TO DO:

In preparation of next Wednesday’s Excellence and Equity Collaborative training, each of you (everyone!) is being asked to create, bring, and be ready to share with your group an I Am poem. Here are the prompts to follow in creating this poem. (Plus an example poem from our presenter). _____________________________________________________________________________

If you haven’t lately, please remind your staff that their workday hours are 8:00am – 4:00pm. A question about work hours has recently come up (at all levels) and I want to make sure all MS certified employee groups (teacher and admin) had this reminder. Please share this as appropriate. _____________________________________________________________________________

We have an opportunity to send one teacher from each school to “Rethinking the Classroom:  Digital Best Practices that Maximize Student Learning in Virtual, In-Person, and Hybrid Environments,” on October 26^th and 27^th.  This opportunity is offered via the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project and will be offered virtually through Zoom.   

Here is a brief description of the institute 

Grade:  K-8 

The pandemic of 2020 transformed teachers all over the world into digital teachers overnight.  The initial scramble led the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project to support teachers in doing whatever they could to connect with students, build community and provide access and support for a high volume of reading and writing.  This institute will include workshops on various aspects of digital teaching, with opportunities to choose the learning that feels right for your particular situation and learners.  Part of the time will be focused on what we have learned about synchronous and asynchronous teaching, considering the pros and cons of both methods.  Presenters will highlight ways that technology can provide access to our most vulnerable readers and writers to help them flourish, opening up the modes in which students can participate in learning.   

Our timeline to attend this training is very tight!!!  Please choose one teacher from your building that would like to attend. In addition to your teacher participants, principals can also attend if they would like.  You must apply for this institute.  Click here to apply.  You will have to create an account and then apply.  Once you receive a notification that your application has been accepted you will want to use your school credit card to pay for the training.  You can work with Wendy Reeves to get an account code.  _____________________________________________________________________________

THIS and THAT:

I mentioned to you earlier this week – in our Horizontal – that we are going to make some changes to our calendar of leadership-type meetings. The first change is that we will no longer have any “informational” Leadership meetings for the rest of this year (those that were scheduled to meet the first Wednesday of the month). Second, our horizontal meeting that falls during the same week as when Leadership meetings were scheduled will now solely become time spent on Instructional Framework PD. The dates for these can be found here (green column). If you have any questions about these changes – or leadership meetings this year in general, please let me know. _____________________________________________________________________________

Another item that I mentioned to you earlier this week was that you’d likely receive an update to staff “sick leave” language – with the goal of adding clarity for all. I had anticipated that this update would be included in this week’s blog, but now it will likely be sent out from Jon on this coming Monday instead. (The delay is due to a health-related meeting that is occurring today that will confirm a process included in this update… so the delay for accuracy sake is a good thing.). ______________________________________________________________________________

And speaking of leadership-type meetings (and noted above), next Wednesday you should have an Excellence and Equity Collaboration meeting on your calendar. We are meeting at PCMS from 3:30 – 5:00pm. NOTE: We are meeting in person like we did in August. You can take a look at this page if you don’t recall where you met last time. Courtney Tucker with BRYT will be facilitating these meetings for us – and each MS group will have a “local” facilitator as well for breakout discussions. _____________________________________________________________________________

Here is this month’s ELL newsletter. There are a number of pieces of useful information here – including a teaser regarding interpreter/translation services. _____________________________________________________________________________

Here is a LIPI question from Paul: If a student comes into a building Monday through Friday for 2 hours each day, does he/she counts as 1 person toward the 250 weekly max? (Answer below.) I also hear that Paul is giving out prizes for correct answers… 🏅 _____________________________________________________________________________

Here are two other topics from Paul to read about (and respond to if you’d like/haven’t already)…

District Family Connections Team Update

Our district teams meets every other Friday and very much wants to support your school’s efforts to keep students engaged and supported with their physical needs.  Thank you for listing your school’s contact on this spreadsheet.

A few schools are experimenting with a mobile bus model to deliver food, clothing, supplies, instructional materials and other items to students’ homes and needy neighborhoods. Email Paul if you like to inquire how this might work at your school.

Some of you requested community resources to support your families and we’ve attached two links below:

• BLS Family In Need Website –  https://www.bend.k12.or.us/district/parents/families-need 
• Bend Food Resources English/Spanish

We will be working with the tech department to run attendance reports per school to measure the level of student engagement and then reaching out to schools to see how we can support your work.

Hybrid Learning

The following document has been reviewed by the health professionals and our local county health partners to assist staff in safety measures when designing learning tasks. Risk Mitigation in Implementing Instructional Best Practices.  Please email Paul if you have other instructional best practices that you’d like us to create a safe practices checklist for.  _____________________________________________________________________________

The first of 3 upcoming Disciplinary Literacy Trainings is coming up on October 28^th from 2:00-4:00.  Here is some talking points for you here.  This training is for new hires (not just new teachers.)  There are a few exceptions: Special education teachers, English Language Teachers, Counselors, DI teachers, World Language teachers, teachers under .5 FTE.  If you would like a specific list of your teachers attending please reach out to Dean. ______________________________________________________________________________

An update from Jon… As you know, we agreed with the BEA to have a committee work on our Performance Evaluation Manual and make recommendations on what should and shouldn’t be evaluated in a CDL model.  For now, we are going to put SLGSs and Evaluations on hold until we get the committee’s recommendation.  We have received several calls asking if principals should be doing mini observations and/or formal observations.  You are welcome to start observations.  We realize that some teachers are a little anxious, to say the least, about being observed on Webex.  This is a great time to remind teachers that we use a collaborative/coaching model for observations.  We are here to help improve instruction and to facilitate a positive learning environment so that students can grow, succeed, and achieve.  We can argue that teachers need more support now, than they have needed in the past.  Also, don’t forget that TLC has developed some classes and materials for teachers that need some support.  We’ll get through this together. _____________________________________________________________________________ 

This section is a mix of updates and reminders from Scott Bojack. Whoever oversees emergency drills should spend some time and dig into this. First, here is our Portal page with district safety training and drill info. (Note: The BLS “guidance” document is worth the read as you plan your drills this year.) Second, the following is a summary of the guidance from the ODE Ready Schools, Safe Learners that requires schools to continue to conduct drills/education during CDL and is on page 6 of the BLS Safety Drills Guidelines:

In accordance with ORS 336.071 and OAR 581-022-2225 all schools in the district (including those operating a Comprehensive Distance Learning model) are required to instruct students on emergency procedures in the school setting and conduct drills to practice emergency procedures. Emergency drills will continue throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic as per existing rules, statutes, and board policy.

We have posted the information about fire and emergency drills during CDL on our district website under the “Emergency Preparedness” page:  https://www.bend.k12.or.us/district/home/emergency-preparedness

Drills can and should be carried out as close as possible to the procedures that would be used in an actual emergency. For example, a fire drill should be carried out with the same alerts and same routes as normal. If appropriate and practicable, COVID-19 physical distancing measures can be implemented, but only if they do not compromise the drill.  

Staff should be trained in changes to drills prior to return to school and conducting any drills in the school setting. All standard collaboration (i.e. fire department, alarm company) and documentation remains required.  

We have also updated the BLS COVID-19 Cleaning Protocols document to reflect the change to our new cleaning and disinfecting product. I’ve asked Deby in IT to update the Return to Schools website with this current document. https://www.bend.k12.or.us/district/home/return-school

Links to Additional Resources for Drills/Education:
These are from the Bend Fire Department: 

Videos:  https://www.bendoregon.gov/government/departments/fire-rescue/education-videos-and-virtual-tours

Educational curriculum:  https://www.bendoregon.gov/government/departments/fire-rescue/teachers-parents-and-kids

This link is to the I Love U Guys Foundation and has videos/training for our Lockdown, Lockout, Evacuation, and Shelter drills: https://iloveuguys.org/downloads/. _________________________________________________________________________

AIR QUALITY PROCESS REMINDERS

Bend-La Pine Schools service area spans 1,600 square miles. Three DEQ AQI reporting stations track air quality within the district boundaries; two in Bend and one in La Pine.

STAFF
When readings are over 200, staff working outdoors should be moved indoors.

In La Pine, we watch the DEQ station and utilize the most recent reading.

In Bend, we watch the two DEQ stations and take the higher of the two for the Bend area.

We do not use the 5-3-1/Visibility Scale for conditions at or over 200 AQI, unless the DEQ monitors are down for three or more hours.

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

Decision makers should be familiar with the following: https://www.osaa.org/health-safety/air-quality and  https://sharedsystems.dhsoha.state.or.us/DHSForms/Served/le8815h.pdf.

Decisions should be based on a combination of the nearest active AQI monitor reading (Bend NE 8^th & Emerson, Bend Pump Station, La Pine Rural Fire Dept 103) AND 5-3-1/Visibility Scale. ____________________________________________________________________________

Here is some info from Misty regarding STAS trainings…

Student Threat Assessment System (STAS) refresher training will be via Zoom this year in order to meet Best Practice and Fidelity standards of the Threat Assessment Model.  A Google Doc is attached for sign up.  Training sessions are grouped together by school-level and a maximum of three schools will be able to sign up for the training time.  The refresher training should be attended by the school’s Level 1 team which includes; school’s admin team, school counselor, school psychologist, and school resource officer.  It is not necessary that school psychs and SROs attend multiple sessions if they serve more than one school.  Following the school’s sign up a link for the training will be Zoom link sent to the contact person listed on the sign-up document. 
Training times begin the week of October 26th, I am hoping that you will share the sign-up link and details in your weekly blog as well as an email to assure that each school is able to find a time that Level 1 Teams can attend. 
Please email me with any questions or feel free to call me on my cell at 541-521-8833. Misty 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DVPfeNJVi50qbGV7uEhfMPRho5MdmwunA4p0cQZoIkU/edit?usp=sharing. ___________________________________________________________________________

REMINDERS:

Looking forward to seeing you all Tuesday at 2:00 for Horizontal! ____________________________________________________________________________

Excellence and Equity training on Wednesday from 3:30 – 5:00pm. MS leaders will be meeting at PCMS (thanks for hosting Lisa!). _____________________________________________________________________________

Answer from Paul: Correct, this student example only counts as 1 towards the 250 student weekly max.