November 15 Blog Post

First, thank you to everyone who got out to vote earlier this month.  I'm unsure if you saw the most recent data, but approx. 70% of Gorham's voters participated in the elections on Nov. 5.  WOW!  Great job!  Would LOVE to see that kind of turnout for this coming June's elections as well!☺ 

I'll share an overview of the results of the Nov. 5 local elections below, but I wanted to share some pictures from the past two weeks in our schools!  It's been a great two weeks of learning across all schools; here is just a glimpse - but even that took me two sets again!

Now, on to the information!

UPDATE ON LOCAL RESULTS OF NOV. 5 ELECTIONS

For those of you who may not have been able to follow the local election results, I wanted to provide an overview and then discuss the next steps for the school to proceed with the results of our two bond requests.

First, CONGRATULATIONS to David Willis and Janet Keuch for their election to the Gorham Town Council.

Secondly, CONGRATULATIONS to Nicole Yeo-Fischer and Eric Thistle for their election to the Gorham School Committee.

In regards to the two bond questions that were on the ballot, question #1 passed.  Question #1 was the bond request for approximately $12,691,377.00 dollars (including interest) to do the following:

-  Expand the GHS cafeteria

-  Build "Phase I" (of an eventual 3 phase expansion plan if needed) of a Modular Expansion to GHS.

-  Replace HVAC system at Narragansett Elementary School

The second bond request DID NOT pass.  This was a request for approximately $3,380,781.00 dollars (including interest) to move the existing tennis courts from the GHS site to the GMS site and add two additional courts with lighting.  

So what is next?

For the GHS bond project, we will work closely with the Town of Gorham to complete the bonding process and secure the funds to move forward with the project. Later this spring, we will go out to bid for the project work, which will be conducted throughout the summer of 2025 and the 2025-2026 school year. The anticipated completion date would allow us to open school in the fall of 2026 with the HS portion of the projects completed.  

The Narragansett HVAC project will also be bid out later this winter/spring. Work will be conducted during the summer of 2025. Our hope is that the work will be completed in time for the school's opening in the Fall of 2025.

With regards to the tennis courts.  Next week, we have scheduled a meeting with Maine Tennis (a trusted, contracted service provider that works with organizations to construct and maintain tennis courts across New England).  We will do a thorough site walk-through to assess the existing courts' conditions, determine the next best step, and determine how much any options may cost.  We will bring options back to the Gorham School Committee Finance/Facilities Committee for consideration and integration within a revised 10-year capital plan for the schools and then work with the Town of Gorham's facilities committee to fully update the ten-year plan to include tennis courts.  

We understand that the current courts need to be playable for our students. We hope to determine a short-term "fix" that will allow students, Gorham Recreation, and our community to return to using these courts as soon as possible while we figure out the mid-to-long-term plan for tennis courts with the town moving forward.

The complicating factor with this project (tennis courts) is that if we do not receive funding from the state to construct a new high school, we will return to the voters within 3-5 years to request another bond to build a second modular expansion phase at GHS. This second phase would need to occur on the site where the existing tennis courts are now located. No other space makes sense for continuing needed modular classroom expansions at the high school.  

As you can see, it will be imperative in our continued capital planning to work closely with the Town of Gorham to maximize the resources available to address our steadily growing capital needs. We will continue to keep everyone informed as we determine the short-term "fix" for the tennis courts and how our next steps align with our longer-term capital needs planning.  We hope to have a suggested next step prepared for the tennis courts by mid-December 2024 and an updated 10-year capital plan to share with the Town's facilities committee by late January 2025.

To communicate more transparently with the public about our facilities' capital needs, we will also launch a new page on our website with all the information the public needs to better understand our needs assessments, projections, and associated plans.  This new page should be ready to share publicly shortly after the Holiday break in December/January.  In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like copies of any of our facilities' assessments or plans, please contact me at any time.  My email is heather.perry@gorhamschools.org.  

SO, HOW ARE SCHOOL POLICIES CREATED ANYWAY? A POLICY PRIMER FOR MAINE PUBLIC SCHOOLS...

Local School Board/Committee policies are how our schools are governed.  Similar to how our state and federal government's legislatures pass laws to inform the executive branch (Governor and President) how to operate our state and country, school policies are what our local School Committee passes that tell me how to manage our schools.  Just like our old government lessons on the branches of government, right?  The legislative branch creates the laws, and the executive branch carries them out.  The same thing occurs in our public schools, only on a much smaller scale.  Policies are our school's "laws" created and approved by our local "legislative branch" - our School Committee.  Here's how it typically works:

The Gorham School Committee develops policies through a structured process that usually follows these SIX key steps:

1. Identification of Need

• Issues arise from community feedback, legal requirements, or operational challenges
• School Committee members or administrators identify areas needing policy guidance
• Regular policy reviews may often reveal gaps or outdated rules that need to be updated

2. Research & Draft Policy Development

• Staff research similar policies from other districts or seek to find model/template policies from the Maine Department of Education or from the Maine School Management Association.  
• The Superintendent's office leads draft preparation for policies using the resources that have been researched to create the language needed that addresses the identified need.
• Initial drafts incorporate state/federal requirements as appropriate
• Legal counsel reviews relevant laws and regulations as needed
• Draft language is brought to the School Committee policy committee for a thorough review and adjusted as needed to prepare for first reading.

3. First Reading

• The full School Committee reviews draft policy at a public meeting
• Members discuss and suggest revisions
• The public may comment during designated public comment periods on each agenda
• No final vote is taken at this stage

4. Revision

• Staff/Policy Committee incorporates feedback into revisions
• Additional stakeholder input may be gathered as needed
• Further drafts prepared as needed
• Draft is finalized and made ready for 2nd Reading with the entire School Committee

5. Second Reading & Vote

• Policy Committee presents Revised policy at another public meeting
• Final discussion and amendments are considered by the full School Committee
• School Committee votes to adopt, reject, or further revise
• A Majority vote is required for adoption

6. Implementation

• Adopted policies distributed to staff
• Training provided if needed
• Administrative procedures developed if needed
• Community notified of new policies by the Superintendent via the website

So where can the public find a copy of our School Committee Policies?  On our website of course! ☺ 

Just go to www.gorhamschools.org.  Then click on "About Us" and go to "School Committee".  Once there, you should see an option to click on "Policies".  Click there and you'll see our policies organized by policy code.  

In Gorham, we use the MSBA (Maine School Boards Association) coding system for policies. Our policies are organized by category as follows:

A - Foundations and Basic Commitments 

B - School Board Governance and Operations 

C - General School Administration 

D - Fiscal Management 

E - Support Services 

F - Facilities Development 

G - Personnel 

I - Instruction 

J - Students 

K - School-Community Relations 

L - Education Agency Relations

For example:

• JICK would be under "J" (Students) and typically refers to bullying policies
• IHBA would be under "I" (Instruction) and often relates to Individual Education Programs
• GCFB would be under "G" (Personnel) and usually covers recruiting and hiring of staff

Each subsequent letter in the code narrows the specific topic within that main category.

I hope this helps take a little "mystery" away from how policies are created and how you can find and review/read them to better understand them.  As I mentioned earlier, these policies allow the School Committee to ultimately govern our schools.  If the School Committee wants something done differently within the confines of our state and federal laws, they need only revise policy to instigate change.  Remember, this rule-making authority only extends within the confines of state and federal law.  Local School Committee policies cannot conflict with state and federal statutes.

If you want to learn more, just let me know. I'm always happy to help folks better understand school policies!

FALL NWEA DATA REVIEW

I wanted to take a moment to share district-level Fall NWEA testing data with everyone. 

Please know that NWEA data is just ONE of MANY metrics we use to determine our district's success in making our mission and vision a reality for our students.  In Gorham, we use our "Metrics for Success" document to determine the overall effectiveness of our district in making our Mission/Vision for student learning a reality for the children of this great community.  

Also, please know that this is just FALL NWEA testing data and is not reflective of a full year's worth of learning for our students.  This is a snapshot in time.  The full year's look is shared annually each spring/summer in our district's "State of the School's" Report.

With those caveats, here is a summary of data from Fall NWEA testing across the district...

This graph shows the percentage of our grades 1-5 students who are proficient in math across all three schools. Our goal is that 70% or more of our students meet proficiency marks as defined by NWEA. As you can see, Grades 1, 2, and 3 meet our goals. Unfortunately, grades 4 and 5 are not, at least not yet. ☺ 

When looking at this data, a few things come to mind.  First, our current grade 4 and 5 students are the students who were in kindergarten or pre-K during the pandemic.  Second, this is the third full year of implementation for our new math curriculum, Reveal Math.  Moving forward, this graph indicates that we need to continue to emphasize the integrity of implementing our new math curriculum while increasing support for students in the older grades who continue to struggle in math due to pandemic-related gaps.  This targeted support should aim to get these students to grade level proficiency by the end of grade 8 so that they are best prepared for higher-level math at the HS level.

This graph shows the percentage of our grades 1-5 students who are proficient in Reading across all three schools.  We aim for 70% or more of our students to meet proficiency marks defined by NWEA.  As you can see, Grade 1 meets this goal, while the other four grades fall just short of the mark.  

Overall, our upper-grade elementary students faired far better through the pandemic in reading than they did in math.  Although four of the five grades fall just short of our 70% goal, the difference is by just a few percentage points and very close to the mark.  Moving forward, this graph indicates that we must keep doing what we have been doing in our reading instruction and continue to provide the targeted support our struggling students may need via our RTI processes. 

This graph shows the percentage of our grades 6-8 students who are meeting proficiency in math as defined by NWEA.  Once again, our goal is 70% or more.  At GMS, grade six is a little under that mark, while grades 7 & 8 are just above.  Once again, this shows that we need to keep doing what we have been in our math instruction moving forward while being sure to provide the targeted interventions students may need to get over that learning hump.

This graph shows the percentage of our grade 6-8 students who are meeting proficiency in reading as defined by NWEA. Like the math chart above, our 6th-grade students are just below that target, while our 7th—and 8th-grade students are just above. There is room to grow, for sure, but this indicates that a continued steady push with targeted support for struggling students is what is needed moving forward. 

This graph shows data for GHS students in grades 9 and 10 Math. NWEA assessments are only taken at these grades. Students in grade 11 start working towards PSATs and SATs as needed. Testing in these grades indicates that we are meeting our goal of having 70% of students hit proficient marks, as NWEA defines them.  Moving forward, a steady hand seems to be in order while continuing to provide targeted support to students who may need it.

Finally, this graph shows data for GHS students in grades 9 and 10 Reading. Once again, students at these grade levels are meeting our goal of 70% or more hitting the proficient mark. Continuing the existing curriculum and support structures seems appropriate, as does continuing to provide targeted support for students in need.

Overall, what does this data tell us? It tells us that we always have room to improve our instruction across all grades but that significant instructional practice shifts or curriculum shifts are unnecessary. The data indicate that we must deepen our targeted support and maintain the course to ensure our students meet academic proficiencies. 

We will continue to monitor this data and work to ensure we meet our district goals. 

FY 26 BUDGET DEVELOPMENT CYCLE FOR SCHOOLS KICKED OFF LAST NIGHT!

The Gorham School Committee "kicks off" its annual budget development process each year with a meeting we lovingly call our "Dessert & Discuss" meeting. The meeting is aptly named because we share yummy desserts made by our School Nutrition Program employees as we begin the complex process of building a school district budget from scratch!

This annual meeting does not focus on budget numbers and specific costs. Instead, it aims to create the understanding needed to inform later dollar-figure discussions. The school committee spends the evening asking building leaders and program directors to share their "pain points" and their two— to three-year outlooks for future needs across our schools and programs.  

Information shared is more anecdotal than dollar-driven, but don't think this sharing isn't also driven by data. Trends in data are shared, helping School Committee members better understand the specific areas of challenge in our schools and why certain things may be asked for as part of the budget development process moving forward.  

Indeed, only some possible requests discussed and shared make it through the budget process. However, by sharing a comprehensive view of needs now, the School Committee can better understand how to prioritize the myriad of needs as they move through the FY 26 budget development process. It is always an extremely informative night!

The meeting is open to the public. However, we understand not everyone can come out and sit through a 2-hour meeting...so if you are interested in following along, you can view the video recording of the meeting by CLICKING HERE.  You can also view all the links shared with the School Committee containing information on "pain points" and 2-3-year outlooks for each school and program by CLICKING HERE.

As mentioned, this is just the beginning of an 8-month (sometimes +) process to develop and approve a proposed FY 26 School Budget.  The next big piece of work for the School Committee will be to set an overall budget development target for the administration to try and hit in the process.  The School Committee will set that initial target at their Nov. 26 workshop meeting.  We will then follow up with a joint meeting with the Town Council on Dec. 17 for additional feedback.  Then, an initial proposed budget is shared with the School Committee in early February, and then they really dig in during March with several in-depth budget workshop meetings.  

Please follow this work along on our website and reach out with questions if you have them! Stay tuned - much more to come!

KNOW OF ANY OLDER ADULTS WHO WOULD LIKE SOME HELP WITH TECHNOLOGY?

A small group of students at Gorham High School are considering creating a tech help group to help older adults in our community navigate the ever-changing world of technology. As a digital "immigrant" myself, I know where to go if I have a question related to technology—to my 29-year-old daughter and my 7-year-old granddaughter! ☺ 

If you or someone you know might be interested in receiving nonjudgmental assistance from our high school students while allowing our students to learn the valuable lessons associated with volunteerism and giving back to their community, check out the flyer below and call or email today!

WHAT ARE GORHAM MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS THANKFUL FOR?

The answer is A LOT! ☺ I wanted to share a few pictures of what GMS students are saying they are thankful for!  You may need to blow up the images a bit to read them...but they certainly have a lot to say!

As we enter the holiday season, it is always a great time to reflect upon what we are thankful and grateful for.  Yes, we can have our challenges, but there is no question that we all have things for which we should also be grateful.  Each and every year, I am thankful to be able to serve the children of the community of Gorham - to watch them grow, challenge themselves, persevere, and flourish!  Take a moment and think about what you are grateful for this season...and enjoy the upcoming time with family and friends over this crazy holiday season!  

That's it til the next blog.  Due to the Holiday break, the next blog post will be Dec. 6.  THANK YOU!