The Gorham School Committee meets on Aug. 16  in the conference room at the office of Superintendent Heather Perry. Christina Cifelli, center in background, was voted in as an assistant principal at Gorham High School.

GORHAM — The six members of the School Committee last week voted for numerous items in a meeting posted on the front page of the School Department’s website as a workshop. Voting is not allowed at workshops.

Votes on Aug. 16 included appointment of an assistant high school principal and allowing the superintendent to ask the Town Council for $150,000 to plan for a high school renovation.

Whether the public was properly notified of the special meeting is up for debate.

The department website’s front page posting read, “Aug 16  SC Workshop Meeting Time: 7 PM – 9 PM.”

But Superintendent Heather Perry says what she calls the “calendar,” the front-page posting, is not the official announcement of the meeting.

Perry said Wednesday in an email that a staff member, who was going on vacation, posted on Aug. 14 an agenda for the special meeting in the agenda and minutes location on the website. She said the agenda was also emailed to the American Journal, but had bounced back saying “the user account is temporarily over quota.”

The American Journal has in the past successfully received emails from the staff member and the newspaper’s technical office said Wednesday the email address has “plenty of space.”

An agenda handout available at the  Aug. 16 meeting identified it as a Special Meeting.

“I do agree that the calendar information was slightly inaccurate because the calendar said “workshop” vs. Special Meeting,” Perry said in an email this week. “However, it did announce the meeting for that night, just erroneously as a workshop vs. a special meeting.”

According to Perry, meeting agendas, which are elsewhere on the website, are apparently the only “official” postings and the calendar items on the front page are not.

Clicking on the calendar item does not lead to an agenda.

“Individuals who want to know what is on the agenda should then go to the website, click on “About Us” then Click on “School Committee” and see “Agendas and Minutes” on the right side of the page.  Then, you look down below the regular agendas and minutes to Special and Workshop meeting agendas and minutes and you see August 16 posted there. The ‘official’ posting of our agendas and minutes is on this page, not the calendar,” Perry wrote.

In surrounding school districts, the process to access agendas is simpler. The Westbrook School Committee page, for example, shows a meeting notice with a link directly under it for the agenda. School committee sites in SAD 6 and for Windham-Raymond’s RSU 14 have similar setups.

The Gorham Aug. 16 agenda did not appear to be posted on the bulletin board in the lobby of the municipal center where other town boards post material.

In an exchange of emails with the American Journal on Monday, Perry said, “The Special Meeting agenda was posted on our website, and sent to the Town Clerk to post. It was also posted at each of our schools.”

Then, Perry quickly recanted her statement. “Clarification…sorry-we do not send to town clerk to post. We post it on our website only.”

The Aug. 16 meeting was conducted in the conference room adjacent to the superintendent’s office on the second floor of the municipal center. School Committee Chairman Darryl Wright called the proceeding to order identifying it as a special meeting.

It was evident that the six members of the School Committee were present but no roll call was taken. Action included unanimously appointing Christina Cifelli as assistant principal at the high school.

The board also voted to approve asking the Town Council for $150,000 to be used for seed money to cover architectural design fees for a “Gorham High School capital renovation project.”

Seeking the funds, Perry wrote a letter dated Aug. 21 to Town Manager David Cole. The letter also said the School Committee could at a later time ask for additional funds for seed money “up to the $249,000 total amount allowed by the charter without voter referendum approval.”

School officials, according to Perry’s letter,  hope to ask voters in a 2018 fall referendum to approve a high school building project. But, placing a referendum on a town ballot requires a Town Council okay.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 854-2577 or rlowell@keepmecurrent.com