Week at a Glance

A reminder that Wednesday, June 16th is a regular school day (3:00 dismissal) and Thursday, June 17th a SIW schedule day (1:30 dismissal). For Specials, we are planning to use the Thursday schedule on the 16th and the Wednesday schedule on the 17th.

With the drop in COVID cases in Deschutes County schools in Bend-La Pine are no longer required to offer rapid COVID tests.

Lots of information in the TLC Update this week including report card resources and early plans for next school year.

Thank you for your time and efforts inviting families to participate in Jump Start (ie Summer School). Earlier this week, these families received this information about transportation and childcare.

Staffing Updates:

Sara Blanchard and Paige Allen have been selected as finalists by our primary interview team and will be teaching 1st grade next year. Sara recently completed her student teaching with Amanda at 2nd grade and Paige is currently a 1st grade CDL teacher for the Medford School District and taught 1st grade prior to this for 7 years in Reedsport.

Brandon Powers has been hired an EA by Special Programs and will be working with Sara Towne and Katie Gillem next year.

Jean Larrenta will not be transferring to Lava Ridge and instead remaining at Buckingham.

Next Week is a B week

Duty Schedule for June 14-June 17th:

With the celebration on Wednesday at 2:30, we are not planning to have a Staff Meeting this month. Time is extra precious in June and we will leverage email for important communication. Thank you for paying extra close attention to your in-box over the next two weeks.

While not required, I would highly suggest certified staff returning to Bend-La Pine next year, attend a short meeting with Brad on Tuesday @ 3:15 about Multi-Factor Authentication. Two months ago, administrators started using this system and for me personally, it was a bit bumpy. I wish I had had a Brad to walk me through it. 🙂

Wednesday, June 16th is a regular school day (3:00 dismissal) and Thursday, June 17th a SIW schedule day (1:30 dismissal). For Specials we are planning to use the Thursday schedule on the 16th and the Wednesday schedule on the 17th.

It has been a full week of talking, emailing, and meeting with potential teaching candidates. Thank you to those of you who have been helping with these interviews. Hiring is one of the most important things we do and your help is so appreciated. We have more work to do and will continue to interview candidates over the next two weeks. We will have an updated teaching roster with names/grade levels as soon as it is set. Below are some updates from this week:

-Rachel Schendel will be teaching 5th grade next year. This spring Rachel communicated an interest to return to an intermediate classroom position and we are excited to be able to have her in this position next year.

-Sarah Shapiro-Bass who is currently a kindergarten teacher at Miller Elementary will be teaching kindergarten next year. Sarah completed her student teaching last year at Lava Ridge with Andrea Thompson and Sarah Kamasz.

-Nataly Libby will teaching 1st grade. Nataly is currently teaching 1st grade at High Lakes Elementary.

Next Week is an A schedule

Duty Schedule for June 7-June 17th:

We received updates this week that have helped us solidify most of our staffing plan. Below are some notes:

-Jean Larraneta will be rejoining our staff next year and teaching 1st grade. Rejoining, in that while she is actually being transferred from Buckingham, Jean was a teacher for seven years at Lava Ridge after helping to open the school.

-Dyan Sultzer has been hired as an instructional coach for next year.

-We were able to begin interviewing for some primary positions this week and also completed some screening interviews. A shout out of thanks to those of you who have been helping with these. While we are being COVID-mindful of interview team sizes we will have either a primary or intermediate teacher on these teams.

School Improvement Wednesday: Class list creation for next school year. We will have this information ready for a member of each grade level to pick up from Amber on Wednesday morning.

We received information on a free summer learning professional development opportunity.

Next Week is a B week.

Thank you for continuing to not combine or mix classes inside Lava Ridge. In the event of a positive COVID case this could result in many more students potentially needing to quarantine.

Save the date! We are coordinating a high school graduate walk on Tuesday, June 1st on the South Playground around 2:15-2:30. Lava Ridge students will line the inside of the fence that borders Egypt and wraps around to the back parking lot and cheer the grads who will park in the back parking lot and then walk the fence line around to the front of the school. More details to come as we get closer.

School Improvement Wednesday: No scheduled activities

Wednesday EA Support: Rainbow Valley

Next week is an A week

Duty Schedule for May 24-June 4 below:

You may have noticed new video cameras in different locations around campus. These are part of a bond-funded safety upgrade being installed after school hours.

Below is the initial number of seats (see student quota) we are able to offer students/families for Jump Start ( ie. summer school). Jump Start at Lava Ridge will be made up of students from North Star, Ponderosa and Lava. On Wednesday during SIW we are planning to have brief (20 minute) meetings with each grade level to discuss which students we will want to invite to attend. Watch for a schedule from Lybe. We may be able to invite additional students later in the spring depending on staffing.

Next week is a B week

Wednesday EA Support: Eagle’s Nest

Duty Schedule for May 17-28 below:

From the Teaching and Learning Department: Summer Math Courses for graduate credit!  More information will be provided as details get finalized.  

• Mathematically Productive Engagement – June 21-23 – 2 credits
• How Math Teaching Matters – August 6, 13, 20 – 2 credits
• The 5 Practices in Practice Book Club – June 16th 3:45-4:15, August 12th 3:30-5:30, and virtually throughout the summer – 1 credit

3rd Grade EBISS is on Tuesday @ 3:00 in the Media Center

Wednesday EA Support: Discovery Falls

Next week is an A Week

Duty Schedule for 5/10-5/21

Happy Staff Appreciation Week!

Thank you for coordinating a substitute prior to the times you need to be away from Lava Ridge. This has been such a huge help with the current sub shortage! 🙂

Staff Meeting on Wednesday at 2:00. We are planning to meet in the gym.

When your grade level meets for EBISS, these meetings will be in the Media Center and begin at 3:10.

Staffing Plan Update: Skip is reviewing elementary staffing plans and beginning the process of placing teachers returning from leave. We have 20 classroom teachers on our plan with preliminary openings in kindergarten and 1st grade. What happens with these open positions? Classroom teachers returning from leave may be placed into these or we may get to interview for them later in May. When will we learn what we are teaching? Mid-May, most likely. It will take Skip and HR several weeks to place teachers returning from leave and these placements can sometimes lead to other changes with grade level teaching assignments. I’ll keep you posted.

Next week is a B Week

Wednesday EA Support: Friendship Mountain

Duty Schedule for 5/3-5/14

On Wednesday at 5:30 we are hosting an informational night for incoming kindergarten families via Webex. Here is the flyer with all of the details. The event will be recorded for those that are not able to attend.

Similar to last year, students will be keeping their ipads over the summer and will have ongoing access to Lexia and Dreambox. Elementary families will receive details about this in the coming weeks including infomation about returning devices if they prefer not to keep them through the summer.

April 26th-May 7th Duty Schedule below:

Next Week is a A Week

Wednesday EA Support: Rainbow Valley

In the event you ever accidentally dial 911, please just stay on the line and let them know a call was made in error. Otherwise, they will assume someone is in distress and will automatically dispatch help. Thank you!

We are in the process of completing our staffing plan for the 2021-22 school year. We are projected to have 460 students, likely 20 or 21 classrooms, and the same PE, Music, ELL, and Special Programs staffing as this year. Will we have openings? At this point I’m not sure. While we have Torree’s retirement, Dawnelle’s leave, and Katie V’s resignation and move east, any openings we have may be filled by a teacher(s) returning from leave or who has been teaching district CDL from a different school. There are a significant number of people returning from leaves/teaching CDL in our district and with an anticipated enrollment drop at the elementary level in Bend-La Pine, some returning teachers may be placed at different schools. Once the dust settles in HR with these placements I will follow up with you about grade level teaching assignments for next school.

It’s that time of year when you may wish to gift classroom items to others. If you have goodies up for grab, please either invite people to your classroom to see them or put them on a table in a discreet area outside of your classroom. Thank you!

In February you received this email about planning for potential classroom quarantining. With case counts spiking in Deschutes County it is a great time to review the plan you have in place for this scenario we hope doesn’t happen.

One week to go! The final MAC Day of the year will be the week of April 26th. Thank you for being eligible to participate and completing the MAC Training by Friday, the 23rd

Because Deschutes County was over 200 cases/100K, secondary schools (not elementary) will begin offering rapid COVID-19 tests to symptomatic students/staff by Monday, April 26th.

Wednesday EA Support: Eagles’s Nest

A Week

April 19th-April 30th

Thank you for all of your efforts this year supporting the social, emotional, and academic needs of our students. With the data we have on our students in reading and math growing by the day, we are planning to finish the year with 1 traditional EBISS meeting per grade level. These meetings will be in the Media Center @ 3:15 on the dates below. Lybe will be sending more details to your team about these meetings.

1st grade – Tuesday, May 4th
2nd grade – Thursday, May 6th
3rd grade – Tuesday, May 11th
4th grade – Thursday, May 27th
5th grade – Tuesday, June 1st
Kindergarten – Thursday, June 3rd

Heads up! The final MAC Day of the year will be the week of April 26th. Thank you for being eligible to participate and completing the MAC Training by Friday, the 23rd

We are canceling the Staff Meeting on April 20th. Our next Staff Meeting will be May 5th @ 2:00 (Location TBD)

Next week is an A week

Wednesday EA Support: Discovery Falls

April 12th-April 23rd