Photo Caption: On Saturday, Oct. 18, GHS held a Homecoming Dance as the culminating event of their very successful Homecoming Week. The activities also included spirit days, a full school rally and home games for all of the fall sports teams. The students had a great time celebrating all of these annual events. Photo Credit: Kyle Petrin, Student
On Oct. 22, the Gorham School Committee held a workshop meeting with three items on the agenda. Five members were present. The three candidates for school committee seats were also in the audience.
The first item on the agenda was a presentation by Elementary Principals; Erin Eppler, Becky Fortier and Cheryl Fotter on the possible creation of a new PreK-5 program that they are calling the Transitions Program. The three principals presented the current situation, existing at all three buildings, of students with unique challenging behaviors who are having serious impacts on classrooms and the schools. The principals have spent considerable time researching literature, brainstorming ideas and looking at the ways that other school systems are approaching the issue.
The resulting proposal, the Transitions Program, would be an alternative program involving a teacher and an educational technician supporting interventions and individualized strategies to provide academic and behavioral support , social- emotional support, behavioral coaching, check-ins and earned time and family partnerships. The educational technicians would be staffed by the current Alternative Education technicians at each building.
The implementation of this program would be done in two stages. The first, done this year, would be to hire a Transition Interventionist Teacher to work at Village School. This teacher would pilot the program, collect data, and work collaboratively with the PreK-5 administration to prepare for the expansion of the program to Narragansett and Great Falls Schools in the fall of 2026. The school committee will need to consider this proposal at a future official meeting.
All three principals spoke about the need for this program to help provide safety for all students and staff within the buildings, and to cut down on the interruptions to learning.
The second presentation by Kathy Hamblen, centered on the state plan for public schools to provide Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for 3-5 year olds, which will be required of all schools by 2028. Special Education services currently provided by Child Development Services (CDS) will be the responsibility of the public school system, although the state will cover the costs of preschool educators and therapists.
Currently, Gorham has four half-school-day classrooms, as well as partnerships with four preschools serving a total of 121 four-year-olds. This program has been extremely successful as students involved in past years are requiring 25 % less intervention in kindergarten and grade one.
Gorham’s current plan is to next year focus on four-year-olds with special needs and then take on FAPE for three-year-olds in the 2027-28 school year. It would involve adding a self-contained program for four-year-old students, an administrative position, a speech therapist, increased Occupational and Physical Therapy and secretarial support. Gorham is expecting to provide Special Ed Services for approximately 120 students, but it could be as high as 150. They will also utilize the services and support hub of their partnership with the Greater Sebago Educational Association (GSEA) for services that can be shared across districts.
The third agenda item was a review of the school committee self evaluation tool led by Vice Chair, Michelle Littlefield. The results were extremely positive, and the committee hopes to implement a public feedback component in the future.