At the regular April 13 meeting, Superintendent Heather Perry said that in anticipation of the requirement for school districts to provide educational services for 3 and 4 year olds, the district has applied to operate a pilot program for ten pre-K students in cooperation with the Gorham Arts Alliance to begin in fall 2022.
She announced that Narragansett Elementary School Principal Cynthia Remick has submitted a letter of resignation.
A draft of the ten year capital project planning document will be shared with the Joint Facilities Committee at their April 15 meeting. This is a committee composed of members from the School Committee (SC) and the Town Council.
Jan Belanger of the ASPIRE program and four Gorham Middle School (GMS) students gave a presentation on the GMS Tech Start Program. This is a semester-long experience in partnership with Westbrook Regional Vocational Center (WRVC) where 8th grade students spend a class period at WRVC four days a week exploring 16 different vocational classes that they could take as high school juniors and seniors. About 50 students have participated in the program. The students reported that not only did the experience introduce them to possible career options, but also helped them discover what they did not want to do.
Perry gave an update on COVID for four weeks in March that showed only a little uptick, primarily in K-5 schools. The schools are no longer doing contact tracing, but parents are still expected to do morning health screenings.
The Policy Committee is working on reviewing policies and on an update of the district’s Code of Conduct. The Personnel Committee is conducting interviews for a Technology Director. The Anti-Racism & Equity ad hoc committee met with the GHS Civil Rights Team and viewed the students’ video about biased language.
The SC voted (5-2) to adopt the proposed 2022-2023 School Calendar that includes eight early release days. Those opposed wanted two more days for professional development, but proponents reported that “teachers want to be in front of students.”
Revisions of two policies, one on compulsory attendance and the other on truancy, were made primarily to make them in compliance with Legislative changes and were approved (7-0).
The School Committee voted (5-2, Wright, Gagon) to adopt a proposed FY23 budget of $48,015,345. Each SC member spoke about why they did or did not support the budget. Information about those comments and the budget process can be found here.