Monday, December 13th

Hello Everyone! I hope you had a wonderful weekend and were able to enjoy some snow play. Or, for those who don’t like snow…that you were able to stay warm and cozy inside. It looks like some snow is supposed to continue through the week and into our break…I would sure love to have a white Christmas!

Meetings This Week:

• 7:45 Wednesday morning-OSSM Meeting in Amy’s webex room
• 10:00 Wednesday morning-All NSE Staff Meeting (pushed back from 9:30). Kevin and I will bring coffee and condiments, so come with caffination -ability remaining.

And for after our meeting…pre-Winter Break Lunch! Bring your own bowl (or plate) and utensils for our Potato Bar. Our list of toppings (and other things…) is looking pretty good. If someone who hasn’t yet signed up wants to bring some school-appropriate drinks, please put them on the list! Otherwise, we’ll have fresh and tasty water, which never suffers.

Snow Day Procedures: We’ve had some questions from staff and families about our snow day practices for Bend-La Pine Online. We will follow the same schedule and delays as the rest of the Bend-La Pine Schools. So for a 2 hour delay, our enhanced schedule will just start with things 2 hours later than usual. And for a cancelation of school, no online synchronous sessions. Students and families can continue to work independently, but they should expect that staff are not working. In newsletters or other communications, make sure to communicate your expectations and snow delay schedule to families. You can list my email as a resource for BLSO family snow day questions. Also remind families to sign up for  BL Connect asap and also direct them to our new Inclement Weather webpage for more information: https://www.bend.k12.or.us/bus/inclement-weather

Goals: For our OSSM team and Secondary Team, please finish your goal sheet in our google drive before the end of the week. Let me know if you have any questions.

YouthTruth Survey: This year BLSO will be a “site” for this survey. That means we will be surveying our staff, full-time students (6-8) and full-time families (k-12) and they will select Bend-La Pine Online as their school. This survey asks questions about an overall school experience, including academics, and will include some questions specific to our virtual learning environment. These data will help us plan for the future and be valuable in our site planning process. The survey window is from January 3rd-January 28th. More information will come after the break as we decide the best way to get information to our students and families so they can participate.

I hope you all have a wonderful winter break! Please remember to set an email auto reply for the vacation and also set an out of office message on your phone, if appropriate. You are welcome to tell families to contact me (via email) if they have questions over the break as I plan on working a bit of it. Take time off and enjoy yourself. And I”ll be posting another photo wall in this blog after the break, so expect everyone to be able to share a snow selfie, snow angel photo, or other winter break picture. Be safe and have fun!