Welcome back to the Gorham Schools during this historic year. And what a year it has been. It feels like just yesterday we were making the difficult decision to close schools and turn our entire educational system into a virtual learning model in a matter of two days. But alas, it’s been almost five months since then.

There is no question this will be a school opening like no other here in Gorham. We are opening our schools in an entirely different model, attempting to balance the safety needs of our students, staff, and community with meeting the educational needs of our children, which we know are best served in an in-person environment.

The first day back for group “B” students will be Tuesday, September 8. The first day back for group “A” students will be Wednesday, September 9. Due to the Labor Day holiday on that Monday, group “A’s” second face-to-face instruction day that week will be held on Friday, September 11. A new school calendar showing A and B days is posted on the district website.

The remote learning option will also begin for all students who signed up for this program on Tuesday, September 8. On September 1, we held two training sessions for use of our online systems; one for K-5 parents and the other for 6-12 parents of remote learners.

There is a new COVID-19 Information and Resources page for parents on Gorham’s school website www.gorhamschools.org on the main page. At the top middle of the page look for a tab that says “COVID-19.” There is a lot of information out there so we wanted to try and consolidate all the important information related to the Gorham Schools in one location.

Start and end times this year will be the same times as last year. For Great Falls, Narragansett, and Village Elementary Schools they are 8:50 a.m. and 3:10 p.m. For Gorham Middle School the start time is 8 a.m. and end time is 2:20 p.m. and for Gorham High School the start time is 7:50 a.m. and the end time is 2:10 p.m. Of course, as we work out our new transportation schedules and parent pick-up and drop-off schedules these times may vary for the first several weeks of school. I would encourage patience and flexibility as we work through our new processes this year, especially on the transportation front.

We hope to have posted our new updated A and B grouping bus routes on the district’s website by September 1. You can find them by visiting the Gorham Schools website. Parents should receive an email message with the direct link when ready.

I know many parents are also concerned about extra-curricular programs for students. I will be honest, right now those are a little “up in the air” due to unresolved issues between the Maine Principals Association (MPA) and the Maine Department of Education (MDOE)/Center for Disease Control (CDC).

I know that right now the MPA is working diligently with the CDC and MDOE to rectify this situation and hopefully come up with a way in which fall sports can still occur safely for our students, but this may not be possible.

Fundamentally, I want parents to know that in Gorham we believe strongly in the power of offering these important programs to our students. Gorham Schools is committed to offering these types of learning experiences to our students in a safe environment.

Therefore, we will either move forward with implementation of MPA guidelines that are approved by MDOE/CDC (if they can be completed in time) or we will move forward with a plan to implement our own “intramural” style activities for our students. One way or the other we will offer our students these important experiences.

In order to stay updated, please make sure you are getting our email messages through the School Messenger system. You can reach out to your school’s administrative assistants to double check that you are in the system if you are not sure. Second, you should check in on my blog. You can also access our district Facebook and Twitter sites from the district website in the top right corner of the front page.

In closing, I just want to say thank you to all our Gorham families, staff, and community members for your participation in our planning processes for the re-opening of our schools. Whenever I sent out a survey, you responded. Whenever I put out a forum meeting, you attended. Whenever I said “email me with questions,” you did.

As a result of your participation in these planning processes and your willingness to listen, to share ideas, and problem-solve together, I am confident that our plan to re-open schools is a solid one. I am confident that our opening will be positive and, as Gorham always does, I am confident we will continue to work together to solve any other problems that COVID-19 wants to throw at us.

I remain so very proud to be a Gorham Ram. Go Rams. We got this. See you soon.