Hello,
It was so great to see all of you on Tuesday at the 1st Annual District School Counseling Professional Learning day. I love the enthusiasm within our team and I know our students are so thankful for all of the care and support they receive from each of you. Given the recent incident of this last week in our community, it is more important than ever to prioritize student relationships, connection and belonging within our school communities. My hope for this year is that we continue to learn more about one another and to be together in a way which will make our community stronger, closer and safer. Let’s have a great school year together and prioritize connection and belonging, especially for those students that needs those extra skills or support the most. In Community, Jennifer
Bend-La Pine Schools partnered with Care Solace to support the well-being of students, staff, and their family members. We created a Care Solace folder in our BLS Counseling Drive. There you will find flyers, letters and the presentation/training from August 30th. If you need support with your dashboard or logging in please reach out to Tyler Chamness at: [email protected]. If you would like to add this to your email signature line, here is some sample text:
Bend-La Pine Schools partnered with Care Solace to support the well-being of students, staff, and their family members. Care Solace is a complimentary and confidential care coordination service that can help you quickly find mental health or substance use treatment options matched to your needs regardless of circumstance.
If you would like to use Care Solace to help you find a provider:
- Call 888-515-0595 available 24/7/365 in any language.
- Visit www.caresolace.com/bls and either search on your own OR click “Book Appointment” for assistance by video chat, email, or phone.
Jess Calbreath, Counselor on Special Assignment
Jess Calbreath is excited to be in a new role this year as Counselor on Special Assignment. Here are a few things that she will be focused on this year:
District Counseling Program Goals
On August 30th we outlined the goals for our comprehensive counseling program, a first step toward aligning our K-12 programs. This year every site will be expected to:
- Complete and Update their ASCA Annual Calendar
- Develop a Data-based Department Goal (use as SLGG)
- Develop/refine Life and Career Readiness Programming
- Identify Tiered Interventions and Programming in all Domains
Please refer to the Program Goals and Accountability Measures tab at the top of the blog for more information on the goals, accountability measures, and resources.
PLC and Educator Network Schedules
Our PLC meetings and Educator Network time will support the work towards our vision and goals. Here is a detailed list of our PLC and Educator Network time. This has also been communicated with your building administrators. We will send calendar invites as well!
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Newsletter
Meet our LEAD (Leading for Equity and Anti-Racist Dialogue) Instructional Coaches and familiarize yourself with gender affirming practices in the August DEI Newsletter.
BLPS Eliminates Student Ranking
o Bend – La Pine will no longer be ranking students on their transcript and the function has been turned off in Synergy.
o Schools can still pull GPA ranking for their own use, but it should not be shared with students. *Val and Sal determination is being evaluated, but no change for this year
o This practice will be communicated to colleges via the school profile and the school report that counselors fill out for colleges.
o Schools can give colleges decile rankings, but only if they reach out to you directly
o When asked by colleges or scholarship organizations, all students and counselors will press the “our school does not rank” option.
o At your application workshops, classroom lessons, individual student planning, please show students how to input the “do not rank” on their college application.
School Profile Language Example: We are aligned with the current proactive of Bend – La Pine Schools to eliminate the ranking of students. Weighted GPA will still be calculated in accordance to our school’s grading policy.
Tri-County School Response Team – Volunteer Training
The Tri-County School Response Team is holding volunteer training on Friday, September 23rd at the Redmond High Desert Education Service District Building (2804 SW 6th Street, Redmond, OR). This is required training for both new and returning volunteers. All Volunteer Training will take place from 8:00am-noon, and Team Lead Training (optional) will take place from 1:00pm-3:00pm. Registration is required – click here for more information and to register. See the volunteer agreement for volunteer requirements (no need to sign and return).
Suicide Prevention Week Resources
National Suicide Prevention Week begins September 1st. Thank you to Christine Ewing for sending along these resources from Deschutes County Suicide Prevention Coalition .
Program Goals and Support for School Counseling Programming
Please see the tab on the top of the blog to refer to our ongoing support/resource page for counselors as we build our BLS School Counselor Toolkit. Reach out to Jess for any suggestions for additions to the page!