TO DO:

Due to staff returning on Tuesday, Sept. 1, let’s change our MS Horizontal to Wednesday (9/2) for next week. We’ll still meet at 2:00 in my personal room. _________________________________________________________

Please share this with your teachers: As you know, a requirement during Comprehensive Distance Learning is to record and post any lesson (launch at a minimum) you deliver on that day. After consulting with legal counsel, student voice, student image, and student name are ALLOWED to be recorded and uploaded/shared within your Canvas classroom. So you may, if you choose, record the first lesson launch you deliver live (in Webex), save that recording to your desktop, and then upload to your Canvas classroom. _________________________________________________________

MS admin, please add this Zoom link to your calendar. This BRYT-sponsored workshop will occur next Friday (9/4) from 10:00 – 11:00. Here is a description of what you’ll be engaged in:

 Self and Collective Care as a Foundation for Transitional Leadership

The stress associated with seemingly unending changes, uninvited endings, and evolving expectations about new ways of doing things can feel overwhelming. Factor in the concerns about the well-being of staff, students, their families, our own families, and each other, and levels of stress become an even more serious concern. With this understanding, and grounded in the knowledge of transition leadership, this session puts forth a shared responsibility framework for systemic approaches and practical considerations for taking care of ourselves as leaders and then shifting to the facilitation of collective care for the staff you work with. ________________________________________________________

Some questions have come up regarding iPad insurance. In a nutshell, parents can still pay for iPad insurance this year. Please refer them to this district site for more information. (You might want to include this in a future parent communication.) ________________________________________________________

Thursday morning at our MS Q & A around schedule and Standards of Practice, there were a number of questions related to attendance. This seems to be an area of “how will this work?” that is currently causing some angst amongst teachers. Here is a document that you should read (or one of you become an expert in if you are part of an admin team at your site) and become familiar with. Let Paul or I know what questions you have. Then, share this with your staff and be ready for their questions to come. 😁. ________________________________________________________

The other popular topic at the MS Q & A was related to Google Voice (a common tool used to transfer incoming calls to your classroom phone forward to your home/cell phone – while disguising your home/cell phone number). Here are some instructions on how to set up Google Voice. There are also these instructions that describe how to enable call forwarding with your school phone. Either/both of these processes will need to be done individually, as there will not be a district process that will occur to make it happen globally. Additionally, you are able to make a call from your personal phone and disguise your number by first dialing *67 (followed by the phone number you are calling). Please share these with your staff. _______________________________________________________

I’m not sure if you’ve had an opportunity to look at our metrics lately, but thought I’d spend a moment highlighting there here. As a reminder, all three of these required metrics (before a hybrid model could be considered by our school board) would need to be met for three consecutive weeks. The state positivity rate must be at or below 5%, our district positivity rate must be at or below 5%, and our case rate per 100,000 people must be at or under 10 cases. This is the metrics page that I find easiest to locate this data. Make sure you select Deschutes County in the top left of the page. ________________________________________________________

You recently received (or soon will!) an email from Alandra with a list of suggested topics to cover with your families in your regular communication channels. You will likely receive a similar email from Alandra every week, for the next handful of weeks. In an effort to coordinate communication coming from your school and the district, please make sure you have disseminated the topics (in your next family communication) that Alandra is suggesting, as you receive them.

THIS and THAT:

From HR: New hires should not be working before they are cleared. We have been working very hard, but the drug and background check is out of our control. Please let new hires know that they can’t attend Monday’s New Teacher Day unless they are cleared. New teachers will have the opportunity to watch the videos at a later time as they will be recorded. If the new hires watch the videos later that they will still get the $100. _______________________________________________________

Following is a clarification of the workdays for your classified EA positions prior to Sept. 14. During the week of Sept. 1 – 4, all classified (who aren’t on the clock yet) have one day of work to report in for – at your discretion. During the week of Sept. 7 – 11, your classified EA (those who haven’t reported to work yet) folks have three days of work – specifically Wednesday – Friday. _________________________________________________________

Here is an UPDATE regarding the distribution and collection of materials (between home and school). Last week in Collective I included a document outlining what you needed to have in place in order to start this distribution process. This document highlights changes that have been made from previous versions. Please use this version moving forward. __________________________________________________________

Here is a document that outlines things to think about and do regarding Welcoming Staff Back into your Building. Please read through and become familiar with these items (so you can ensure they happen). ________________________________________________________

Who doesn’t want to know more about Staff Contract Tracing? Good thing you do… because here is all you ever wanted/needed to know! Please read through this and reach out to Paul or me with questions. ________________________________________________________

There is some concern (hopefully unwarranted?) about the number of students who may wish to transition between Bend-La Pine Online and home school learning platforms. While this will be allowed, students should be encouraged to remain in whichever platform they begin the year with until the end of the first semester. This document was shared with all district counselors today – and would be good for you to be aware of as well so you are ready when conversations or questions arise. _________________________________________________________

If a staff member feels ill after entering a school site, they are to isolate themselves within the building and immediately call their supervisor.
The supervisor will text Tami Pike, Health Services Supervisor, at 541-350-8387 with the following information:
This is [insert your name] and I have a staff member feeling ill.   Please call me.  The staff member can be reached at [insert phone number].
Tami will call you and advise you and the staff member’s next steps. Please share this protocol with your staff. ________________________________________________________

Here is information regarding student Attendance for this year. It is another information heavy document that you need to read through to the end – as that is where it talks about autodialer being a day delayed in reporting. Reach out to Paul or myself if you have any questions on this. _________________________________________________________

Look for an 18 min. COVID-19 Training video created by our district nurses to be released early next week. We would like this video to be a district required training. Everyone should view it before September 11. Staff who have concerns about returning to work may want to watch it prior to coming into the building. ___________________________________________________________

Here is an update on Canvas-related news. You will likely receive some questions about these – so please take a few minutes to read through these. ___________________________________________________________

Here is an update on athletics, grades 6-12. Please reach out to Dave Williams (district AD) or myself if you have any questions:

High School Summer athletic workouts will continue through September 11.  Beginning Monday August 31^st all athletes will be required to register for their sport on Family id and have a current physical on file at their school.  There will be no pay to play fees for season 1!  

The Bend LaPine Schools athletic programs will pause from September 12 through September 27 for the successful start to comprehensive distance learning.  We are tentatively planning a September 28 OSAA season 1 start based on returning to limited in-person instruction.  A firm decision on opening season 1 will be made on September 3^rd.    

Middle school athletics will not be offered in season 1 and we will be working with community partners in the hope of having expanded opportunities for middle school students during this time.  We have traditionally mirrored the high school sports calendar with our middle school offerings and will be continuing in that direction for seasons 2-4.  The tentative start date for middle school season 2 winter sports will be with boys park and recreation basketball in early November, girls basketball and wrestling will tentatively follow beginning in January.  Fall sports will move to a season 3 later in the school year.  The opening dates for season 3 (fall) and season 4 (spring) will be discussed by middle school athletic directors and administration.  Look for plans to be communicated through your school’s athletic department in the coming weeks. _______________________________________________________

As you begin thinking about your “limited in-person instruction” plan, please note that, per ODE guidance, the time a single student or student cohort of any size can spend in your building on a given day cannot exceed 2 consecutive hours (and can’t be intermittent). ___________________________________________________________

The following is from Dana regarding FAN advocates, whom she also emailed with this same info:

Here are some general guidelines.  These are in the process of being finalized but in general are the parameters of working from home.  
FAN Advocates will have the option to work at their site or at home, with these caveats:

• Advocates are expected to be working and available during workdays and during work hours. 
• Principals may require staff to report to the building for a variety of reasons with 24-hour notice: team planning, trainings, to meet clients, etc. 
• If an administrator has concerns about a staff member needing more support, that staff member will be expected to report to the building during working hours. When working at a site, proper safety measures such as wearing a mask, physical distancing, washing hands, and limiting teams to small groups will be expected. 
• Confidentiality needs to be maintained during work hours.  Unless a FAN Advocate can secure a location in a room adjacent to the FAN office, Advocate children will not be able to come to school.  

Please reach out to me any time if you want to discuss these expectations.  As a reminder, these provisions are for CDL only.  New expectations for working during the Hybrid learning option will be shared at a later date.

REMINDERS:

I know I started with this, but that seems like a long time ago! Our Horizontal meeting next week will be on Wednesday (at 2:00) rather than Tuesday.