Elementary Retreat- We will have our annual August horizontal meeting on Friday, August 23 from 8:30-noon at Three Rivers. Thanks for hosting, Tim! We will start with a light breakfast and coffee- so don’t get up early to eat. We will have an optional no host lunch for those who want to join us after the meeting. Sorry about the Friday thing, but all the other days kept getting taken.
Please send me a picture of yourself during a highlight from your summer with a one (or two) sentence description of what you did. I would like this by Monday, August 19.
Calendar- Here is a copy of your work calendar. Please do not send it to me. JoAnne has created a slick and easy google doc that will link to leave sheets and keep track of everything for you. I will be able to see it all in one place. It should be ready for you to work on shortly. JoAnne can answer any questions you may have about it.
Staffing- As of this afternoon, we are around 250 students short of projections at the elementary level. That sounds worse than it actually is as most of the deficit is kindergarten, which is normal. We are currently sitting at exactly the number of FTE we were allotted in the spring, but since we are overall still under, we wait. We won’t get to hire more unless we exceed our overall projections. Until then, any hot spots will need to be addressed through moving staff, either to a different grade within a school or through transferring. It goes without saying that we will want to wait as long as possible to do any moving and in the meantime, we’ll keep hoping that we get more students and can hire rather than transfer. Feel free to keep me in the loop on hot spots you have, but please keep the above in mind if you are asking for more staffing. Please be sure to keep registration up to date. Please wait on any ACR’s that are submitted to you. The message is that you won’t really be able to give anyone an answer until the week before school at the earliest. Please give me a call if you would like to discuss ACR’s at your school.
From Sean- Sean asked me to share some information on National Suicide Prevention Awareness week. Please check out the following fliers: Candlelight Vigil, Mindfulness, True Stories.
High Needs Student Support- As you may recall, each school has been given additional funding in your discretionary accounts to cover 70 hours of EA time for high needs students. If/when this has been used and you still need support, please complete this form to request extra staffing from special programs.
SIW Contract Changes- Article 15, Section C, has been struck from the CBA. This is the language about 50% small group time, etc. Schools are not required to consider this in their SIW planning.
A new section has been added to Article 15. While the CBA is not finalized, this is the language agreed upon: One early-release day (SIW) per month will be allocated for member-directed individual work time, to be determined by level (elementary, middle school, high school). We will decide as a group at our meeting on 8/23 what those dates will be (factoring in that we can’t use district SIW’s).
New Teacher Orientation- Please remember that you are to introduce your new staff at the new teacher orientation. In the spring, we asked that you have your new staff complete this form to help you with your introduction. Choose ONE of the questions to share in your introduction of that teacher on new teacher day. Please also provide one piece of school ‘swag’ (t-shirt, water bottle, coffee mug, lanyard, etc.) to your new staff member during introductions.
2 hour Secretary positions- As mentioned last year, we will still be able to contribute some money towards these positions this year. We are still waiting for our Title IV allocation. Due to the fact that we will be having these positions for a longer period of time at a higher rate than last year, the money we have will not cover the entire two hours. My goal is to provide $ to schools on a sliding scale rather than giving everyone the same amount of time/money. This is so that smaller schools don’t have to use a much larger % of their discretionary $ to fund the unpaid time. Once we know the dollar amount, I will be able to let you know how much you have to go towards this position. Call if you have any questions.
Out- I will be out of the office on 8/15, 8/16 and 8/19 so that I can take my daughter to school (sad face). I will be checking email when I can and you are welcome to contact me by phone. There is a chance I will be also be out 8/21 and 8/22 to take my other daughter to school (sad face again). I’ll let you know. In the meantime, kid number 3 still has two years before he leaves the nest.
Upcoming Events
8/12- Safety/ investigations- 7:30-4:00- Riverhouse
8/14- Leadership Dinner- 5:00- Dana’s house- 62880 Dickey Road
8/20- Leadership academy- 8:00-4:00-Summit/Pacific Crest
8/23- Horizontal Meeting- 8:30- noon- Three Rivers
8/26- New Teacher Orientation- 7:30-9:30- Sky View
8/27- All Staff Welcome Back- 1:00-4:00- Bend Senior High