The month of March is almost in the rearview mirror, and April will be coming into full view soon. The school year is flying by, and it won't be long before we start feeling the pull of summer! Spring is such an exciting time in our schools! While we work across our schools to celebrate the year of learning that has occurred, we are also simultaneously working hard to prepare for the year that will be! The combination creates an electric atmosphere full of sharing, learning, celebration, and community! As is always the case, the best way to follow all the various "happenings" across our schools is via each school's weekly update to families, through our website, or social media pages. If you don't know how to access these digital resources, please contact your school's office; they can assist! We don't want anyone to miss a thing! Below are some images from the past few weeks across our schools, and then on to the information highlights from a district perspective!
THANK YOU MR. BAGEL!
I normally do the more community related stuff closer to the end of my blog post, but this one was just too good! I had to start with it! Here's the backstory...
On Thursday, March 27, 2025 I got an early morning call from our H.S. Principal Brian Jandreau. I have to admit, this was a new one for me to deal with in my 20 years as a Superintendent in Maine, but basically the story was that flying ants had unexpectedly taken over our high school kitchen and cafeteria space and that there was no way we could safely, and sanitarily provide food to our students until the ants were irradiated. Of course this was discovered too late to cancel school as buses were already on the road. The team jumped into action!
The first problem to solve was how to provide breakfast for the 100 or so students at GHS that eat breakfast daily. At first we thought we might have to simply cancel breakfast and communicated to families that we may not be able to provide breakfast today. But then a member of the team had a cool idea - why not reach out to one of our awesome community business partners? A call was placed to Kristen at Mr. Bagel in Gorham and within five minutes she had cranked up the flat top and was working on making 100 breakfast sandwiches for our students! Kitchen staff worked with school staff to develop a way to pass out the food, Raina, our SNP director had some other options brought over to the HS from our other schools, central office staff helped pick up the food and deliver it and before we knew it - 100+ GHS students had breakfast on time and on schedule by 7:45 a.m.!!!
Can I just say that I love working within a School system and within a community like Gorham!
No problem is too big to handle and with just a few quick phone calls our community was right there standing beside us to help support us! What could have been an issue that would have canceled school for the day for GHS students (I know Seniors are disappointed still I am sure) became a demonstration to our students in how a community works together to make things happen for one another!
Kudos to Kristen and Mr. Bagel and all our other business and community partners in Gorham! It feels so good to know that all we need to do is literally pick up the phone and reach out and you are there to help!
GO GORHAM RAMS!
FY 26 PROPOSED BUDGET DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS UPDATE
A little March snowfall may have shifted our budget timeline, but it hasn't dampened our resolve! With the storm on March 24 causing the cancellation of our budget workshop, we've adjusted our schedule to ensure thoughtful discussions before the School Committee's final vote on the proposed FY 26 budget (scheduled for April 9). Our updated meetings are as follows:
Budget Workshop #4: Monday, March 31 at 7:00 p.m.
Budget Workshop #5: Monday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m.
Following our March 17 meeting, we made significant progress in reducing our budget, bringing the overall expenditure increase to 6.9% (from an original 8.14%), with a projected tax impact of just 4.5%, its lowest in 7 years. However, new health insurance premium estimates from Anthem shared earlier this week—a potential 14% increase—pose a challenge, given that salary and benefits make up nearly 78% of our costs.
While we initially projected a 10% increase in health insurance costs, the additional 4%—equating to roughly $260,000—requires us to revisit our strategy. Despite this hurdle, our commitment remains unwavering: we will find a solution that best serves our students and community.
Our March 31 meeting will focus on revenue strategies before we refine expenditures to maximize efficiency while maintaining vital student programs. With teamwork, creativity, and determination, we will craft a budget that upholds our shared vision for success.
Please follow our last two meetings to learn more! They are live streamed on GoCAT TV and are recorded and shared on our district's budget information website. I will have much more detail for you on the next blog scheduled for April 11 as the School Committee will have voted on a proposed budget by then. As always - if you have any questions, please reach out. I am always happy to assist in answering any questions the Gorham community has regarding the school budget. Thank you!
GORHAM HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS EXPERIENCING ELO'S ACROSS MULTIPLE SECTORS!
Before I dive in here, just a reminder of what ELO's are. They are Extended Learning Opportunities. These are learning opportunities that get our students out into the "real world" via things like internships, co-op experiences, apprenticeship experiences, job shadowing experiences and more! During the 2024-2025 School year thus far we have had 76 GHS students participate in ELO experiences at GHS. You can learn more about ELO's by CLICKING HERE.
A few weeks ago we had two students present their ELO experiences to our School Committee at Great Falls Elementary School during our February workshop meeting. The recording isn't awesome because it was done via zoom, but if you would love to hear directly from our students about their experiences, its a great way to hear them share! CLICK HERE to view the recording of that presentation.
What I REALLY wanted to share with you in this blog piece though is a graph that was recently presented to the Business Roundtable at their meeting last week. The following graph shows the various industry sectors that our students have had ELO experiences within. Its pretty impressive!
The Survey will be open now through April 18, 2025. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR VALUED FEEDBACK!
A Message From School Committee Chair Sarah Perkins:
Dear Participants,
Each year we ask all staff, leadership team members, parents, community and school committee members to complete a 360 evaluation survey regarding the performance of our Superintendent. The results of this survey are used to inform her overall evaluation process with the School Committee and to assist Heather in the annual development of goals.
This survey is completely ANONYMOUS.
I encourage each parent/guardian and/or community member to please take 10-15 minutes to complete this survey. Your open and honest feedback is critical to her continued growth as a leader.
The questions are purposefully broad to allow for you to provide feedback on what is working well and what she can do to improve upon her practices. There is a spot at the end for any general comments you may have.
THANK YOU!
- Sarah Perkins, Gorham School Committee Chair
Parent/Family/Community Survey Link & QR Code:
Skolfield Sports Performance is hosting the Spring Toss Cornhole Tournament on Saturday, March 29th at 1pm at their facility in Saco!
All proceeds will go to Gorham Class of 2025 Project Graduation!
There will be cash prizes for the tournament in addition we'll have auction items and raffles! See more details in flyer below. and spread the word
You can register using this link:
Board Sponsors!
We're looking for 10 board sponsors. If you're a business and would like to advertise or just want to have your cool boards used in the tournament email Jenny Skolfield - JLSkolfield@gmail.com! $100 to have your boards featured!! A thank you to all our board sponsors with a link to your business for all to see at the tournament!
THANK YOU!
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