As a retired senior executive who led successful organizations in both the private and public sectors, I am amazed and distressed at the recent actions of the Gorham Town Council regarding the education department defunding mandate.
At age 55, I left my secure and lucrative senior position in the private sector to seek a second master’s degree, this time in education administration, so I could seek senior positions in public school administration. For the next 14 years, I helped school boards manage both large and small school districts in New York and in Maine, as both an assistant superintendent for business and operations and as the superintendent of schools.
Along the way, due to my ability to develop harmonious school boards and educators, I experienced only one budget revote, and that revote did not necessitate the potentially destructive actions forced upon the Gorham schools by the Town Council’s recent decisions.
Due to the No Child Left Behind and Free and Appropriate Education national education initiatives and laws, public schools must provide the best educational programs for advanced and special education curriculums. School administrators also believe in creating the best multifaceted environment for learning, maturing and growing.
I can understand the Town Council’s feeling that since other departments are holding the line on budgets, the school department should be mindful of the voters/homeowner’s pocketbooks, but when the dramatic growth of new houses and new families creates overcrowded facilities and additional special education needs, school budgets must be allowed to increase, not dramatically decrease.
Because of the steady improvement in the educational achievements of the Gorham students, potential new families took a look at the cost of houses and taxes in Gorham. What did they find? They could buy a house for $375,000 and pay $5,000 in taxes and still have most of the levels of excellence in scholastics and extracurriculars previously only found in “richer” Scarborough, Falmouth, Cumberland and Cape Elizabeth districts. As my wife and I continue to view the growth and success of our grandchildren, first at Narragansett Elementary and now at Gorham Middle and High schools, we have come to appreciate the professionalism of the educators, professional staff and administrators. As we follow their athletic and cultural events, we have found that those “richer” districts don’t seem to have much better offerings or achievements.
Developers could see what was happening, too: Tracts of land became new houses with average selling prices of $575,000 being sold as fast as builders could finish the new neighborhoods. Those folks with no children gleefully put their existing homes on the market at prices from $600,000 to $850,000 and multiple offers arrived in minutes. Three years after most of the first new houses were built, they had become bargains at $575,000, because the current houses under construction are now selling for $800,000 plus. Where are the taxes going from these huge new assessments?
Yes, this is an abnormal house value bubble or phenomenon, but if potential new school-age parents find that future school budgets and service levels are to be trashed and slashed, the housing market will drop as fast as it rose.
I would encourage all the parents in Gorham to come out for the next vote and turn down this arbitrary and wholly inadequate spending level. Vote with your children’s needs in mind, and not in favor of the Town Council’s pettiness.
I would be pleased to offer my experience and executive team-building capabilities to bring the Gorham Town Council and the school board together to benefit all residents.
Ken Aldrich is a resident of Buxton and is a past president of the Gorham Lions Club.
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