The February break is here. I hope staff all take that all important time to "turn off" and recharge. I hope that our students and our families enjoy some quality time together over the break making memories together whether they stay at home or go on a trip. Time together as a family is just so precious ENJOY!
Our schools have been busy these past few weeks! Check out just some of the photos below to get a sense of the great energy across all of our schools! 😊 GO RAMS!
Folks can look back at my Feb. 2 Blog Post to get the background on this video series and why they are being created and shared. Bottom line - the first video was very informative and the second one is even better! ☺
The topic for the 2nd video is "Understanding School Governance" with special community champion guest Kathy Garrard!
If you want to better understand how decisions are made in public schools - you should definitely watch!
Thank you to Kathy Garrard for being our guest and thank you to our incredible team at GoCAT TV right here in Gorham for producing!
FIRST DRAFT OF PROPOSED FY 25 SCHOOL BUDGET PRESENTED TO GORHAM SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
The first draft of our proposed FY 25 budget was shared with the Gorham School Committee earlier this afternoon. This is JUST THE FIRST STEP in a long and thorough process that will ultimately culminate with a proposed budget vote by the School Committee at their regular meeting in April, followed by a vote by the Town Council in May and a referendum vote by our community in June.
I have linked the budget timeline
HERE for viewing as a reminder. All budget workshop meetings of the School committee will be live streamed this year for the public to view and then recorded and archived on both the Town's website and the Gorham School's website for reference by the voters.
The School Committee is getting their first look at the proposed budget today. Their next task will be to review the proposed budget in detail - all 92 pages - and to pose questions to School Administration that will be answered at their first budget workshop meeting scheduled for March 4, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
At this first budget workshop meeting we will present the School Committee with a broad overview of the proposed budget, answer questions they may have, work to establish specific criteria and targets that they would like to meet and then maneuver the first draft budget proposal from there over the course of the next several budget workshop meetings.
You can
CLICK HERE to view the School Committee FY 25 proposed budget booklet in its entirety. There is A LOT of information contained within these 92 pages, but the transmittal letter in the very front provides a nice overview if you are looking for a summary to start with. The table of contents for each section is hyper linked for easy navigation. I am happy to answer questions from staff or the public as we go so feel free to email me at heather.perry@gorhamschools.org with any questions you may have.
Again, there is much that will change with this proposed budget over the course of the next month or more. I will continue to provide updates and overviews of important information as we go along through the process. You can
CLICK HERE to go to the GoCAT TV site for live streaming and recording of videos and you can
CLICK HERE to view links regarding our FY 25 budget approval process on our website.
K-5 ATTENDANCE ZONE CHANGES UPDATE
On Feb. 7, 2024 the Gorham School Committee voted to move forward with a shift in attendance zones that will be effective when school opens in the fall of 2024.
Interested individuals that want to view the discussion that took place at this meeting can
CLICK HERE to view. The public comment section of the meeting starts around minute 24 of the meeting. The presentation, discussion, and vote of the School Committee on the agenda item regarding the attendance zone shift can be found at approximately the 1 hour and 5 minute mark of the meeting recording.
At this point, all families who are impacted by this vote have been communicated with directly by our incredible building Principals. If you haven't heard from either Mrs. Fortier or Mrs. Mezzanotte then you are not an impacted family.
A reminder that there will be an open informational meeting for impacted families to learn more about process and next steps on the following evenings, hosted by our building principals:
- February 27 at 5:30 p.m. at Great Falls Elementary School
- February 29 at 5:30 p.m. at Village Elementary School.
Specific transition activities will occur and be hosted by Principal Eppler at Narragansett Elementary School starting in April. I know she and her team have some incredible ideas in mind for making sure that this transition will go as smoothly as possible. Please know that our principals, myself and our entire student support services teams will be walking shoulder to shoulder with families as we navigate this transition together.
2024-2025 SCHOOL CALENDAR APPROVED
For those of you that like to get a head start on planning for the coming year, I wanted to let families know that the Gorham School Committee approved of the 2024-2025 School Calendar at its last meeting on February 7.
The vast majority of the school calendar remains similar to previous years. We have 8 total early release days this coming year which is what we have had for many years. We will also be starting students just a little before the Labor Day holiday in order to "step in" students slowly to the routines of the school year as well as to provide needed time for us to conduct Kindergarten screening and other onboarding activities for students.
The biggest change was in moving one of our professional development days for staff from the opening of school to a new date in October (10/11) in order to allow us to have some shared Professional Development opportunities with other school systems in our region. We hope this small change will really help to amplify and strengthen our already strong professional development opportunities for our teachers, especially our specialists who often don't have many opportunities to receive training with their job alike partners (art, music, PE, Speech, OT, counselors, etc.).
If you have any questions regarding the school calendar. Please reach out!
NORTHERN FORCE ROBOTICS PROGRAM
You may not already know that Gorham High School, in collaboration with Falmouth High School, operates a full fledged robotics program! GO RAMS! Students from this program gave an excellent presentation to the Gorham School Committee at their most recent February 7th meeting. It is most definitely worth the watch to learn more about the program and the incredible skills our students are learning via their participation!
You can
CLICK HERE to view the recording of the presentation. It is at about the 2 min. 10 second mark!
MARCH 5 REMOTE LEARNING DAY REMINDER FOR GMS AND GREAT FALLS SCHOOLS!
I won't be publishing another blog until March 8 - so wanted to get one final reminder out there to families that March 5, 2024 WILL BE A REMOTE LEARNING DAY for students attending Gorham Middle School and Great Falls Elementary School. This is due to the fact that these two schools are used as public polling locations in our community.
Information has either already gone out or will go out to families directly from each school letting you know what to expect for learning expectations on this day. Families from GMS and Great Falls who may have signed up for remote day lunches will have their meals sent home with students on the day before (3/4/24). Please reach out to either Mr. Donahue or Mrs. Fortier if you have questions.
Students who attend our other schools - Village Elementary, Narragansett Elementary, and Gorham High School will have school as normal on this day.
FEBRUARY ASPIRE NEWSLETTER READY TO VIEW!
CLICK HERE to view the February edition of the Aspire Gorham newsletter to find out what incredible things are happening in our schools around career aspirations for our students across all grades!
Remember - EVERYONE has a future story! Our Aspire work makes sure that our students are thinking about theirs and that our instructional programming is making sure to EXPOSE students across grades PK-5 to these various future stories and making sure our students in grades 6-10 are able to more deeply EXPLORE these stories and finally, our Aspire program makes sure students in grades 9-12 are able to EXPERIENCE these stories!
Thank you to our business partners for making this work possible for our students in Gorham!
Check it out - it is most certainly worth the read!
GHS THEATER PRESENTS RADIUM GIRLS IN MARCH!
If you were impressed (as I was) of our GHS student's most recent presentation of Mamma Mia, then you will be impressed with this next performance!
The GHS theater will present its performance of Radium Girls by DW Gregory coming up in March.
Shows will be on March 1st and March 2nd at 7:30 p.m. and then a matinee on Sunday, Marcy 3rd at 2:00 p.m. all at the Gorham High School Performing Arts Center. Tickets are sold at the door and will be $5.00 each for Gorham students and $10.00 each for Adults! Break a leg Rams!😉. Check out the flyer below for details!
CODE OF CONDUCT COMMUNITY TALKS ANNOUNCED!
The Code of Conduct Committee has been working all year to "refresh" our current Code of Conduct across all schools to make sure that this incredible document that has helped to guide our schools for the past 20 years continues to be relevant and lead our school's expectations into the next 20 years!
If you need a refresher on our school's Code of Conduct, CLICK HERE. If you need a refresher on the Code of Conduct Committee's purpose and work overview - CLICK HERE. To view Committee membership, CLICK HERE.
We have done some great work to gather initial data and themes and now we are seeking direct community feedback on our work. Check out the flyer below and mark your calendars to attend! Last opportunity will be coming up on Feb. 26!
WANT TO WATCH GORHAM ATHLETICS DURING THE BREAK?
All of our winter teams this year have done very well and so they'll be very active this coming week. Below is a summary message sent by our talented athletic director Tim Spear summarizing what to expect for the coming week:
February vacation!!!! Well this is a great time for HS sports!
1st I want to congratulate both the Cheering team and the Girls Ice Hockey team. There seasons have concluded and both teams did fantastic. Cheering went from not competing last year to runner up at SMAA Championship, 3rd at Regionals, and 6th at States. Great job!!
Girls Ice Hockey had another fantastic season falling just short Cheverus (BOOO!) in the Regional Championship game this past wednesday! Great job by both teams, way to get the play-off season started!!
Big week coming up!
Boys hockey will finish its regular season, while other teams compete for their respective championships.
A busy Monday will have Indoor Track at USM and Boys swim at Bowdoin College competing for State championships! I know both teams have very high expectations!
Tuesday, Girls swim compete for a state championship at Bowdoin College! Again, high expectations.
Wednesday, Girls Basketball will play Sanford in the AA South Semifinals, 8:45pm at the Cross Arena
Thursday, Boys Basketball will play Deering in the AA Semi-Finals, 8:45pm at Cross Arena.
Basketball Regional finals will be Saturday 2/24 at 7/8:45!
Again High expectations for all!!
Good Luck this week!!
MONTHLY REPORT TO TOWN COUNCIL
Each month the chair of the Gorham School Committee reports out an update to the Gorham Town Council. Below, please find a copy of that report with some great information - some of it you may already be aware of...but repetition is always good!😊
Town Council Report – Feb 6, 2024
Code of Conduct: The Gorham Schools will be hosting two community conversations regarding our Code of Conduct. One is happening as I speak, and a second meeting will be held on Feb. 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the GMS library. We are looking to "refresh" our Code of Conduct to make sure it lasts another 20 years in our schools and remains as relevant then as it is today. Please see the Superintendent's blog post of Feb. 2 which is linked to our district website for details.
Anti-Racism and Equity: The Gorham Schools' Anti-Racism & Equity Committee will be hosting an "Eat and Learn" event on March 12 at 5:30 p.m. The theme of this event will be the importance of advocacy. The event will be structured as a gallery walk of artistic submissions of our students on the topic of advocacy. Participants will review the artwork presented by students and then have an opportunity to share feedback and themes from the artwork. More details to come.
Remote Learning Day: A reminder that March 5 will be a remote learning day for students attending Gorham Middle School and Great Falls Elementary School, due to the use of these schools as polling locations that day. Information will be sent home to families from each school with specific expectations for remote learning on this day. All other students attending GHS, Village, and Narragansett will attend school as usual.
Budget: The School Committee will begin Budget workshop meetings soon and will plan to share summaries following each meeting, to help members of the Town Council and the public to follow along as easily as possible. Here’s a reminder of key dates in the budget process. Those in bold directly involve the Town Council as well.
Monday, March 4, 2024 – SC Budget Workshop Mtg. #1
Monday, March 11, 2024 – SC Budget Workshop Mtg. #2
Monday, March 18, 2024 – SC Budget Workshop Mtg. #3
Monday, March 25, 2024 – SC Budget Workshop Mtg. #4
Monday, April 1, 2024 – SC Budget Workshop Mtg. #5
Wednesday, April 10, 2024 – School Committee votes to approve FY 25 Budget
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 – FY 25 Proposed School Budget Delivered to Town Manager
Tuesday, April 23, 2024 – FY 25 Budget Workshop with Town Council, 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 - FY 25 Budget Workshop follow up with Town Council, 5:30 p.m. - IF NEEDED
Tuesday, May 14, 2024 – Public Hearing on FY 25 Municipal Budget (Including School Budget) and Town Council Vote, 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers
Tuesday, June 11, 2024 – Public Referendum on FY 25 School Budget
As a reminder, all school budget workshops are open to the public.
GHS Theater Production: GHS Theater is performing Mamma Mia! Remaining shows are Feb. 9th and 10th at 7:00 p.m. and February 11 at 2:00 p.m. at GHS performing arts center. Again, check out the Superintendent's blog post for Feb. 2 for details on how to get tickets online - or you can also purchase at the door!
Unified Basketball: If you haven’t seen a game, we highly recommend checking out this great athletic event. Upcoming games are:
Thursday February 8 HOME vs Bonny Eagle 3:30 PM
Thursday February 15 AT Scarborough 3:30 PM
Tuesday February 27 AT Windham 3:30 PM
Thursday February 29 HOME vs Deering 3:30 PM
Thursday March 5 AT Westbrook 3:30 PM
National School Counselor Appreciation Week: Our school counselors are part of the glue that holds us all together. They work to help families and children navigate some of the most difficult and challenging experiences in their lives. They care passionately for the children they serve, and Gorham has some of the BEST IN THE BUSINESS!
THANK YOU...
- Betsy Anastasoff, Trisha Cherry, Kate Stevens and Samantha Teixeira (GHS)
- Emma Ambrose and Heather Richards (GMS)
- Debra Leone and Sawyer (PK-5), Ellen Berry (GF), Rachel Dunbar (Nar.), and Becky Hayward (Village).
Any questions, please feel free to reach out: Sarah.Perkins@gorhamschools.org.
That's it for this rendition of my blog post! I am going to take the February Break off, so the next post will be on March 6! Have a great break everyone!
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