Bronco Notes

First Aid- Please let Becky know if you are first aid certified (we don’t need any more cpr certified) as we are still three short in our building. If you have already told Becky, then you don’t need to tell her again. If you are interested in taking a class, you can sign up through performance matters in the portal.

Report Cards- Thanks to Marci for sharing report card info with us on Wednesday. The information she shared can be found in the Presentation Slides from Wednesday.

Subs- If you have some busy work or a project that needs completing and are having a sub, please leave the project for the substitute to complete, especially on Wednesdays. Subs are paid for 1/2 day or full day so they need to stay until the end of the day and often ask Becky or Margaret for something to do. In addition, we are going to leave a basket in the work room for you to put things in for subs to work on. If you need some cutting or folding or the like completed, and it doesn’t need to be done right away, you can leave it in the basket and we will direct subs to it when they have everything completed in the room they are subbing in. Thank you!

Thanks!– Thanks to everyone who helped plan or did some background work for all of the events of the last two weeks of school before break. All of our activities make for a fun and festive time. Check the Holiday celebration calendar for next week’s festivities.

The staff party at K1 was fantastic, but I do need to admit to a mistake. I erroneously called out Bridget and Karen as aggressive, competitive drivers whom you would not want to be on the track with. After Wednesday night, it is obvious and apparent to EVERYONE in attendance that I should have warned you all about REBECCA MORALES!!! Stay out of her way. It’s much safer for you that way. 😳

Emotional Support- From Jennifer Hauth – Happy Holidays! The holiday season is a time for togetherness and joy, but it can sometimes bring unwelcome guest, like stress and grief. Some of us may be experiencing the holidays without a loved one. Some of us may be balancing endless to-do lists and hosting family and friends. While we each celebrate this season’s joys, it’s important to stay mindful, acknowledge our feelings, and reach out for help if needed.

Bend-La Pine schools partnered with Care Solace to support the well-being of our community. If you or your family member are looking for help with mental health or substance use, Care Solace can help you quickly find treatment options matched to your needs, regardless of the circumstance. This is a complimentary and confidential care coordination service provided by Bend-La Pine schools.  

If you would like to use Care Solace to help you find a mental health care provider:

• Call 888-515-0595. Support is available 24/7/365 in over 200 languages.
• Visit www.caresolace.com/bls and either search on your own or click “Book Appointment” for assistance by video chat, email, or phone. 

Lots of upcoming events. Check below for some important dates.

Upcoming Events

December 12- ICCL Meeting- 2:30- Conference Room

December 14- SIW- Teacher Prep Time

December 14- All School Sing A Long- 6:00-7:00 PM

December 15- 4th grade MTSS

December 19-December 30- Holiday Break

January 3- School Resumes

January 4- SIW- PBIS review

January 9- Staff Meeting- 2:30- Library

January 11- Fire Drill- 9:30

January 11- SIW- Educator Network Day

January 12- 3rd Grade MTSS

January 17- Winter Dibels

January 17- Lockdown- 1:35 (If we learn that Dibels won’t be done by that time of the day, we will change the lockdown to January 19 at the same time)

January 18- SIW- Teacher Prep

January 19- 2nd Grade MTSS

SIW- Next Wednesdays SIW will be an opportunity to meet with your grade level team to discuss report card calibration. We will start in the library with Marcy. She will be sharing new/updated report cards and instructions from TLC. You will then have time to meet with your team to ensure calibration and alignment in your grade level. Marcy is creating a google doc for grade levels to ask questions and she will provide answers as they come. We hope this helps you be more prepared when it comes time to complete report cards at the beginning of February.

Generosity Recognition Awards- Please get these names to Becky by Friday, December 9.

STEM- Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful and decisive input regarding Project Lead the Way. This is a significant step towards providing our students a guaranteed viable curriculum in science that is aligned K-5 and with NGSS. Next steps will be for us to inventory what we need and figure out a way to pay for all of the kits and purchase them so that in the fall we all have what we need and can start fresh. It is critical that we are all teaching the units in a way that each of our students is getting taught NGSS for their grade so that by the time they finish fifth grade, they’ve had thorough and complete instruction on the standards. If there is a PLTW unit your team doesn’t teach, you need to be sure that students are still being taught any standards that aren’t covered in the units you are teaching. towards purchase. The fifth grade science test is not a measure of what our fifth grade teachers teach our students, but rather a reflection of teaching and learning K-5. Thanks for the first step. We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Hiring- A team interviewed for Jean’s replacement yesterday afternoon. We hope to have some news to announce sometime next week.

Conference Room Sign Up- Please use sign up to use the conference room. You can find the link in the Bronco Bulletin under the calendar tab. Thanks for your help!

Lexia and Dreambox during break – We were directed yesterday to share with parents the text in quotes below. Jon will be including in an upcoming newsletter.

“Families – While students are enjoying time away from school during winter break they can keep up on their reading and math by logging into Lexia Core5 and Dreambox Math.  Both of these programs can be accessed at home and are a wonderful way to keep up on their reading and math skills. Both of these programs are accessed via Clever.  Here’s how:

• visit https://clever.com/in/bls  from any internet browser. 
• select “Log in with Active Directory”
• username – student’s first and last name, no spaces. example: joejohnson
• password – the special 6-digit code that’s used for all sorts of logins for students in Bend-La Pine
• From Clever, students can access Lexia Core5, DreamBox, Newsela, and more

Note about accessing Lexia from home:

• If families are using a mobile device (tablet/iPad) they will need to install the free Lexia Core5 app in order for Lexia to work, even when they access Lexia from inside Clever
• Lexia Core5 will not work on a small device like a smartphone, iPhone, etc.
• If students are using a computer or laptop, they won’t need to install a Lexia app. They can log into Clever, and then select the Lexia Core5 icon.
• As a reminder, please refrain from helping your student when they are working on Lexia Core5 (or DreamBox) programs away from school. These programs tailor delivery of concepts and skills based on student answers.
• For each of these programs about 20-30 minutes per day is a sufficient amount of time for practice.

Don’t have a device at home?  No problem.  Families can request that their school iPad be sent home during break.  Just reach out to your teacher to make arrangements. “

If you are concerned about unwrapping cords and bricks from their charging stations, reach out to your site tech.  They have a limited supply of used cords and bricks that could be sent home during the break.

Staff Race Party- Remember to sign up for our staff party at the go-cart racing place. Some advice: Do not get in the same race as Karen or Bridget. Below is a picture from one their helmet cams the last time they went. Don’t know if it’s Karen or Bridget.

If you do accidentally end up in a race with them, just know they will lap you and run you off the track if they have to in order to win. Below is a picture of someone who raced them last time.

Racing an administrator is a lot safer.

Upcoming Events

December 5- Staff Meeting-2:30- Library

December 6- Fire Drill- 12:55

December 7- SIW- 1:45- Library- Report Card Alignment

December 7- Staff Holiday Party

December 8- 5th Grade MTSS- 2:30- Miriam’s room

December 8- PTA Meeting- 5:00 P.M.-Site TBD

December 12- ICCL Meeting- 2:30- Conference Room

December 14- SIW- Teacher Prep Time

December 14- All School Sing A Long- 6:00 PM

December 15- 4th grade MTSS

December 19-December 30- Holiday Break

January 3- School Resumes

Attendance- Please document in the attendance spread sheet if we decided at MTSS that you were to contact a parent re: attendance. We need to be able to reference time/date of contact and any special notes. Thank you.

Secure in Place Drill- We are required to have a secure in place drill in November. We will hold this on Tuesday, November 29, from 9:15-9:30. During a secure in place drill, we lock and secure all outside doors, don’t let anyone in the building, and carry on with business as usual inside the building. The time we have set should not interrupt any recesses and will have little to no impact on your day. At 9:15, we will announce a secure in place drill. We will lock the front door and put a sign on it. You will carry on. At 9:30, we will announce the end of the drill, unlock the front door and take the sign down.

Mark your calendar (google, outlook, baby kitten pictures, whichever one you use)– Wednesday, December 14, we will be having a holiday sing along beginning at 6:00- 7:00 PM (unless the time changes) on the Buckingham primary playground. There will be fire pits, hot chocolate, candy canes, possibly a guy in a red suit and some caroling. It will be a low key way for Buckingham families and staff to build community and have a little fun.

Project Lead the Way- If you haven’t been trained for Project Lead the Way, remember Wednesday, November 30 is your day. Please arrange for a sub and be prepared for a fantastic day of STEM learning.

PLC’s- A couple reminders from the PLC team- remember to shoot for at least 2 PLC’s per month. Thursdays (that you aren’t meeting for MTSS) have been set aside for PLC’s. The focus should be on one or more of the four questions (test yourself- can you recite the four questions?). The first question, learning targets, will often be a focus for our mini observations.

Bronco Bucks- Everyone is doing a great job passing out Bronco Bucks to individual students. It is definitely part of Buckingham’s culture and students still love getting them. A reminder from the PLC team, let’s expand our focus and work on giving class Broncos when we get the chance. Teachers are doing a great job of creating class goals for class Broncos and Jon is announcing class rewards when he knows about them. But… it’s much easier for classes to earn if more people are giving them out. See a colleague’s class walking nicely in the hall? Give ’em a Bronco. Lining up nicely after recess? Give ’em a Bronco.

Lexia- The following came in our principal notes this week: Lexia Update –  As you probably heard yesterday during our Educator Network Day, Lexia still plays an important role in our reading instruction.  We know that the focus these first few months has been on Really Great Reading (as it should), but the time has come to start reminding teachers, and helping teachers, bring Lexia into their schedule.  Some teachers have already done this and their usage and progress is right where it should be.  Others have put all their energies toward RGR so we need to help them bring Lexia on board too.  Beginning in January we would like to see it being used in all our classrooms and students meeting their goal for units gained. Between now and then you can start laying the groundwork for this to happen and start engaging in conversations around usage.  Be sure to reach out to a coach for any assistance or guidance.  If you need a refresher on how to look at your data, you can access directions here.

Interviews- We will be interviewing for Jean’s replacement upon our return from Thanksgiving break. There will be ICCL’s and first grade teachers on our team. The district wide postings have been removed, meaning we need to post for 10 days. We will keep you updated as it unfolds.

Have a great Thanksgiving break. We hope you are able to focus on the positives and find much to be thankful for.

Upcoming Events

November 21-25- Thanksgiving Break- No School

November 28- ICCL meeting-conference room-2:30

November 29- Secure in place drill- 9:15-9:30

November 30- SIW- STEM team- Project Lead the Way- Library- 1:45-3:15

December 1- Kindergarten MTSS- 2:30- Miriam’s room

December 5- Staff Meeting-2:30- Library

December 6- Fire Drill- 12:55

December 8- 5th Grade MTSS- 2:30- Miriam’s room

December 12- ICCL Meeting- 2:30- Conference Room

December 14- All School Sing A Long- 6:00 PM

December 15- 4th grade MTSS

December 19-December 30- Holiday Break

January 3- School Resumes

Veterans’ Day- For most of us, it’s an extra day off to sit at home or maybe recover from that stubborn cold, but for many, Veterans’ Day is a symbol of the ultimate sacrifice. We hope you are able to enjoy your extra day and maybe even take a little time to remember why we celebrate November 11.

Educator Network Day- Wednesday’s SIW will be a district educator network day. All Buckingham classroom teachers will go to Ponderosa and meet with grade level peers. Meetings will run from 2:00-3:15. The goal is to give educators time to collaborate with other educators that teach the same grade level. The topic will be core instruction in foundational skills in grades K-5. Non classroom teachers report based on chart below:

Responsibility- As stated in last week’s notes, Becky needs the names of students receiving responsibility certificates by TUESDSAY, NOVEMBER 15, so that she has time to make the certificates.

SLGG’s- Here is the form and directions that were sent from the ed center (and included in notes from October 28). Upon opening, you will be forced to make a copy that you can edit. You are welcome to work as a grade level and write the same goals for each teacher (I imagine Jon and my goals will look the same). Please be sure to complete and submit electronically by November 30. Please let us know if you have any questions or would like any help/guidance writing your SLGGs. Thanks!

CPR/ First Aid- The list of those certified was provided by the district. We know others in our building are certified, but not listed. If you are one of these people, please provide proof of your certification to Becky and she will relay to district so that we are updated.

College and Career Day- Next Friday is college and career day. Expanding on our traditional college gear day, we will now also encourage dress that represents a career students may aspire to.

Coach’s Corner with Marci

Educator Network Day Wed. Nov 16th – 2:00-3:15 at Ponderosa

Wondering what will be happening? We will be focusing on the next steps of our Foundational Skills curriculum implementation. Based on teacher input, the goal for this session is on developing independent routines for students. Grade level teams will have dedicated time to collaborate and share ideas with a cohort of teachers from other schools. Our cohort will be Buckingham, Ponderosa, Lava Ridge and Ensworth. A Ponderosa teacher at each grade level will be hosting. There will also be a coach or administrator in each room to help with facilitation. The content looks really good! I have learned a LOT already…

Reading Playgrounds

If you have not started using Reading Playgrounds with your class yet, I would love to help you get started with this. The first three games of every unit provide really useful formative assessment data to help you know if students are learning what you are teaching each week. I would love to help you access this data in the various Playground Reports. Let me know if you would like to schedule some time to do that. Here is a chart to help you make a quick plan for what to do next with kids who need extra time with a skill, using the RGR resources: Countdown   Blast   HD Word

Bridges Math Assessments

Don’t forget to input your student data from unit screeners and post-assessments in Forefront (Kinder uses checkpoints). This is crucial data for identifying whether students are making progress and can help inform instructional plans through our MTSS process. The unit screeners can also help you make decisions in planning your instruction, especially for those students furthest from grade level. If you would like to brainstorm ideas with me, I would love to do that with you:)

Upcoming Events

November 11- Veterans’ Day- No School

November 14- ICCL meeting- Conference Room- 2:30

November 15- Fire Drill- 12:55

November 16- SIW- Educator Network Day

November 17- Picture Retakes

November 17- Responsibility Character Trait Assemblies- K-2 @ 10:05, 3-5 @ 1:05

November 18- College and Career Day

November 21-25- Thanksgiving Break- No School

November 28- ICCL meeting-conference room-2:30

November 30- SIW- STEM team- Project Lead the Way- Library- 1:45-3:15

Schedules- Meeting schedule. SIW schedule. Both of these are also in Bronco Bulletin. The SIW schedule is also linked in the meeting schedule. If there is a fifth Monday in the month, we won’t have a meeting. In addition, printed copies of the meeting and SIW schedules are on the bulletin board just outside of Becky’s office. We will also do our best to put upcoming meetings in the blog each week as we have been doing.

Google calendar- As Becky shared, the district is no longer supporting google calendar and if we use anything it will need to be outlook. Beginning January 2, we will no longer be using the google calendar. There are still issues with the outlook site, so at least until those are fixed, we won’t be asking Becky to try and put everything on the calendar. We recommend you come up with a system that works for you.

Field Trips- As we begin thinking about field trips again, please refer to this handy checklist to help you prepare.

Responsibility Assembly- Our responsibility character trait assembly will be held on Thursday, November 17. We are still deciding on a time and will let you know once it has been finalized. Please be sure your responsibility students are submitted to Becky by the end of the day on November 15 so she has time to complete certificates. Please be sure to invite the parents of students selected to be recognized for responsibility this month.

Veterans’ Day- Here is a great Veterans’ Day activity that you can participate in if you wish- no pressure. It was shared with us by Megan Silvey, VP at La Pine Elementary.

First Aid/ CPR certification- We are required to have minimum ratios for CPR and First Aid certified staff members. We are ok with our first aid, but four short of our cpr requirement. If you are interested in getting First Aid or CPR certified, see info below:

The district is currently offering a blended model for the First Aid/CPR class.  The class will be done online with a hands-on skills assessment to follow.  The online portion of the class should take about three (3) hours with the skills assessment to follow with a first aid/CPR trainer that will take about 20 minutes.  The online course can be done to fit your schedule.  Your First Aid/CPR card will not be issued until all portions of class are completed.

The process will be as follows: 

1. Sign up for the class in Performance Matters
2. Michelle Spetic will send you a link from HSI/Medic to get started ([email protected]).   
3. Please check your Junk Mail if it does not appear in your regular inbox.  
4. After each section of the online session, there will be a one or two question quiz.
5. When scheduled, the hands-on skills assessment schedule will be emailed to you to register if you have completed the online portion.  You can only do the in-person skills assessment after you have completed the online portion of the class.  
6. The in-person skills assessment will be done in 30-minute increments. 
7. First Aid cards will not be sent out until both portions of the class are completed.  

Please reach out to Michelle Spetic if you have any questions. 

Coach’s Corner with Marci

Scheduling Time for Coaching Support: 

I would love to start getting our ½ day PD Team Time on the calendar– available dates for this are booking up fast and I don’t want our staff to miss out on this opportunity to reflect and learn together. In teams, we can later decide what we want to do with this time, but it is important to start scheduling these days now.  Please talk with your grade level team and use this Google Sheet to let me know which of these dates would work for you. For specialists, we can look at the school schedule to carve out some time when you won’t have students (field trips, class celebrations, etc.).

Resources for Foundational Skills

Don’t forget to bookmark this folder and check it out from time to time. New resources are being added weekly as created. This week you will find scanned versions of the RGR posters!

Articulation video 
This is a great resource on sound articulation from Heggerty.

Using Bridges Unit Screeners to Plan Math Intervention

Use the screeners in place of the unit pre-assessments. A good time to administer the screener is toward the end of the previous unit to anticipate and plan effective support and intervention. Each unit screener is accompanied by a carefully selected list of “just in time” resources to support students who need to reengage with prerequisite concepts and skills. Find unit screeners and activities to support reengagement with prerequisite concepts and skills in this folder. I would love to work with you on planning your intervention instruction using the data from your screeners.

Linguist Link–  All staff (including administrators) have access to Linguist Link, and should make their own requests for any translation/interpretation needs.  Please make sure your entire staff know how to set up and use their accounts.

A few exceptions:

• If you have an emergency (gas leak, lock-down, etc), the district Communications and Multilingual teams will support the communication and translation.
• If you need an immediate interpreter (urgent, couldn’t have been predicted in advance):
  • If it’s not needed for a few hours, put it into LL and mark it urgent.
  • If that doesn’t work, check whether a CAFE Program member is available,  
  • Ask a Family Liaison (there are times they will say No),
  • Use the On-Demand form (this form is also available on the Linguist Link home page).  Follow all directions on the form very carefully.

Please do NOT:

• Use a bilingual staff member who has not been trained/qualified/compensated.  
• Use Google Translate or other auto-translate tools (S’mores newsletter translation, etc) at any time.  
• These practices have significant legal, ethical, quality, and liability issues.

Upcoming Events

November 7- Staff meeting- Library- 2:30

November 9- SIW STEM- Library- 1:45-3:15

November 11- Veterans’ Day- No School

November 14- ICCL meeting- Conference Room- 2:30

November 15- Fire Drill- 12:55

November 16- SIW- Educator Network Day

November 17- Picture Retakes

November 17- Responsibility Character Trait Assemblies- Time TBD

November 18- College and Career Day

November 21- No Staff Meeting- We won’t have a staff or ICCL meeting on Mondays when school is not in session. 😉

November 21-25- Thanksgiving Break- No School

November 28- ICCL meeting-conference room-2:30

November 30- SIW- STEM team- Project Lead the Way- Library- 1:45-3:15

Inclement Weather Guidelines- Please refer to the inclement weather guidelines in case of….inclement weather.

SLGGs- Yep. Still a thing. And why wouldn’t they be? We’ve all seen the dramatic and obvious impact they’ve had on student learning since ODE’s implementation. That being said, here is the form and directions that were sent from the ed center. Upon opening, you will be forced to make a copy that you can edit. You are welcome to work as a grade level and write the same goals for each teacher (I imagine Jon and my goals will look the same). Please be sure to complete and submit electronically by November 30. Please let us know if you have any questions or would like any help/guidance writing your SLGGs. Thanks!

Monday Parties- Remember the guidelines below and to tell the office what time you will be having your party so they can tell parents when they call.

• Costumes can be worn during the day as long as they don’t interfere with instructional activities and they are safe
• No weapons, blood, gore
• Jon is still deciding if this costume is acceptable.
• Margaret, Becky and Gary have already decided this costume is not acceptable.

Jon Out- Jon will be out all day next Wednesday for mandatory principal training.

UKG Project Update -UKG Weekly Training: This week’s training  How To Submit a Leave Request in UKG.mp4 (3 minutes) is ready for viewing with your staff at an upcoming meeting.  Please remind them that:

• All current and past UKG materials may be found in the Staff Portal>Human Resources>UKG or via this link
• Leave accruals within UKG are NOT accurate as we are still in the UKG testing platform
• Employees should enter a BLS Help Desk Ticket if they encounters a problem logging in

We will be showing this at the end of our next staff meeting. If you watch it before, you are welcome to leave before we show it.

From Tami Pike – Please inform your staff of the importance of letting their school nurse know at least 2 weeks in advance of a scheduled field trip. This is for student safety. This time allows for the school nurse to assess and prepare for the medical needs of the students attending the trip, and train staff who may need to administer medication. If the nurse is given short notice they end up scrambling  to gather the needed student medical information as well as train a staff person to safely administer medication. This practice is not safe for students or staff. To avoid unnecessary field trip delays or cancellations, please develop a practice that will help ensure that school nurses are notified (at least 2 weeks in advance) of a scheduled field trip.

From Tami Pike (again) – STOP THE BLEED TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES FOR BLS EMPLOYEES

Bend Fire and Rescue

Wednesday, November 2 3-4pm  Mountain View High School Auditorium

Wednesday, November 8 430-530pm  Bend High School  Black Box Theatre Room

Maximum number 75.  Staff must sign up on Performance Matters to reserve a spot. Can’t make any of these dates? We will send out future training information when the details are set.

Finally, this picture is worth 1000 words about the impact of some of the things we do for our students. Thank you.

Upcoming Events

November 2- SIW- Teacher Prep

November 3- No MTSS

November 9- SIW STEM

November 10- Second grade MTSS

November 11- Veterans’ Day- No School

November 16- SIW- Educator Network Day

November 18- Fire Drill- 12:55

November 21-25- Thanksgiving Break- No School

Thank you!- Thanks to our PTA (Wednesday) and Becky (Thursday) for fantastic lunches the last two days. On those 12+ hour days, getting home and making a lunch for the next day is not first on the list of priorities, so having them ready- and so tasty to boot- is a blessing. Thank you PTA and Becky for taking care of us!

Thank you x 2- Thanks to Margaret who greets parents of nearly 400 students for 2 days straight. Those hundreds of people come in waves that make every half hour seem like another start of the school day with crowds flooding through the front door. Overheard about 400 times in the last two days, “Well, hello, good to see you again, have you signed in before, do you know where you’re going today, make a left at the corner…, check the lost and found…have a great day…” Thanks for welcoming everyone, Margaret.

Conferences- Thank you for all of the effort, time and care you put into conferences. I was able to sit in on several and was pleased with the level of trust parents showed and the positive partnerships and relationships I saw. The few parents who wanted to speak with Jon or me is a positive indication of how well conferences went, but also how much you are doing every day to build relationships with your students’ parents.

I believe we are currently in the midst of the greatest divide, or chasm, between school and parents in my career (and you know I didn’t start last year). Obviously, two years of not allowing parents in our buildings has contributed significantly to the wedge. I’ve also seen schools take on a role of authority and become more and more resistant to working with, listening to, and partnering with parents. This trend only serves to widen the gap and disintegrate the parent/school partnership that is critical to student success and makes our jobs harder than they need to be.

Conferences were a great step in the direction of building back that partnership. Thank you for all you did the last two days and let’s continue to build on that foundation. Strong parent/ school partnerships and parent involvement are absolutely necessary for our success. Thank you.

Character Education Assemblies- We will hold our October character ed assembly on Thursday, October 27. Grades 3-5 will be at 12:35 and K-2 will be at 1:35. We will have cones to designate seating. Remember this is the first assembly in 2 1/2 years for most students and for k-2, it’s probably the first assembly they’ve ever attended. Please discuss expectations for students and do your part during the assembly to hold students in your class and others accountable. We will go over expectations to start the assembly and do our best when hosting to hold students accountable, but will not be able to do it without teachers being vigilant and helpful the entire time.

• Sit on bottom so everyone around you can see
• Leave hats in room
• Voices off from beginning of assembly until dismissal. Students may chat quietly upon arrival until hosts call for attention. At that time voices must be turned off unless they are asked to use voices.
• Please clap at appropriate times (when asked by the host or when other students receive recognition).
• Refrain from yelling or screaming. Get quiet immediately when hosts direct.

Harvest/Halloween Parties– Just a reminder of Harvest/halloween party expectations that Jon sent in newsletters. Please remind students.

We will be having Halloween/Harvest parties on Monday, Oct. 31^st in the afternoon.  Students are welcome to wear costumes during the day if they can participate in school activities.  This includes being able to go to recess, run in PE, etc.  Other types of costumes need to be put on at lunch time.  Please make sure costumes are school appropriate.  This includes no blood, no gore, no weapons, etc.  Thanks.

Goal Teams- Thank you for your work on goal teams. Typically, we like to let people join the group they are most interested in. That being said, sometimes we get a little bit heavy or light representation on a group or two. This year, our PBIS team has a lot of people and our STEM and PLC teams are a bit underrepresented. We are asking that some of you on PBIS consider a move to PLC and/or STEM to help balance things out and lighten the load for the few on those two teams. We value giving choice and allowing folks to choose. But, if we can’t get a little more even representation, we may be need to just assign groups in future years.

Have a great three-day weekend. You deserve it!

Upcoming Events

October 26- SIW-PLC Review

October 27- Character Ed assemblies- Grades 3-5 @ 12:35 and K-2 @ 1:35

November 2- SIW- Teacher Prep

November 9- SIW STEM

November 11- Veterans’ Day- No School

November 16- SIW- Educator Network Day

November 18- Fire Drill- 12:55

November 21-25- Thanksgiving Break- No School

June 16- Last day of school 😁

Staff Meeting- We will be having a staff meeting on Monday at 2:30 in the library. In addition to all of the usual captivating, engaging, invigorating, educational, and inspiring propaganda information from Jon and Gary, Dr. Cook will be attending to share information on the upcoming bond. Be there or be square.

Conferences- As you all know, conferences next Wednesday and Thursday from 7:30-7:30. We are off on Friday for a three day weekend! PTA will be providing a dinner for all of us on Wednesday. The office will be providing you a dinner on Thursday. We are estimating dinners will be ready around 4 and you can come and get it at your convenience. Please indicate on the schedule if you want an administrator at a conference.

Halloween Expectations- Jon sent the following to parents regarding Halloween:

We will be having Halloween/Harvest parties on Monday, Oct. 31^st in the afternoon.  Students are welcome to wear costumes during the day if they can participate in school activities.  This includes being able to go to recess, run in PE, etc.  Other types of costumes need to be put on at lunch time.  Please make sure costumes are school appropriate.  This includes no blood, no gore, no weapons, etc.  Thanks.

Textbook Adoption Committees- TLC would like a rep from Buckingham to serve on math and reading adoption teams. Please let Jon or Gary know if you would like to serve. Thanks.

Field Trip Transportation- We are beginning to think about and see field trips return as part of our curriculum and instruction. We recently received the following information from transportation that will be important for you to keep in mind if/when you begin planning a field trip.

Field trip Day:  Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays (no field trips on Wednesdays)

Time Frame for Field Trips:  9:30am – 1:30pm

School Discount:  Curriculum related field trips – school pays 30% 

Formula for cost: $41./hr for the driver, $1.90/per mile

From Robbie in Instructional Tech – Discovery Ed Professional Learning Opportunity – Discovery Education will be hosting an optional, one-hour professional learning session for Bend-La Pine elementary staff on Wednesday, October 26th, at 1:30. The session, Getting Started with Discovery Education, is a great way to find out more about the tools and resources available for use in the K-5 classroom.  If you are interested in attending this virtual learning session, please fill out this form. Attendance is limited to the first 50 staff members, and you will be provided with 1 PDU. A zoom link for joining the session will be sent to you on the morning of October 26th. If you have any questions, please contact your instructional technology team. 

Upcoming Events

October 17- Staff Meeting

October 19 & 20- Conferences

October 21- No School

October 26- SIW-PLC Review

November 2- SIW- Teacher Prep

November 9- SIW STEM

November 11- Veterans’ Day- No School

November 16- SIW- Educator Network Day

November 18- Fire Drill- 12:55

November 21-25- Thanksgiving Break- No School

June 16- Last day of school 😁

PBIS- Thank you to the PBIS team for a great training Wednesday. Lots of great information. Please reach out if/when you need support with anything we discussed on Wednesday.

Behavior support referral form

PBIS Tab in Bronco Bulletin

Oops Slip

Meeting Schedule- Historically, admin meetings have been held on Mondays, which is why we have scheduled staff meetings for Tuesdays. This year, our admin meetings were changed to Tuesdays, so our meeting schedule has to be changed. Staff meetings will now be held on the first and third Mondays (with the other Mondays reserved for a meeting if we have district information that needs to be shared). It has been changed on the meetings schedule. Our next staff meeting will be Monday, October 17, unless we are required to have one next Monday.

Coach’s Corner with Marci

1. Please check out this link, “A Gift of Time” for ideas on how I can help you find time for coaching support.

From Instructional Technology – please send this to your teachers –Canva for Education (not to be confused with Canvas) is now available for all teachers and students.  Canva is an online design and publishing tool that provides templates for easy-to-create presentations, posters, documents, and other types of visual content.  This PDF explains how to get access and login to your Canva for Education account.  If you need any support with Canva for Education, please reach out to Tracy Howk, Robbie Faith, or Austin James.

Ed Foundation Grants-

With a brand-new school year, excitement is in the air!  We know our K-12 educators are working hard planning, developing, and executing stellar programs and curriculum for Bend-La Pine students.  To help with that, we are offering our 2022 Back-to-School Classroom Grant opportunity for funding.  Please see the attached Classroom Grant Information and Classroom Grant Application which can also be found on our website.  We understand that the first few weeks of school are busy, so the deadline for applications is Friday, October 14, 2022, and all application requests must be emailed to our office at this address:  [email protected]

The Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine Schools is an independent non-profit 501(c)3 that has aided local schools since 1988.  Our mission is to prepare our students for success and the future through educational and extra-curricular opportunities.  Since 2003, the Education Foundation has invested over $2.1 million into local schools through endowments, special projects, and our main programs.  For more information about the Education Foundation, please visit our website at https://engagedminds.org/testimonials/classroom-grants/

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or our Program Coordinator Jessie Norman at [email protected].  We look forward to receiving your applications and continuing to help make opportunities possible for our students and teachers! 

UKG Project Update from HR– Please take a moment, if you haven’t already done so, to visit HR’s UKG website, and view the Training #1 video.  We will also try to share this at our next staff meeting. We’d ask that all staff make a login attempt either via the UKG website or through the app. Anyone who encounters a login problem should submit an IT Help Desk Ticket.  So far 23% of BLS staff have successfully logged in with very few problems.  You may use this UKG FAQ google doc to add questions that staff ask during your weekly meetings.

Below is our updated training plan leading up to the December 5th Go-Live plan:

• October 5^th – 11th:  Conceptual understanding of Leave Workflow
• October 12^th – 18th: Conceptual understanding of Leave Request
• October 19^th – 25th: How to request leave within UKG
• October 26^th – November 1st: Conceptual understanding of electronic timesheet submissions
• November 2^nd – 8th:  How to make a timesheet submission within UKG

From Tami Pike re: Field Trips – For students who may need nursing support during a field trip, please complete the Medical Request for Direct Care Nursing for Off Campus Field trip form and send to Tami Pike at least 2 weeks PRIOR to the trip. Due to nurse scheduling, requests submitted less than 14 days prior to the event may be denied due to staffing. 

Upcoming Events

October 10- Fire/Earthquake Drill- 8:55

October 11- Sibling Conference Scheduling- 2:30 library

October 13- Bus Evacuation Drills

October 17- Staff Meeting

October 19 & 20- Conferences

October 21- No School

Happy Autumn! With the passing of September, we are finally into the rhythm of the school year. Short notes today. Hope you can get out and enjoy the beautiful fall this weekend.

Conferences- It is time to schedule conferences. Please review our conference guidelines/timelines for dates and directions. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Bias Training- If you haven’t already done so, please let us know if you have any students who have opted out. Please also let us know when you are teaching the lesson so that we can gather the students who are opting out. If there are students from more than one class in your grade opting out, it would be helpful if you taught the lesson at the same time so we could take all the students from a grade at one time. Thanks for all of your thoughtful work on this. It is appreciated.

Welcome- We have and will be having some new faces in the building that we would like to introduce. Welcome to the following:

Diane Allen- Diane will be joining our SPED team as an EA beginning on October 5. We are excited to have Diane join Buckingham. She will be a much needed support to our team.

Dalton Romanowski- Dalton is a teacher candidate (student teacher) who will spend this semester in Alisha’s room before flipping with Sebastian (Claire’s teacher candidate) second semester.

SST EA- We have heard rumors that an EA for our SST is in the process of being hired. We are hopeful to make an introduction in the next week.

Safety Trainings- Tomorrow is the deadline for the mandatory online safety trainings. Please complete asap if you haven’t already done so!

Outdoor School- Bon Voyage to our fifth graders who will be at outdoor school next Monday- Wednesday.

Work hard, be nice, safe, respectful and responsible, and always be kind!

Upcoming Events

October 3-5- Fifth Graders to Outdoor School

October 4- Staff Meeting- 2:30 Library

October 5- SIW- PBIS

October 6- Lockdown Drill- 12:55

October 11- Sibling Conference Scheduling- 2:30 library

October 13- Bus Evacuation Drills

October 19 & 20- Conferences