GORHAM – In a cost-saving measure, the Gorham School Committee has voted 5-0 (Kyle Currier and Sara Nelson absent) to reward eligible teachers to retire.
Gorham’s district has 12 teachers eligible to retire with a $10,000 bonus.
“We don’t anticipate all 12 would retire” under the program, Gorham Superintendent Ted Sharp said.
The plan to incent retirement, approved Jan. 11, is “driven by the economic downturn,” Sharp said.
A new school budget is being developed while school officials expect to receive $233,000 less in state subsidy money. Citing financial reasons, Sharp said all-day kindergarten would unlikely be implemented this year.
Hollis Cobb, the School Department finance officer, reported the department froze the district’s discretionary accounts on Dec. 19 because of uncertainty surrounding state funding. Cobb also announced that budget discussions are under way.
The retirement incentive measure approved last week marked the third time Gorham had utilized a retirement incentive and the second occasion that federal money was utilized to encourage teachers to retire.
“This [money] is coming out of the jobs bill,” School Committee member Dennis Libby said.
Sharp said the district in the past four years had reduced 55 school positions.
Two members of the Town Council’s Finance Committee – councilors Matthew Mattingly and Suzanne Phillips – attended the School Committee meeting last week.
The School Committee also agreed to turn over the vacant White Rock School, which was built in 1962, to the town on Saturday, June 30. The building became obsolete when the new Great Falls Elementary School opened last fall.
The School Department has been utilizing the old White Rock School temporarily for storage of furniture and the site has two portable classroom buildings on it. The Village School has one portable and Narragansett School has three.
Gorham has all six portable buildings available for sale.
Written proposals will be accepted until 4 pm. on Friday, Jan. 20, at the office of Town Manager David Cole in the Gorham Municipal Center,75 South St.
For more information contact Norm Justice, director of school facilities, at 222-1147 or by email NormJ@gorhamschools.org.
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