TO DO:
Please share this in your next family communication: Nutrition Services is planning to have 3 grab and go sites (Bend High, MVHS, and La Pine High) on Monday, March 22nd from 11:30-12:30 for Spring Break. We plan to serve 5 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 5 suppers in 1 bag on that day. _________________________________________________________________________________
As you know, state testing (OAKS) has been a roller coaster of “we aren’t… no wait, we are” this year. Oregon has requested a waiver to the feds to not test this year. The feds have said all states need to test students. Currently, we are at a stalemate – with no timetable for clarity. In the meantime, we are required to send out a 30-day notice of testing and provide an opt-out opportunity. Please share these next documents with your families prior to leaving for spring break: Parent message/English and Parent message/Spanish… as well as Opt-Out/English and Opt-Out/Spanish. I suggest you provide parents with some context for these letters – and steal some language out of the letters rather than create a description yourself may make the most sense. Let me know if you have any questions. _________________________________________________________________________________
And, here is another communication to share with families. This letter is intended to be shared with families who have a child involved with any school-sponsored athletic activity. (This does not pertain to PE classes.). _________________________________________________________________________________
This is a “to do” and “reminder”… Don’t forget (for yourself and your staff) to use BLSend whenever you are sharing student information electronically. If information needs to be shared that includes a more than one piece of student information (name, assessment results(s), other identifiable info) then this should not be sent via regular email (Outlook) – but rather BLSend. _________________________________________________________________________________
Here is a reminder – and call to action – from IT regarding technology security…
Our MFA info can be found at the portal page here.
If admins are using their personal mobile devices for district email, and they don’t get MFA set up by April 1, they will lose that ability until they get MFA setup. I think it’s important to note (as Brad said yesterday) this MFA requirement isn’t just coming from IT. This is something required for district cybersecurity insurance.
Our Help Desk (ext 1200) and our team of IT field techs are available for MFA support. I’ve also asked the techs to check in with their building admins to see if they need any additional MFA support.
THIS and THAT:
You may be aware of this already… but just to make sure… The district is planning on communicating all ACR approvals/denials beginning today and should be completed by Monday. In other words, you should not have to reach out to any family that has submitted an ACR prior to March 1 (if all goes as planned). As an FYI, here is the “acceptance letter” and “denial letter” that MS families will be receiving today (or Monday). If you receive any communication from a family regarding the status of their ACR (and the form was received by March 1) please let me know as that may indicate a glitch in our system (that we’re trying for the first time). If you are wondering about the status of an ACR received after March 1, please reach out to Amy Stafford with your questions. _________________________________________________________________________________
Here is a handful of updates from Paul – including performing arts practicing within classrooms:
Indoor Music/Band Rehearsals
On Monday, I met with secondary admin and music reps to review our safety measures for indoor music rehearsals. As a reminder, here are our requirements. Music teachers who have developed proposals, had them reviewed by school safety teams and communicated information to families are able to begin indoor rehearsals on Monday, March 15th.
Here is the English version of family communication along with their version of safety measures. We are awaiting the Spanish translation of each document and will email them to you and music teachers when we have them.
Funding for PPE and other Music Safety Measures
Schools will not be charged for PPE supplies that are requested through [email protected] as we’ve used CARE dollars for these items. Each school has a PPE coordinator responsible for ordering supplies. We’d encourage music teachers to work with the PPE coordinator to order what they anticipate needing through the end of April and then submitting a second-order request to cover PPE items needed for May/June.
If we don’t have specific items in inventory, schools will need to order them and use their allotted operations funds. We ask that building administrators work with their music teachers and, if necessary, boost their yearly budget allotment to support the added costs associated with indoor rehearsal requirements.
Camp Tamarak & Bend Science Station
Because we have established relationships with Camp Tamarak and BSS, they both have district permission to enter schools for instructional purposes and follow all required school safety practices. Their staff has been vaccinated.
New RSSL Update
We understand that an updated version of RSSL will be released next week and may include new language that impacts our ability to offer in-person education – in a good way. Stay tuned…. _________________________________________________________________________________
Our Instructional Technology Team has some exciting news. They’re doing a bit of rebranding and will now be known as the BLS EdTech Team (to avoid confusion between IT for Instructional Tech, and IT for Informational Tech.) They’re also excited to start sharing a bi-monthly newsletter, BLS EdTech Bytes. You can find the first edition linked here. Administrators who use the web version of Outlook will find it contains an easy & useful tip this week…so be sure to check it out for that and other exciting topics. _________________________________________________________________________________
In case you missed it, here is an article regarding our district’s look at grading practices (with a highlight of our schools with standards-based grading) that was published last Saturday in The Bulletin. Shout out to Steve and Stephen for their contribution to this article! _________________________________________________________________________________
REMINDERS:
MS Horizontal on Tuesday morning at 8:00. The first chunk of time we’ll be discussing YouthTruth survey, with a focus on how you might (or have) taken a deeper dive into the results at your school. _________________________________________________________________________________
Don’t forget to turn your clocks forward one hour this Sunday morning!