Today’s notes are full of important information brought to you by the following: Julianne, Jon L. and REI. I add a little at the end.
From Julianne- Skip Offenhauser is days away from opening up the application window for additions to the adopted or supplemental Health curriculum. Our district offers rich social emotional health and wellness curriculum throughout all levels, including video and speakers, for teaching and learning. Only those persons and materials approved by the Health Advisory Committee should be in front of our students. For example, suicide awareness, tobacco cessation, sex trafficking, sexuality, alcohol, vaping, etc. materials must be approved for use as well any guest speakers on these topics. If teachers have materials or speakers that they would like to see approved, please have them share these resources with Skip and the team.
From Jon L.– Principals/Supervisors,
It is only December, but it is time to start thinking about the renewal/non-renewal process. If you have an employee that you don’t want to renew, then we have some work to do in this area before the public board meeting February 12th.
By Jan. 9th: Please have a conversation with me about any certified employee that you have some concerns about. If you have a concern about an employee, we need to start making a plan for how to move forward with that person. We may decide to start with informal supports or go to our formal process.
We have several options when we are talking about probationary employees of concern. One option is to non-renew a probationary contract. This is formally done at the Board Meeting in February. If we decide to move toward non-renewal, we will need to have some discussions with the teacher, with the BEA, and with the board during Executive Sessions. If you are having concerns with a probationary teacher, please make sure we talk about it. Once a teacher becomes contract it can be a much harder process.
I also need to know about contract teachers that you have a concern about. You may only be supporting the person informally, which is great, but I still need to know about them. If you have started the formal support system, which includes Focus Performance Review, Support Strategies, and/or a Plan of Assistance, you must contact me so that we can work through it together.
Due by Jan. 21st: Probationary three letters of support. We need to be hiring and putting the best teachers in front of students. It is an important decision when moving an employee from probationary status to contract status. After participating in the board process last several years, I have a better feeling for what the board is looking for in these letters. The board takes moving a probationary employee to contract status very seriously. They really want to know that each of you have specific reasons why each one of these employees should move to contract status. I have attached a spreadsheet of probationary three administrators and certified employees and the famous probationary letter from Matt.
If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call.
Thanks for all you do.
From REI- Hello, my name is Aaron and I am the Outreach Coordinator for the Bend REI. I’ll keep this message short, as I’m sure you receive a lot of messages each day, but I would love to be put in contact with someone at the District whom I can speak with about teaching practical bike maintenance skills to students. I know that a number of schools have bikes in their equipment inventory, and those might be especially good ones to start with. REI used to have a program in place to get into schools and teach camping basics, however, we see a lot of potential benefit in working together to develop some programming around bike mechanic work. We have a number of different ideas, and would be happy to chat with anyone who may be interested.
Thank you!
Aaron: [email protected]
I have emailed Aaron and let him know that principals have the information and will reach out if they have a need/interest in pursuing this opportunity.
January/ February Site Visits-Please sign up for a January/February site visit. Thank you.
Standards, Curriculum and PLC’s- There are a million things we could do every day to improve student learning. We obviously don’t have time to do everything, so how do we choose? I believe in putting the bulk of our energy into making high leverage actions the best they can be. With that in mind, I would remind you to never forget standards, curriculum and PLC’s. Heading into the new year is a great time to think about how you are doing in those foundational areas and what you can do to make them better.
Standards- Are teachers teaching to the standards? Do teachers know the standards? Are lessons designed with standards in mind? What is your school doing to ensure the focus of teaching and learning is on the standards?
Guaranteed, Viable Curriculum- This is a fundamental and integral part of a successful school. BLP is fortunate to have solid, well-chosen materials in reading (Wonders), writing (Units of Study) and math (Bridges). What is the level of implementation of these materials at your school? What are you doing to ensure these materials are the primary tool being used to deliver instruction?
PLC’s- When I use the term PLC, I am talking about teacher teams that meet regularly to discuss and address the four PLC questions.
- What do we want students to learn? (standards)
- How will we know if they learned what we want them to? (Assessment)
- What will we do if they don’t?
- What will we do for those who already know it?
Does your school have grade level teacher teams meeting regularly to discuss those four questions? What do you need to do to ensure this is happening?
Obviously much more could be said and books have been written about each of those. Without writing too much, I will just say that I strongly believe that those three things are foundational and schools that do those things well will see amazing gains in student learning. As I said, the new year is a great time to assess where you are as a school and take some steps to strengthen your foundation in these three areas.
That’s all for 2018! I wish for you all a Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I hope that you are able to enjoy the time away and take some time to enjoy what is most important to you. Thank you for all you do. Here’s a little something to hopefully put a smile on your face and remind you mind your p’s and q’s the next few days.