Great Falls Principal and Village Principal to notify families of the upcoming changes.

-  February 27, 2024 - Great Falls Parent night to explain process and answer questions for all GF parents impacted.  This meeting will be hosted by Principal Fortier at Great Falls with time TBD.

-  February 29, 2024 - Village Elem. Parent night to explain process and answer questions for all Village parents impacted.  This meeting will be hosted by Principal Mezzanotte at Village with time TBD. 

-  After April Break, 2024 - Specific transition activities will occur and be hosted by Principal Eppler at Narragansett Elementary School with dates and times TBD.

An email will be sent to all PK-5 families after the Holiday break with a reminder about the Parent/Guardian meeting and a zoom link for folks to join.  Please pencil this in on your calendars if you think you might like to attend.  As always - if you have questions, please reach out to me at heather.perry@gorhamschools.org.  

SHARING HIGHLIGHTS OF RECENT CODE OF CONDUCT THOUGHT EXCHANGE

Thank you to everyone that participated in the most recent Thought Exchange survey regarding our Gorham School's Code of Conduct.  

If you recall this Thought Exchange is part of a larger data/feedback gathering process sponsored by the Code of Conduct Revision Committee.  The purpose of this committee is to revitalize and refresh the Gorham Schools Code of Conduct originally developed 20+ years ago.  The existing document continues to provide a strong foundation for school community expectations and core values that is utilized daily in the Gorham Schools. The Steering Committee will facilitate a community-wide review of the Code of Conduct to ensure the document reflects today’s contexts while reinforcing our core values for another 20+ years.

You can view an overview of this committee's purpose and work by CLICKING HERE and you can follow along with meeting agendas and notes by CLICKING HERE.

The recent Thought Exchange was open between October 16, 2023 and November 11, 2023.  The question that was asked was:

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?

The following provides a summary of participation rates:

Of the 865 participants shown above, 72% were students, 16% were staff and the remaining 12% were parents/guardians.  Out of all participants 87% stated they were familiar with the Code of Conduct.  Below is a word cloud of the TE results:

Below is a set of the top themes from the Thought Exchange results:

Hard to see, but the top ten items listed were (in order from highest responses to lowest) - (1) Community, (2) Respect, (3) Protect Students, (4) Inclusiveness, (5) Digital citizens, (6) Living with integrity, (7) Social Media, (8) Social Media, (9) Bullying/Cyberbullying and (10) Mental Health.

You can view a full summary of thoughts generated by the Thought Exchange by CLICKING HERE.  

The Code of Conduct Committee met on November 20 to review in more detail the results of the Thought Exchange and the data from the first survey conducted in September.  The group determined that inclusivity, community, digital citizenship and student safety (physical and emotional) all came up as key items that warrant additional discussion in relationship to our current Code of Conduct.  The group continued to discuss the differences between values and behaviors and after much discussion determined that the likelihood is high that our five big value statements (i.e. honesty, compassion, etc.) will still be the bedrock of our Code of Conduct, but what we will likely need to do is update our definitions, behaviors and perhaps create a procedure that goes more in depth regarding the specific behaviors that make these values come to life and bring these values into current times and real context.  

The next steps for this group's work will be to develop some highlights of the data and use these highlights to sponsor several focus group meetings with the public, with students, and with staff to gain additional insights about how to best move forward.  The Committee will be working on this and scheduling forums between January - March.  The data collected will then be shared with the full committee when they meet again in March, 2024.

Overall some great feedback from survey participants and great work by the Code of Conduct committee in breaking all the data down into actionable next steps!  More to come!  Please stay tuned for upcoming focus group meetings...we would LOVE to have your participation!

SCHOOL COMMITTEE KICKS OFF FY 25 BUDGET DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES WITH THEIR ANNUAL "DESSERT & DISCUSS" MEETING!

Each year the Gorham School Committee officially "kicks off" its budget development cycle with a meeting we lovingly refer to as the "Dessert & Discuss" meeting.  It is given its name due to the incredible desserts that our school nutrition workers put together each year for meeting participants.  Below is a picture of this year's yummy treats just so you have a clear reference and understand just how incredibly talented our school nutrition staff are!

Typically this meeting is attended by all school administrative team members as well as all School Committee members.  This year we also had the added bonus of having 4 Town Council Members attend.  Thank you Seven Siegel, Rob Lavoie, Phil Gagnon and Lou Simms!

There are NO DECISIONS made at this meeting and purposefully so.  There will be ample time and opportunity for decisions later in the budget development process!  Instead this meeting is geared towards making sure School Committee members gain information and insight into student data and information about our schools and programs that will help them to navigate the difficult choices they must make further on down the line.

The meeting starts with some fun activities, then on to the dessert and after that we use the "sugar high" provided to share lots of information with the School Committee about our schools and programs.  It is an extremely informative meeting!  If you are interested, you can CLICK HERE to view the agenda that contains all the information links that are open to the public.  You can also CLICK HERE to view a recording of the meeting.  

With this meeting...we've begun the process!  A timeline for FY 25 Budget Development can be found by CLICKING HERE.  I've also updated the School Committee budget website link.  This web page is where we will archive all our FY 25 Budget development information as we move along through the myriad of meetings and decisions required to create our best proposed budget. Its a long but valuable road - I encourage folks to follow along with the good work! I will do my best to share along the way too!

SUPERINTENDENT'S LISTENING TOUR INFORMATION AND REMINDER OF FUTURE DATES!

So I had my first listening tour meeting on November 13 and unfortunately no one showed! 😐 I am going to choose to take this as a good sign that no one has questions about our schools...but somehow I doubt that!  So I thought I'd share some of the information I prepared for the meeting and then remind folks when the next three "Listening Tour" events are and encourage those who want to learn more, ask questions, and share their perspectives with me to attend!

In regards to information - I put together several charts/graphs that outlined some key facts about our schools and where we see our major challenges moving forward.  Here's some selected data slides:

Lots of folks ask me how old our schools are.  So I shared this chart below:

Then I share with folks a chart that shows pretty clearly the "hole" we have "dug" for ourselves regarding capital renovations and improvements to our school facilities.  This chart is based on a 2% reinvestment of total facilities value annually which is the standard set by the State of Maine.  Our annual capital reinvestment deficit is shown in the red bars below.  This is not a slide any of us are proud of.

I also tend to get a lot of questions about our enrollment history - so I included this data chart showing historical projected enrollments in blue and actual enrollments in orange.

Current enrollment is 2841 which includes 87 new Pre K students, hence the spike in the data chart on the right hand side.  Without Pre K the height of our enrollment was in 2019 with 2799 students.  Our lowest enrollment (again without Pre K) was in 2014 with 2631.  

I also tend to get a lot of questions about historical budget increases.  So I shared this graph below.  As you can see the FY 24 budget was a continued increase on paper - but please know that included a new Pre K program and associated expenses.  If we removed those costs (that had corresponding revenues) the actual increase would have been 5% which would have been even with FY 23.  The largest increase then would have been back in 2014 when our budget increased by over 5.5% in one year.

It is interesting to compare/contrast the expenditure budget graph above with the one below though too.  The graph below shows that our state property values have increased at the same rate or greater than our expenditure increases each year.  Last year's state property value increase, for example, was 8% over the previous year.  This is the figure the state uses to determine a community's ability to pay for its public education system.

This last graph below shows our per pupil costs compared to all other school districts in Cumberland County for FY 23.  As you can see (in red), our per pupil cost is the 2nd lowest at $17,000.00.  The Cumberland County average for this year was $19,446.00 per student, which is $2,446.00 more per student than we expended.

I then included a slide outlining what I see as the top challenges our schools face moving forward.  Those are:

My hope was that this data would spur some great conversation and thinking and help lead into a discussion about what people want to see for the future of Gorham.  At that point - after introducing my three leading questions below - my goal would be to sit back and listen to whoever is present and take notes to help inform future thinking.  Here are the three questions...

Since no one came to the first meeting - I wouldn't mind at all if folks perhaps wanted to send me some of their thoughts on these 3 questions via email!  I promise to read them just as I would have listened to them in person! Or perhaps this little piece has sparked your curiosity and you'd like to attend a future planned "Listening Tour" meeting?  If so - here's the information on the remaining planned events!

Dates:

-  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 2nd location for sure.  After that - stay tuned for possible change in locations.

Food

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

GHS STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN THE "CAN WE" PROJECT!

Pictured above are GHS students and staff who are participating in The Can We? Project.

The Can We? Project is an experiment in revitalizing democracy through dialogue across differences. The project brings together groups of students within schools to take part in three day-long retreats with the goal of uniting students from different backgrounds and places on the socio-political spectrum. Experienced facilitators engage students in conversations to find a shared vision for the future. The Can We? Project is an opportunity for students interested in working together within and across schools in Maine to learn and practice the skills of civil dialogue and to collaborate on common ground issues in order to have a positive impact on our communities. This year the project is working in 15 partner schools across Maine including Gorham.

It is exciting to see our students participate and to hear the incredible conversations and ideas that they are generating. Thank you to those students who are putting themselves "out there" to participate. You are modeling our Code of Conduct for everyone when you do! GO RAMS!

If you’re interested in learning more, visit aspiregorham.live/CanWeProject. For even more info including video clips and news articles, visit aspiregorham.live/CWInfo

GHS SCHOOL STORE HOLIDAY SALE IS UNDERWAY!

WOW...is it me or did the Holidays sneak right up!  I know one place I can go to do a little quick shopping and make sure I can get some good quality Gorham "swag" while at the same time benefiting GHS students!  Check out the flyer below if you are interested in perhaps doing the same! 

Well that is enough "stuff" for this blog post.  I would encourage everyone to keep your eyes open on your individual school's calendar of events...there is always LOTS happening this time of year across all our schools! I know I have several upcoming concerts on my calendar in the near future!  You can access all school activity calendars from our district website (www.gorhamschools.org) and then click on each school to view calendars!