Greetings Highland Staff!
I hope this letter finds you rested and relaxed with a plethora of stories about fun activities with family and friends. This letter is coming to you a bit later than I would prefer, however as you will see below there is a lot to share.
On a personal note, the Kissell family hit the road again this summer for two trips; one quick trip to Camano Island (just north of Seattle) and a camping trip to Glacier National Park. Both trips did not disappoint and provided our family with some great photos and memories.
Tentative Schedule for Inservice Week
Monday 8/28
- New Teacher Welcome and Orientation Day
- Potential flex day for all other teachers
Tuesday 8/29
We will be meeting for the morning at the Environmental Center at 16 NW Kansas Avenue.
- 8:30 Breakfast is served!
- 9:00-10:00 School Design Work
- 10:00-12:00 Mind & Motion
- 12:00-1:00 Lunch on your own
- 1:00-3:00 Classroom Time
- 3:00-5:00 District BBQ @ Les Schwab Amphitheater (optional but encouraged!)
Wednesday 8/30
- Design Team Meetings
- 8:00-9:00 Academic Excellence Team – Library
- 9:30-10:30 Thriving Citizen Team – Library
- 11:00-12:00 Future Ready Team – Library
- 1:00-2:00 Student Success Speed Dating
- 4:00 Class lists are posted
Thursday 8/31
- 8:00-3:00 Classroom Time
- 3:00-5:00 Ice Cream Social
- 5:30-?? Staff Welcome Back Potluck Party at the Therrian’s House – 63266 Morningstar Ct.
Friday 9/1
- FLEX day (Day 188 or 189 – see explanation here).
Speech
Pat Stout will be out for the beginning of the school year to get a knee replacement. Please join me in wishing her a speedy and easy recovery after her surgery. Asha Dicharry (parent of Eva 4th grader and Cole, incoming Kinder) will be taking on her caseload until Pat is cleared to rejoin the team. She is extremely excited to be working with us. Please be sure to give Asha a warm welcome when you see her.
Music
It is an incredible pleasure to introduce Robert Pettis as our new music teacher this year. Rob comes to us with over twenty years of experience teaching music in schools in Washington, Virginia and New York. He has experience from kindergarten through high school with most of his time spent with elementary students. He is passionate about music learning and has a knack for integrating technology into instruction. Please join me in welcoming him to the team.
Student Services
We are excited to share a change in Lorin’s role at Highland for the upcoming school year. Lorin will be giving up her position as the Special Education teacher this year and focusing solely as a .75 Student Services Coordinator (30 hours per week). She is thrilled at the opportunity to put her energy into one position at Highland and to have more time for her family. She and I carefully developed a plan to ensure our classroom support and recess supervision are well covered. This plan will be reflected in the master schedule google doc shared with all the staff. Lorin’s Special Education responsibilities will be handed over to a new hire for the part-time position. I look forward to introducing this new team member in the near future.
Temporary Gym
On Friday, August 11th, we received our permits to construct this building. As you may have already noticed as of Monday, August 14th crews started to unpack the storage boxes and assemble the frame. It will still take some time to get the building constructed, inspected and ready to use, but it will definitely be ready by the time the weather starts to turn. I want to take a moment to acknowledge and thank our leadership team at the district office for their persistence with this project. With so many things going on in our big district with renovations, repairs and future construction, I am very appreciative they managed to stick with the challenges this building presented with our city’s process.
New Gym Rebuild
A lot of progress occurred in the planning process over the summer. We are still set to break ground in October which keeps us on target for an opening in the Fall of 2018. I feel like I need to provide some warning just in case this was not already obvious to you, but once the construction process starts we will lose our parking lot for the remainder of the school year. I wish there was a way to keep our parking while construction occurs, but it’s just not possible. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I just want you to be prepared ahead of time.
School Design
In the spring, I presented some changes to our committees and meeting schedules to better fit the district School Design Process. Ultimately I am trying to ensure we have a structure in place to continue the School Design work without creating extra meetings and committees. I took some time to put these changes in a document. This document is still a work in progress, but if you would like to read more on this topic please click here.
Our school design work will continue to evolve this year in all three areas. We did great work this last year with writing, promoting kindness & growth mindset and collaborative skills and I am looking forward to improving the overall process and our individual goals.
Digital Conversion
I would like to step up the game in this area. Over the past two years I witnessed some incredibly creative and effective uses of technology for learning on this campus and I would like to make a more overt effort to celebrate and share these activities with the rest of our community. I do not want to add more to our plates, however whenever we can use technology to increase engagement, enhance learning or increase efficiency for your planning I would like to make that happen.
Please take a moment to examine the page linked and some important messages from Skip below regarding the iPad roll out;
https://sites.google.com/gapps.bend.k12.or.us/ipadroll-in/fall-roll-out?authuser=0
Things to take note of…
- We are not printing the AUP booklet. The booklet is available online and a link to the booklet is available on the iPads.
- The insurance info document is not a form. It is an info sheet only. We realized last year that a form was not necessary. Insurance can be purchased online ($30) or in person. Online purchasing will end shortly after school begins. After school starts insurance can only be purchased in person so students can’t buy insurance after they damaged an iPad.
- The AUP form should be completed by every student receiving an iPad this year. Save these forms. Put them in an envelope or box and store them in a safe place. Next year AUP forms will only be collected from 3rd, 6th, and 9th grade students and those students new to your building.
- Students do not need an Apple ID to get started with their iPad. After the school year starts we will assist teachers and schools with setting up Apple IDs for those students who may need one (ie – those enrolled in an iTunes U course).
Calendar
I want to encourage everyone to continue to check and update the google calendar for meetings and events. We can continue to email office staff (Shawna, Deb & me) to add/change events on the calendar, however if you would like to have a grade-level representative added to the list of editors, we can share that responsibility more widely if it improves communication. We can also print out the months with culminations and post them in the teacher’s lunch room to help keep things visible in multiple places. Please use the link below to take quick look at the calendar to see upcoming events.
Master Schedule/Specialist Rotation and so much more!
The following link will take you to a google spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is designed to be a one-stop shop for quite a bit of information;
- Master Schedule
- Specialist Rotations
- EA Support/Recess/Lunch Coverage
- SIW Dates
- A and B day rotation calendar – Kinder and 1st through 5th
- And more!
This is also a work in progress as there are some sheets that will be updated in the coming weeks. I tried my best to ensure accuracy across all these different sheets, however there is always a chance I made some mistakes. If you notice something please bring it to my attention so we can correct it on the master for everyone.
Math Materials
The new math journals arrived and will be delivered to your rooms. The numbers should match your class numbers, however if you find that we are short please let me know. There should be a few extras for several of the grade levels in room 14.
Visitor/Volunteer System Roll-Out
In August it was determined that all elementary schools would be rolling out the new system designed to monitor visitors and volunteers coming to the schools this fall. We expect all elementary schools to be up and running by the end of October. A letter will go out to families to prepare them for the change, but I also wanted to give you the heads up. It will take some time for us to adjust our routine in the office to train our parents, but the main difference you will observe from the halls or classrooms is the presence of a sticker with a photo for our visitors or volunteers rather than the colored paper badges.
Taking It Up
It would be a great disservice for me to not, at the very least, share this next topic with you; these past two days involved some of the most intense and meaningful experiences I’ve ever encountered in educational training. Over sixty of us, from our schools here in Bend, participated in collaborative work designed to examine, understand, and combat racism wherever it occurs. I think if you ask anyone who attended, they would agree that it was a lot to process and I could not even begin to adequately share the experience with all of you yet, but current events seem to be increasing the urgency to address racism in schools and everywhere. I look forward to continuing my own growth in this area and eventually involving our entire team in this effort.
Communication and Weekly Updates
As you can easily see, the format and method of delivery for my welcome letter changed to this blog you are now reading. I plan to use this blog for the weekly updates moving forward. Using the blog site will make it easy to archive and revisit updates whenever necessary. Each week an email reminder with a link will arrive to alert you to the most current update. Once you open the link you can delete the reminder from your inbox.
This will be a year of rebuilding and new growth for our community. While there may be some challenges in our journey, I am confident that through teamwork and continued dedication to serving our students and families, there is nothing we cannot surmount. I look forward to a productive and school year.
Sincerely,
Brian