Questions about Pods;
We cannot get involved in parent-led Pod situations. This creates some obvious liability not only for the district but for any of us individually if we get involved. I do not anticipate making class placement changes as a result of the pods. This does not need to be as urgent as it keeps getting presented; for most it’s a convenience issue not a safety issue. Do your best to keep a clear boundary between these issues.
Family Survey:
I still plan to send a survey to parents, but I won’t do this for another week or so. I am trying to get synced up with all the different levels of communication but it’s really challenging right now.
I am also holding off on a communication to families because there are still some items that are still not in alignment in terms of the board, district leadership and building leadership. These are tricky times and I want to be sure our communication is aligned with the rest of the district.
Clarifying Terms:
These different terms keep getting thrown around and I just want to provide a quick calibration for communication purposes.
- Bend La Pine Online School (BLPO) – our district’s home school option – not Highland teachers.
- Comprehensive Distance Learning (CDL) (what we will be doing this fall) \ With Highland teachers.
- Short Term Distance Learning (what we did in the Spring 2020), shorter than 4 weeks.
- Hybrid – This is what we hope to move into in the near future as COVID stats support the move. This will involve bringing back students part time in the building and part time at home learning.
CDL Fall 2020:
You probably already know these items, but I’ll share just in case;
- EAs can provide webex instruction under direction of certified teacher.
- Attendance is required will be taken daily (more details on what this looks like later).
- Teacher Facilitated Learning – live webex, recorded, written instructions for lessons, etc.
- Applied Learning – the activities students do as result of or in follow up to Teacher Facilitated Learning.
- Grading and feedback are required and part of this model.
- K-1 will continue to use SeeSaw
- 2-5 will continue use Google Classroom
- Dreambox and Lexia will still be in play
- District has some teams working on grade span expectations and best practices to be shared with us soon, but I anticipate we already have a pretty good handle on these.
- The later start date should give us some breathing room, but I will still advise you to start slow and build momentum. Do not feel like you have to have everything mastered prior the start date.
- Working as team and sharing videos and resources is a district-wide expectation. We have a ton of expertise already developed on our team, so let’s make a goal to work at sharing our lessons.
Staff Children:
You are permitted to bring your children to your room when you need to work from the building during CDL. Unfortunately they will need to be restricted to your classroom (and restroom) while on campus. As of right now, I do not have a solution for how to support you during Hybrid Model, but I want you to know I am thinking about solutions.
Students coming to the building:
- My first priority is Kindergarten – hoping to create a process to have students meet teachers and possibly get some form of assessments done.
- Next priority will be 2nd graders – need to get them to the building to learn the basics of the iPad for checkout.
- 1st graders – hoping to create an opportunity for students and teacher to me
- Students with IEPs – I would love to see these kids get some needed in-person instruction if conditions permit.
Magnet School Policy and Waitlist Questions:
- Students enrolling in the BLPO option will be allowed to keep their space at highland, however they are committed for the year. They cannot go back and forth.
- Students enrolling in an outside home school option will not be able to keep their space at Highland.
- If they enroll in BLPO but fail to complete the work, then they can lose their spot.
- The new policy language will be re-evaluated in January.
Face Masks/Sheilds:
Our first shipment already arrived, so we should have enough of these for when the time comes. Shawna will work on distributing these and maintaining our supply when the time comes.
Working in the building;
The building is still being cleaned so if you can keep out for a little while longer it will help them finish. Some of your rooms are ready, but there are still quite a few that are not. I’ll let you know when all are ready. When you do come to campus;
- Always maintain 6 feet between you and other staff.
- Always wear a mask in the presence of others and when using community spaces such as the staff room, work room, etc.
- Wash your hands often and especially before and after using any devices or equipment used by others (printer/copier, paper cutter, etc.). Use sanitizer if you cannot wash your hands.
- Staff room – unfortunately we will not be permitted to gather in any numbers in the staff room for lunch, food prep, etc.
Looking forward toward Hybrid Model:
For when we have students returning to the building, I need you to start thinking about the following;
- Be prepared to remove and store furniture that will not be used and/or interferes with desk arrangements (risers, shelves, etc.) Not everything will need to go, but there will be quite a few items we will need to store for awhile.
- Surfaces to clean – “less is more” – everything at face level and below can catch and hold droplets and will need to be cleaned often each day. Reduce materials that are posted, taped and get your rooms to as much of an easy-to-clean state as possible.
- Assigned restrooms – we have 3 sets of student restrooms so we will be assigning classrooms to specific restrooms. More on this when the time comes.
- As of right now, PE, Music, Intervention, Lunch will all be occurring in the classrooms. (I am hopeful this can change, but right now the directives are to maintain the stable cohorts by moving specialists to them rather than moving students around the building.)
- Classroom Cleaning – much of the daily cleaning will be falling on your shoulders. The district will provide some guidance on how and when but I just want you prepared for that reality (and I am sorry to add this burden).
- No visitors or volunteers on campus. Exceptions are police, DHS, fire, etc. This will be challenging but the requirements are very clear. If we want to continue to use volunteers we will need to provide a drop-box system for them to pick up materials and drop them off.
- Staggered starts – we will be looking at a staggered start for students to avoid any congestion and reduce mixing of cohorts.
- Screening – there will be a screening process for entering the building and there will be a separate process when screening somebody with symptoms (for example, if a child starts to feel sick later in the day). We will get more training and details on this at a later date.
- What about outbreaks or positive infections? Try not to worry about this, but know there will be several different avenues for us to follow when these happen. The worst case scenario is we completely shut down and again and revert to CDL, however the hope is we can reduce and isolate closures.
Staff Hiring
Please reach out to me if you are interested in and are available during the next couple weeks to be on the hiring committee for either the Secretary Position or the Primary Teaching Position. Unfortunately you will need to volunteer your time for this however I will cover your lunch as these will likely be full-days.
- I am currently screening the Secretary applicants and hope to set up interviews in the window of August 19th – 21st.
- The primary teaching position closes this Friday and I may ask for some help with screening as we will likely have a lot of applicants. Ideally, I would like to set up interviews during the window of August 24th – 26th.
- These dates can likely shift as I have a number of district commitments that continue to shift as well.