TO DO:

Please share the schedule for our last week (June 14 – 17) with your staff, students, and parent community. If you aren’t sure what that schedule is, here you go!

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be the “regular” MS schedule (bell times of 10:35 – 4:25). NOTE: We will have kids in person on Wednesday. (If we don’t have kids in the building on Wednesday then we most likely wouldn’t have any show up for school on Thursday.)

Thursday will be an SIW release (bell times of 10:33 – 2:57). _________________________________________________________________________________

Here is a link (I made it accessible to anyone with the link) to a Spanish-translated document that provides information about borrowed hot spots and (non-) return of iPads. Please share in your next parent communication. [Last week I shared the English translation of the hot spot communication.]. _________________________________________________________________________________

Please pass along (to your staff) this reminder regarding the Employee Assistance Program service that is available to your staff. _________________________________________________________________________________

THIS and THAT:

A number of weeks ago you attended a virtual “anti-biased” interview/hiring process training that Deon facilitated. Here is a one-pager reminder of some of the highlights from that training that may be useful to review prior to processes that you are no doubt in the midst of now. Also, here is the video link to the implicit bias video that was shown during that training. _________________________________________________________________________________

And speaking of being aware of your biases, specifically during hiring processes, here is an article from CareerPlug that made me go “hmm” as I considered my own unconscious biases I bring to the table: 9 Hiring Biases that are Hurting your Recruiting Efforts. As a summary of this article, here is a 9 Common Types of Hiring Bias cheat sheet that provided a really nice summary. _________________________________________________________________________________

There are some changes regarding the sign-in process for DHS employees. Give me a call (now or next time you have a DHS employee come to your school) to learn more. _________________________________________________________________________________

Following are a couple of items from Kinsey. The second one is mainly an HS item, except for the notion that ELA classes are transitioning in name to “language arts” instead.

Hiring reminders and updates
Hiring bilingual staff?  In order to ensure quality communication services for our families and appropriate compensation for bilingual staff, we are beginning a new employee language assessment and compensation process.  This will not begin until next year, so this is just a preview of the process, as it will impact any bilingual staff you have or are hiring now, who may support family communication.  If you have questions, please contact Kinsey.

New state legislation
Check out this change to state policy!  Oregon is removing the word “English” from the Language Arts graduation requirements.  This officially allows credits earned via Language Arts courses taught in other languages to count toward graduation.  
What does this mean for you?
Likely, not much impact on you right now–this is designed to support Dual Immersion programs around the state in offering bi-literacy coursework throughout the K-12 program sequence.  Non-English LA courses still must be designed around grade-specific LA standards, and must use appropriate LA curriculum (World Language, heritage, and bilingual/ELL courses have their own standards, distinct from LA).  We will continue alignment efforts to ensure our LA courses are teaching LA standards, using high-quality diverse curriculum, and meeting graduation and college requirements for these credits.
In the meantime, you can work with your team on shifting your language from “English” courses/departments to “Language Arts.”  If you have questions/ideas about courses to support our multilingual learners, reach out to Kinsey!

REMINDERS:

Reminder that Tuesday’s Horizontal will be set aside for our last admin PD with Dave (Dean has a different commitment so will not make it). Because of this, please plan to meet in Dave’s Webex room. _________________________________________________________________________________

Our last Horizontal will be on June 15. Instead of meeting via Webex, please plan on meeting in the board room from 8:00 – 9:00. If you would prefer to connect via Webex that is an option too – I’ll have my Webex room open.