TO DO:
Please jot down the following order of contact when you have a potential positive COVID situation that needs to be reported or you need support with (e.g. a potential positive test of a staff member):
- Tami Pike (Text first: 541-350-8387)
- Julianne Repman (541-788-6890)
- Nurse Maria Buagas (541-647-7952) _________________________________________________________________
It has been widely shared that all MS teachers need to record her/his lesson launch and post it in Canvas on the same day – for those students who miss attending the class period. What hasn’t been shared as widely is a recommended (and likely most efficient) way of doing this… until now. Please share this video with all of your teachers. By following these steps, teachers will be able to post their recorded lessons within a short period of time after completing the recording (as opposed to the next day if the recording is saved to Webex). Reach out to your instructional tech coach if you have any questions! ______________________________________________________________
Speaking of Canvas… have you heard yet that all students have a Canvas “icon” (it’s actually a “web clip”) pre-loaded on their iPad… and there is a Canvas “app” in self-serve? Sound confusing? (I was at first too.) Here is a short video that I suggest you share with teachers – and they share with their students in Advisory at some point early next week. If you have easy questions about this, feel free to ask me. If you have hard questions, please reach out to John, Scott Mc., or Christie. 😉 ______________________________________________________________
Please make sure there is someone available to answer your office phone (main and counseling). Obviously, there are times when someone may need to leave a message on a machine if our staff are on the phone already or had to step away for a few minutes… but getting a machine should not be the default. As you can imagine, the experience felt by a parent or community member leaves an impression that may be difficult to change (positive or negative). Let’s leave the caller with feelings of gratefulness and not frustration by giving them an opportunity to speak with someone when they call. ______________________________________________________________
A wondering just came up around whether I should include Office Managers in the group that receives my weekly Collective updates. If you would like your Office Manager to receive these, please let me know and I’d be happy to begin including them. ______________________________________________________________
And speaking of communication, there was a training for attendance secretaries earlier this week and the following two concerns (teachers being informed that they need to take attendance, and teachers being informed about the PV and NPV code) came up a few times. You may have already communicated these items, but your office secretary may not have received it. Please make sure all of your teachers are aware of the need to take attendance beginning on Monday. _________________________________________________________________
Please reach out to Kinsey if you have any small piece of classified hours (e.g. 1 or 1 1/2 hr/day) you are trying to still fill. She has a great candidate for a Latino Liaison position she is trying to fill, but needs a bit more time to make this person full-time. By making a combination like this work, you’d be gaining a fluent Spanish speaker in your building – without having to come up with full-time hours to create a new spot. ______________________________________________________________
THIS and THAT:
As you know, earlier this week BRYT offered a one-hour Self and Collective Care workshop to any BLS employee (similar, but different to the one that you were invited to last week). There wasn’t an overwhelming turnout, but those in attendance found it very helpful/useful. I ended up recording the session and was sent the slides and a worksheet that was used or talked about during it. I’m sharing these with you as a tool or starting place for your Culture of Care school team and/or sharing with your entire staff (as I think it would be useful). It really is good stuff! ____________________________________________________________
Last week I sent you a document called Supervisors Guidelines that is a great resource guide around things you need to be aware of. This week, I’m sending it to you again because it’s been updated to remove language requiring the wearing of face shields by your office staff. Here is the new language: In general, face coverings (masks) are preferred over face shields, as they may provide better containment of small aerosols that can be produced while talking. Clear plastic face shields remain an acceptable alternative in some instances because they enable students to see whole faces. This avoids potential barriers to phonological instruction and reinforces social-emotional cues. ______________________________________________________________
Bend-La Pine’s LEAD Cohort is finalizing a clearinghouse of resources to support all teachers in guiding classroom conversations about anti-racism and equity. In accordance with the school board and leadership guidance, we want teachers to be brave, proactive, thoughtful, and supported in engaging in these conversations–it is not a question of if we should address the current events of our community and country, but how we approach that dialogue, that we are seeking to support.
The clearinghouse of resources for teachers will be published soon. At that point, LEAD Cohort members will begin piloting and demonstrating the use of the materials, for collective reflection and learning. A meeting with you as building administrators will take place before implementation begins.
Can you please give your LEAD Cohort representative 10 minutes at a staff meeting to give context for the resources and to invite others to join in trying them out collaboratively? If you don’t have a staff member from your building on this team, one of the current members is happy to join your staff meeting as a guest and share the information. Please reach out to Kinsey if you have any questions at this point! ________________________________________________________________
As you are aware, we have a number of classified employees across our district who are currently not working (mainly transportation and nutrition) due to CDL structure of teaching/learning. A number of these folks want to work and have been given other work to do – some of which is occurring in your building. If you have one of these re-assigned classified employees working at your site then know that she/he has been given an assignment and an on-site supervisor for this work. Do not ask these folks to do other work than what they’ve been assigned. If you have questions regarding this please reach out to Scott Bojanowski. ___________________________________________________________________
One of the building teams that you’ll be forming is for Family Engagement. Likely, this will be a team that includes your FAN advocate (for obvious reasons). This is likely obvious to you, but wanted to mention this just in case. ________________________________________________________________
This is an FYI only. The following two suicide prevention documents have been shared with your health teacher(s) and counselor(s). One is regarding prevention curriculum, the other relates to prevention safety guidelines. ________________________________________________________________
REMINDERS:
Here is a reminder regarding meal service available, free of charge through Dec. 31, 2020, to all students. Please help spread the word to your students and families! ________________________________________________________________
See you all at Horizontal next Tuesday at 2:00. Here is the agenda.