TO DO:

If you haven’t yet (most of you have not), please email me the name of the person at your school (other than your nurse) who will be your point of contact for a concussion pilot we are a part of.

Here is a bit more about what this point of contact will be involved with: The contact that would be the best person to reach out to on a regular basis to check in for new family referrals. The hope is to get in contact with families as soon as possible after the concussion occurs. _________________________________________________________________________________

Please double check with their custodians that all exterior gates are locked shortly after school starts each day. (This is a request from OSEA leadership team.). _________________________________________________________________________________

I know you are working on this already… Please continue to reach out to families of your students who are currently enrolled/attending your school this year, but are not pointed to you next year (current 6th graders), as well as those who are pointed to you, but are outside of your boundary and would need to provide their own transportation (current 7th graders). Some of these families have completed an ACR (which was likely approved) – while other families were not aware that their home school boundary has changed. The questions asked need to be: Were you aware that your home school boundary has changed?; and Do you want to continue to attend (this) school? If they want to continue at your school then an ACR needs to be completed and the family needs to know that they will be responsible for providing transportation.

Lastly, Amy Stafford shared with you (big 5 school principals) one document yesterday – your current 7th graders at your school who are pointed to you yet may now be outside of your boundary. She also shared that the grid codes in Synergy are NOT accurate – so rely on this list provided to you by Amy – and not Synergy. _________________________________________________________________________________

This is a repeat of an email I sent you this past Wednesday. The only “to do” item is a request to re-share the survey with your staff this week…

Here is the link to the updated summer learning MS staff survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsM18uD_uwzsK7Co7bzZPU8EdNCiVqBBFRtU4X7d5XcRtzRA/viewform?usp=sf_link

In short, the updates are:

• The deadline for submitting is Friday, April 2 (instead of Monday, March 29)
• One question has been added to the end, asking for interested staff to indicated what weeks they would be available to work (instead of only asking about availability for Aug. 2 – 19.

If you have a staff member who has already filled out this survey, they do not need to complete it again. Instead, all we need to know is their answer to the last question (which weeks they are available). You can either collect this information and let me know, or add it to this spreadsheet (which also has the list of those who have already completed it) yourself.
Please advertise this again with your staff… we need more folks to be interested in order to invite the number of students that we hope to. _________________________________________________________________________________

I’d like to meet with the “big 5” principals on Thursday, April 1 at 2:00. We will be discussing ACRs. By that time I’d like you to have all of your contacts made to current 7th graders who are now outside of your boundary (but still pointed to you), current 6th graders who may not be aware they are no longer in your boundary (and may not be aware that they are no longer pointed to you)… and ACRs completed for any who’s pointing school needs to be adjusted. Any MS admin are welcome to attend, but I need principals at these 5 schools to make sure you are there or represented. Let’s meet in my Webex room. _________________________________________________________________________________

THIS and THAT:

Just as an FYI… the ACR acceptance letter (you’ve been approved your MS of choice) sent to families accidentially had “high school” and not “middle school” within it, so all new letters were just sent out. This was explained in this new letter – but wanted you all to have a heads-up in case you get any questions about why they received two letters. _________________________________________________________________________________

Please share this with your teachers: At the end of our professional development conversation with Doug Reeves Wednesday, he described the opportunity to participate in a problem of practice series this spring.

If you are interested in joining Doug Reeves and his team at Creative-Leadership-Solutions as you work on a challenge, define a problem of practice, and test out interventions and ideas as you create an action research project, then sign up for the OSU-Cascades class.  It is a 2-credit class that is offered in Spring 2021 (see the syllabus for dates and course requirements).  Registration is currently open but will close on March 31st.  

To register for the class, complete the registration and application form and upload them to this google folder.  If you have attended a BLS-OSU Cascades class in the last 12 months, then you do not need to complete the application form.  There is an initial $35 application fee which will be billed by OSU-C once they receive your application.

Additionally, we will compensate teachers for the five after school sessions (including May) and the time to prep for the May share out.  

If you have any questions, please contact Michele Oakes  ([email protected]). _________________________________________________________________________________

A message from Misty Groom regarding STAS: As students have returned to in-person learning, there has been an increase in aggressive behaviors and threats; this is to be expected with heightened stress and anxiety among our students.  Additionally, we are at the time of year in which we historically tend to see an uptick in aggressive behaviors. Please reach out to me, Julianne, or Scott with Level 1 questions or concerns.  Here is a Level 1 Quick Reference Guide for Administrators.  There are additional documents on the HDESD STAS website www.highdesertstas.org as well as the Staff Portal.

REMINDERS:

Our next scheduled Horizontal (3/30) will be devoted entirely to having a conversation with Whitcomb MS in Marlborough, MA. They have been implementing BRYT for a number of years and their administration, counselors, and other BRYT staff will be sharing a behind-the-scenes look at what that program looks like at their school. Here is the Zoom link for this conversation. _________________________________________________________________________________

This was an email sent out by Andrea Wilson earlier this week:

We are excited to revive our Excellence in Education event and are ready to start gathering nominations for employees who have knocked your socks off during the 2020-21 school year.

We are looking to honor a certified and classified staff member from each school and departments are also encouraged to nominate staff members.

The nomination form is here and due back to the Superintendent’s Office by March 31 (email to me, or paper copy works great).

As you are well aware, we are not able to host large gatherings, so we are continuing to work on logistics of how to safely celebrate staff members, during the month of May…stay tuned 😊

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like nomination history for your school or department.

Thank you in advance for your help!