Our EME Focus
- Tier 1 Instruction
- Belonging
- Define what it means to be an Integrated Arts School
Thoughts of the Week
A little humor to start the week off!

The Coming Week
- Monday
- Sarajane Pixton’s Birthday!
- Principal Meeting 8:00-12:00
- Union meeting with Peter Hoover 2:30
- Committee Meetings 2:30-3:15
- TAG/ICCL Meeting 3:45-5:45
- Tuesday
- Care Teams Meeting 7:00-8:00
- Forest Kinder 9:30-1:30
- Wednesday
- Office Admin Meeting 7:00-7:30
- SIW Ed Network 1:00-2:30
- Safety Cadre 1:30-3:00
- Thursday
- Smart Reading (Kindergarten) 9:45-10:45
- Sped Team Meeting – 2:30-3:15
- Lindsley Gehrig – New Report Card Overview 2:30-3:15
- Admin Meeting 3:30-4:45
- Friday
- EET Weekly Meeting 8:00-9:00
UPCOMING DATES:
- January 20 – Martin Luther King Day
- January 20 – Lea Wolnick’s Brithday
- January 21 – Earthquake Drill 1:30
- January 21 – ICCL Meeting 2:30-3:15
- January 22 – Office Admin Meeting 7:00-7:30
- January 22 – SIW Follow up to Ed Network 1:00-2:30
- January 23 – Smart Reading (Kindergarten) 9:45-10:45
- January 23 – Sped Team Meeting – 2:30-3:15
- January 24 – EET Weekly Meeting 8:00-9:00
- January 27 – Dibels Day!
- January 27 – Committee Meeting 2:30-3:15
- January 28 – Care Teams Meeting 7:00-8:00
- January 29 – Office Admin Meeting 7:00-7:30
- January 29 – EA Meeting 1:00-1:30
- January 29 – SIW Teacher Prep 1:00-2:30
- January 29 – All Admin Meeting 3:00-4:30
- January 30 – Smart Reading (Kindergarten) 9:45-10:45
- January 30 – Sped Team Meeting – 2:30-3:15
- January 31 – EET Weekly Meeting 8:00-9:00
- February 2 – Groundhog Day
- February 3 – Core Effectiveness Meetings
- February 3 – Staff Meeting 2:30-3:15
- February 4 – Safety Meeting 7:00-7:30
- February 4 – Core Effectiveness Meetings
- February 4 – Elementary Admin Meeting 3:00-5:00
- February 5 – Office Admin Meeting 7:00-7:30
- February 5 – SIW – Extra Time for EL Planning 1:00-2:30
- February 6 – Smart Reading (Kindergarten) 9:45-10:45
- February 6 – Sped Team Meeting – 2:30-3:15
- February 7 – EET Weekly Meeting 8:00-9:00
Updates from Downtown
From Tammy and Karen
Welcome 2025! Here’s hoping the first blog of the year finds you rested and ready to stay the course with all the great work that is going on out in our schools and district! We appreciate and celebrate you!
What schools do Tammy and Karen support? We know many departments are unaware of how we have divided up schools this year. This link is to provide you with a list of which schools Tammy is the lead support person and which schools Karen is the lead support person. As always, we support them all, but this helps you know who to call first.
Progress Report Deadlines: January 31 is the official day that staff should be working on report cards and the official cutoff for elementary reports is Sunday, Feb 2 at 5:00 pm. Please make sure you communicate that early and often, so that we are not caught in a situation where a school has not submitted their cards and rollover to the next semester becomes tricky.
January 31 Progress Report Work Day: Per Article 15.8 of the CBA, Certified Employees are not required to report to their work site on end-of-term workdays but must remain available by phone. If a supervisor has articulable concerns about a Certified Employee’s timely completion of professional responsibilities, they may require the Certified Employee to report to the work site. Please reach out to Tammy or Karen if you have any questions about this.
ACR Update Process: We have updated the timeline for ACR approvals for the 2025-2026 school year. Here is the new timeline. This does not include a process for approving case by case ACRs that come to us throughout the year.

END Update: For next SIW 1/15, a reminder that your counselors, SSCs, and School Psychs will be meeting at Caldera from 2:30-4:00.
Important Links
- January 8th Elementary TLC Update
- Topics of Interest/Problem of Practice–Bear Creek is looking for Youth Truth engagement ideas!
- FAQs for Special Education Inclusion Topics—Keep checking in here! BEA and BLS supported
Notes from our Team:
Did you know? Last year 6 students in the US were killed by their own bus, 3 of which were in school bus loading zones. We still have schools releasing before 2:15 and students in loading zones without adult supervision. Our buses, at some sites when approaching, have to swing over the curb to make a turn. This is critical there are no students anywhere near that move. Please be out to the bus loading zones to check that your staff and students are not too early and following this very important safety guideline. Thank you!
Kindergarten Ask: It’s that time of year again when Head Start is looking for a couple of kindergarten teachers from Bend La Pine to come and speak to their parents about kindergarten registration. The ask is typically about 30 minutes and covers the following:
- Answer any questions parents might have about a kindergarten day, what they learn
- Speak about kindergarten registration, how and when and what support may be available
- Choice Option Schools, including Dual Immersion
Please let Tammy know if you have a kindergarten teacher who may be interested. We will take two of them and pay them for one hour. Thank you!
From Janet Bojanowski: During the January 22nd Office Manager meeting, we will have a discussion on de-escalation led by Eric Powell, Scott Bojanowski, and Kayla Martin. This will include sample scenarios to work through and time for you to bring forth any scenarios you would like to share/discuss. We would like to remind you that your full office staff is invited and encouraged to attend these trainings.
Schedule is as follows; however, you are welcome to join either session if the time works better for you. Elementary Team: 1:15-2:15pm followed by the Secondary Team from 2:30-3:30
One Class at a Time Awards: Mid Oregon Credit Union is seeking your assistance in nominations for our KTVZ One Class at a Time awards. Selected nominations will be chosen monthly during the school year for innovative classroom education, projects and learning that represent positive student experiences and highlighted with a KTVZ news story and a $1000 award to support the program.
Please have your principals, teachers, advisors, staff send the requests to Kyle Frick, at [email protected] for consideration for the selection process.
From Jennifer Hauth and your building counselors: (Note from Tammy and Karen: Please make sure that at least one building admin attend this celebration, so mark your calendars!)

From Dave Vanloo–School Improvement: This is a quick reminder that YouthTruth is now open through January 31. Here is a link to a document to help you get started. More information and resources are available once you log in to YouthTruth. Let me know if you have any questions.
From Deputy Superintendent- Lisa Birk
A reminder: another survey I would like you to share with your team is from one of our partners, COREN. This will give an opportunity for all staff to describe professional development interests. COREN supports many learning opportunities within BLP, and this information benefits both their organization and ours in the sense that it gives us access to supports for our current needs. Right now, participation has been limited so any encouragement you can do to give feedback is helpful. This survey ends on January 10th.
Policy, Advocacy, and Equity – Kinsey Martin
Classroom placement policy: Here is a draft of a new policy going out for public feedback, with a tentative adoption date of mid-February. This establishes that principals are the final decision-makers with regard to classroom placements. This should help navigate student, staff, or parent requests or refusals to have a particular teacher or student in a class, or where there is disagreement on a student’s schedule. The “principal or designee” language allows you to delegate this authority to counselors or coordinators, at least for initial placements or non-controversial requests for changes.
Upcoming events: Please share this communication in your next weekly staff memo, and participate in any/all of these as you are available. In particular, encourage your building to be well-represented in our 3rd annual Door-Decorating Contest (adult teams can participate too, if you have enthusiastic or artistic front-office, counseling, or other non-classroom staff). Thank you!
CAFE Program training: Do you have a newly-hired staff member who speaks another language? Would they like a $1,000 annual stipend for using their multilingual skills to support family communication? Due to multiple requests, we are adding one more round of CAFE Program testing and training for this school year. This extra round will take place in late January—further opportunities will not be available until next fall, so please help ensure relevant bilingual employees are aware and signed up in UKG’s Learning platform. (Once a staff member has been tested and trained, they do not need to repeat those steps.)
Do Not Schedule dates: As your team begins to schedule important dates for spring, summer, and fall events, please be sure they are aware of our Do Not Schedule dates. Thank you for re-sharing this with your office managers, activities directors, athletics staff, counselors, and PTA/Booster Club leaders.
Action Items
- Inform teachers about the 5:00 deadline for progress report submissions on Sun. Feb 2.
- Make sure bus lanes are clear of students and supervised by adults
- We need 2 K teachers willing to attend a 30 min Head start meeting to talk about Kindergarten
- Mark your calendar for end of year counseling celebration
- Got a one class at a time nominee? Send it to Kyle Frick
- Youth Truth—how are you going to get your participation rates up?
- Coren survey for all staff by 1/10
- Pay close attention to the information in Kinsey’s section.
Important Dates
- January 13: TAG Meeting at the Ed Center from 3:45-5:30. Please make sure your admin rep and TAG teacher rep are there.
- January 15: Safety Cadre Meeting—one admin should attend. PBMS from 1:30-3:30
- January 15 and 22: SIWs that are Educator Network day followed by an SIW that is EL planning time
- January 29: All Admin PD at Perseverance Hall, 3:00-4:30–read chapter 1 in the Thriving Leaders book prior to coming.
- January 31: Progress Report work day, optional/mandatory training for you to come
- February 2: Progress Reports due by 5:00
- February 4: Horizontal meeting at Ensworth, 3:00-5:00 Hosted by ENS, BUC and LRE
And finally…






















