TO DO:

Please make sure your certified staff knows that there will be no district-driven PD meetings next Wednesday, Oct. 9. ____________________________________________________

A couple of weeks ago I let you know that there will be a Scheduling Workshop offered here in our district… and asked that you (or others involved with scheduling at your school) consider attending if you have not previously. The dates of this training are Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 and it is important to attend both days. There will be one free slot for every school, and only cost $200 for every additional staff member you’d like to send. Training will be held in the Wall St. lab. Please let me know by this Wednesday how many you’ll be sending, so any available open slots can be shared with others. ______________________________________________________

Hopefully, this is a fun “to do” task! I think I have shared this Unsung Hero video before, but I thought it is worth sharing again. In leadership positions, it is easy to get bombarded and consumed with the negative of working with people… while this video is a good reminder of how it only takes one person “believing in good” to touch the lives of many in positive ways (even those on the sidelines watching). _____________________________________________________

A couple of weeks ago I asked you to begin having conversations in your building – with your ELL teacher and others – regarding your need for interpreters for our upcoming conferences. What I need to know now is: How many interpreters do you need (really need!) for conferences (please indicate whether day and/or evening for both days). I only need to know the number of people you need outside of your school; if you have a classified person in your building providing this service and she/he will cover your need, don’t include this in the number you give to me. Please let me know what you need (even if “zero”) by next Wednesday, Oct. 9.

THIS and THAT:

Here is a short PowerPoint presentation on the First Step app on student and staff iPads. It was created with the goal of staff being able to present it to students in a class (or whole-school during 1st period) as a reminder that it is there, how it works, and what types of tips should be reported. __________________________________________________________

On Monday (10/7) you will receive an email from Carrie Hulbert (HR) with your current certified assignments and FTE. If you notice a disconnect between this document and what your teacher is actually teaching, please complete an updated PA and get that to Carrie right away. Also included in this email will be a list of the endorsement areas each of your teachers currently has. If you have a teacher teaching outside of her/his endorsement area, please contact Candy Gelatt (HR) right away.

Here is a document outlining the boundary change process that will occur this fall/winter – and go into effect in the fall of 2021 (when the new HS opens). If you are interested in learning about the timeline of this process or curious about who is involved – check this out! ___________________________________________________________

It stinks to have to communicate this, but (as you know) sometimes dog owners in our communities treat our school grounds as a local dog park – and don’t always clean up after their pet. This is more of an issue at some of your schools more than it is at others. Here are a couple of guidelines to consider/know around this topic: It is your discretion to lock your gates in an effort to limit dog owner access to your fields. If you would like signage at your field entrances, maintenance will help with ordering and installing these signs, while the cost of purchase is the responsibility of the building. We do not recommend providing “doggie bags” on school grounds as this might give the wrong impression that your fields are open for this dog activity. __________________________________________________________

I am fortunate enough to be one of three (Gary Timms and Kelle Hildebrandt are the others) going to Teachers College at Columbia University to learn more about the Reading and Writing Project (think deeper dive with Mary Ehrenworth and team). Therefore, I will be away from Oct. 15 – 18. I have my cell phone and checking my emails at least daily, but I am not sure what my availability will be during the day if you need some immediate assistance. If I am not available and you need support right away, please reach out to Jay or Katie. ___________________________________________________________

REMINDERS:

This training is next week… please shoulder-tap anyone you know who may be interested! If you have bilingual staff who are not classroom teachers and who might be available to support with interpretation during fall conferences (for the time slots we are unable to fill with our regular interpreters), we need to ensure they receive some training on this role.  Please invite them to this meeting: Thursday, October 10th 4:00-5:00pm in Room 312 of the Education Center.  Please have them RSVP to Kinsey Martin.  They will be time-sheeted for this training and paid for any interpretation time they work.  If they attended this training last year, they don’t have to attend again, but are welcome/encouraged to get a refresher! Non-BLS staff who pass a visitor’s background check and attend this training may also be eligible to be interpreters. ___________________________________________________________

Leadership meeting on Monday at 3:15 in the board room. And here is some additional info from Lora and Jay on our time together:

On Monday, October 7^th, we will be walking our leadership team through an exercise for our district’s Excellence and Equity Review that we are asking each school to complete on a School Improvement Wednesday. The activity will take approximately 90 minutes. 

To help compensate for this time, the district SIW scheduled for October 9^th has been eliminated. This does not mean you need to use October 9^th for the E & E activity! You can lead your staff in this activity on any Wednesday between October 9^th and November 13^th. We are emphasizing this because you will have some data you’ll be asked to share with your staff, and it’s important that you and your ICCL’s are familiar with the data and able to answer questions. ___________________________________________________________

Our next Horizontal is on Oct. 21 at LPMS. Reminder… we changed the start time of our Horizontal meetings to be 3:00 from now on. Please come having read (and prepared to speak about) the start of High-Impact Instruction through page 22.