TO DO:
Check out this 1:00 video clip that you may have caught on News 21 on Wednesday evening. Stephen represented us all well! __________________________________________________________
Here is a link to a five-question survey. I’d love to have all principals and VPs complete it by 9/11 so I can share the results with you when we meet on 9/12. ________________________________________________________
Our safety team has created signs to provide information for visitors/volunteers. It is my understanding that these are being sent directly to your schools. There has been a delay in processing the Spanish-language versions, so I am asking all of you to WAIT to post signs until you have both English and Spanish-language posters. ___________________________________________________________
Please review this document for accuracy. As you have likely heard by now, the district is providing literacy training for most new (to BLS) teachers. (Teachers not receiving this training include those in the following departments: SPED, ELD, music.) If you do not see one of your year one or year two (to BLS) teachers on this list (regardless of overall teaching experience), please let Dean Richards know. ___________________________________________________________
Sal reached out to me regarding a better time to meet with MS ADs. What we came up with is the idea of meeting fewer times, but a little longer in length. The question here (that I need your feedback on before deciding with Sal) is whether you would support your AD meeting during a half-day on three of the four district SIW Wednesdays. They would meet on Oct. 9 and March 11, and EITHER Nov. 13 or Feb. 12. The ask of you would be to pay for three, .5 day PM sub days (if needed to cover classes he/she teaches) – out of athletics or other building budget. Would this work for you? Please let me know by Wednesday (9/11) of next week. I will take silence from your building as approval of this plan. 🙂
THIS and THAT:
It has been decided that we will no longer administer Brightbytes and Gallup surveys to students/staff. (Hope you were sitting down for that one…) ______________________________________________________
A StudySync training will be offered on Sept. 11 from 12:30 – 3:00 for any teachers who are new to this program or would like a refresher. Subs will be the responsibility of the building. Contact Julie Walker if you have any specific questions on this. __________________________________________________________
While the Bend-area Jewish community is not large, we have a significant number of Jewish families in our school district. We were contacted last year by a local rabbi, asking us to avoid scheduling family events on their holiest of holidays. These are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. For 2019, these are the dates these holidays fall:
- Rosh Hashanah-sunset Sunday, 9/29-sundown Tuesday, 10/1
- Yom Kippur-sunset Tuesday, 10/8-sundown Wednesday, 10/9
Please note that these dates do not mean school activities need to come to a standstill, but please avoid scheduling events such as open houses, curriculum nights, etc. _____________________________________________________
And speaking of highlighting calendar dates this school year, here are the dates of our six Leadership meetings: Sept. 16, Oct. 7, Dec. 2, Feb. 3, April 6, and June 15. All meetings will start at 3:15, except for the annual meeting/BBQ on June 15 – which will start at noon. _________________________________________________________
Regarding our Leadership meeting on Sept. 16, following is some information about how we’ll be spending most of our time that afternoon:
At our leadership team meeting September 16th, our team will spend most of the meeting focused on our district’s 2019-20 Excellence and Equity Review. We will begin with some background information and logistics, then transition into small group listening sessions.
While I don’t want to waste your precious time now providing lots of information, I want to make sure you have a basic idea of the Excellence and Equity Review because it will be on the agenda of the September 9th school board meeting.
Here’s the purpose statement:
The primary purpose of the Excellence and Equity Review is to gather and analyze information related to the academic, social and emotional experiences of our students, particularly those from underserved populations. Our information about students’ needs helps us to more effectively prioritize strategies, allocate resources, and develop staff’s knowledge and skills.
The district’s process for our first review is a comprehensive one, as you’ll see in our meeting. For almost a year, we have been planning implementation of a systemic review of our academic strengths and needs, similar to the Sites and Facilities Review process. Fortunately, our planned process and activities will also meet Oregon’s new requirements for districts’ outreach, etc. related to spending with Student Success Act funds…along with a host of other new requirements. ______________________________________________________
There will be two Youth Mental Health First Aid trainings offered this school year. Staff that usually find this 8-hour training useful are those that do not have a lot of experience with mental health, i.e. any teachers, classified employees, coaches, administrators, school nurses, family advocates, etc. The training is free to district employees, but your building would need to covers sub costs if one is needed. (I have attended this training just over a year ago and found it useful – and the SPED EA’s that I attended with really found value in it as well.) Here is the registration info. _____________________________________________________
From Alandra (and connected to her photo attached in your email):
Welcoming Week Sept. 13-20: This year Bend-La Pine Schools is a supporting partner for the City of Bend’s Welcoming Week activities. Alandra is sending a poster about the events to every school — please hang this on your school’s community bulletin board. She is also sending signs that say “I’m a Welcomer” or “(insert school name) welcomes you”. Feel free photograph staff or students holding these signs. You can share on social media or email photos to Alandra.
What is Welcoming Week? Welcoming Week is a series of events that brings together immigrants and those born within their countries to build strong community connections. These events are guided by the principles of inclusion and creating communities that prosper because everyone feels welcome, including immigrants and refugees.
Learn more: City of Bend site and National Welcoming Week site _______________________________________________________
Wondering how many minis you’ll be responsible to do for your speech path and psych this year? Wonder no more! _______________________________________________________
From Tami Pike:
Field Trip Notification to Nurses
We had some instances last year where students with health conditions were not able to participate in an off site school activity due to the nurse not receiving ample notification time to plan for medical support (physician orders for procedures or medications, staff trainings, health condition/plan review). Needless to say students and parents were pretty upset.
Over the past few years, I have been sensing increasing frustration between office staff, school administrators, and nurses about what the responsibilities/roles of the school nurses are. I am hoping that a gentle reminder to school administrators on the role and priorities of the school nurse will help decrease any confusion at their sites. *The information included in the attachment is the same information that I presented to our district administration almost 5 years ago. ______________________________________________________
There is a District Safety Team that meets monthly (first meeting of the year is next week). There are representatives from many departments/levels who participate (custodial, classified, certified, admin, HR, SPED, etc.). Nole Kennedy is the person representing middle schools. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions of anything related to school or district safety (e.g. current practices, safety improvement ideas, etc.) please pass those on to Nole for sharing/asking of this group. _______________________________________________________
I know you don’t need to access/request this now, but remember that there is a new process beginning this year when/if you have a high needs student that requires additional adult support – outside of your current staffing. We are calling this High Needs Student Discretionary Funds and each school is allocated funds that would cover 70 hours of classified sub time. You will find a new line in your building budget that provides you with these funds. Here is a link to additional explanation for use of the High Needs Student Discretionary Funds, as well as a link to request additional SPED staffing if/when you need additional support after these funds have been allocated. _______________________________________________________
You likely have already received this from Marsha Baro, but wanted to share this information with you again here. This form provides information regarding not only supplemental student insurance information, but also links to the new Incident Reports on the BLS website. _______________________________________________________
As many/most of you know, Jackie Wilson is our district’s Sustainability Coordinator. There will be a few times this year that I’ll be sharing some information from Jackie… and here is the first… There was a Climate Resolution passed at the June board meeting. This new resolution will assist the district in future decisions and help shape our sustainability plan. WE Reduce is a program of BLSD. Through this program, schools have a designated staff leader who is the Sustainability Advisor at the school. This lead works with the school community and a green team on tasks to decrease waste and increase energy efficiency in the schools. This is a stipend position ($1500 for most MS – $1000 for Realms) and an important role for each school as the work helps to save money and educate students about the ways they can be leaders and guide stewardship actions in their schools. Please make sure that admin teams review the WE reduce program goals and to pass on to me the name of the staff member who will be the Sustainability Advisor for their school in the upcoming 19-20 school year. If Administrators have any questions about their school utilities or energy impact compared to other schools, I am happy to provide reports and will update them regularly. [email protected]
REMINDERS:
We’ll be having our first Horizontal of the year next Thursday (9/12) at PCMS, starting at 3:15. Here is the agenda. (As an extra bonus reminder, I will not bring copies of the agenda, so please either bring a hard or digital copy for your reference.) ______________________________________________________
Sean sent you some info regarding a Collaborative Problem Solving training earlier this week, but wanted to remind you of/have it handy for you as a reference. Here is the email Sean sent: I have some good news about the upcoming CPS training on October 9-11. Through the Culture of Care grant, I have 33 scholarships available for subs (worth $500 each). Each school that sends a staff member is guaranteed at least one scholarship. If not all schools use the scholarships, we will divide them up evenly among schools that are participating. If you were already sending staff members, please consider sending some more. Please indicate which staff members you would like to attend to Denise Sevigny no later than Friday, September 13th. After the 13th, we will sell slots to other districts that are very interested in this training. Please let me or Denise know if you have any questions.