Week two down. Well done! Thanks for all of your work making students’ journey back to the building a successful one. This will be the first of my weekly notes. They may have a different appearance or format than you’re used to, but I will still link each week’s notes in the Bronco Bulletin for your continued reference. You will also receive an email each week with the link.
I thought I would start my notes this week with a few words about my how I’m going to approach things while I am sitting in for Kevin, whether it be 3 days or through the rest of this school year.
“…searching for the optimal relationship of low anxiety and high standards.” Roland Barth from Improving Schools from Within.
That quote and the one below have stuck with me since I read it in my first admin class a long, long time ago (in what seems like a galaxy far, far away). They are both cornerstones of the culture I try to create (try being key word as I will never bat 1000). I try to take my job seriously, but try even harder to not take myself seriously. We continually strive to do what we can to help all of our students, while at the same time realizing that we need to take care of ourselves and each other and make sure to laugh once in a while. No one (you or me) does their best work under duress.
“The success of a school, I believe, depends above all on the quality of interactions between teacher and teacher and teacher and administrator.” Roland Barth from Improving Schools from Within
Trust is key in building these positive relationships. I will operate from a position of trusting you until you give me reason not to. I presume that you know what you are doing and that your intentions are good. Making a mistake, doing things differently than me, disagreeing with me or a decision we make, forgetting recess duty, and cheering for the Beavers are examples of things that will NOT erode my trust in you (the beaver thing is still a challenge for me).
Gossiping, questioning motives or character (I will make mistakes, but I’m trying my best), and not respecting colleagues are examples of things that WILL erode my trust in you.
I like to operate using the golden rule. I’m going to do my best (with obvious failures from time to time) to treat you how I like to be treated. My hope is that you will reciprocate. If you have a question, concern, idea, come and tell me. I will always listen. I may not change anything. That doesn’t mean I didn’t listen. It just means I felt that I had a more compelling reason to do it differently. I’ll try to do the same for you.
I’m not a fan of, “Well, I’ve been talking to people and lots of them are very _______” (fill in blank- concerned, upset, frustrated…). Encourage the people you’ve been talking to to talk to me. It’s similar to when a parent shares a concern with me about a teacher, I will direct them to the teacher to solve.
I ask for your support, grace, and a willingness to work together. I trust you to do your job. I will try not to micromanage. I ask the same of you with me. All of us have difficult jobs when things are going well. If we are battling each other, our jobs become nearly impossible. I hope you sense a theme that I am far from perfect (as if I have to say that), but will try my best. Let’s have some fun and do everything we can to help our kids have an amazing school experience.
Decision Making- I try to follow a three C’s rule (I made that up) for decision making. Command, Consultative, Collaborative. Examples-
Command- The building is on fire. I will pull the fire alarm (yikes! we need to have a fire drill). Sorry, not consulting with anyone. Hope you do the same. These are pretty easy to decide and pretty rare. I try to avoid command decisions, but must make them from time to time. I might even make one when it would have been better to consult or collaborate. Sorry.
Consultative- These decisions are ones I make by consulting with as many people as possible who would be impacted before deciding. I might do this with an indoor recess or if we are going to move k/1 arrival to the back. These are often logistical in nature. They can be changed rather easily if we want.
Collaborative- These are decisions that have long range implications and we need to get a strong consensus before moving forward with something (or not).
I try to make most decisions by consulting or collaborating. No one (especially me) wants me making all of our decisions. I’ve been around long enough to know that I make better decisions when I include others. There are not black and white lines between each of these. It is more gray. There will be times I make a command decision and you think I should have consulted. There will be times we collaborate and you will think, “why doesn’t he just decide and tell us?” Most decisions will be made in a way that at least someone thinks we should have used a different process (usually those are people who disagree with the decision). Again, I’ll do my best. My default is to have as many involved as possible and necessary. As always… have a question? Ask me. Door’s open.
Communication- My first choice is always in person. If I can, I’ll talk with you face to face. That might be one on one, small group or as a whole staff if we ever get back to that point. I might even ask one of your colleagues to pass something on because I couldn’t find you. Email is next. Finally, these notes will be the regular form of sharing information. I will send these out on Friday as early as I can. Sometimes that means early in the day. Other times it means late that evening. I do expect people to read them, but don’t expect you to spend your weekend doing so (although this week’s is so long it might take you the whole weekend). I’ll try to give as much notice as possible about things by using the notes. I try not to fill your inbox, but if something CANNOT wait, I’ll shoot out an extra email or drop in to see you.
Please see these notes each week for upcoming events. I’ll do my best to keep these as current as possible. I’ve asked Becky to transfer to our staff master calendar. I won’t do that. I write things here and in my calendar… two places is the limit to my capacity.
One of the key roles of a principal is to be a filter of information for staff. Too much can be stressful and unnecessary. Too little and all kinds of other problems occur. I try not to give so much that it overwhelms, but make sure you are all getting everything you need in a timely manner to do your job. I try my best to do this knowing that some people want to know everything yesterday and others don’t want to know about anything until tomorrow. I will share things as needed, when I’m allowed, and when I think it is most appropriate. It’s more of an art than science. I’m no Picasso, but I’ve sold some paintings at the local craft fair. 😉
I will continue the family newsletter. Mine probably won’t look as cool as Kevin’s, but will hopefully keep the info flowing (or I will at least be able to say, “It was in the newsletter.”)
Whew. Sorry for the long-winded notes. I could probably go on, but realize most people probably already quit reading. Another day. I promise they won’t all be this long. I just really wanted to let you know how I am going to try to do things. Thank you for taking the time to read.
Now for the stuff you wish you would have skipped right to:
Priorities- Apologies for not being in classes more this week. Right now my priority is making sure all duties are covered and finding replacement teachers to fill our CDL vacancies. I’m putting as much as I can on the back burner until we have teachers for classes. Once we get those filled, we can get into more of a routine.
Hiring- I would like to announce the hiring of Desiree Alotaibi as our new 5 hour EA. She is a Buckingham parent and has spent countless hours volunteering for our school. She will be starting Monday- I hope.
Teri Carlson will be taking over for Laci as our new Title I reading teacher. Teri has run Title I programs in a high povery, high ELL, Oregon school with 400 students. We’re excited to have her join our team.
In addition, Renee Vardaman will be Heather Frank’s long term sub in lifeskills as Heather takes over the reigns as our Student Support EA beginning Monday.
We will be hiring asap to replace Todd Jacobson, Alyssa Kornbrath and Ryan Douglass, who will all be joining Kevin as part of Bend La Pine’s elementary CDL program. In addition, Kim Johnson will also be transferring to the CDL program.
We will have a team from kinder, fourth and fifth ready to interview and hire for Todd, Alyssa, and Kim. We have a team from ICCL who will interview for Ryan’s position early next week. We hope (desperately hope) to have people in place to start next week. Will let you know as we know more.
Schedules- Please input your grade’s schedule (reading, writing, math) on the google doc master schedule. It is essential for sped to be able to reference so they can ensure SDI is completed. Thanks to the grades who have already completed this!
PLC’s- This is your friendly reminder/ nudge to continue your work with PLC’s at your grade level. Our ask is that each grade meet two times/ month (Wednesdays is the set aside time) to focus on the questions: 1) What do we want students to learn? (standards). 2) How will we know they learned it? (assessment). 3) What will we do if they don’t learn it? (intervention). 4) What will we do for the students who already know it? (Enrichment). Please let me know the two dates for your February PLC’s. This information is helpful for Title and Sped so they know when to join you and for me so that I can also pop in from time to time.
Recess Bathrooms- Please direct students to use their regular cohort bathroom at recess. We know it’s a long walk in some cases, but we want to make it consistent. AND we will be understanding and allow ANY bathroom in case of emergency.
Gators, Buffs, and Bananas…er Bandanas- You will or have already got new information about mask guidelines that included no gators, buffs (what is a buff) and bandanas. We will send this info out in our school newsletter. You don’t need to be the one to communicate this (you can if you want). We will work with students and help them. We will provide a mask and if they want to gator over it, that’s fine. Let us know if you need masks.
Hall Arrows- we can’t use the sticky on the carpet, so we’ve ordered some smaller velcro circles that we will draw arrows on and place in the hall. Coming soon. Thanks for the idea, Challey!
Monthly PBIS Drawings- I will start the monthly PBIS drawings from the case in the library next week. We’ll draw for an ice cream that they can take to recess (cause everyone wants to eat ice cream in the snow). Keep the weekly ones for books going in your classes.
Valentine’s Day- Some staff have asked about Valentine’s parties and the dos and don’ts related to COVID. After speaking with Paul Dean, below is some guidance.
- Valentine cards will need to follow the same safe handling rules as all materials. We plan to have students bring their Valentines to school and distribute them in individual boxes by Tuesday, 2/9. The boxes will then sit until Friday, February 12th, when students will open them at Valentine parties.
- Any candies brought need to be sealed airtight – i.e., foil-wrapped Hershey Kisses are not airtight.
- If students bring their Valentine cards with less than 72 hours to sit, their cards can be laid out on a table and misted with the electrostatic machines.
Please give me input on Valentine’s Day class parties. I’m new here, you know. I don’t want to cancel the best day of the year, or schedule a bunch of parties on the holiday Buckingham eliminated 25 years ago. Consultative decision. 😉
Weekly Words of Wisdom from our Customers:
First grade girl: “I can’t wait until you start acting like the real princpal. You’ll do a great job.” Lesson- I better up my game. I hope I know how to act.
Kinder boy: “I think I like school more than work!” Lesson-Aren’t we lucky to get to do school instead of work!
Upcoming Events
February 3- SIW- Teacher Directed- Report Card Prep
February 4- Staff Meeting- 2:30 Webex- Gary’s room
February 5- Work day for report cards- No School
February 14- Valentine’s Day
February 15- Presidents’ Day- No School
June 17- Last day of school 😉
