Hard to believe the summer has already flown by. We are all excited to see students back in the buildings once again. Students in grades K, 6, and 9 will return to school on Wednesday, August 29, and all students will return on Thursday, August 30.
This school year will mark the initial implementation of Gorham’s new transportation policy. The full policy can be found on the district website, but the short and the long of it is that in order to provide for the safety of all students, parents will be limited to two pick-up points in the morning and two drop-off points in the afternoon and these locations must be consistently scheduled for the year.
The Transportation Department has been working with parents over the summer to collect information on pick-up and drop-off points via an online survey. For those parents who have completed the survey – thank you. For those that have not, any information that is left blank after August 24 will be considered incomplete.
Schools and bus drivers with incomplete information will utilize the primary physical address of each student as the location for pick-up and drop-off points until parents can complete the required information and have it approved by the Transportation Office.
It is encouraged for any parent with questions to call either your child’s school office, or the Transportation office (839-8885).
Some parents may be wondering about what the Gorham Schools will be doing with its Proficiency-Based Learning (PBL) work since the legislature made a change to allow this work to be optional for diplomas just a month or so ago.
To be honest, it is believed that the legislature’s actions will not have any impact on the work of the Gorham Schools. The Gorham Schools have been working on creating a standards-based learning system well before the law that created PBL was passed and it is assumed that work will continue.
Gorham Schools have always made changes, collected feedback, and then been willing to “tweak” its practices based on that feedback using a slow and methodical approach to change.
The changes to the law made by the legislature this past session will allow us to maintain this slow and methodical approach. Individuals interested in learning more about Gorham’s system and planned work for the 2018-19 school year should check out the district website.
Under “About Us” there is a page dedicated to Proficiency-Based Learning information for parents and community members that most would find very helpful. In particular, folks may want to review Gorham’s 2018-19 PBL Handbook and reach out directly to teachers, principals or myself with questions they may have.
As a new school year begins, I would like to make one big “pitch” to parents and students regarding the importance of regular school attendance. This year, Gorham will be focusing on the issue of chronic absenteeism in all schools across grades K-12.
Chronic absenteeism is defined by a student missing 10 percent of the total number of school days regardless of whether those absences were excused or unexcused. For Gorham, that means students who miss 17 or more days of school over the course of the year.
Students who are chronically absent score lower on achievement scores in reading and in math. Students who are chronically absent are more likely to become high school drop-outs.
Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the school year. In Gorham, chronic absenteeism rate for 2017-18 was 6.8 percent across all schools. That means that 6.8 percent of the total school population missed 17 plus days of school.
That may not sound like much, but when the math is done, that means that almost 200 students are chronically absent. Granted, those scores are lower than most schools, but it is still too high.
Encouraging regular school attendance is one of the most powerful ways a parent can prepare their child for success – both in school and in life. We need parents’ help.
When parents help the district make school attendance a priority, they help their child get better grades, develop healthy life habits, and have a better chance of graduating from high school ready to successfully meet all the challenges life may have in store for them.
We are all so very proud to be Gorham Rams. I look forward to another great year. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with questions, comments, or concerns. My email is heather.perry@gorhamschools.org and phone number is 222-2012. See you all soon. Go Rams!