TO DO:
I have a favor to ask regarding bus transportation to/from your school. Would you please let me know, by Monday (9/16) at 9:00am, how many busses have typically been arriving late (not allowing students to get to class on time), as well as how late (e.g. one bus a few minutes late, two busses 15-20 min. late)? Additionally, would you also let me know how many busses are typically arriving late (more than 15 min. after school ends) in the afternoon? We know there have been issues with both of these and want to continue working together to get these resolved – so having this information will be very helpful. _____________________________________________________
Last week I asked that you review this list to make sure it was accurate. This is the group of 1st and 2nd-year teachers at BLS who will be receiving Disciplinary Literacy coaching this year. On September 23 Alex Child (MS literacy coach and teacher at SVMS) will be making her first contact with this group of new teachers. Please share this message with all of your new teachers (on the above list) – either via email or face-to-face – so they know that Alex will be in touch with them soon. And, by the way, the dates for Disciplinary Training this year will be 10/14, 1/14, and 3/17 from 12:30 – 4:00pm. (Feel free to share these dates with your new teachers.) The sub code to use for these trainings is: ESSA Dis. Lit. (Feel free to share this with your Office Manager.) _________________________________________________________
THIS and THAT:
Yesterday you met our three newly-hired CARE Coaches who will be working with our region’s schools to promote equity, wellness, safety, and community support. One or more of these coaches (Erin Taylor, Amber McGill, and Amy Yillik) will be contacting you soon in order to set up a time to come meet with you and describe their work, answer questions you might have, learn more about your current school culture/student needs, and see where they might be able to support where you’d like to see areas of growth at your building. I hope to also attend these meetings as our coordinated schedules allow. As a reminder, here is some additional information regarding these new positions. _________________________________________________________
You will hear more about our district’s Excellence and Equity Review and listening sessions at Monday’s Leadership meeting. You’ll also be told at this meeting that you can use our first District SIW (on 10.9.19) to conduct listening sessions if you’d like – as none of your staff will be pulled for other district meetings/trainings. _________________________________________________________
Here is some information form Jody McBride regarding interpretation and translation services. Our translators and interpreters are not here, or on call. They work for the HDESD and we contract with the HDESD for their services. Here is a document containing all of the information a staff member needs (feel free to share!), and here are the highlights:
- Documents for translation take approximately 5-7 school days for turn around. It can be longer during busy times.
- Please send your documents as an attachment in an email, and in a manipulative form (Word, Pages etc) if at all possible. PDF’s are difficult to translate and take longer. Please don’t convert a PDF to Word. It ends up corrupted for the translator.
- Remember to request your interpreter(s) on the portal 5-7 school days in advance unless it is an emergency issue such as medical, discipline, etc. The HDESD will always try to fill every request, but sometimes there isn’t anyone available last minute.
- Don’t forget to notify our office in advance if the appointment is canceled or changed. We are charged for cancellations with less than 24 hours notice. _______________________________________________________
Throughout this year, if you find yourself wanting/needing additional support with a student, please remember and refer to our new process of accessing immediate (you control) sub time, as well as a form for requesting additional (beyond your sub time) SPED support. Here is the form to remind you of all you need to know about this! __________________________________________________________
There are a number of legislative changes that are connected to how you do (or will be doing from now on) your job. This is the first update from our HR office to keep you posted of what these are. Please make sure you read and make yourself aware of these. __________________________________________________________
Here is an update from Kim Crabtree regarding transportation issues to start the year – and how you might be able to help:
- Please make sure bus loops are clear of parent traffic, so buses can move thru efficiently. This is especially true for the busses arriving after the first set has left your campus in the afternoon.
- Please do NOT mark students tardy for late buses. We have not been calling schools about late buses, because it is still the majority that are running late.
- We are brainstorming for some fixes for transfer buses. Buses are scheduled to drop at schools at 8:30, then head to Option Schools. There are areas of town that make it nearly impossible to get to another school within 15 minutes, it is our goal- unfortunately, we are not meeting this.
Reasons we are running late:
Many students are just getting onto buses this week and are not familiar with the process. We have a high volume of MS/HS students riding, buses are very full- which slows down loading and unloading. Lots of construction- Brosterous, 15th causing large delays. Lots of parent traffic at school delaying our ability to get into the bus load/unload zone. All drivers have new routes this year. _________________________________________________________
There is a statewide Educator Equity Summit coming up on Sept. 25 in Salem. If you are interested in learning more, check this out. _________________________________________________________
ACT Aspire is transitioning to a completely different website this year. There is a message on the old website that it is only to be used for viewing reports. Our IT staff was going to upload student and staff information this week, but that is going to get pushed back. For now, Aspire tests can’t be administered. It will likely be at least a week or two before testing is possible. _____________________________________________________
Here is a sustainability update from Jackie Wilson:
Cleaning Supplies. The Facility department was given the heads up about several school office managers purchasing Clorox Cleaning wipes for classrooms. Hopefully, through some education of our staff, we can remedy this problem.
Our schools are places where children learn, grow, and get sick. Part of the work of the classroom teachers and students is to clean up desks and tables in their classrooms. Walter Norris and the custodial staff work hard to use supplies to keep the school clean and ensure cleaning agents do not damage the school areas. All school classrooms should have access to spray bottles with our “green” certified cleaner and microfiber towels. This cleaner is chosen for our schools based on quality and the Safety Datasheet of the product. When teachers bring in their own products, the safety of them and any known allergens have not been cleared by BLSD Custodial Department and might pose risks to students, staff and damage the building surfaces. Please ask your staff to ONLY use the products provided by the district as they are safe and effective. Please see this document for more information to share with the staff.
WE ReduceThis is the last call for WE Reduce, Sustainability Advisors at BLSD schools. Sustainability Advisors will need to be confirmed by Wednesday, September 18th. WE Reduce is a program of BLSD and a great way your school can support sustainability efforts, the Climate Resolution, and students environmental literacy and leadership. Any Certified or non-certified staff can be the leader of this program. The leads will receive an incentive at the end of the year for their work (20 hours at the curriculum rate) and the school will receive funds to support green team efforts. Currently, the schools that have been involved in the program, have on average $700 in award money in reserves from the last 2 years. There has been a reduction in electricity costs in schools with robust green teams as well. Elementary schools and Middle schools with active Green Teams have shown a $2,000 -$5,000 saving in electricity. Summit High as one of the only high schools with a Sustainability Advisor has seen $25,448 in cost savings for electricity since the 16/17 school year. In comparison, Mountain view has seen an increase since the 17/18 school year of $4282. Beyond electricity there is a reduction in trash and an increase in recycling. Cascade MS and Jewell recently started boat stacking in the cafeteria and reduced the lunch trash garbage in half! PBMS started to collect bottles and cans that were being thrown away and collected $600 in a few months from the bottle drop program.
REMINDERS:
Insurance Open Enrollment closes soon (9/15), so please remind your staff… OEBB and Bend-La Pine will not be staffed over the final weekend to assist or answer questions. Please encourage your staff to complete enrollment at their earliest convenience so that any technical difficulties or questions can be addressed ahead of the enrollment deadline. To enroll, please visit: https://myoebb.org/oebb/!pb.main ___________________________________________________________
Monday we’ll be meeting for Leadership at 3:15 in the Board Room.