Dear Parents/Guardians of Gorham K-5 Remote Learners,

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE MESSAGE BEFORE RESPONDING TO A BRIEF SURVEY.  THANK YOU!

It is hard to believe we have been back to school in our hybrid and remote options for almost a full 8 weeks now!  Amazing how quickly time flies!  As we continue our operations in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic, the  Gorham School Department remains steadfast in its commitment to working to continually improve.  We readily admit that no one has the "operations manual" for how to operate schools during a pandemic, but we want you to know that we remain committed to improving practices to benefit our students, our  staff, and the community we serve.  It is in this spirit of continuous improvement that we reach out to our K-5 remote learner families today.  

In order to accomplish the monumental  task of re-opening our schools this summer, we had to move student populations, classrooms, and staff.  As you recall when we created  our "Pandemic Operations Plan" we worked diligently to provide our families with a remote only option.  This is the option that your family selected for lots of great reasons.  As you may also recall, we made it abundantly clear that if the remote only option was selected, we would need to require that your families remain in this option  through Jan. 25, 2021.  At the time, this made perfect sense across grades K-12, but upon further reflection  (and continuous improvement mind you) it doesn't make as much sense educationally for our K-5 students.  Here is why:

1.  The beginning of the 2nd semester  (third quarter for GMS  and GHS  students)  is Jan. 25, 2021, however, our K-5 learning program operates in trimesters, not quarters or semesters as do our programs in grades 6-12.

2.  By considering allowing students to return to in person learning on Jan. 25, 2021, that would mean we may need to move K-5 learners in the middle of the second trimester of learning to an entirely different learning model.

3.  Changes of this nature could involve the need for the additional movement  of staff, potentially impacting BOTH existing remote learners and existing hybrid learners - again, all in the middle of a trimester.

Upon further reflection, this doesn't make a lot of sense for our K-5 remote and hybrid model learners.  Therefore, we are asking our K-5 remote learning families if you would like to consider moving back to the hybrid model of learning to begin the 2nd trimester (Nov. 30, 2020) with the clear understanding that (as has been the case from the beginning) if you  enter the hybrid model and then wish to move back  to fully remote, you may do that at any time.  

As you might imagine, there are staffing and programmatic implications associated with students moving back to face to face instruction from our remote learning programs.  Because  of this, we have developed the survey below to help us get a sense for how many families/students may be interested at the Grades K-5 level ONLY in returning to face to face instructional programs.  Before asking families to make these decisions I wanted to be  clear about the "rules". . .

*  This option is for K-5 remote learners ONLY.  Remote learners in grades 6-12 utilize different programming and different reporting periods and so must stay with the original timeline of Jan. 25, 2021.

*  The move to hybrid learning, if selected will occur effective Nov.  27 with first day back to "in person" learning on Monday, Nov. 30, 2020 (after the Thanksgiving Break).

*  Students who return to in person learning MAY NOT have the same teachers that were assigned to them this past spring.  This will also mean they may not have the same classmates as they originally were assigned.

*  Although we will ask your preference for assignment to either the "A" or "B" learning cohort, we may NOT be able to honor your preference due to staffing consideration,  transportation, and other needs.

* Although we will provide transportation as NEEDED, we would STRONGLY ENCOURAGE families who can transport their children to and from school to do so upon their return to face to face instruction.

*   If you elect to return to face to face instruction on Nov. 30, you may elect at any time to return to remote only instruction.  If you elect to remain with remote only instruction the next time you will be able to reconsider will be on EITHER the Jan. 25, 2021 date as original stated or at the end of the 2nd trimester (March 12, 2021).  

With those rules made clear, as well as our rationale for moving the timeline up for decision making for our K-5 remote only families, I ask you to please take a moment to participate in this important survey.  I would ask all K-5 remote learning families to participate.  I would also ask that if there are multiple K-5 children in the household, to PLEASE COMPLETE ONE SURVEY FOR EACH K-5 STUDENT.  If you have questions, please reach out to your school's principal and they would be more than happy to help you complete this survey accurately.  

The deadline for completion of the survey is Monday, November 2, 2020.  Thank you!

Special Note:  At this time, our hybrid model requires that we maintain 6 ft. of physical distance at all times between students.  If a significant number of remote learning families wish to return to our hybrid model, we MAY  have to consider using the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) framework guidance that allows for 3 ft. of physical distance if all other safety protocols are in place.  When you respond to the survey below...we will ask you if you would return using 6 ft rules or the smaller rules NOT because we intend to change our safety protocols, but only to inform us if we may have to consider changes, and/or if we do make changes, what the implications may be to your choice to return to face to face instruction or not.

As always, if you have ANY QUESTIONS, please reach out to your building principals and they will be more than happy to help answer questions to help guide your decision making.