Hot off the press, here is the weekly update from Lindsley Gehrig
Teachers: As you are connecting with families over the next couple of weeks your assistance is appreciated in helping us to confirm whether students are returning next school year to Lava Ridge. As you know we had originally planned to do this via a hard copy we would send home as this information really helps us with scheduling for next year. Thank you for completing this doc for your class by June 12th.
Here are English and Spanish versions of the letter families in 3rd-5th grade will receive regarding students keeping iPads over the summer. Families not wishing to keep iPads will be able to return them to Lava Ridge (schedule TBD) We will be sending this letter to 3rd-5th students early next week. Let me know if you have any questions.
The next scheduled grade level WebEx meetings will be the week of June 1st-5th. If your team would like to meet with Lybe and I next week (5.26-5.29) just let us know.
Leaving through an exterior door to the front/back parking lot or into the courtyard? Thank you for double checking that the door fully closes behind you. Some of them have been particularly stubborn closing lately and we are wondering if they are missing the regular use they receive when we are in school. đ
We have an open ICCL position for 2020-2022. Here is the job description and application requirements can be found on the staff portal by searching ICCL. If you are interested, please submit an essay to Candy Gelatt in the HR office. Each candidate will also ask a colleague to submit a Confidential Recommendation form directly to Candy in the HR office. The recommendation pdf on the portal is fillable.
As part of our Monday morning email to families we will be messaging the information below about year-end conversations. While originally planned to be communicated from District Office, Gary Timms has asked that Elementary schools send this information and verbage to families.
End-Of-Year Conversations – During the week of June 8 through 12, elementary teachersâ focus will be having conversations with you about your childâs progress, sharing information about report cards, and answering your questions. Please look for more information in the weeks to come from your childâs teacher so that you can schedule a time to connect
While tight, the standard comment all elementary students will receive should fit.
Teachers will not be able to insert marks (on their report card entry window in Synergy TeacherVue) on the items displaying an âNAâ or âN/Aâ. These areas are grayed out on their views in Synergy.
Teachers will not be able to insert or modify the Semester 2 Comment.
The marks of âPâ and âIâ are now available in the drop down list that displays the available marks for the report cards.
On Wednesday at 10:00 we will have a Classified Staff Webex to share updates and answer questions about the remainder of the school year.
Dreambox and Lexia will be available to students throughout the summer
We learned yesterday that students in 3rd-5th grade will keep their iPads over the summer. We should receive a letter soon from the Tech Department that we can use for communication with families about this.
We should have more information soon about year end items such as 3rd – 5th iPad check-ins, year-end checkout for staff, etc. We are also anticipating the final approval of our staffing plan for next year in the coming weeks and will share information about teaching assignments as soon as we are able to. I will update grade level teams with information as we receive it (or have guidance on it) or will communicate through Week at a Glance.
Our next newsletter (going out Monday) will have a link to Classroom Input forms for next school year. On this doc families are invited to share information with us about their child to assist in class placement for next year and are reminded these are not teacher request forms.
As you read last week, May 27th is the day that families will be able to come to Lava Ridge to pick-up bagged-up items from desks/lockers. This will also be the last packet distribution day for K-2nd. If your team would like to hand these out (packed up items & learning packets) or other year end-items in late May or early June on a different date, below are some steps to follow so we can best coordinate these times, make the event safe and comfortable for all, follow the Bend-La Pine Schools Social Distancing Guidelines and space-out the arrival of patrons to campus. If you have questions just reach out to Lybe or I.
Schedule a date and time with Gary & Lybe so that we can make sure that grade levels arenât overlapping.
If your grade level would like to distribute items as a team (ie all teachers at that grade-level) we will schedule you in a 3-4 hour window (ie 9:00-12:00 or 9:00-1:00) As you decide between the length of window you may wish to consider how long you would like to talk with each student/family.
If you would prefer to schedule individual teacher times, we will schedule you in 1-2 hour windows. As you decide between the length of window you may wish to consider how long you would like to talk with each student/family.
2. On the date of please:
Provide a 6ft buffer from cars and families. Sometimes people arenât comfortable asking for space.
Keep distant from your team mates during handout to respect their space.
Encourage families to stay in their cars so that you can bring them their items OR spread bags out so that 1 person from each car can grab their items.Â
I feel so honored to get to work alongside each of you and hope you have a wonderful week. Your hard work and care make everyday a wonderful one for our students and each of you shapes the positive experience they have as Lava Ridge Lions. Thank you! On Thursday, morning in honor and celebration of you, Lybe and I will be hosting drive-through donuts at the Main Entrance of school. We hope you will consider driving by Lava Ridge and getting a donut between 9:00-11:00. We will of course wear gloves and put cleanliness as a top priority.
The May Marathon Challenge is on! Families received information about the marathon via a School Messenger email and many picked up information this week during pick-up days with their packets/recorders/classroom materials. Families will be able to pick up Activity Recording Sheets in the atrium and can also find details on the Lava Ridge PTO website
Looking for some fun? Join Lybe on Wednesday at 7:00 PM for the app phone game, Psych! Be sure to download the app in advance and be ready to outwit your friends and colleagues.
Lindsley Gehrig’s weekly update can be located here.
Beginning Monday morning, we will be sending a weekly email to Lava Ridge families with links to the following information:
Weekly Announcements
Recent copy of the newsletter (we are back to sending these out twice a month)
Media Center News
Other announcements (ie Updates on May Marathon, etc)
On May 27th families will be able to pick up the remainder of their child’s desk and locker belongings. On that day we will have a team ready to distribute both learning packets (K-2nd) and packed up student items. Our fabulous EA team is working through all of our classrooms packing up desks/lockers and should have items packed up in the next couple of weeks. If you or your grade-level would like to do your own distribution day/time where you are here and assist families with getting their packed up school items at the Main Entrance please let Lybe know and we can schedule a time for you and your grade level to do this.
The PTO is participating in a fundraiser with a local company selling yard signs to Kindergarten and 5th grade families. Here are ordering details.
Ready for some fun? We are going to play Bingo as a staff on Thursday at 3:00. This is optional and more details and Webex link will be sent out early next week.
This week we received a revised staffing plan for the 2020-21 school year. This revised plan reflects an anticipated drop in state revenue and Student Success Act (SSA) dollars. In very simple terms we will be staffed similarly in 2020-21 as this year. In a meeting this week, it was explained to principals that having no historical comparison for the impact the pandemic will have on state revenue, economic recovery, or student enrollments, made setting school staffing allocations challenging and that they may change. Here’s where we are at this point:
We are planning for 22 classroom teachers + PE/Music + part-time Intervention
ELL + 2 Special Education Teaching Positions + Speech
In this revised plan we did not receive any SSA FTE. What this means is we will not hire a behavior/SEL position or additional position to help with class sizes. This was the most significant change from our original allocation. The district is planning to continue the behavior support program that is in place this year at Silver Rail/North Star
We will submit a staffing plan to Gary Timms by May 1st
In mid/later May staffing plans will be approved by the Superintendents Cabinet
Once our plan is approved I will have details for you about teaching assignments for next year.
The May 20th state revenue forecast and potential use of State Legislature approved-reserve fund dollars might impact the Bend La Pine Budget for 2020-21
Here is a letter from the PTO Board. Outlined is information on the freezing of all PTO funds for the remainder of the year due to the cancellation of the Read A Thon and hopes to have funds to start the 2020-21 school year.
Welcome to Charles Beavis who will be joining our Special Education Teaching team next school year. Charles currently teaches in the San Francisco Unified School District at Alvarado Elementary School and will be relocating to Bend this summer. Sara Towne, Lybe and I Webexed with him today and he is excited to join our staff.
Miriam will be sending out updated account balances to teachers this week. We have been asked about carryover to next year and similar to last year, you will be able to carryover Student Body dollars that are not spent this year and will receive a new allocation of discretionary dollars in September (ie discretionary dollars can not be carried over from year to year).
We are not planning to have a full staff meeting in May. With Webex, the larger the meeting group the higher the probability of bandwidth/connectivity issues so are purposefully not using this avenue for communication of important information. We will continue to share important information during weekly team meetings and through Week at a Glance.
What we are experiencing right now with Distance Learning and the pandemic is hard and can surface a variety of emotions in us all. In the event you have a concern or question or just need to talk, know you can also always contact Lybe or I directly or enter your questions in this doc Lava Ridge Questions. I am at school most days and can be reached in my office at 541.355.2402 (home: 541.317.8356) and Lybe at 541.312.3239. Email is also an option too.
The Running Club group has put together a fun at home fitness challenge for students (and staff!) called Marathon in May. For every 15 minutes of physical activity, kids earn 1 mile. For 13 miles, they earn a Running club hat and at 26 miles, earn a marathon T-shirt. Grade levels that have packet or learning materials to pick up this week can get information when they come to Lava Ridge and all families will receive via email the launch video and download tracker. Attached are the instructions and tracker for reference. Questions? Email the Running Club group [email protected]
On Wednesday from 9:00-3:00 we will be distributing packets for K-2nd and on Thursday from 9:00-12:00 families will be able to come to school and pick-up recorders (4th, 5th) and learning materials (3rd) .
Thank you for all of your hard work this week connecting with our students and families. You are making a difference in their lives!
Packet distribution on Wednesday went very smoothly. In some classes every family stopped by and got their next round of learning on Wednesday and by weeks end only a handful of packets remained in the lobby. That is amazing and reflects the time you are investing into staying connected with families and encouraging students to stay engaged with learning. Thank you!
MAC Survey day is Tuesday! If you have not completed your training please do this by 12:00 on Monday.
PTO is working on a Running Club May Marathon Challenge. More details coming soon including how we are planning to connect student running logs to Google Classroom 3rd-5th (recording sheet for k-2nd will be sent home with packets on April 29)
If you have not yet viewed the newsletter we sent out earlier in the week you can read it here.
Monday morning all families should receive a link to access a weekly announcement for next week. I am trying a platform called Loom and plan to announce birthdays, etc. Fingers crossed.
Thank you for all of your hard work this week. Think of everything you have learned and accomplished! You should feel really good about this. You are making a difference in the lives of our students and their families. I talked with one family this week who said the highlight of their child’s day was a WebEx with their class and another who shared their thanks for the learning materials and routine their teacher is providing. Nice job. As you will continue to hear me say, be sure you are taking good care of yourself. Please do something for yourself today that you enjoy or recharges you. Do it.
It was great to meet with so many of you this week via WebEx and hear about the innovative and creative ways in which you are connecting with our students. You are off to such a great start! Below are some of the big takeaways from these meetings:
We have been able to connect with almost every Lion. At this point there are only 8 students we have not been able to reach yet.
WebEx’s with our students are going well. Feedback was very positive about this and how much students seem to enjoy this type of connection. Making connections with students and being in regular contact with them is so important.
Our families are appreciative and are also working through the adjustment to remote leaning. The feedback on the Tech Help Line for families (541-355-8700) has been positive. We will be sending out a school newsletter next week and will be reminding families of this resource.
How we give feedback to students is developing. This is very understandable. Keep taking it slow and sharing ideas with each other on how you are giving feedback to individual students.
Learning material development is going well. K-2nd families will pick up the next round of learning packets on Wednesday from 9:00-3:00 and 3rd-5th are preparing to push out next rounds of learning.
We are getting in the rhythm of sending daily messages to our classes. This doesn’t have to be the same platform (ie WebEx, email) everyday, feel free to mix up. I’m hearing from families how much their students enjoy these daily connections.
With the Governor’s announcement on Wednesday that students will not return to school this year we have started to discuss the logistics involved with some of our standard end of the year routines. Some of these year end dates may be set or directed by the Superintendent’s Cabinet and/or Business Office. At this point we are tentatively planning that students will pick-up bagged materials from lockers/desks on May 27 (schedule TBD) Please do not share this date until it is confirmed. We are setting this date a ways out so our short term focus can remain on learning the new routines of distance learning and having regular virtual-communication with students, to keep students and families engaged with learning through June 11th, and this date in particular because it is our final packet-pickup day of the school year. Miriam and Amber have ordered paper bags and labels and we will confirm this date and others, as soon as possible.
To ease time spent looking for Google doc links and posts, we are launching a one-stop shop, Lava Ridge Distance Learning Docs Check it out! Thank you Lybe and Amanda for your work on this!
The Spring MAC Survey day will be the week of April 20th. All of us will need to complete the annual training prior to the survey date. Links to the information Tarra sent us earlier in the week are below:
If you have educational materials for a family to pick-up they can access the foyer at the Main Entrance between 8:00-2:00 each day. Feel to leave marked items on the tables in this area. We will continue to leave the next set of doors locked (the ones you go through to reach the secure entry/lobby)
From Alandra Johnson: Social Media and Resources for Families
SOCIAL MEDIA: We are seeing an uptick in digital communication and many schools and staff creating new social media accounts. Staff members wishing to create a professional social media account need to check in with Alandra Johnson. She has some important guidelines and tips to share about using social media while representing our schools. Send an email to [email protected] (She is also glad to hear from those who have already created accounts and now want to make them official.)
RESOURCES FOR FAMILIES: When sharing community resources with families, be sure to use our district pages, which are updated, vetted and approved (many are also translated):
Summative Evaluations:  These will still occur for certified staff that were scheduled to be evaluated this year. This process will be done on Talent Ed as usual. This process will be done electronically with discussion done over the phone or with WebexÂ
SLGGs: SLGGs do not need to be completed this year. This requirement is being waived.
You were amazing this week! Think of the things you learned and accomplished. Think of the joy you brought to your students and colleagues! Keep taking it slow, pacing yourself, and giving yourself a lot of grace.
How did you do with the focus on your mental and emotional health this week? If you feel you can do better taking care of yourself, I encourage you to write down a couple of goals for yourself and put them in a place where you will see them a lot and do your best to start achieving them. Focus on things that are realistic and help you to mentally reset and feel reinvigorated or/and are fun. This is important. Maybe it is getting outside for a walk? Watching a You Tube video of your favorite music artist in concert? Starting gardening early? Reading a fiction book? Watching a movie as a family? Do it.
Learning material (packet/ipad) pick-up went amazing! Most items were picked up and Hillary, Yolanda, Jill, Judy, Amy, Amber, Mike, and Miram rocked it. Families that we hadn’t seen yet received a phone call on Thursday and either picked up materials Friday or had them mailed to them (we only were able to mail learning packets)
Lybe and I would like to meet and check in with every grade level team next week to see how thing are going and to learn of ways we might support the work you are doing. We will schedule these around the regular meeting times you have with your class and families using this document Grade Level Meeting Schedule
Heads up! We have been instructed to not inactive (unenroll) students between 3/16 – 4/30. We are to keep all students enrolled at Lava Ridge even if they are doing some form of online school, whether through the district or other academies. If families share with you that they have âunenrolledâ just let Amber know. For these particular families, feel free to share with them that âduring these unique circumstances all students will remain an active student at LRE until we receive further directive from the school districtâ. For now it is perfectly fine for families to be enrolled at LRE and still do online schooling elsewhere we just wonât be officially inactivating their status in Synergy until further notice.
We should be learning more soon about the direction Bend-La Pine Schools will be taking with the ODE’s Oregonâs Distance Learning for All. I will be in communication with you about this once I have information to share.
Child abuse reporting remains critical, especially during these times. A fillable form is on the portal so you can complete and submit electronically. Bend-La Pine Schools received the following from the KidCenter: âLast week, the Oregon Department of Human Services released data indicating that calls to the child abuse hotline have dropped by 70 percent since the mandated closure of K-12 Schools due to the coronavirus. These closures mean that most children no longer have daily interaction with teachers and school personnel who are required by law to report concerns of abuse and neglect. When we also consider social distancing mandates, it is even less likely that children will have much interaction with adults outside of their home who might be able to identify and report signs of abuse. These factors are compounded by added emotional and financial stress the coronavirus pandemic is bringing to many families, all of which is likely to place more children at increased risk for abuse or neglect in their home environment. We know that as the pandemic continues to evolve, it is a matter of time until the real impact to children becomes known and reports of abuse and neglect begin to skyrocket.âÂ
We are planning for a WebEx support session to share ideas about Google Classroom and WebEx on Wednesday or Thursday. We will send out a time early next week after we have a better understanding of when class meetings and office hours are scheduled.
Ready, set, spend! May 1st is our cut-off day for any final discretionary account purchases* Why May 1st? Each school year we do our best to spend all of the dollars in our school budget (we refer to these as discretionary dollars) by mid-June as any money that is not spent by June 30th is lost. This is tricky. Many of the orders we place are not reconciled from our budgets for weeks after they are placed making our real school budget balance on any given day a moving target. This deadline for orders/expenditures will help us to know how much money we potentially have available to spend towards supplies and other items we need. This year we are hoping to purchase paper and projectors with our remaining funds. If you don’t plan to use the remaining dollars in your accounts that is ok, just let Miriam know and we will then use them to purchase supplies and projectors.
Student Body (SB) balance (including grade level) will carry over to next year.
*We understand you may need to make small purchases after this date and just ask that you make Miriam aware of these by May 1st. These might include year-end parties, incentives, etc.
Buddy activity in Discovery Falls
Week at a Glance for March 9th-13th
Monday:
Tuesday:
2:45 Staff Meeting
Wednesday:
School Improvement Wednesday: SIOP Collaboration and Grade Level Project Work Time. The team that is working on SIOP implementation will be meeting in the Media Center and other members of grade level teams are encouraged to use this time to work on items that are of benefit to your team (ie grade level conference prep, ordering grade level supplies, inventory of science materials, submitting Print Shop orders for the team, etc)
Thursday:
Drum Residency Begins
2:00 February PAW Celebration
2:45 Site Council in the Media Center
Friday:
Resiliency Survey Day (More details will be shared at the Staff Meeting)
Nominations are open for the Bend-La Pine Schools, 2019-20 Excellence in Education awards. We will be submitting the name of a certified and classified employee who will be recognized in May and will then be considered for the district level award in their respective employee groups. I would appreciate your input into the decision of who we select as our certified and classified recipients for Lava Ridge. If you are interested in nominating a colleague, please complete this form and return to me by Tuesday, March 17th and we will then use this information in making our school nominations to the district. Thank you!
Early next week we will have the conference preference forms to you for Spring Conferences (April 8th and 9th from 12:00-7:00). For Spring conferences we will be using our standard conferencing format (ie. 20 or 30 minute conferences like we hosted in October). Sibling conference scheduling is on March 17 @ 2:45 in the Media Center.
