GORHAM, Maine — Gorham’s school budget faces $2 million in proposed cuts to sports, clubs, and teachers in a vote on Tuesday.
The town council proposed $2 million in cuts after voters shot down a previous version of the budget on June 13. Voters in Gorham are already dealing with higher taxes after a revaluation that raised taxes in 2022.
The cuts include 14 current staff positions: eight full-time teachers, one part-time teacher, and four administrator positions. They also include seven more vacant positions. The proposal would also eliminate clubs at the middle school and high school, as well as all sports at the middle school. Sports at the high school would become “pay-to-play.”
“We have to invest in that future story and these cuts don’t do that,” Brooke Proulx, a mother of two Gorham students and a social worker for the district, said. “People move here because of our schools.”
Proulx is one of those people. She and her husband are from Gorham and went to school there. They moved back when it was time for them to put their kids in school.
“Without those fun things, I worry about his motivation to focus on his academics,” Proulx said. “How do you graduate and get into college without extracurricular activities?”
Cutting five K-5 teachers will also max out class sizes in those grades.
“The idea of more kids being in his class worries me, right, for the impact that has on his learning, how he’s able to process information, take in his academics right, and learn in a more loud, clustered classroom,” Proulx said.
While she is not in favor of the cuts, she is still feeling the pain of the higher taxes. She and her husband work full-time, and she said she picked up a second job in order to pay for all their expenses.
“Even with two incomes, it’s hard for me with these increases in taxes year after year,” Proulx said.
Superintendent Heather Perry said she does not blame the town council for the cuts but urges voters to consider the impacts. She said she does not support the current cuts.
“It jeopardizes the quality of the public school system. It jeopardizes the overall quality of our community. I’m not saying we can’t reduce further as a school. We probably can, and we probably should be to look at that again and come back with a third option. If this budget were to be approved, the impacts to our public schools and the impact to our community is very significant,” she said.
Perry provided estimates for the tax increases, based on a $400,000 house. Without making the cuts, taxes would go up $396 per year. If the proposed cuts pass, taxes still increase by about $125 for people who own a house at that price.
“I don’t want to place any blame on the town council. I think they made a decision that they felt they needed to make on behalf of the whole community. The issue now is do people feel that that’s the right decision for our children and for the community as a whole?” Perry said.
She urged voters to hit the polls on Tuesday, July 25. She said not even one-tenth of voters participated in the June 13 election. She said that if voters reject this proposed budget, it would give the town council, the school committee, and the district a chance to negotiate.
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to all the town councilors to understand why they proposed the specific cuts but did not receive a response.
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