Week at a Glance

Happenings Next Week at Lava Ridge:  

• Monday:  ICCL Meeting @ 2:30 in C5
• Tuesday: Karen Rush/Tammy Doty Site Visit @ 8:00
• Wednesday: Walk and Roll to School Day!  SIW: Educator Network Day
• Thursday: Fire Inspection @ 10:30; 4^th grade MTSS (C5), K-3 & 5^th thank you for having a rep @ PTO Meeting in the Media Center @ 2:30

It’s Firebusters week! In your mailbox is a flyer for your students and coupons for free ice cream for those who complete the five days of activities and return their sheet. Thank you for your time collecting the returned sheets and for your support of this program! Please route collected sheets to the office by October 17. We’ll send an email reminder too that week.

Thank you for continuing to select Wayfinder lessons as “completed” after you’ve taught them to your class. If you haven’t yet, you can go back retroactively and do this. The Office of Student Well-being has asked that we continue this practice.

From TLC: If you haven’t yet, please register for the Educator Network Day on October 8th. Here are the topics and locations.  Thank you for registering even if you plan to attend the session at your school.

We are planning that students will learn the Bend La Pine Schools anti-bias lessons between October 16-28. The ICCL Team has set aside time for teachers to review the lessons during SIW on 10/15. We’ll have information for families (including the lessons) in the our newsletter.

From Julie Richards, Curriculum and Instruction: This year the decision has been made to adjust progress monitoring requirements.  Here are the 25-26 Progress Monitoring Guidelines  Schools will receive an email with a spreadsheet that lists who/what to progress monitor.  Students who score 0-10th percentile are monitored 2x per month and 11-20th are monitored 1x per month using acadience progress monitoring materials.  If the spreadsheet indicates “NONE” that means you do not have any students in that grade level below the 20th percentile.  You can choose to progress monitor additional students. ROAR is given as a benchmark: September, January and June.  It can be given as a progress monitor in November and March.  More information on when that window will open as we get closer to the date.

From Educational Technology: Starting October 8, teachers will have access to grade-level data for all students in your grade, not just your homeroom. This change was developed with input from instructional coaches and in response to teacher requests, making it easier to review scores and plan during grade-level meetings.

In addition to your homeroom, a new class will appear in Clever and other core applications that includes all students at your grade level across the school. For example, if you teach 4th grade at Juniper, you’ll see a class titled Juniper – All 4th Grade Students.

Both your homeroom and grade-level classes will appear in each application, including Acadience, RGR, DreamBox, Amplify, Lexia, and ILC — with Forefront to follow. When creating assignments or assigning other digital content, be sure to select your homeroom class so materials go only to your students. Each application makes it easy to switch between classes when needed.

Staff Room Tidy Team:  4^th Grade

Next Week is an A week

Happenings Next Week at Lava Ridge:  

• Tuesday: Lockdown Drill @ 10:00
• Wednesday: Lava Care Team Meeting @ 8:00 (C5); Belonging Assembly* @ 12:05 in the gym (loading @ 12:00) SIW: Work in Classrooms
• Thursday:  National Custodian Day!  Photographer on site for new web page pictures; PTO Meeting in the Media Center @ 2:30
• Friday:  PTO Movie Night @ South Playground (gates 6:00, movie @ dusk)

Here are the Assembly expectations to review with your class for Wednesday. Thank you! At this assembly we will also be announcing Buddy Classes for the year. 🙂

From TLC: Registration is open for the first Educator Network Day on October 8th. Here are the topics and locations.  Thank you for registering even if you plan to attend the session at your school.

Thank you for always having a walkie-talkie with you on recess duty. This is important for communication in the event of student injury and to be able to reach staff or students on the playground.

Here is the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) lockdown lesson to review with students in preparation for the drill on Tuesday. We are planning to announce the beginning of this drill over the intercom and will be joined by several members of the Bend-La Pine SRO team, Scott Bojanowski (Safety Department) and Kayla Martin (Safety Department).

The PTO is planning to have three after-school (2:30-3:15) meetings this school year in the Media Center. Similar to years past, one of the agenda items will be 1-2 minute teacher updates. Thank you for having a member of your team attend to share goings-on at your grade level. Attendance is not necessary if you have MTSS.

In response to the incident on Monday the Maintenance Department mowing team will be making the changes below:

1. Using mulching machines for areas around school windows (when available)
2. Operating mowers with the discharge sides positioned away from windows.
3. Ensuring proper use of the mower discharge guards so that items caught in the mower are not projected upwards toward windows.
4. Throttling the engine lower around windows so that any debris is not disbursed a great distance

From the Guru of Tech, Brad: I had a teacher at another school lose years of work when their laptop died. It doesn’t appear they had their data backed up anywhere. Apple makes this pretty easy to back up your Desktop & Documents folders to iCloud which is great because Apple also gives Education customers 200 GB of storage instead of the normal 5 GB. Take a few moments to make sure this feature is on and save yourself some grief. Reach out if you have any questions. Note: if you are using some other backup service like the Google Drive app, please don’t proceed.

From Kinsey in the Office of Policy and Advocacy: Here is the Bend La Pine policy and guidelines for religion and holidays.

If we could visit any fictional time or place we would go to…

• I would love to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
• Jurassic Park
• The 1960s
• The Shire for second breakfast
• Narnia!
• Hogwarts
• The Hundred Acre Woods
• Joseon Dynasty – historical kingdom of Korea
• Any of the dig sites from Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory
• Stars Hollow, Connecticut
• Hmm, the shire from Lord of the Rings? It looks cozy, peaceful and relaxing
• a place where everyone gets along…
• The Emerald City
• The Grid (from Tron)
• The land of OZ
• 1800’s
• Smallworld (from Disneyland)
• Hogwarts
• Visiting a fantasy world with dragons and magic would be pretty amazing!

Staff Room Tidy Team:  3^rd Grade

Next Week is an B week

Happenings Next Week at Lava Ridge:  

• Monday:  Pledge of Allegiance on the announcements; ICCL Meeting @ 2:30 in C5
• Tuesday: Karen Rush Site Visit @ 8:00;  Dental Screening (no schedule for this event-a runner will come to classes for students being checked)
• Wednesday: SIW:1:45 Curriculum Night Preview and Work Time
• Thursday:  Curriculum Night 5:00-6:30
• Friday: Bus Evacuation Drill (Here is the link: BUS EVAC)

As we discussed at the Staff Meeting, we are ready to launch sub badges! If you will be using this system, please let Kina know in advance so she can have an iPad ready for your substitute when they arrive. Thank you!

Coming to your in-box…Slides for Curriculum Night! Thank you Sara Blanchard, Megan Williams, and Laci for creating these! Please make a copy prior to editing

Thank you for your time reminding families of Bend-La Pine safety policy issues you may encounter. Time escorting adults without an employee or volunteer badge to the office or reminding families with dogs/pets on campus that they are not allowed, helps to keep us all safe. I understand that these conversations can be uncomfortable especially if we know the family well and your help with this communication is appreciated.

Heads up! A new technology training was recently added in Vector. Thank you for your time and efforts with these!

NatureConnect Central Oregon and their network of partners offer over 30 different outdoor and nature-based education programs that connect students to nature, engage students in science practices, and deliver content knowledge about local natural resources issues. You can find more information at: https://natureconnectco.org/programs/

On September 30 @ 10:00 we will have our first lockdown drill of the year. Here is the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) lockdown lesson to review with students prior to the 30th.

Staff Room Tidy Team:  2nd Grade

Next Week is an A week

Happenings Next Week at Lava Ridge:  

• Monday:  Library Classes Begin; Staff Meeting @ 2:30 in the Media Center
• Wednesday: 8:00 Care Team (formerly SST) Meeting @ 8:00 (C5);  SIW: Work in Classrooms
• Thursday:  Karen Rush Site Visit @ 8:00; Lava Team Meetings @ 2:30-3:15

We are planning to have a fire drill (really this time! 🙂 ) Here again are slides to review with your students. We will announce this drill on the the intercom prior to sounding the alarm.

Kenya will be on leave from September 18-December 19. During this time Andrea Thompson will be substituting in her classroom.

We are planning to begin saying the Pledge of Allegiance each Monday during the morning announcements beginning September 22nd.

Considering a field trip this year and need a First Aid class to meet the new 1 certified staff:60 student ratio? You can sign up here (First Aid/CPR Course) and once completed attend an in-person check-off with Oliver Tatom to receive your card. The next in-person check-off is on October 1st.

For those with field trips before Winter Break, if you are registered for a First Aid class (or in the process of completing one) you will meet the new field trip requirement. Beginning January, staff will need to be certified prior to the field trip.

On Monday, the ICCL Team started to create slides that classroom teachers can use for Curriculum Night on September 25th. These are in draft form and we will get them to you soon. The focus of SIW on September 24th will be for teachers to have time to prepare for this event. Here is an informational letter families will receive next week.

From Tech Services: Swank is our district’s new streaming service for feature films, offering a library of 215 titles, with the option to request additional films when needed. It provides a simple, legal way for teachers and administrators to use movies in the classroom and for school events, while replacing personal streaming services and hardwiring devices. Learn more in our Introducing Swank blog post.

Karen Rush will be on site each month for principal mini-observations. I will list these in Week at a Glance.

Staff Room Tidy Team:  1^st Grade

Next Week is an B week

Happenings Next Week at Lava Ridge:  

• Monday: ICCL Team Meeting @ 2:30 in C5
• Wednesday: SIW: Extension of Core/Intervention Planning, ROAR Training, & DIBELS Preview @ 1:45 in the Media Center
• Thursday:  Fire Drill likely; PLC Meetings @ 2:30-3:15 (locations determined by team)
• Friday: PTO Coffee Cart in the Staff Room! DIBELS AM; Leave and Time Sheets Due

Thank you for helping lunches to go smoothly this week!   The person on each grade level team that assists the last 10 minutes of lunch with student questions, dismissal of groups outside and tables inside, and if possible, standing by the silverware bucket with positive feedback to students as they return forks, is a huge help!  Thank you also for your time coaching students on where they line up at the end of lunches and for the hallway reminders for those classes that are walking back to class on their own!      

Have you checked out the Lava Ridge Resource Guide? Thank you, Kina!

At the end of the week we are planning to have a fire drill. Here are slides to review with your students. We will announce this drill on the the intercom prior to sounding the alarm.

Staff Room Tidy Team:  Kinder Team

Next Week is an A week

Happenings Next Week at Lava Ridge:

• Tuesday:  Optional Work in Classroom Day
• Wednesday:  First day of school! Tuesday Specials Schedule; Half of our kindergarteners will be in attendance; Let’s wear staff shirts!
• Thursday: Half of Kindergarteners attend
• Friday: All Kindergarteners attend

We are planning that students will eat lunch outside the first week of school.

We need you!  Staff who are not teaching or supporting students @ 7:30 on Wednesday-Friday, September 3rd-5th are needed to help walk students to class on the first days of school.  Thank you!

We are continuing to use Seesaw and Synergy email this year for home communication. Mid-year (January) the district is planning to launch a new communication tool, Parent Square, that can also be used to share classroom and whole school information.

We are planning for the regular library schedule to begin on Monday, September 15^th

We are looking forward to being back together as a staff next week! Here again is the schedule for August 21-September 3rd.

We are excited to welcome these amazing people to our staff this year!

• Sarah Belanger – Occupational Therapist
• Alisha Clawson-3rd grade
• Nicole Castagno-Bridges Teacher
• Ahna Jura-1st grade
• Anissa Wiseman-1st grade
• Kelly Sproba – SPED Teacher
• Raydell Boston– Night Custodian
• Zoey Harris-Media Manager

A warm welcome back to Matthew Crawmer (music), Sally Brown (counselor) and Cassidy Schutz (Special Programs EA) and celebrating a new adventure, Paige Allen (ELL).

Got a favorite picture from the summer? Please send it to Laci ([email protected]) for an activity we are planning for next week. Thank you!

When we debriefed our Youth Truth results in May, one piece of feedback we heard was the desire of teachers to be able to ask for donations from families for classroom items. We discussed this feedback with PTO and will have 2-3 times this year when teachers, via the PTO, can request donations from families for classroom items. Yahoo! On Monday, we’ll discuss the system PTO will use to facilitate anonymous donors to fill these requests. Thank you for continuing to maximize your PTO $ and district discretionary dollars in lieu of asking for donations from families at other times during the year. This helps us to maintain fairness and equity across every classroom, while empowering families that are able to donate to do so through the PTO.

Below is the meeting schedule we are planning for this year.  Specific meetings can be found on the “LRE Main Calendar” on Outlook.

• Monday’s: Staff Meetings (planning for just once a month) & ICCL Meetings
• Wednesday’s:  School Improvement Wednesdays
• Thursdays’:  MTSS, Lava Teams, PLCs, & PTO Meetings (each grade level will send a rep, unless booked in MTSS)

Thank you ICCL Team for helping to plan Inservice Week! The team this year includes Tracy Mauze, Sarah Kamasz, Sara Blanchard & Megan Williams.

On Thursday, August 28^th between 10:00-10:30, classroom teachers will send a brief (really, it only needs to be a couple of sentences) email via Synergy to families welcoming students to their class and reminding about Open House that afternoon from 4:00-6:00. 

This month we have sent two letters to families. They are listed below:

Welcome Back Letter

September 2nd Letter

Safe Schools Trainings: You should have received an email in mid-August titled “Your Vector Training Plan Details”.  Mine was in my “other” mailbox.  This contains details on trainings to be completed by October 31^st.   At the Vector Training, K-12 website for Bend-La Pine Schools: https://bend-or.safeschools.com you will be prompted to enter your username which is your employee ID as an 8-digit number (e.g. 00005678)

We are planning to invite a small group of students who benefit from quieter environments to meet with their new teacher at an alternative Open House time on Thursday.  For some, this will be just before we open the doors at 4:00 PM. Emily Curfew, Kelly Sproba or Danny McGuire will be in contact with you to coordinate a time if this would be advantageous for one of your students.

Safety Reminder: When arriving in the morning, please enter the building through the main entrance or bus entrance doors and not the side gates.

At Open House you may have families ask about volunteering in your classroom. Whether/when to have volunteers is at your discretion.  Volunteers need to be assisting with a specific task at a specific time, and whenever possible, complete tasks inside your classroom.  All volunteers will need to complete a background check.  Background checks are good for 2 years and Kina or Kim can assist with double checking applicants status.  The link to volunteer is under the “Parents” tab on the Bend La Pine Schools web site:  https://www.bend.k12.or.us/district/organization/volunteer Thank you for letting Kina and Kim know in advance when volunteers will be arriving so they can welcome them to Lava Ridge.

Visitors again will be allowed on campus during the day when invited for events.  At the beginning of the year, we will only be inviting families to attend meetings with teachers and Open House.  If you or your team would like to invite families to events during the year, please let me know so we can work together and plan for this. We are not planning to have visitors in the building during lunch or at morning arrival.

We need you!  Staff who are not teaching or supporting students @ 7:30 on Wednesday-Friday, September 3rd-5th are needed to help walk students to class on the first days of school.  Thank you!

Greetings!

I hope you are having a restful and fun summer! 

The DeFrang’s have had a wonderful July and August.  We’ve stayed close to home outside of a trip to Portland to see family and pick blueberries.  Matthew (18) has been lifeguarding at Juniper Swim and Fitness and getting ready for his freshman fall term at OSU Cascades, Jon (15) is learning to drive and getting ready for his sophomore year at Caldera and Kim continues to teach fitness classes for Bend Parks and Rec.  I’ve really enjoyed having time with our family, some great swims, and working part-time at the amphitheater.  

Every August brings fresh excitement for a new school year, and I’m eager to work alongside you and make this one of the best at Lava Ridge!  Regardless of how long we’ve worked together, I believe it’s important, for you to understand some of my leadership beliefs and what you can expect from me this year as principal.

I am relentlessly positive and try to see the opportunities in the challenges we face each school year.  You can count on me to prioritize trust and relationships and do everything in my control to make Lava Ridge a great place to work. 

In supporting a positive work culture at Lava Ridge I believe we must communicate with words and actions that support one another and build trust.  During my 21 years as a principal, I’ve seen the negative impact that gossiping, talking behind other people’s backs, and not respecting other colleagues, can have on this goal.

I believe in face-to-face communication and value hearing from each of you directly because it helps me understand your perspectives and support you better.  I’m not a fan of, “Well, I’ve been talking to people and lots of them are very…” or “At lunch today, staff were saying…” Encourage those people you have been talking to to talk or meet with me. It’s similar to when a parent shares a concern with me about a teacher, I will direct them to the teacher to discuss the issue.  Please feel welcome to come to me anytime with questions, ideas, or concerns—my door is always open, and I promise to listen with respect and confidentiality.

I have high professional expectations for myself, for you, and Lava Ridge.  I believe that it is our job and responsibility to give our students our best each day and that every day is an opportunity to make a difference.  There are days when each of us (me included) would rather be somewhere else. I get it. On these days, I fake it. I made the choice to be here and serve in this position and owe it to our students and families to be the best principal I can be every day (even when I might rather be skiing). 

We need to have strong relationships with our students and their families, use the best instructional strategies and district adopted curriculum, and be open to learning new ideas that can help us to grow, whatever our role is at Lava Ridge.  We are all here to serve our students and families and have each made the choice to do this in the Bend-La Pine Schools at Lava Ridge.

Finally, having a healthy work/life balance is important to me.  Away from school my job is being a dad, a husband, and doing things like swimming that bring me joy.  You will most likely not see my car in the parking lot on the weekends or receive emails from me at 9:00 at night. When I’m here, I work hard and try to be as efficient as possible with my time.  Time is precious and I encourage each of you to also have a healthy work/life balance.

Keeping you well-informed and providing opportunities for you to share feedback is important to me.  This year, Week at a Glance, will again be an important part of our communication system at Lava Ridge. I will send out notes to you weekly, typically on Fridays, and appreciate you making this a must read before the start of the next week.  I want you to be well-informed of goings-on at Lava, have the information you need to do your job, and for us to limit the need for in-person staff meetings to once a month.  Thanks for reading.  I will also continue to send out periodic, Quick Check-ins, to see how you are doing.  Your well-being is important to me, and this provides another way to share feedback with me in addition to our in-person conversations. 

I’m excited to work alongside you this year and will do everything within my control to make it a great year for our students, families, and our staff.

Here are some nuts/bolts for the start of the year:

Elementary start and end times for 2025-26 (same as last year): Regular Schedule: 7:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.; School Improvement Wednesday 7:45-12:45 p.m.  (beginning September 10^th)

Certified Work Hours for 2025-26: 7:15-3:15 p.m. 

Details below for August 21^st – September 3^rd

Thursday, August 21^st

• Option for certified Work in Classroom Day

Friday, August 22^nd

• Option for certified Work in Classroom Day

Monday, August 25^th

• Certified Inservice Day @ 7:15-3:15 (Media Center)
• Breakfast and Lunch Provided

Tuesday, August 26^th

• Certified and Classified Inservice day at Lava beginning at 7:15 a.m. (gym)
• First day for Educational Assistants
• Breakfast and lunch provided

Wednesday, August 27^th

• District Professional Learning Day for Certified Staff (staff who attended the math training during the summer are excused and could use as a Work in Classroom Day or take the day off)
• Lunch on your own
• Non-contract day for Educational Assistants

Thursday, August 28^th  

• Certified workday; 10:00-6:00 p.m. 
• Teachers send welcome email to families by 10:30
• Work in Classroom Day
• Lunch on your own
• Open House 4:00-6:00 p.m. 

Friday, August 29^th  

• Inservice activities followed by Work in Classroom(2+ hours)
• Lunch on your own

Tuesday, September 2^nd

• Option for certified Work in Classroom Day

Wednesday, September 3^rd

• First Day of School! Half of our kindergarteners will attend on the 3^rd and the other half on September 4^th.  All kindergarteners attend school on Friday, September 5^th.

Welcome back Sally Brown! While disappointed to learn that our counseling staffing allocation has been returned to .5 FTE, we are happy to have Sally back with us! Silver Rail will be Sally’s other site for 2025-26 (their staffing was adjusted back to .5 next school year, too)

Congratulations to Sarah Kamasz and Sara Blanchard who will be joining Tracy Mauze and Megan Williams-Bell on the ICCL Team next school year!

2025 Open House will be on Thursday, August 28th from 4:00-6:00 PM. We will adjust work hours on this date to 10:00-6:00

Save the date! On Monday, the ICCL Team reviewed the feedback staff provided in May on ideas for evening events we might host next year for families. We landed on a curriculum night on September 24 from 5:00-6:30. This will likely involve teachers hosting three, 25 minute sessions in classrooms and sharing daily schedules, classroom expectations, Seesaw communication, and what students will be learning during the school year. With three evening events part of the collective bargaining agreement next year, the team also discussed having one of the other evening events be the Lava Ridge Showcase, and the third one, a choice event, such as PTO Movie Night, Bingo, Kindergarten Open House, or a music concert. We’ll discuss more details in September.

Happenings Next Week at Lava Ridge:  

• Monday:  The Lava Ridge Olympics!  ICCL Meeting @ 2:30 (C5)
• Tuesday:  Staff End of the Year Celebration @ 3:16 (Cascade Lakes)
• Wednesday: Thursday Specials Schedule; 5^th Promotion @ 1:00 (South Playground); 5^th Promotion Walk @ 1:45 (South Playground) *
• Thursday:  Dress Up Day: Vacation/Beach; Wednesday Specials Schedule; Dismissal @ 12:45; Staff Root Beer Floats @ 1:30 in the Media Center  

*We will announce via intercom when we are ready for classes to come to the Promotion Walk.

Here again is the schedule for the Olympics on June 9th. Preps are during the time classes are at the Olympics with all recesses on the South Playground.

Culture of Care Summer Institute Registration

Construction Impacts to Back Parking Lot: This summer, Sky View’s roof will be replaced and the parking lot we share with them will be used for material storage. Beginning Wednesday, about 25% of the parking spaces will not be available and the entire lot will be closed from June 16-August 29.

2025 Open House will be on Thursday, August 28th from 4:00-6:00 PM. We will adjust work hours on this date to 10:00-6:00

With 5th Promotion Wednesday on the South Playground, we are moving all PM recesses to the North Playground. If you normally supervise 3^rd recess, please join your grade level on the North Playground. Here’s the schedule:

Wednesday June 11^th

• 12:00-12:15 5^th Grade North playground 
• 12:15-12:30 Kinder and first grade will play together on the North  playground.
• 1:00-1:15 4^th grade will play on the North playground
• 1:15-1:30 2^nd/3^rd and the ¾ blend will play together on the North  Playground

Staff Room Tidy Team:  EA Team   

Next Week is a B week