TO DO:

Here’s what you’ve been waiting for. Hot off the presses, Lora provided us with a condensed version of the MOU between the district and BEA. Please read this summary document carefully as some of these agreements change what has been our plan/practice – specifically around SIW days. Jon will join us at our Horizontal on Tuesday to answer questions, but if you would like to talk through any of what you read please give me a call prior to that. _________________________________________________________________________________

Here are two documents that you may want to share with your staff. One has to do with proper storage of disposable masks. The other are directions of how to put on and take off a disposable respirator mask (KN95). ________________________________________________________________________________

There are some updates that you need to know about (some are changes from previous communication) as they relate to COVID/RSSL/BLS practices. Here is a document from Paul that provides the latest guidance, based on what we know today. Please read this and share with staff as needed. [Note: Some of this information is also addressed by me later in this blog.] _________________________________________________________________________________

Please share this letter (English and Spanish) in your next parent communication. This letter outlines the communication steps that will occur every time there is a positive COVID case at a school. This would be a good one to also share with your entire staff, but especially those who will be answering the phone when parents call with questions. Related to this, remember, and begin communicating now, that we are not able to share (due to HIPPA) who has been diagnosed as having a positive case in the school… and giving hints to help the questioner figure it out is not recommended either! _________________________________________________________________________________

I plan on resuming regular school visits in February. Principals, please email me a date/time when you’d like for me to come visit with you – and have a space where we can talk and remain socially distanced (I’m good with meeting indoors or outdoors, just tell me ahead of time if I need to wear my outside shoes!). _________________________________________________________________________________

You have probably heard by now that you are able to add back some extra duty assignments (e.g. intramural, after school supervisor, etc.) now that kids will be returning to school. Here’s the catch… only hire/renew the positions that will be working directly with students AND those that occur during non-work time (before/after work hours, during prep, or 30 min. duty-free lunch). I’m sure you are needing additional supervision in this current COVID/social distancing world we find ourselves – but we do not want to pay someone an extra duty stipend that is not doing any extra duty work. _________________________________________________________________________________

This year, more than most, it is VERY important that all semester 1 (and quarter 2) grades are posted by the morning of Monday, Feb. 8. On this date all students who are moving from brick and mortar school into either BLPSO or district CDL will be dropped from your enrollment and Canvas Grade Pass Back will no longer be functional. _________________________________________________________________________________

THIS and THAT:

If you get in a jam with not having enough front office coverage (e.g. staff are out due to quarantine) please know that Andrea Wilson has mentioned that she is willing to come help for an immediate need if you find yourself in a pinch. _________________________________________________________________________________

As you know, each of your schools has a School Safety Checklist on our district website. What you may not be fully aware of is that these are being read frequently and thoroughly. It is really important that these checklists are not only up-to-date, but also contain complete information (everything that you have in place at school should also be communicated in your plan). _________________________________________________________________________________

If you have a student who refuses to wear a mask (and the reason is not IDEA or health-related), do not make this a discipline issue. In this situation, remove the student from the general population (office or meeting room where other students are not present) and see if this can be resolved. If it cannot, please call the parents to explain the situation. If it still cannot be resolved, then explain that the educational options for students who chose not to wear a mask are BLPO or district CDL and help them get connected to one of these. Further, if a student refuses to wear a mask on the bus in the morning then the driver will bring that student to school (rather than leave them unattended at the bus stop) and notify the school. You should make every attempt to meet this student prior to them entering the building (notify whoever will be doing your visible checks of students at the door) and go through the same process as just described. _________________________________________________________________________________

I shared this with you at our Horizontal on Tuesday, and hope you’ve had a chance to send this survey (re: upcoming appointments) out to your staff since then. If not, I’m linking it here for you again. Please provide me your raw numbers by Monday so I can see where our overall MS needs might be. Don’t forget to make a copy of the survey first before sending it out!

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At some point, it is likely that your school will have some exposure to a positive case. Our district has prepared a number of family letters related to a variety of exposure examples. You can find these letters on the Portal at this location. Additionally, here is the site on the Portal that includes many of our documents that are COVID-related. _________________________________________________________________________________

Here are a couple of follow-up pieces that I committed to from our Horizontal this week… If we have significant snow, both late start or cancellations are possible. Language around what teaching/instruction will look like on a “cancellation” day is still being worked through with BEA, so don’t communicate any plans yet. Lastly, we are asking that you (and all of your building staff) continue to check-in and check-out every day at your site. This means you will either need to limit the number of doors to enter/exit, or provide check-in/out opportunities at each location. _________________________________________________________________________________

You may or may not have heard that the decision was made this week that the district will suspend all “pay to play” fees for MS and HS activities and athletics for the remainder of this school year (season 2, 3, & 4). Your AD was told this information on Tuesday so is aware as well. _________________________________________________________________________________

You likely also heard this news coming out of ODE around assessments for this year. Here is that news: The board approved a temporary rule at OAR 581-022-0104 that waives Essential Skills graduation requirements for students who graduate in 2021 and Local Performance Assessment requirements for students in Grades 3-8 and high school for 2020-21. _________________________________________________________________________________

Here is an FYI regarding what attendance calls home will look like in Hybrid:

• Continue to call parents informing them of their student(s) with an NPV code.  The call will go out the next school day following the virtual class.  The calls go out at 11:00 am.
• Students with an Unexcused or Unverified absence on a scheduled in-person day will get a call home on the same day as the scheduled in-person class. _________________________________________________________________________________

Following is some recommended travel advisory information that we touched on at last week’s Horizontal meeting. Would you please share this with your staff and families in an upcoming communication:

Please consider these CDC quarantine recommendations if your family has plans for either domestic or international travel in the months to come. 

Bottom line for both – Individuals who have traveled out of state (domestic or international) are recommended to:

• Get tested 3-5 days after travel AND stay home for 7 days after travel. 
  • Even if you test negative, stay home for the full 7 days.
  • If your test is positive, isolate yourself to protect others from getting infected.
• If you don’t get tested, it’s safest to stay home for 10 days after travel.
• Avoid being around people who are at increased risk for severe illness for 14 days, whether you get tested or not.

Also, take these actions for 14 days after you return from travel to protect others from getting COVID-19:

• Stay at least 6 feet/2 meters (about 2 arm lengths) from anyone who did not travel with you, particularly in crowded areas. It’s important to do this everywhere — both indoors and outdoors.
• Wear a mask to keep your nose and mouth covered when you are in shared spaces outside of your home, including when using public transportation.
• If there are people in the household who did not travel with you, wear a mask and ask everyone in the household to wear masks in shared spaces inside your home.
• Wash your hands often or use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.
• Avoid being around people who are at increased risk for severe illness.
• Watch your health: Look for symptoms of COVID-19, and take your temperature if you feel sick.
• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-during-covid19.html
• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/after-travel-precautions.html
• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html. ________________________________________________________________________________

REMINDERS:

Principals, don’t forget that I’d like your SLGGs done by Feb. 1 – Monday. Let me know about any questions related to this. _________________________________________________________________________________

Horizontal meeting Tuesday at 2:00. Please have your calendar handy as we’ll be discussing both the frequency and date/time of future meetings. Also, Jon will join our meeting in order to answer MOU questions. Here’s our agenda. _________________________________________________________________________________

As a reminder (from our Horizontal meeting on Tuesday), you are allowed to have band and choir classes taught outside – pending weather and being able to maintain social distancing of 6′ between students. Weather-permitting will be a local school decision. Per Paul’s communication today (see link in above post), PE can occur indoors. _________________________________________________________________________________

A few weeks ago we talked about 5th-grade forecasting. Specifically, we talked about videos that you’ve created for communication for current 5th graders and their families. As a reminder, I’ve created this folder to place a copy of your videos for others to see. There are only two in there now (PCMS and HDMS), so this is just a reminder to add yours if you’d like to.