At its March 11 workshop, the Gorham School Committee (SC) continued discussion of the proposed F20 budget. There will be additional workshops on March 25 and April 1 at 7 p.m. in the Municipal Building. The meetings will be open to the public, but there will be no opportunity for comment. The public will be able to comment at the April 10 regular SC meeting. The committee will vote on the budget in April and send it to the Town Council for approval. A final budget will go before Gorham voters on June 4.

Superintendent Heather Perry submitted a budget of $39,750,528 in February that was developed according to guidelines set by the School Department. Those guidelines stipulated that the budget was to reflect an increase in operation expenditures of no more than 2.75% over the FY19 budget. This involved a modest increase in expenditures for capital improvements (CIPS) and a 2.5% increase in operating costs which includes negotiated salary increases. The budget increase for F20 could only be about $1M over F19.

To meet this target, the budget given to the SC eliminated six elementary school teaching positions and one at Gorham Middle School (GMS), as well as some support staff. Reductions proposed also included eliminating seventh grade athletics.

In addition to setting a specific guideline for the budget proposal, the SC invited the district leadership team to join in workshop discussions and to provide answers to questions from committee members. Elementary school principals have encouraged SC members to reconsider eliminating teaching positions that would result in larger classes and have presented evidence highlighting not only an increase in students but also the greater number of students with special needs. The SC is also reevaluating eliminating the seventh grade athletic program. These discussions will continue until the final vote is taken in April.

As it is not yet known what the the final figures will be for the FY20 state subsidy, the SC is using FY19 figures. The “Portland Press Herald,” however, has published proposed figures that indicate Gorham, which saw a decrease last year, will see an increase of $630,000 in its subsidy this year.

The proposed budget given to the SC in February can be found by clicking here.