Welcome back! Fall will soon be in the air! Along with football, pumpkins, frosty grass, and colored leaves, nearly 400 students will be returning to Buckingham on September 7. This first version of Bronco Notes for the 2022-2023 school year contains important information for next week and the start of the school year. As always, reach out if you have any questions. See you next week!
Inservice week schedule-
Monday, 8/29- New Teacher inservice day. All others optional one day work day.
Tuesday, 8/30- Foundational skills training for those who didn’t take it over the summer. All others optional work day.
Wednesday, 8/31- All Buckingham staff Inservice- 8:00-4:00 in the library. Lunch to be provided.
Thursday, 9/1- 10:00- All Buckingham staff inservice- library. We hope this will be a very short meeting day. The goal will be to get you out by lunch.
Thursday, 9/1- Open House- 4:30-6:00
Friday, 9/2 and Tuesday, 9/6- Work days (choose one or Monday, 8/29).
Class Lists- Class lists are nearly finalized. As always, new students and other unforeseen circumstances can and will necessitate last minute changes. We will do our best to consult before making switches (not additions). Feel free to take a look at class lists and let us know of any concerns. We won’t necessarily be able to address them, but they will be posted on Thursday afternoon for open house, and any changes after that become exponentially more difficult.
Open House- 400-530 next Thursday. As mentioned, class lists will be posted in the front hall. This is a time for families to come in, check out the classroom, meet the teacher and see who’s in their class. You are not required to present anything formal. Just meet and greet. Like last year, schools will be providing supplies and students are not required to bring anything. That being said, back to school shopping including supply shopping is a fun, exciting event for many and students can drop them off that night if they bring them. You are not required to show up until 10:00 am on Thursday.
In addition, we will not have an ‘open house’ or ‘curriculum night’ etc. in addition to 9/1 after school starts. We will have our open house/meet and greet Thursday, 9/1 and conferences are in the middle of October so there will be no additional formal time.
Schedules- The latest versions of our specials, master, duty, meetings and safety drill schedules will be ready by Wednesday…..hopefully sooner. Grade level teams need to complete the master schedule on their tab. Specials and recesses are already included. Please complete the rest using Bend La Pine’s standards of practice as a guide (60-90 min. reading block depending on grade, 45 minute writing block, 60 minute math block and number corner). Grades k-2 will also need to develop a duty rotation for pm recess. We will need one person from the grade on their respective recesses during the afternoon recess.
School Hours- School will start at 7:45 this year. Since we are starting five minutes later, it is logical that buses will arrive 5 minutes EARLIER (yep. You read that right). Students arriving before school will have the option of going to the cafe’ for breakfast (see below for more breakfast detail) or playing on the playground. We will ring our first bell at 7:35. Please be at your line at 7:35 to pick up your students and bring them to your classroom. If it is too wet or cold, students will go directly to class (or breakfast). Teacher hours are 7:15-3:15. Please connect with Jon or Gary if you need to flex this from time to time.
PE Minutes- We will discuss this a bit more during our meetings next week, but the 2007 law regarding 150 minutes/ week of PE for elementary students is finally going to be enforced by ODE. The penalty for noncompliance from a district will be the withholding of funds. You will notice a 15 minute “PE” block from 7:45-8:00, four days per week, in the master schedule. We will explain at our meeting what this means for classroom teachers.
Title Update- Laci’s departure has left us with giant hole to fill in our Title space. Even a full time person would have a tough time filling her shoes and we were only given a .8 to replace her. We have posted that .8 position and are hoping to have it filled before school starts so that we can get groups up and running as soon as possible using spring Dibels scores. After our fall Dibels, the new person will adjust groups as necessary. Grade levels do not have a Title time in the master schedule at this point because we want to wait and let that person schedule with teams. Know that our new person will do her/his best to provide grades with a time that works well, but you may not get your first choice as we will have to work around recesses, lunches, specials and the like.
Safety Trainings- You have probably seen an email for your vector safety training (abuse reporting, bloodborne pathogens, etc.). Please note that these are due by September 30 this year rather than the end of calendar year as in years past.
Meal Info- We will be eating in the cafe’ this year for both breakfast and lunch. NO meals will be in classrooms. Students wanting breakfast will need to go directly to the cafe’ when they arrive. The bell will ring at 7:35 for teachers to pick up their kids on the playground. Students eating breakfast will be dismissed to classrooms between 7:35 and 7:40.
We will NOT be having free meals for all this year, which means families will need to apply for free and reduced lunch. This is important to us as our % F or R will determine our eligibility for, and how much funding we get from Title I. We will have F and R forms available at our open house next week and conferences in October. We have and will continue to put a link to the form in our school newsletters.
From Skip- Elementary iPad home use and insurance – In response to screen time concerns, home management issues, and Lexia and Dreambox overuse, we are asking that k-5 teachers not send iPads home on a regular basis. This doesn’t mean they can never go home. There will be times when projects need to be worked or students need an iPad due to an extended absence. When they are sent home we ask that teachers notify parents well ahead of time, describe the purpose for them coming home, and remind everyone of proper iPad use. There might be some parents who want the iPad sent home regularly. These requests should be granted. Parents should coordinate with their classroom teachers on how this happens.
Because we will not be regularly sending iPads home we will not be offering insurance to our elementary families. We predict that this new approach will vastly decrease damage rates. In the event an iPad is damaged, the district will be covering the cost. We will be monitoring this new approach and evaluating its effectiveness and success at the end of the year. Feel free to communicate this news to your families in your back to school newsletter.
District Equity Stance- Here is the link to our district Equity Stance. This will be shared with district parents on Friday, September 2.
Sub Info- There have been some changes to the process of securing a sub. It is a lot of info, so rather than send it now, we will forward the email with directions to you sometime towards the end of next week.
Upcoming Events
See above for inservice week schedule
September 1- Open House- 4:00-5:30
September 7- First day of school- 2:15 dismissal. We will run a Tuesday specials schedule.
September 14- SIW- 12:45 dismissal
September 14- Fire Drill- 9:40 AM
September 21- SIW- 12:45 dismissal
September 28- SIW- 12:45 dismissal
September 29- Lockdown Drill- 12:55
October 3-5- Fifth Graders to Outdoor School