Work Day- Please see Jay’s letter regarding elementary school work day hours. Please do not share this information before Wednesday, January 23 SIW. Please do the following with this information. Thank you.
- Read it during SIW on January 23 to their staff and listen for questions that might inform any next communications
- Send an email out to their staff after SIW with the document attached in included in order to communicate to folks not able to attend the SIW.
- Share with me any questions that come up that might need to be answered to a larger audience.
New School Staffing-As was shared at our horizontal meeting on Monday, the boundary committee has made its recommendation to Shay and he will make a decision by the end of January. Jon will be sending a letter to certified staff explaining the process and timeline for staffing the new school by the end of January. Information about transfer interviews and how they impact new school staffing will also be addressed. Once again, please let me know if you have any questions re: the upcoming staffing process.
The Center Helmet Give Away- We are fortunate to be working with The Center once again to provide bicycle helmets for any third grader in need. Please schedule a time for your school. You will need to provide 45 minutes for the assembly. Following the assembly, they will fit and distribute helmets to all students who have returned a slip saying they need a helmet. Fitting is usually completed in 45 minutes. Assemblies need to take place between April 15 and May 31 and must be scheduled in the morning. Your school contact should expect an email the week before spring break with a permission letter and directions. The Center needs to know how many helmets will be needed at least one week before the assembly, so please plan accordingly with letter home. Stuart Schmidt and/or Sonja Donahue will be the contact for The Center. Please call me if you have questions. Thank you for your help with this. It’s a valuable service they offer for our students.
Leadership Academy- I know it seems early, but we are already thinking about next August’s leadership academy and we’d like your input on dates. Please let me know by next Friday if you would rather have it on August 7 or August 14. We understand there are pros and cons to each, but would love your thoughts.
Attendance- I had the opportunity on Tuesday to attend a training on chronic absenteeism (through the grant I shared with you earlier this year). The presenter was Jessica Sprick from Safe and Civil Schools. There was a lot of great information and I have shared the packet with you (minus the answers in the blanks). One statistic that stood out was the correlation between chronic absenteeism at K & 1 to proficient reading at 3rd grade. A student with regular attendance at k & 1 is nearly FOUR TIMES as likely to be reading proficiently at the end of third grade than a student who is chronically absent at K & 1. I would encourage you to find a way to stress the importance of regular attendance during your kindergarten orientation meetings and with your kindergarten parents as often as possible. As you share with parents how important it is to read to their children and help their children become independent, take the time to emphasize that helping their children attend regularly may be the most important thing they can do to ensure their students’ school success.
From Michele Oakes- In the upcoming elementary SIW series, Melinda Knapp (OSU-Cascades) and I, will be offering a session on “Strengthening Classroom Practice Through Teacher Leadership.” This session is an excellent training for cooperating teachers who will be working with teacher candidates. The session is open to all teachers who want to strengthen their teacher leadership within their school and our district.
Essay Contest Information Link to an opportunity for students third grade up.
Paying it Forward- I spent some time visiting with Linda and Tom at High Lakes yesterday and they shared a nice story of a family at their school paying it forward. After they sent the letter to their community about F & R lunch related to the government shutdown, Linda received an email from the mother of one of her students. She asked Linda how much $ was owed on lunches at the school and how many students that represented. Linda shared that unpaid lunches totaled over $300 and 39 students were represented. The mother told Linda that she had free lunches as a child and wanted to give back. She said that she would pay the unpaid lunches and would be anonymously donating $10 to each of the 39 students’ lunch accounts. We don’t always hear the positives so I thought I’d pass it on to you.