TO DO:

If you haven’t already – and many of you have – please make sure your team has signed up for the BRYT Kickoff training on June 23 & 24. Lunch is provided… so we need names no later than next Tuesday (6/15) in order to assure you’ll be eating! Here is the link to sign up. _________________________________________________________________________________

This message is from Jackie Wilson, district Sustainability Coordinator. Please pass along to your staff…

As the school year begins to come to a close, please be aware of the BLS holiday standard operating procedure. This document is meant to help you guide the staff in how to close down at the end of the school year. Please make sure all of the staff has seen this document as we rapidly approach the summer holidays. Thank you for a wonderful school year. We look forward to a healthy 2021-2022 school year. _________________________________________________________________________________

The action item here is to make sure these two items are on your calendar for August:

Leadership Retreat (will likely NOT include ICCL this year) is on August 12

Our district Safety Day (trainings) will be on August 17. _________________________________________________________________________________

If you are thinking of offering a new course (one you have not offered in the past) then please remember that you need to get these approved by me (Juan next year) before it is created in Synergy. Here is a link to the Staff Portal where you can find the form for MS course creation requests. _________________________________________________________________________________

THIS and THAT:

If you are considering paying any of your new hires to participate in professional development this summer please review and follow this one-page guidance before doing so. Reach out to Paul in HR if you have any questions regarding this. _________________________________________________________________________________

Here is some “hotspot” information that includes some repeat information to share/remind families (1st paragraph), as well as new information (see link in 2nd paragraph)…

All students who have a district-issued hotspot at their home are asked to return the hotspot and charging equipment to the school front office by June 18th. Service to all hotspots will end on June 18th. Any hotspot that has not been returned to school will cease to function beyond this date.

Additionally, John Aubry and I (Scott McDonald) have devised a plan for collecting and distributing Hotspots for student use over the summer. You likely received this document last Friday or earlier this week. We are trying to keep it simple, but we certainly know that this exchange will occur at the busiest time in the school year. _________________________________________________________________________________

Probationary Classified Employees of Concern

Are you aware of the probationary period for classified employees? Before the probationary period ends, our process for removing an underperforming employee is straightforward, but after this period ends, it is more cumbersome. IN Article 11 of the OSEA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the probationary period is defined as:

Each new employee hired into the bargaining unit shall serve a probationary period equivalent to the number of work days in that employee’s normal work year or 185 work days, whichever is shorter.

185 days is roughly a school year for employees working in schools. You can email Derek Duenas for alpha A-L, or Kelly Marty for alpha M-Z, to verify how many days someone has been employed in the district if you have a new hire of concern. The 185 days can span over two school years since it is work days and not calendar days that are being counted.

If you have concerns about a probationary classified employee please don’t hesitate to engage in a conversation with that person now, identify 1-3 concrete and measurable performance goals (you can use the new evaluation form as a reference), and set a date 2-3 weeks out (or for the beginning of the following school year) for a progress monitoring check-in. If, after two progress monitoring meetings, you still don’t see a significant improvement, please email me (Paul Dean) to discuss the next steps. From the CBA:

The purpose of the probationary period shall be to:

Train the employee to meet the District required work standards.
Assist an employee whose work performance fails to meet District required work standards.
Terminate an employee whose work performance fails to meet District required work standards.

You may extend the probationary period as described in the CBA:

In the event the district determines there are performance concerns with the employee, the probationary period may be extended for a period of up to forty (40) work days.
If there are performance concerns with a probationary employee and a decision is made to extend probation for that employee, the employee will be notified not later than five (5) days before completion of the probationary period described in 11.2 above.

Please be diligent in supporting probationary employees, working with them to learn and improve, document meetings regarding areas of concern and reaching out to HR if you need assistance before their probationary period ends.

If you need to reference this information at a later time, here is a Google document with the same information (and may be easier to locate in the future). _________________________________________________________________________________

This one is a bit random… Know of anyone on your staff who is looking for a little summer work in the woods? If so, you may want to share the following info regarding potential openings as a Park Ranger with OR Parks & Rec Department. I am hearing that they have not received large numbers of applicants for summer jobs:

Interested people can go to this website: www.oregon.gov › oprd › emp › Pages › EMP-current

Type in park ranger in the search bar.

REMINDERS:

Our last Horizontal meeting is next Tuesday at 8:00. As a reminder, we are meeting in person (Ed Center board room) for this one. If you are not able to be there in person plan on joining us via my Webex room. _________________________________________________________________________________

I don’t recall if I have mentioned this to you yet – so this may not actually be a “reminder”… I’ve heard conversation that the Leadership team will be gathering on the afternoon (around 4:00) of June 21 at the Ed. Center to reflect and celebrate this year. Please reserve this time on your calendar.