This and That:

• Following is an excerpt from a Harvard Business Review article entitled: “Engaging Your Employees is Good, but Don’t Stop There” (by Eric Garton and Michael C. Mankins, December 9, 2015).  I thought it was a great reminder of what our teachers need (from us) in order to work at her/his highest level as both an instructional expert and contributor to your school community.  If this excerpt makes you want to read more about the “what” you can do to encourage more Inspired Employees, just click on the hot link above for the full article!

Genius, as Thomas A. Edison famously declared, may be 1%  inspiration and 99% perspiration. But building a company employees truly love reverses the equation: it’s almost all inspiration, and sweat has only a little to do with it. This is the unexpected conclusion of new research from Bain & Company, conducted in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Here’s the background. Many commentators talk glibly about employee “engagement,” as if that concept were all-encompassing and easy to define. But we have always found it helpful to break the idea into its component parts.

The foundational elements—call them employee satisfaction—are fundamentals such as having a safe work environment and the tools necessary to do the job. Abraham Maslow taught us that we can’t concern ourselves with higher goals until we have the necessities of life, including security. So it is in the workplace: first things first.

Next come the elements of true engagement, such as the feeling that you’re part of an extraordinary team, that you’re learning and growing, and that you can make a real impact. And then, at the top—perhaps the equivalent of Maslow’s self-actualization—is the feeling that you derive meaning and purpose from the company’s mission. That’s inspiration.

Most of us know how important inspiration can be in everyday life. In the workplace, as one pundit put it, employees react differently when they encounter a wall. Satisfied employees hold a meeting to discuss what to do about walls. Engaged employees begin looking around for ladders to scale the wall. Inspired employees break right through it.

Reminders:

• We will be having an all admin Leadership meeting at 3:15 on January 4, our first day back from the break.  Additionally, there will be a New Administrator meeting beginning at 2:00 on this day as well.

It is pretty incredible for me to consider the fact that we are two weeks into December already.  The trimester has ended for some and the semester will for others in another five school weeks.  We are nearing the mid-way point of another academic year.  Pretty crazy!  Thank you for your care for and expectations of your students and staff each day.  As you know, for many these coming weeks/months can be a stressful time and I encourage you to keep this in mind as you work along side folks in your building.  They will be looking for and modeling their behavior after what they see in you.  I’m glad you are leading!

This and That:

Please send me the names of your math teachers AND the grade level they predominately teach this year.  I will be using this to create groups as these folks move through various stations at their district SIW on January 20th.  More to come regarding this SIW agenda.

If you have any questions regarding the 2016 Culture of Safety document (expected safety guidelines for all schools) that Julianne went through at our Leadership meeting this past Monday please let me know.  Again, the goal is that by January 4 these things are in place and occurring.

You can find an updated district enrollment (as of 12/2/15) here – and can compare that to your beginning of the year enrollment (as of 9/21/15) here.  Many of you may keep track of your enrollment numbers throughout the year, but I wanted to pass this along (and they live in the documents folder now as well) so you can see whether your enrollment has increased, decreased or remained the same over the past few months.

The SBAC news of the week, which you are likely already aware of, is the removal of the “classroom activity” requirement in ELA and math.  In case you missed it, here is a portion of the communication:

             New for 2015-16, the Smarter Balanced Consortium has voted to remove the classroom activity as a required precursor of the Smarter Balanced performance tasks for Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA). This change in administration was made following the recommendation  of the Smarter Balanced Technical Advisory Committee and a vote taken by the Smarter Balanced governing states. The decision to remove the classroom activity requirement is part of the Smarter Balanced Consortium’s commitment to continuous improvement and represents a way to streamline the test administration process without negatively impacting access for students.

Reminders:

We will not be meeting this Monday.  We will have a Leadership meeting on January 4 – our first day back from break – and our next Horizontal will be January 25.  (If you have any agenda items you’d like to discuss at our Horizontal please let me know.)

The plan is to turn in your building’s School Design Plan to me in January, unless you needing a bit more time to process with your stakeholders.  If this is the case please let me know.  I am really looking forward to going over these plans with you and learning more about your overall school story, as well as the process, strategies, and goals that your team has come up with.

Per Alandra’s email Thursday afternoon, have someone from your building sign up in PD Place to attend one of the new website trainings.  Refer to her email or PD Place for the dates/times.

Welcome to “Tribe” – the new blog for BLS middle school news.  This blog will take the place of the weekly emails that I have been sending this year.  This came from a great idea/recommendation that I heard when visiting schools recently (thank you Chris!).  The idea is that it would be much easier to find or refer back to information that I’ve sent out if it were all in one spot (blog) versus digging through previous emails and finding what you needed.  Also note that located just under the title “Tribe” you will find a “MS CALENDAR”  and “DOCUMENTS” hot link that should take you right to our shared MS Calendar in Google Drive where you sign up for my monthly site visits, or a page with all of the documents that I’ve included in these communications, respectively.  On the right side you will notice that I’ve included all of my past weekly email updates for you to reference.  Hope this is helpful.  Please let me know if there are other things you would like included within this blog and I’ll work to figure out how to make it happen.

Lastly, I need to thank Christie (my wife) for her help in creating and encouraging me to move forward with this blog.  Not only does she take care of me personally (not an easy job), but also provides me with tons of technical assistance and book recommendations!  Woo Hoo!

This and That:

Instead of asking students “What’s wrong with you?” — Principal Jim Sporleder asked “What happened to you?” This change in thinking and practice, which focused on understanding the trauma many of his students had experienced, sparked dramatic change at his school in Walla Walla, Washington. Graduation rates soared, while expulsions and suspensions plummeted — something he attributes to a focus on youth who had Adverse Childhood Experiences.  Sporleder and four students at Lincoln High School are the focus of an award-winning documentary, “Paper Tigers,” which will be screened in the auditorium at Bend Senior High School, 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11. Afterward, Sporleder will offer a presentation on trauma-informed education and ACEs and will answer questions.  A few weeks ago “Paper Tigers” was shown at La Pine High School and received a great reception.  I would highly recommend you attend this showing at Bend High if you are able and have students in your school who have had to deal with traumatic events (parental drug addition, poverty, abuse, death of loved one, etc.) – which we all do.

Thank you goes to Robi for her work towards building a middle school science Tribe!  She will be co-facilitating a discussion with four secondary science teachers (two MS and two HS) on the remaining district SIW dates (Jan, March and May) that involves all secondary science teachers.  So, your science teachers (along with your math and ELA) will all be invited to attend PD trainings outside of the building on the remaining three district SIWs.  The two MS co-facilitators for this are Sara Trakselis from PCMS and Stacy Welsh from LPMS.  Additionally, Robi has invited all MS science teachers to gather and share ideas – and was very creative in pulling folks together.  The following email was sent out to your science folks and should be self-explanatory:

Greetings Science Teachers!

 As we continue to shift to the adoption of NGSS, we thought it would be great to get all Science teachers together for an informal gathering to get to know each other, as well as share ideas about science.

We will meet next Thursday, December 10th, 4pm at McMenamins (main pub)

OSTA will provide appetizers and will be giving all attendees a free OSTA membership- if you are not a member already.

This is an informal gathering and we hope to gather ideas, question, and concerns about science in our district.

RSVP is appreciated! Let me know if you have questions. 

**Please pass this on to anyone I may have missed! ALL science teachers are welcome.

As you probably are aware, our district has access to translation and interpreter services.  There has been an overuse of printed translation services.  Not in the sense of too many pieces being translated, but in that our translator has been asked to quickly translate a printed piece so it could be sent out (nearly) immediately.  This process usually takes 3 – 5 business days.  With that in mind, this form outlines when and how translation and interpreter requests should be processed.  Please let Skip know if you have any questions about this.

Reminders:

If you haven’t already, please let me know if you would like to help “interview” prospective teachers from the OSU-Cascades education program on President’s Day, Feb. 15.  We need to have an idea of whether we will have enough administrators available before we commit to participating.  You should not feel any pressure to participate… just to let me know if you would like to be involved this year or not.  Obviously, your schedule may change between now and then, so be assured you will not be shunned if you change your mind.

This and That:

• Here is an email to you with the subject heading: “Buy a Tree. Save a Life.”  Some of our schools were involved last year, but I didn’t want to have each of you called regarding this so I asked that it go through me.  If you would like to be involved this year please feel free to give Crystal a call.

New Information:

• District and BEA leadership has been in conversations and trainings (remember Patrick Dolan speaking to us at the Riverhouse on Oct. 1?) around building a more collaborative approach of guiding our district called “Leading Together.”  This is an example of something being done fairly well, but where growth can still happen.  You will hear more about the broad context of this at our December Leadership, but I did want to let you know that I will begin sharing these weekly email communications with Don Stearns, as well as inviting him to attend our bi-monthly Horizontal meetings.  When we think about “team vs. tribe” I believe we can only get better if we do our work with transparency and honesty with those we work with – whether this is middle school to middle school or management and union.

• A recent NY Times article takes a stand regarding the work you are doing within your building, and we are in the district as a whole, around Student BLP.  This article, entitled: Why What You Learned in Preschool is Critical at Work, posits that social skills are as equally important in today’s work force as academic/technical skills are.  I have attached the entire article for you, but thought I’d get your curiosity engaged with these excerpts:
  • For all the jobs that machines can now do — whether performing surgery, driving cars or serving food — they still lack one distinctly human trait. They have no social skills.
  • Some economists and technologists see this trend as cause for optimism: Even as technology eliminates some jobs, it generally creates others. Yet to prepare students for the change in the way we work, the skills that schools teach may need to change. Social skills are rarely emphasized in traditional education.
  • Preschool classrooms, Mr. Deming (associate professor of education and economics at Harvard Univ.) said, look a lot like the modern work world. Children move from art projects to science experiments to the playground in small groups, and their most important skills are sharing and negotiating with others. But that soon ends, replaced by lecture-style teaching of hard skills, with less peer interaction.
  • James Heckman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, did groundbreaking work concluding that noncognitive skills like character, dependability and perseverance are as important as cognitive achievement. They can be taught, he said, yet American schools don’t necessarily do so.
  • The extent to which jobs required social skills grew 24 percent between 1980 and 2012, he found, while jobs requiring repetitive tasks, like garbage collecting, and analytical tasks that don’t necessarily involve teamwork, like engineering, declined.

You are all well-deserving of the days ahead.  I truly hope you enjoy them.  As I consider the many things I am thankful for, know that I am definitely blessed to have the opportunity to work with all of you.  Looking forward to reconnecting with you after this break!

Jim

For many of you I hope these days of conferences are ones where connections are made between family and school, as well as between students and learning.  For all of you, know that I appreciate the dedication and heart for children that you bring to work every day.  Your jobs are not easy and the impact you are making not always visible now… but you are making a difference.  I think you for that.

I am sending this email today as I will be attending the OSBA conference tomorrow and Saturday in Portland.  If you need anything please don’t hesitate to contact me by cell (if you need me right away) or email (if you would like me to respond later this weekend).

Jim

This and That:

• I liked the mental image of this quote and thought it was worth sharing: “On the difference between formative and summative assessments, Hattie quotes Bob Stake of the University of Illinois: ‘When the cook tastes the soup, it is formative; when the guests taste the soup, it is summative.’”

“The Effective Use of Testing: What the Research Says” by John Hattie in Education Week, October 28, 2015 (Vol. 35, #10, p. 28, 23), www.edweek.org
EndFragmentEndFragment

•  Here is the agenda for our Horizontal meeting Monday afternoon at Pacific Crest.  A couple of things to know/think about prior to our meeting:
  • A recurring item that we will start with each Horizontal is “Bright Spots.”  Nothing for you to prepare, but I’d like to spend a few minutes allowing you to quickly share something that you are proud of that is happening in your building.  It could be three words or three sentences.  When I think of “Bright Spots” I think of a positive that stands out in the midst of the chaos, the frantic pace of our work, or when all else wasn’t working… this thing did.
  • We’ll be talking about “8th Grade Celebration Expectations.”  Please be ready to share out what the expectations are for 8th graders at your building.

Your Feedback Requested:

• Similar to last year, OSU-Cascades is hoping to provide their teacher candidates with an opportunity to meet and mock interview with BLS administrators on President’s Day (Monday, Feb. 15, 2016).  This is a great opportunity to have a first hand look at potential candidates if you know of an impeding opening at your building.  Of course, this will only work if we provided enough administrators to make this possible.  Therefore, I need a rough number of folks who would be willing to spend a good chunk of a day (I believe it was all morning – through lunch last year) for this effort.  Please let me know if you would be willing to work with teacher candidates on Feb. 15.  If I don’t hear from you then I will assume you will not be available.

• Spring conferences (for Bend middle schools) are scheduled on April 14 (12 –8 pm) & 15 (8 – 12pm) according to our district calendar.  I have heard from some of you regarding changing these conference days so there is not a requirement for staff to come in at all on Friday.  If you are interested in this scenario playing out in your building, I ask that you speak with your staff about this as an alternative schedule instead: April 13 (4 – 8pm), April 14 (12 – 8pm) and no staff report on Friday.  In this situation the morning of April 14 would be their contracted 1/2 day grading workday.  If your staff is in agreement, you may use this schedule instead.  Please do not make other modifications to days or times outside of these.  Andrea will change the district calendar posted on our website to reflect this change, but this does not mean you must change if your staff prefers to keep the original schedule.   Let me know if you plan on using this modified (not working on Friday) schedule.  Give me a call if you have any questions or need clarification regarding this.

New Information:

• I have been made aware of a resource for schools/teachers called “Expeditions Pioneer Program” that I want to pass along.  The website (https://www.google.com/edu/expeditions/) offers the details you need to find out further information about this free “virtual reality platform made for the classroom.”  Check out the webpage and see if you think one or more of your teachers would like to apply for a chance at an expedition coming to your school!

Reminders:

I’m not sure if this is a reminder or not, but thought I would locate it here.  As you know, SLGGs have been a bit of a moving target this year, so I wanted to be sure I provided you with the most current and need-to-know information (click here for ODE Guidance).  Here are the highlights that I am aware of:

• Category 1 SLGG (see Student Growth Percentile document for additional info)
  • Those who teach ELA or math at the middle level are required to have a Category 1 (state assessment) goal.
  • This year, as part of the state’s ESA waver, Student Growth Percentiles (SGP) will be the Category 1 goal.
  • These SGPs will be provided to us by the state – teachers do not create these.
  • SGPs will not be available until after we receive SBAC testing results – which will be next fall.
  • So… our ELA and math teachers can complete a Category 2 goal now, but can only fill in demographic data for their Category 1 goal at this time.
  • Last year there were not Category 1 goal requirements – thus every teacher created two Category 2 goals.
  • ODE is now requiring that a teacher, if qualified, must have a Category 1 goal be a part of her/his SLGGs and evaluation.
    • This is a change to what we have communicated to teachers of ELA or math!  These teachers may now self select one of their three Category 2 goals to be a part of their evaluation, AND they must have their only Category 1 goal (which is actually their SGP coming from the state next fall) be the other goal that is included as part of their evaluation.  (What we had communicated – because it was true at the time – that teachers could choose two of their 4 SLGGs to be part of their evaluation.  ODE has changed this for ELA and math teachers in grades 4 – 8.)
    • What this also means is that you will not be able to complete the SLGG matrix portion of any ELA or math teacher’s evaluation until next fall, once we receive the teacher’s SGP.
• Certified SLGGs should be completed by the end of this month.  Non ELA and math teachers will have two complete goals, while ELA and math teachers will have one Category 2 goal and a partially completed (demographic data only) Category 1 goal.
• Your SLGGs… Please plan on having yours also completed by the end of this month.  You should have one Category 1 goal and your second can be Category 1 or Category 2.

Let me know if you need any clarification regarding SLGGs and I’ll find the answer for you!

• Don’t forget that the BrightBytes survey is now open.  See Skip’s email sent on Nov. 3 for additional information.

New Information:

• There is (already) a lack of substitute teachers available in our region.  It is not uncommon for there to be a lack of available subs in the spring, which makes me a bit uneasy looking down the road this year.  So, if you are aware of any forthcoming short or long-term sub needs, please plan early for filling these.

• It has recently come to my attention that there may be a new clothing fad amongst some of our students.  Namely, wearing animal tails (and maybe even ears) at school.  Although this is not tied to a specific religion, there is a “belief” amongst some that they are really “animals” internally and one way to express that in his/her clothing style is to wear a tail and/or ears represented by the animal they believe they are.  (I am happy to provide you with additional information on this if you’d like – but won’t in this space at this time.)  A question some of you have encountered is whether to allow students to wear these animal tails or ears while at school.  Here is district advice on this topic, taken from policies JFCA and JFCA-AR:
  • Students have the right to make individual choices in terms of clothing styles, as long as those choices do not present a health or safety hazard, or a distraction.
  • Specifically, #3 of JFCA-AR states that no clothing, article of clothing, or manner of wearing clothing that is distracting/disruptive to the educational program shall be worn on campus or at school activities.
  • At this point, I do not believe a student wearing a tail or ears is a health or safety hazard.
  • I have not heard of a tail being disruptive to the educational process.
  • You may have a hat policy that does not allow the wearing of them in class or in the building.  I would say this should include the wearing of animal ears.
  • The wearing of an animal costume (whether is be a cow costume or a tail with ears of an animal) could be deemed a distraction to the educational environment.
  • My best advice if you are having these questions come up at your school is this: I’d allow the wearing of a tail, unless there are complaints that are deemed as disruptive to the learning environment of any student.  In terms of animal ears, if you allow the wearing of hats then it would be more difficult to connect the ears to disrupting the educational environment, but it is certainly possible to do so.  If you do not allow the wearing of hats then the wearing of ears would also seem to be an item not allowed.

Let me know if you have any questions regarding this or if I can help clarify a situation at your school.

I apologize this was a bit longer than I hope these updates generally are, but trust this is a good way to communicate important updates to you.  (If not, let me know!)  Have a great weekend!

Jim

The Expeditionary Learning (EL) conference that I attended this week was a bit overwhelming, in a good way.  My head is full of things to think about and my bag bursting with materials to sift through.  From a distance I felt there were good things happening at REALMS, and I now have a better picture of what those “things” are grounded in.  Kudos to Roger and his team for living out what I was learning this week.

Reminders:

• Don’t forget Daylight Savings Time switch is this weekend.  It is time to “fall back” one hour!

• Next Thursday, Nov. 5, 3:15 – 4:30 : ACT Aspire training held at HDMS.  Plan on bringing a team from your school that may include: admin, ICCL, core teachers, data queens/kings, others. Those trained will then train others in your building.  Elementary principals will also be invited, so it will likely be a very full library.  Please plan accordingly if you want to sit with your school team.

New Information:

• Following is information from Sydney Gill, regional representative for American Heart Association.  I recently met with Sydney and a Portland representative about how AHA can support/enhance the work being done in our middle schools around heart health activities and education.  In addition to the below information, here is a document that includes contact information, facts and available support for your teachers around this topic.
  • As educators, we all know the importance of developing the whole child (mind and body), which includes exercise, nutrition, living tobacco free and connecting to our community. That is why I am proud of our partnership with the American Heart Association through Jump Rope & Hoops for Heart and our joint efforts to fight childhood obesity. This pro-active approach will encourage students to adopt heart healthy habits during adolescence and into adulthood, as well as raise life-saving donations. The American Heart Association has health and wellness programs for Elementary, Middle and High Schools, including resources to help you build a healthier staff.   
    I would like to thank and highlight the following schools that have already signed up to participate in Jump Rope for Heart or Hoops for Heart this school year!
    Bear Creek Elementary                                                  REALMS Middle
    Elk Meadow Elementary                                               Rosland Elementary
    Juniper Elementary                                                         Silver Rail Elementary
    La Pine Elementary
    Ponderosa Elementary
    RE Jewell Elementary                                                                               
    I fully support the American Heart Association and their heart healthy programs and encourage you to connect with our American Heart Association representative, Sydney Gill, at (208) 650-6273 or email her at[email protected] (copied on this email).  She would be happy to talk with you about options for your school.  When you sign up, you will receive all of the materials you need to hold a successful event (free of charge), including classroom lesson plans, jump ropes/basketball, plus an opportunity to earn gift certificates to US Games for PE equipment. 
    Thanks for all you do for our kids!  I appreciate your support and I look forward to our work together as we support the American Heart Association and the health of our students. 

Have a wonderful weekend, don’t eat too much candy, and enjoy the extra hour!  Thank you for the work you do leading and guiding tomorrow’s future.

Jim

As I mentioned to principals earlier this week, I am very open to your feedback and suggestions of how I might better communicate with you or support the work you do every day in the building.  Feel free to send me an email, give me a call or ask that I stop by and see you if you’d like to talk about any of these things.

Reminders:

• Nov. 5, 3:15 – 4:30 : ACT Aspire training held at HDMS.  Plan on bringing a team from your school that may include: admin, ICCL, core teachers, data queens/kings, others. Those trained will then train others in your building.  Elementary principals will also be invited, so it will likely be a very full library.  Please plan accordingly if you want to sit with your school team.

• I will be out of the office from Monday afternoon through the rest of the week.  I will be checking my email, but if you need to get a hold of me quickly then please call my cell.  If you can’t reach me, but need immediate assistance, please call either Gary Timms or Jay Mathisen.

New Information:

• At times there is a need for someone in your building to have access to historical discipline data (either from a different BLS middle school, or from an elementary) regarding a student of yours.  There is one immediate way to gain this information, and one pending way.  Following is a quick synopsis of both of these:
  • Immediate – Log into ParentVue as the parent.  Here are instructions from Becky on how to accomplish this: 

1. Open the student in question (Synergy SIS > Student > Student)
2. Select the Parent/Guardian tab, and click a parent/guardian name (who has Contact Allowed checked)
3. In the Parent screen, select the ParentVUE tab
4. Scroll down until you see a button labeled ‘Open ParentVUE as Parent’, click that button
5. In the resulting ParentVUE window, click Discipline in the left hand navigation

• Pending – In the coming week(s) principals will be receiving an email providing a secure login and instructions for gaining access to a Synergy back door.  This access will provide the school with historical discipline access to every middle school student, both those currently enrolled and those not enrolled at your school.  Additionally, this access will allow you to see all discipline history from any elementary they attended in our district.  Having this access may be needed at times and is great to provide, but also comes with greater responsibility to keep a lid on the number of folks who have this access.  Therefore, this access will only be sent to building principals.  It will be up to her/him to determine whom else in their building they would like to share this information with.  Lastly, this secure login information will change every academic year – the password you receive will only be good for 2015-16.

• Clarification re: interior windows being covered.  I spoke with Julianne regarding whether current practice/recommendation is for interior classroom windows to be covered during a lockdown situation.  She indicated the recommendation has changed to a practice of windows should not be covered.  What is important is that those in the classroom are out of sight, quiet, and the door is locked.  There will more coming regarding safety recommendations at our November Leadership meeting.

• Would you be interested in me inviting a police officer to our next Horizontal to talk to us regarding “signs” or “what to look for”  or “current trends” related to drug/alcohol use amongst our students?  This was brought up at our District Safety Team meeting as a possibility, but I didn’t want to assume, without asking you, that this would be a good use of our time.  Please let me know your thoughts.

Have a great weekend… and Go Beavs!

Jim

I am looking forward to visiting with many of you at your building next week.  You can look at the shared Google “MS Calendar” for more details, but I will want to visit a few classrooms with you and talk a bit about your SDP.  Let me know if you have any questions about this.  Here are a few other things I want to highlight for you:

Reminders:

• The Gallup Student Poll is open until Oct. 30.  Please coordinate a time, if you haven’t already, for having your students complete this short poll.
• The Bright Bytes survey is also currently open.  Thank you for having all of your students and staff take this survey (using different login codes that Skip sent you).
• If you are needing an interpreter or translator please plan ahead (knowing there are exceptions at times) and request this service through JoAnne Kienzle in the TLC office.  It may seem easier to just grab a bilingual staff member to assist in these situations, but is better to use this request for service process for both tracking of need/use, as well as not placing a burden on your building staff.
• The Ed Center exterior doors are now locked all of the time.  The only open door with access upstairs is the main entrance on the North side of the building.

New information:

• Here is a document that outlines the monthly talking points for my site visits this year.  These points are taken directly off of the MS Calendar notes – I haven’t changed them – but thought some of you might be interested in having all of these talking points on one document.
• Here is a link I thought would be worth passing along to you (if you haven’t already seen it).  It is a web site you could share with parents who would like additional information or resources to help support their child related to the SBAC.  It allows them to drill down on what the test is asking kids to know, as well as suggestions on what can be worked on if their child did not perform well in a particular area.  Here is the link:

http://www.greatschools.org/gk/sbac-test-guide/?state=oregon

Thanks for coming to work and getting after it this past week!

Jim

Thank you for your leadership of our middle level students!

Here are a few things I wanted to highlight this week.  Some are from days past and some involve a glance ahead.

Past:

• I walked away from our first Horizontal on Monday and felt like it was too rushed.  Tried to fit too much information into a small amount of time.  I apologize and I’ll work to get better at this.
• With that said, if you have any questions either now or in the days/months ahead regarding your School Design Plan (planning or processing of it, philosophy behind it from the district or building level, what works/doesn’t for goals, upstream indicators or strategies, etc.) please feel free to ask anytime.
• I hope the Word version of the blank SDP template worked for all of you.  (I emailed this to you on Tuesday of this week.)

Future:

• As most of you are aware, Bear Creek has had a Dual Immersion program for a number of years now.  The first cohort of students are now 5th graders.  The families of the students involved in this opportunity were promised that there would be a middle school component for their kids, once they reached that level.  If you did some quick math right there you realized that next fall something needs to be in place at one of your buildings.  I wanted to update you on where we currently are with this.  Lora has been asked to pull together a committee whose charge is to make a recommendation to Shay regarding the best MS site to hold this program.  At this point, the only two middle schools being considered for this opportunity are PBMS and HDMS.  There have been some small group discussions in the past few weeks, but a recommended site has not been identified.  There are many factors for these two schools being considered, with proximity to the homes where these kids are living being a major one.  If you’d like to know further details please let me know and I’d be happy to have that conversation with you.  The timeline for making a recommendation is short as there are a number of steps that need to happen prior to next fall – with the hiring of staff being one of the first priorities.
• I have invited all MS counselors to a meeting this next Tuesday at 2:30 here at the Ed Center.  Part of my role this year is the opportunity to meet with our school counselors.  Let me know if there are any district topics that you think would be good to touch on this year with this group.
• Oct. 5 is due date for turning in your Improvement Funds spreadsheet (that was discussed at Horizontal).  Again, please send your completed copy to Wendy Reeves and myself.
• If you haven’t already, don’t forget to sign up on the MS Google Calendar for a time in October for me to come do a site visit.  

As always, feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions!

Enjoy the coming days…

Jim