Hello Friends!
I know I said I would send out some updates over the summer, but honestly given the progression of things, I think it’s far better that I waited until now. Even as I write this update, things are changing yet again, so I will stick to some of the more solid pieces of information for you.
First, if you have not already heard, Gary Timms is moving back to a building level position and Skip Offenhauser is taking over his role as Elementary Director. Also, Paul Dean is taking on a new district leadership position specific to the reopening of schools.
A few weeks ago, Skp and Paul met with all elementary principals and gave directives to make the All-In strategy work with our K-5 buildings. As you can imagine the sizes of our Highland rooms are challenging, so I was told to get creative and boy, did I get creative! I shared some this thinking with our ICCL team (Alicia, Marina, & Lorin) yesterday so they are aware of some of the things in the works. I explored utilizing different spaces of our buildings, reassigning classrooms, relocating different grade levels to other sites and I continue to advocate for staffing to support our needs. I am able to make several different scenarios (on paper) work while still observing the required space and cohorting requirements, but I will admit none of the scenarios are easy. Before any of you start to get anxious about any of this, just wait. As of this evening, I was told that I should hold off on further planning until after we get more information next week. Since things are about to change again, I will wait until I get this new guidance before I go any further with details for reopening next year.
Here are the things I can comfortably share;
Family Survey:
I do plan to survey our families to get some more hard numbers for who plans to return and who plans to participate in Bend-La Pine Online (BLPO) School . This will help with planning significantly.
Magnet School Policy and Waitlist Questions:
We did revise our Magnet School Policies to deal with these COVID-specific situations. Basically, the wait-list will be frozen and spaces will be protected should families choose the BLPO option (not other homeschool options).
BLPO:
BLPO is not Distance Learning and it is our district’s home school option. It’s actually been around for a while but it has not been highly publicized prior to this year. Please take a few minutes to scan this site to be informed. For more information go here; BLPO
Face Masks/Shields:
Some questions came up in the spring and early summer about face-masks and shields; our district is looking into providing face-masks and I believe they are looking into reusable/washable ones so you can have enough to rely on for a work week. We also apparently came into a decent supply of face shields, so these can also be an option if you prefer these (not just SLPs).
Teacher Math Books:
With the cohorting efforts, blend teachers will need the teacher’s editions for both grades. I believe we have most all of these needed books on campus, but we may need to order a couple more. We’ll work on this in the next couple of weeks. There’s much more to talk about regarding this topic, but just know that we should have the teacher’s editions covered.
Staffing Changes:
Last but not least, congratulations are in order for a couple of our teammates! As you saw from Lorin’s message she will be taking on the Assistant Principal position at Three Rivers which is awesome news, for Three Rivers and our district as a whole. We also want to congratulate Linda Gross as she reached a very difficult decision to retire this year. Please join me in congratulating and wish all the best for both Lorin and Linda as they take these next steps in their lives. With these two moving on, that leaves some big shoes to fill after they leave.
As for the hiring process; we will get positions posted soon and we will add these positions to our hiring for the fall. More details to come later.
Highland Staff Survey: This is a non-binding survey fo my eyes only. I am operating on the assumption that you all want to be back (even with some of the obvious concerns) however I would like to hear from you more directly. Please take a few moments to complete this survey.
I know this is not much in terms of an update for our fall reopening, but I hope it’s a start. I will be taking some vacation time Monday for a week to Lake McCall so I will not be easy to reach but you have my phone number if you want to try and reach me. You are also welcome to call our ICCLs, to bounce questions or ideas off them as well.
Also, I do apologize for sending this update so late on a Friday; that was not my original plan to send this so late in the night. Unfortunately, Ella took a prybar to the nose while helping me with a deck-reconstruction project this afternoon so our evening took a detour with a quick visit to urgent-care and she is the proud new recipient of 5 stitches across her nose. After a couple different ice cream flavors and her hall pass from deck work for the next 24 hours she is doing just fine now.
I hope you are all enjoying your summer and doing your best not to worry about the fall. I miss you and I look forward to working through this weird year of challenges whatever they may be. See you soon.
Brian