Please join me in welcoming Katie Gillem to our faculty. Katie will be one of our Special Education teachers this year. Katie has been an elementary special education teacher in Pendleton since 2015 and is in the process of relocating to Bend. Katie will be teaching in the position originally accepted by Charlie Beavis who decided to not relocate to Bend in July.
Bend La Pine Schools will not be posting supply lists or asking for school supply donations this year. The amount of money schools receive per pupil has been slightly adjusted in lieu of this. Some of these dollars will be used for the purchase of math and ELA kits that will be sent home to help support Comprehenive Distance Learning.
As we anticipated, our student enrollment is fluctuating greatly week to week as families make schooling decisions and enroll after moving here this summer. With the later start to the school year we are planning to continue to see enrollment swings through the week of Labor Day and will not finalize class lists until September 10.
Without the ability to do an in-person Open House, work has been happening to make sure that we still have an opportunity to begin building strong relationships with students and families at the start of the school year. With Comprehensive Distance Learning this is more important then ever. Here is our plan:
- The morning of Thursday, September 10th all Lava Ridge families will receive an email from their child’s teacher welcoming them to their class with a welcome video from the teacher. Staff will have a script of ideas to follow and we will work on this during inservice days. We will not be publicly posting class lists this year.
- The afternoon of September 10th teachers will host virtual Open Houses via Webex. We are developing a schedule for this event and may flex our work hours as we have done before with Open House.
First week back for certified staff: Our first certified staff meeting will be September 1st at 9:00 via Webex. You can participate in this meeting on campus or remotely.
During this week Lybe and I will also be meeting with teams at the times/locations below. Teachers will need laptops and headphones for these sessions:
- September 1st from 12:00-3:00 Kindergarten (Discovery Falls Commons) and 1st Grade (Media Center)
- September 2nd 9:00-12:00 2nd grade (Rainbow Valley Commons) and 3rd grade (Media Center)
- September 2nd 12:30-3:30 4th grade (Rainbow Valley Commons) and 5th grade (Media Center)
At this point, these are the only meetings we are planning for the weeek of August 31-September 4. Certified Staff will also meet for 2 hours on September 9th on campus (locations TBD)
Educational Assistant First Day: September 8th will be the first day work day for educational assistants.