TO DO:

If you haven’t yet, don’t forget to get your Equity Stance in before you take off for the summer. These will be used/referenced at the August 12 Leadership Retreat. _________________________________________________________________________________

From Katie:

Bend-La Pine Schools will continue its implementation of a “no zeros” policy as a grading practice at the middle and high school levels through the end of the 2021-22 school year. A 50% represents an F, or half the points possible on a traditional 100-point scale and will be the lowest possible grade reflected on any assignment or assessment. Therefore, students will earn an F (50%) for not completing the work or completing it at a less than a passing mark yet are not severely penalized below a failing mark (50% rather than 0%). Note, the “no zeros” policy does not apply to 1-4 or 1-6 point grading scales or the MYP / IB grading scale.  This is reflected in the BLPS Grades and Credit administrative regulation IKA-AR.

This article: The Case Against the Zero published by Doug Reeves provides rationale for this practice.  

MS Building Leaders: 

The members of our Equitable Grading Think Tank are reading Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman this summer.  If you would like a copy, let Marta Broberg know by June 22, and she will order it for you.

THIS and THAT:

Summer School Programs Schools that are hosting summer school programs from August 2 – August 19 may need some support from staff members whose normal work calendar has them in the building during those dates.  Please let your custodians, office managers and/or other front office staff know about this so that they aren’t surprised when they return to your building in August and may be needed to support Summer School.  

If you anticipate needing more support, you can ask other secretarial staff if they are interested in time sheeting additional hours before the start of their normal work calendar.  They should code it as “Summer Program rate of pay” and will receive $36.45/hour (which is the classified summer school stipend amount of $3500 divided by 96 hours).  _________________________________________________________________________________

We are excited to be bringing the Canvas Leadership Virtual Workshop to our administrative team on August 19th, 2021.  This virtual workshop will take place from 8:00-3:00, with a break from 11:00-12:00.  

The purpose of the Virtual Canvas Leadership Workshop is to provide 6-12 leaders with the best practices and strategies needed to support a meaningful Canvas implementation at their site. The single most important element of a quality implementation is the engagement and support of the leaders who will be side by side with teachers, students, and families throughout the school year. Upon completion of this Institute, you and your leadership team will have the knowledge and skills required to lead forward in Canvas with confidence and competence through the development of a plan for Canvas that will be actionable and specific to your school & its culture.  

Space is limited to 30 participants.  To register, please complete the one-question form linked here:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfeZfMLa-QfXWIA–0r_PX8qeNUnXPSiDi_-suI2bxjIZnGVw/viewform

REMINDERS:

This is not a reminder of something to do, but rather, a “thank you” and reminder about the vital role you play as a community of leaders…

The great redwoods of California are on of the beautiful natural wonders of North America. These giant evergreens can grow to a towering 300 feet tall and live for hundreds of years. For all their magnificence, one would think the redwoods would require a deep root system to keep them upright. Instead, they have roods that spread out along the surface of the forest floor to capture all of the moisture possible, intertwining with the roots of other redwoods in the grove.

The interlocking roots securely support and sustain these giant sequoias when stroms strike and fierce winds blow. The trees’ survival depends on the combined support of each other.

You have (particularly this year) stood together, supported each other, encouraged one another… and have become stronger because of it. You continue to grow and be magnificent, just like these redwoods. Some years it is just more obvious – like it has been this year. To say it one more time, I am blessed to have been able to work for and with you, able to call you colleagues and friends. You are outstanding leaders and will continue to grow and flourish in your leading of people.

TO DO:

If you haven’t already – and many of you have – please make sure your team has signed up for the BRYT Kickoff training on June 23 & 24. Lunch is provided… so we need names no later than next Tuesday (6/15) in order to assure you’ll be eating! Here is the link to sign up. _________________________________________________________________________________

This message is from Jackie Wilson, district Sustainability Coordinator. Please pass along to your staff…

As the school year begins to come to a close, please be aware of the BLS holiday standard operating procedure. This document is meant to help you guide the staff in how to close down at the end of the school year.  Please make sure all of the staff has seen this document as we rapidly approach the summer holidays. Thank you for a wonderful school year. We look forward to a healthy 2021-2022 school year. _________________________________________________________________________________

The action item here is to make sure these two items are on your calendar for August:

Leadership Retreat (will likely NOT include ICCL this year) is on August 12

Our district Safety Day (trainings) will be on August 17. _________________________________________________________________________________

If you are thinking of offering a new course (one you have not offered in the past) then please remember that you need to get these approved by me (Juan next year) before it is created in Synergy. Here is a link to the Staff Portal where you can find the form for MS course creation requests. _________________________________________________________________________________

THIS and THAT:

If you are considering paying any of your new hires to participate in professional development this summer please review and follow this one-page guidance before doing so. Reach out to Paul in HR if you have any questions regarding this. _________________________________________________________________________________

Here is some “hotspot” information that includes some repeat information to share/remind families (1st paragraph), as well as new information (see link in 2nd paragraph)…

All students who have a district-issued hotspot at their home are asked to return the hotspot and charging equipment to the school front office by June 18th.  Service to all hotspots will end on June 18th.  Any hotspot that has not been returned to school will cease to function beyond this date.

Additionally, John Aubry and I (Scott McDonald) have devised a plan for collecting and distributing Hotspots for student use over the summer.  You likely received this document last Friday or earlier this week. We are trying to keep it simple, but we certainly know that this exchange will occur at the busiest time in the school year. _________________________________________________________________________________

Probationary Classified Employees of Concern

Are you aware of the probationary period for classified employees? Before the probationary period ends, our process for removing an underperforming employee is straightforward, but after this period ends, it is more cumbersome. IN Article 11 of the OSEA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the probationary period is defined as:

Each new employee hired into the bargaining unit shall serve a probationary period equivalent to the number of work days in that employee’s normal work year or 185 work days, whichever is shorter.

185 days is roughly a school year for employees working in schools.  You can email Derek Duenas for alpha A-L, or Kelly Marty for alpha M-Z, to verify how many days someone has been employed in the district if you have a new hire of concern.  The 185 days can span over two school years since it is work days and not calendar days that are being counted.

If you have concerns about a probationary classified employee please don’t hesitate to engage in a conversation with that person now, identify 1-3 concrete and measurable performance goals (you can use the new evaluation form as a reference), and set a date 2-3 weeks out (or for the beginning of the following school year) for a progress monitoring check-in.  If, after two progress monitoring meetings, you still don’t see a significant improvement, please email me (Paul Dean) to discuss the next steps.  From the CBA:

The purpose of the probationary period shall be to:

1. Train the employee to meet the District required work standards.
2. Assist an employee whose work performance fails to meet District required work standards.
3. Terminate an employee whose work performance fails to meet District required work standards.

You may extend the probationary period as described in the CBA:

• In the event the district determines there are performance concerns with the employee, the probationary period may be extended for a period of up to forty (40) work days.
• If there are performance concerns with a probationary employee and a decision is made to extend probation for that employee, the employee will be notified not later than five (5) days before completion of the probationary period described in 11.2 above.

Please be diligent in supporting probationary employees, working with them to learn and improve, document meetings regarding areas of concern and reaching out to HR if you need assistance before their probationary period ends.

If you need to reference this information at a later time, here is a Google document with the same information (and may be easier to locate in the future). _________________________________________________________________________________

This one is a bit random… Know of anyone on your staff who is looking for a little summer work in the woods? If so, you may want to share the following info regarding potential openings as a Park Ranger with OR Parks & Rec Department. I am hearing that they have not received large numbers of applicants for summer jobs:

Interested people can go to this website: www.oregon.gov › oprd › emp › Pages › EMP-current

Type in park ranger in the search bar.

REMINDERS:

Our last Horizontal meeting is next Tuesday at 8:00. As a reminder, we are meeting in person (Ed Center board room) for this one. If you are not able to be there in person plan on joining us via my Webex room. _________________________________________________________________________________

I don’t recall if I have mentioned this to you yet – so this may not actually be a “reminder”… I’ve heard conversation that the Leadership team will be gathering on the afternoon (around 4:00) of June 21 at the Ed. Center to reflect and celebrate this year. Please reserve this time on your calendar.

TO DO:

Please share this memo from Amy T. regarding this summer’s Innovative Teaching and Learning Conference with your teachers:

Greetings Teachers,

Our teaching and learning staff is once again excited to be planning the Innovative Teaching and Learning Conference for this August.  The conference will be held Wednesday, August 25 and Thursday, August 26th, at Pacific Crest Middle School.  Like other years ITLC will be an energizing way to start the new school year!

In light of many aspects of our current situation, ranging from unknowns about gathering size, vaccine distribution, and even interest – we are going to scale down and focus this year’s conference on several large topics with the hope of giving those who participate the chance to dive deeper into the areas of equity, grading practices, and social-emotional wellness.  

Each day will include a morning keynote followed by afternoon breakouts around these topics. You can choose to attend as much as you’d like.  Mary Ehrenworth will be our featured presenter for Wednesday the 25th and the team from Creative Leadership Solutions will be leading us in work surrounding Equitable Grading Practices on Thursday, August 26th.

Registration is available now in Performance Matters(after logging in you should see it in “Recommended Training”, click there, then select the “sections” tab to register separately for each day).   _________________________________________________________________________________

THIS and THAT:

Some members of our community are inquiring about Critical Race Theory (CRT) and whether our schools are teaching it.  Critical Race Theory is a big topic that deserves substantial unpacking.  In an effort to get you some tools for responding now if you need them, here are some initial resources:
ODE’s stance on CRT here, and talking points here.  These are just for your own reference, if you’d like to borrow any of their language.  This is an article about what CRT is, and how it relates to education, if you’re looking to read more.

If you have families inquiring about CRT or our district’s approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion work, and you’d like a partner in that conversation, feel free to reach out to Kinsey.  _________________________________________________________________________________

I’m not sure if you’ve taken a look at EdTech blog entries before, but here is one to wet your appetite (and possibly share with your staff). Friday’s edition of EdTech Bytes is here! This is our last one for this school year. In it you’ll find:

• 💁‍♀️  Tech Tip: How to quickly combine multiple pdfs
• 🎗  Reminder: Google Takeout for those leaving the district
• 🍎  Learn about Canvas on your own time

REMINDERS:

Here is a reminder regarding creating and sharing your personal Equity Stance statement. Here is a link for further details. Hoping to have folks have this done by Monday (6/7). _________________________________________________________________________________

Please see the  information and registration for the Middle School BRYT Summer Kick Start

What:  Middle School BRYT Summer Kickstart

When: June 23-24, 9AM – 2PM

Where: Pacific Crest Middle School

Who:  We would like there to be at least one administrator present.  Ideally your SCC and two other support folks (SPED, school counselor, school psych, other SEL support, etc.) would attend as well.  The budget allows for each school to timesheet up to three folks for the two days.

We need everyone attending to RSVP so we can plan spaces and prepare lunch.  Please forward to your team members.

Register HERE. _________________________________________________________________________________

See you in my Webex next Tuesday at 8:00 for our Horizontal. 😁 _________________________________________________________________________________

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.

TO DO:

I learned about this last Friday – after sending out this blog (so this may not be new information to you at this point). From Jon and HR:

We are having an extremely hard time filling all substitute requests.  Last week we ask that you keep personal days to 5% in the building.  This week and for the remainder of the year, we are going one step further.  We will not be approving any more personal days unless a substitute can be found.  If we have already approved a personal day, then we will honor that decision.  Moving forward, however, if an employee, either classified or certified, asks for a personal day, we need to know that positions will be covered before okaying the request.  

We also would like to remind you that we’ve made special agreements with both associations that employees will be paid for unused personal days. _________________________________________________________________________________

Please share with your PE/Health teachers: There may be a PE opening at one of our Bend-area elementary schools beginning next fall. If you are interested in the possibility of teaching PE at the elementary level, please let your principal know by May 28. [If you have anyone who expresses interest in this, please let me know.] _________________________________________________________________________________

From Chad in IT: Middle School staff will be asked to set up Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on Monday, May 31st. This communication will come from Chad in IT. Chad will also be reaching out to you to identify 1 or 2 people in your building to set up MFA and be a support resource for others in your building. The deadline for setting up MFA will be Monday, July 26^th. _________________________________________________________________________________

Please share in your next parent communication: All students who have a district-issued hotspot at their home are asked to return the hotspot and charging equipment to the school front office by June 18th.  Service to all hotspots will end on June 18th.  Any hotspot that has not been returned to school will cease to function beyond this date.

Related, but not for parent communication: If you learn of a student who is in need of a hotspot for summer work, a plan is being developed now to accommodate this request as best we can. _________________________________________________________________________________

Here is another message to copy/paste into your next newsletter to families – 

Dear Students and Families,

Once again students will be allowed to keep their loaner iPads with them throughout the summer months. This will provide students with a device to continue learning opportunities over the summer.  

If you will not be attending a Bend-La Pine Schools program or school next year, please return your iPad, charging brick and cord to your current school. Schools will be communicating their return schedule directly to families. If you will be attending a different Bend-La Pine Schools program or school next year, keep the iPad you have and take it with you to your new site in September. 

Sometimes plans change during the summer. If you find yourself moving out of the area or leaving the district during the summer and need to return your iPad, please drop it off Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Education Center located at 520 Wall Street, Bend. Please remember to also return your charging brick and cord at this time. The fee for a missing cord is $5 and a missing charging brick is $20. _________________________________________________________________________________

Feel free to share this free summer learning flyer with any/all on your staff. The topic is Trauma-Informed Engagement Practices through the process of continuous improvement.

THIS and THAT:

There is a new secondary science TOSA position posted. Please pass along to any teacher you think might be interested. _________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you everyone for participating in our Wednesday leadership meeting.  Kinsey has provided us with this resource to help us complete our equity stance.  Here are your next steps in this process:

1. Complete your personal Equity Stance
2. Memorize or read it aloud at least once with an individual or group.  Ideas:

·         Colleague from your Equity PD group

·         LEAD Cohort member, community member

·         ICCL team, school staff member, Latino Family Liaison, etc

3. Ask for feedback:

·         What did you hear me say?

·         What did you not hear me say?

By June 7, share your personal Equity Stance here (no need to have it polished/final yet, just a current draft you feel good about and can pick back up in August) as a follow-up after yesterday’s session. 

REMINDERS:

We are meeting in Horizontal on Tuesday. The only agenda item is a discussion around Title VI scenarios that Kinsey will lead. PLEASE PLAN ON MEETING IN KINSEY’S ROOM at 8:00 on Tuesday. _________________________________________________________________________________

The PBMS principal hiring process will take place next Tuesday. A virtual community forum will take place from 5:00 – 6:00pm. Look for a communication from the district with directions of how to listen in. _________________________________________________________________________________

Hope to see (in-person or virtual) you all next Thursday at 2:00 at CMS or virtually in my Webex for our MS BRTY meeting.

TO DO:

If you haven’t already, please plan on sharing a link to your two school videos in the appropriate Google folder. Here is the folder for the Questions from 5th Graders. And here is the folder for your General School Video (that most of you already had completed. Both of these video folders can be found in Collective – BLS Docs – and are titled: General MS Videos and Questions from 5th Graders Videos. _________________________________________________________________________________

OSU-Cascades is starting to get a little nervous about finding spots for just a few teacher candidates for next year. Would you be willing to talk with a SS or ELA teacher or two to see if they would be interested/willing to be a supervising teacher next year? A humanities placement would also work. As of today, they are only looking for one SS placement and one ELA placement. Please let me know if you have a potential match and I’ll communicate with Erin at OSU-C. _________________________________________________________________________________

Save the date… Paul and Courtney from BRYT will be in Central Oregon the week of May 24. During their visit we have set aside some time for them to connect with our MS building admin. Please consider blocking out Thursday, May 27 from 2:00 – 3:30 for this conversation. This is not a “must” but rather an “if you are available” time to connect. We’ll be meeting in-person at CMS and will also have a Webex option so you do not need to leave your building if you’d prefer. _________________________________________________________________________________

Save the date II UPDATED DATES… We’ll talk more about this at Horizontal next week. June 23 & 24 (first Wed. & Thurs. after classes end) will be a training/work time with BRYT leadership. These will be “mostly full days” (maybe 5 hours?) and one of the main goals is to provide you insights and time to create a draft of your BRYT operational plan. Please plan on inviting two or three other members of your school team (recently hired EA and/or Clinician would be great) so you have multiple eyes and ideas for your planning. _________________________________________________________________________________

And speaking of BRYT work, here is an opportunity for you to receive some direct support from BRYT that Sean has asked to be passed along: One of the first steps in the BRYT planning process for a building team is the MTSS mapping process.  Given that the year is ending soon, there will not be time for every building team to go through this process this year.  That said, BRYT has opened up a few spots for building teams that want to get a jump start and do the MTSS mapping this spring.  This will be a process that involves your building support team that will be working most closely with BRYT and the Student Success Clinician/Coordinator (SSCC).  If you have already identified your SSCC, then this is a strong reason to consider participating if you have the bandwidth.  Click the link here to pick a 60 or 90-minute time slot that starts in June.

THIS and THAT:

As you know, the deadline for ACRs has come and gone. And as you know, generally, we are only approving ACRs that are a 1-to-1 match of school and grade level. Here is an update regarding approving ACRs… Beginning today, Jo will be checking the spreadsheet every Friday to see if there are any 1-to-1 matches to approve. If there is, Jo will notify both principals involved to let you know to check the spreadsheet and approve this request. _________________________________________________________________________________

You have likely read or heard about the CDC updating their guidance around mask wearing and folks who have been vaccinated. And you also probably heard that Gov. Brown is going to move Oregon requirements regarding mask-wearing (indoors and outdoors) to align with this new CDC guidance. What you may or may not have caught in the small print (so to speak) is that Gov. Brown also said that for schools, we will continue to follow current RSSL guidance regarding social distancing and mask-wearing for the remainder of this school year (see end of third paragraph). In other words, no changes for us (as of now anyway!) in how we do school this spring. _________________________________________________________________________________

From Alandra: We are planning to share a press release celebrating our Excellence in Education award recipients May 21, hoping that will give enough time for schools that want to make the awards a surprise (if you have a conflict, let Alandra know and we may be able to push back the release date). Alandra is also collecting photos of the honorees and is looking for 1-2 events to attend, so if you have something fun planned for your recipients, let her know.  _________________________________________________________________________________

You will be receiving an email today from Marsha Baro regarding a requirement (SB 155) to display a poster that is a reminder for reporting sexual conduct and child abuse. Please post this where you have other required documents for staff to see.

REMINDERS:

Michele Oakes sent you the following email last week – and I just want to share it again in case you haven’t passed it along to your staff yet. (If you haven’t yet, please do so soon!).

As part of our work with the Regional Educator Network, BLS has defined a need to increase the number of counselors in our district, especially those who identify as BIPOC.  As you know, counselors support our students, teachers, families and community.  As we increase the number of BIPOC counselors in our district, we will positively impact the students and community that we serve.  
In order to determine who is interested, we have created a survey for staff. Please send this survey to all certified and classified staff.  https://forms.gle/NMyVf19aSyP4tfna7 _________________________________________________________________________________

An email that was sent out this week that I’d like to highlight is one you received from Paul on 5/11 at 2:27 (so you can find it easily if need be!). In it he provided a number of timely Covid updates, including: Gov. Brown’s changes to county metrics that may move Deschutes Co into a “low risk” category soon; the move from a 10-day to a 14-day mandatory quarantine beginning this Monday; a message that we are not following or enforcing other program quarantines (yes, a youth could be quarantined at Boys and Girls Club, but attend school); an approved vaccine for 12-15 year olds may be available/given at one or more of our MS buildings outside of school time – parent permission required; and the balance between poor air quality and Covid requirements. Whew! _________________________________________________________________________________

MS Horizontal will meet next Tuesday at 8:00.

TO DO:

We have a Wednesday schedule! Here is a link to the information you can share with your staff. And, Lora would also like you (big 5) to communicate to families what the Wednesday schedule will look like for your students. Here is a sample communication for parents that you can use or modify to fit your liking. (You have edit access to the parent communication, but it is currently set to only be viewed by BLS employees.) Please plan on sharing with your families prior to next Wednesday. Also, please make sure you only plan on having necessary staff meetings during SIW time – no PD, PLC meetings, or other requirements that can wait until fall. A huge thanks to Sarah Barclay, Ben Iverson, Christine Clark, Jessica Colburn, Ryan Kelling, and Stephen DuVal for their help in putting this schedule together, making it a great collaborative process with BEA and admin. _________________________________________________________________________________

This “to do” is for me – but I wanted to be sure you knew what I will be doing! Sometime next week you have indicated a date/time when you’ll be presenting your Excellence in Ed apples to your two staff. I will be delivering your apples prior to your presentation time. I am not able to make it to each of your presentations, so will not be present when you make these presentations. _________________________________________________________________________________

Some of you are beginning to work on your 5th-grade video (that will be shared with all 5th-grade teachers and will be shown in their class). Here is the link to a Google folder where you will be able to place your 5th-grade video link. Again, the deadline for having this video (as well as your general school video) is May 19 – one and a half weeks from now. Both of these video folders (5th gr. & overall school) can be found in our Collective-BLS Docs folder. _________________________________________________________________________________

Principals, if you haven’t already completed your self-reflection, please do so by next Friday (5/14). _________________________________________________________________________________

Please submit the list of students who should be invited to our MS summer learning program (Sparks) to Wendy by May 12th.   (Please submit about 50 student names per grade.)

Folks who have been hired as Dean of Students to support Sparks will be working with Wendy to make calls to invite students to Sparks and have them RSVP so we can share the ‘yes’ list with our transportation dept. by June 1.   _________________________________________________________________________________

The Bend-La Pine spaces for the late-July CFEE have all been filled by members of our leadership team, but there are a couple spaces left in the June session (6/28-7/1, entirely virtual).  Please reach out to Kinsey by this Tuesday if you are interested in taking advantage of this personal and professional opportunity for growth with CFEE!  

What is CFEE?  Coaching for Educational Equity is a deep-dive into the impact of Oregon’s history on ourselves as educators and on the students and families we serve.  To date, over 40 leaders in Bend-La Pine Schools have already participated, and it is our intent to continue growing our CFEE-graduate cohort over time.  Thanks for considering this opportunity to develop shared knowledge, language, and leadership for equity.  _________________________________________________________________________________

Please share with your teaching staff: We are currently in our recruiting season for National Board Certification.  We are holding several virtual informational sessions for teachers who are interested in becoming National Board Certified.  One thing that we know is when an administrator tells a teacher “Have you considered National Board certification? You would be great for this!” Teachers take notice, appreciate the compliment and usually pursue this path for their professional learning.  Please send this flyer to your teachers and feel free to attend if you would like to learn more about the process, supports, and TSPC reimbursements.  In addition, BLS has found that when school teams do this work together, it strengthens the team, teaching practice, and impact on student learning.  We are offering additional supports for school teams who decide to pursue National Board certification together (information for you).  We have added extra sub days, resources, and time with a NB mentor to support teams.  Contact Michele Oakes if you have any questions or would like to learn more about National Board Certification. _________________________________________________________________________________

THIS and THAT:

I know that this was shared with you previously (several months ago), but I wanted to remind you of the certified observation agreements that we have in place for this year. If you have any questions regarding this document please let me know. _________________________________________________________________________________

BRYT has coordinated another “virtual visit” with Auburn MS (in MA) for anyone interested in hearing more from a MS who has a working BRYT program in place. You do not need to attend. This invitation is being shared with other districts as well. The “visit” will be May 18 from 10:30 – 11:30 and may be accessed at this Zoom link. _________________________________________________________________________________

This is a “freebie” piece of info/news. You may have seen in the recent Marshall Memo that there was a link to a chart that identified media bias. I took a chance and clicked on this link. It is pretty fascinating (I thought). Guess I better unsubscribe to “InfoWars” and “Palmer Report.” 🙂 It is no wonder our country (including our local community) is so divided in its passions on topics. _________________________________________________________________________________

Here is an updated chart from OHA and our Governor’s office regarding allowable limits to indoor and outdoor facility numbers. This is based, obviously, on which category our county is currently at in risk level. Just an FYI. _________________________________________________________________________________

Dean and Michele did an interview with Steve Cook in the Secondary Blog this week.  If you missed it going out to buildings you can read the two-part series: an interview with our new superintendent Steve Cook.  It’s a great chance to be introduced to Steve and his thinking about equity:  

A Conversation with our New Superintendent, Dr. Steve Cook (part 1)

A Conversation With our New Superintendent, Dr. Steve Cook (part 2). _________________________________________________________________________________

From Terry Cashman:

I wanted to give you a heads up that we are at a critical level with the number of staff that we have in many of our classified jobs. 

Due to this, I am asking Walt to have the custodial staff at each school that has a reader board put the following message on them: Make a Difference  Explore Jobs at BLS

The head custodian will let the building administration know about our request and if any of you have a concern with this, please notify me directly. _________________________________________________________________________________

From Paul:

Hot Weather – Fans and Doors

There is nothing in RSSL directly related to how to address proper use of fans and the safety of opening exterior doors during warm weather days (or for added ventilation) so our team of health professionals who meets on Fridays gave input into acceptable use.  

Fans can only be used if they are pulling fresh air in from the outside (stationed by a window or exterior door) not if they are only circulating existing air in the classroom (therefore, ceiling fans should not be used).

Any exterior classroom door that is within the fenced area of a school can be opened.  Exterior doors not within a fenced area can be opened but must be closely supervised (ie. closed when no adult is monitoring it).

Educational Assistant Application Process

In order to reduce barriers for people who want to apply for entry level positions in BLS, we are going to remove the cover letter and three recommendation letters requirements for all EA positions.   We will still require a resume and our reference check requirement will fulfill the same role of the recommendation letters.  We hope that by reducing these tasks during the application process, we will have more people seeking employment opportunities in these hard-to-fill jobs.

Visitor Entry

Your staff have been doing an excellent job limiting visitors in your building.  Please allow BEA President, Sarah Barclay, to visit if she comes by your school. _________________________________________________________________________________

From Jon:

We have contract language specific to personal days.  We only need to allow 5% of our certified staff and 5% of our classified staff to take personal days on a given day.  

We are having a very difficult time filling substitute requests. Keeping personal day requests to the 5% could help us as a district.  If staff don’t use personal days this year, then they can bank one or get paid for them at the end of the year.  _________________________________________________________________________________

REMINDERS:

Do NOT forget that this Sunday is Mother’s Day (this is also a reminder to me). Each of your mom’s have raised you very well… freel free to pass along my appreciation to them! 🏆 _________________________________________________________________________________

Looking forward to seeing you next Tuesday at 8:00 for Horizontal.

TO DO:

This is something to take OFF your calendar! I mentioned to you earlier this week that BRYT would be with us – at our Horizontal – on May 25 (and that we’d meet for an extra 30 minutes). I just learned that the BRYT team will be instead be spending their time in schools that morning and I will be helping with interviews at PBMS… so please remove this meeting (our regular Horizontal and the extra 30 min. with BRYT) from your calendar for May 25. _________________________________________________________________________________

Below is an update/adjustment regarding pay for both classified and certified employees who work in our district summer learning program. Please share this with your entire staff and encourage any interested to apply.

Certified (teachers and student services/deans) will get a stipend of $5500 for 3 weeks of summer school and 3 days of training.  This is 120 hours of expected work.

Classified will get a $3500 stipend for 3 weeks of summer school and 2 days of training.  This is 112 hours of expected work.

Classified hired in the afternoon will work half days for $1750.

HR has edited the current job postings to include the new stipend.  Postings will be up for another 10 days. _________________________________________________________________________________

I hope you will not need this information, but please update your contact list or make a note of this temporary change to our county’s Crisis Response Team:

Nita’s last day as the Tri-County School Response Team Coordinator will be this Friday, April 30th. If you are needing these services this week, please contact Nita as you normally would. 

Starting May 1st to September 30th, our temporary Coordinator will be Dave Holmberg. 

As of May 1st, if you are needing the Tri-County School Response Team, please call Dave Holmberg at 541-362-1548.  (NOTE: This phone number will remain the same once a permanent coordinator/team leader is hired.) _________________________________________________________________________________

I’ve created a Google folder to share your Questions from 5th Graders Videos. Here is a link to that folder.

This communication from Wendy is a repeat of an email you received from her last Friday… and I thought worth repeating here as it also includes an ask:

When looking at current 8th graders I am interested in schools thinking of 50 current 8th graders who would benefit from Base Camp (2 weeks in Aug) as an orientation to high school.  These 8th graders may not have lagging academic skills, but instead may be showing more concern with anxiety, stress about entering high school, lagging social skills etc.  So the criteria for current 8th graders to be invited to Base Camp may look different than the criteria we are using for our current 6 and 7 graders to attend Sparks. _________________________________________________________________________________

Please share the following message – or this content in your own words – to your parent community: In the best interest of student learning, next week will be the last week to change from one district educational placement to another (e.g. home school to D CDL or BLPO to home school). Beginning May 10, students will not be allowed to transfer out of their current learning program into a different one within the district. [There may be exceptions to this … so reach out to me if you have a situation that needs to be reviewed.]

THIS and THAT:

As a follow up to Lora’s message last week about continued Canvas use, here is a support document that can help you communicate key to-do’s to your staff regarding the Canvas LMS system.  It is very important that teachers continue the 3 minimum requirements of posting weekly agendas, creating assignments and providing feedback in Canvas.  It is also very important that they continue to regularly sync Canvas and Synergy.  Updated information in both Canvas and Synergy not only allows access for our students who are quarantined at home, but also allows your counselors and staff to accurately track and monitor student progress. _________________________________________________________________________________

A question regarding OAKS testing and BLPO students was asked during our Horizontal this week. Specifically, what will be the school’s (brick and mortal) responsibility for communicating or working with their resident students who are learning via BLPO this year. The answer is that BLPO (just like D CDL) will be communicating with and testing (or collecting opt-out forms for) their students. You do not need to track or account for these kids as both of these programs will be taking care of this. (If you happen to receive an opt-out form from a student in one of these programs, please send that form to the appropriate administrator (BLPO = Amy T.; D CDL = Wendy McC). _________________________________________________________________________________

Here is an important update from HR related to posting requests:

When you are requesting to post a position, please use Templates instead of “New” or “copy from existing”. Here are the instructions.

Depending on whether you are planning any end of the year activities (e.g. 8th grade celebration), please read and ask questions regarding during or after school time events…

Events/Activities/Celebrations During School Hours (Follow RSSL)

We have received many questions surrounding the type of activities that are allowed during school hours.  RSSL requirements must be adhered to for these events.  Some things to prioritize in your planning:

Location: Outside is preferred to inside

Audience:  Parents are not permitted as they don’t qualify as ‘essential visitors’.   This applies to outdoor events too.  Student audiences are allowed.

Occupancy: No limit to the number people in a given space but you must adhere to physical distancing requirements

Physical distancing: Students can be 3 ft apart.  Students-to-adult and adult-to-adult are to be 6 ft apart (to the maximum extent possible)

Food: Onsite eating should align with normal school meals/snack time

Performing Arts:  At this time, we are not allowing indoor theatre arts, band or choir performances with audiences.   When the county case rate is below 200 cases/100K, we will revisit the possibility for indoor performances.  Outdoor performances are permitted with student audiences.  

Masking: Masks must be worn at all times except when seated and eating at a designated meal/snack time.

Collaboration: Run your plans through your school safety team for their input. 

Coordination:  Your school should have an events/athletics calendar that identifies what spaces will be used on specific days and times to ensure no overlapping event

Custodians/Nurses:  Keep custodians and nurses informed of events/activities

Level Leaders: Keep your level leader in the loop during special event planning

COVID Czar:  Identify the person in charge of maintaining all safety practices for your event

Community Gatherings After Hours On Our Campuses

When events occur outside of the instructional day, RSSL is no longer applicable. 

County Risk Sector: You must adhere to the risk sector guidance at the time of the event so you’ll need to create multiple scenarios to adapt to the possible changing levels with our county.  Confirm Deschutes County Risk Level here. 

County Guidance: County Risk Sector Guidance changes at the governor’s discretion so you’ll need to check back regularly for updates.  The chart is a big picture overview, and if you want to dig deeper based upon a specific activity, there is a helpful interactive Oregon Coronavirus site.

Location: BLS recommends that events be planned for outdoors and then moved indoors or cancelled should the weather require it.

Occupancy: 

For indoor limits Refer to the County Risk Sector categories of Indoor Recreation and Fitness Establishments (for a physically active event) or Indoor Entertainment Establishments (for an entertainment event)

For outdoor limits Refer to the County Risk Sector categories of Outdoor Recreation and Fitness Establishments (for a physically active event) or Outdoor Entertainment Establishments (for an entertainment event)Outdoor Recreation and Outdoor Fitness Establishments (K-12 Sports)

Audience:  Parents are permitted but designate a ratio per student that ensures you don’t exceed maximum occupancy limits.  

Physical distancing: All must be 6 ft apart (to the maximum extent possible)

Food: No onsite eating is allowed (this is a BLS COVID Core Team decision)

Performing Arts:  At this time, BLS is not allowing indoor theatre arts, band or choir performances with audiences.   This may be reconsidered if county case rates drop below 200/100K.

Masking: Masks must be worn at all times by all 

Collaboration: Run your plans through your school safety team for their input (or with Dave Williams if it is associated with athletic programs).

Coordination:  Your school should have a events/athletics calendar that identifies what spaces will be used on specific days and times to ensure no overlapping events

Custodians/Nurses:  Keep custodians and nurses informed of events/activities

Level Leaders: Keep your level leader in the loop during special event planning

COVID Czar:  Identify the person in charge of maintaining all safety practices for the event. _________________________________________________________________________________

From Alandra regarding Teacher Appreciation Week (next week!):

This year we are doing things a little differently for Teacher Appreciation Week. We are inviting families to submit a note of appreciation for a staff member and we will print those on postcards and send internally to the person. Please help us spread the word to families, as we hope to fill staff mailboxes with notes of gratitude and appreciation. Share the following with families (Or share our post on Facebook): 

Has a teacher or other staff member made a positive difference for your family this year? We would love your help saying ‘THANK YOU’ to help recognize all that our teachers, counselors, school nurses and other certified staff have contributed this year. When you fill out this form, we will send a personalized thank you card directly to the staff member. We will also share these highlights from your stories throughout the week. 

Please have submissions in by May 5, 2021. Here are three unique “thank you” images that you can feel free to use: Gracias, Thank You 1, and Thank you 2.

Visit the following link to share some appreciation, https://bls.fyi/staffappreciation! _________________________________________________________________________________

This was mentioned at our Horizontal meeting this week – but thought it was worth noting again:

MS students will be able to take MS-level BLPO classes free of charge to the family this summer. This will be another option for students to participate in summer learning. What you (and ultimately families) need to be aware of is that any courses taken through BLPO are self-paced and are not connected to a teacher (they are fully asynchronous).

You are free to share this information with your families as needed/requested. Note that this option is not ideal for students who are behind or struggling academically, but better suited for those who missed instruction (due to COVID) and are self-motivated and able to navigate their learning independently. _________________________________________________________________________________

REMINDERS:

If you are able to join me Monday morning at 7:30 in my Webex, I’d love to have your input. _________________________________________________________________________________

Our Tuesday morning Horizontal will be our second-to-last PD with Dave and Dean. See you at 8:00! _________________________________________________________________________________

Please check your calendar for May to make sure you and I have a meeting scheduled. (I’m sorry I didn’t do a better job of scheduling a time to meet with you at the end of our April visit.) Again, I’ll be touching base with you on your goals for this year when I come visit you in May.

TO DO:

Here is an update from Wendy… that includes an ask of you and your team: Dean has provided middle and high school leaders with a ‘data scoop’ using details from DART, grades, SBAC, and other indicators.
My hope is that building leaders will use these data pieces in conversations with counselors and teachers to create a priority ‘invite list’ for Sparks.
I am hoping to have the lists back to me (Wendy) by May 12.  Then the plan will be to have employees hired for summer (not an ask of your existing staff) to reach out these individual students and get confirmation RSVPs in order to create a final list of students who plan to attend Sparks.  _________________________________________________________________________________

Please communicate to your families (parent newsletter) and students (announcements) that May 1 is the deadline to switch to Bend-La Pine Online or our District CDL option. After that date these two programs will not be accepting new students for the remainder of this year. _________________________________________________________________________________

Principals, you should have access to your (evaluation) Self-Reflection in Performance Matters. Please plan on having this completed no later than Friday, May 14. _________________________________________________________________________________

You likely received an email from Erin Feeney (OSU-Cascades Placement Coordinator) in the last week or so. Erin is working on placing 18 practicing teachers (interns) into Central Oregon middle schools. After reading the below communication from Erin, please reach out to her ([email protected] or 541.771.1461) if you have a teacher interested in hosting next year.

I am reaching out to you about internship placements for next school year. I have a full MAT cohort ready to go! We will be placing candidates in Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies. I have a few students also adding the ESOL endorsement. I have profiles to share. Please let me know if you have teachers who are interested in hosting a candidate. I appreciate your partnership. _________________________________________________________________________________

This is a reminder… but also a change of time for your calendar – so I’m adding it in this section. We have our next Equity and Excellence PD training this coming Wednesday (4/28) at PCMS. However, we need to move the time back to 3:30 start time due to our all-in schedule. _________________________________________________________________________________

Here are a couple of things to know about submitting posting requests beginning on Monday: Please email me the positions that you are wanting to get posted at this time. Include the FTE, position, and temp or regular status in your email to me. I will then cross-reference this with your staffing plan. I will then email the HR team (as well as including you) with my approval. You will then create the requisition for these posting(s) in AppliTrack. HR will get these up as quickly as they can… and I want to let you know that they are very lean on people/hours who do this specific task (so I ask for your patience). Postings will be automatically close two weeks after they are posted. Let me know if you have any questions about this process.

THIS and THAT:

If you haven’t already, here is the Jamboard link to the “exit ticket” that Dave VL provided for us at the end of our Horizontal meeting on Tuesday. And here is the link to the slide deck that Dave used. _________________________________________________________________________________

Props to Michael Hicks for send the following message out to his staff – and sharing (even if he didn’t know he did) with us as an example of a communication that has become way too relevant in this present time… I thought this was a message that may be useful to you:

Staff — 

We are seeing an uptick in both students and staff who are entering a quarantine protocol due to a positive COVID result or an exposure to another person with a positive COVID result.  Students and parents are understandably upset/nervous/worried about their health AND about missing school.  During this time let’s support these students and families the best we can by:

• Letting them know we CARE about their well-being and will support them through this challenging time.
• Continuing to use Canvas to share class agendas, assignments, and resources.  
• Coordinating time to check-in with students via WebEx while they are out due to quarantine.
• Limiting or excusing non-essential assignments that may be difficult to complete from home without direct classroom instruction.
• Allowing alternative assignments or assessments.
• Ensuring they know the best way to contact you during this time for support, questions etc.
• Allowing ample time and support once a student returns to get caught up / complete essential work etc.

We have been compassionate, flexible, and supportive all year long.  Let’s finish what we started!  Please let us know how our admin team and support staff can support each of you with these efforts as we continue to roll with the “COVID rollercoaster.”

REMINDERS:

Don’t forget to continue to work on completing your observations and feedback conversations. May is just around the corner and you don’t want finishing these up to sneak up on you. _________________________________________________________________________________

This is only shared as a reminder because you received an email early this week from Melissa Eaton regarding IT orders out of this year’s budget. I wanted to include it here as I don’t want you to miss the June 30 deadline of IT orders received. Here is a portion of Melissa’s email to you:

Because we are still experiencing some COVID-related availability and shipping delays, I’m getting an early start on sending out our annual reminder that our fiscal year ends on June 30. All materials purchased under the current year’s budget must be received by our department by June 30. There is no flexibility in this deadline and our accountants do follow up on dates listed on tracking and delivery. Anything received after June 30 will be returned to the vendor or that money will come out of next year’s budget.

This year, we are encouraging all 2020-21 orders to be placed by mid-May to maximize the odds of those items arriving by the deadline. This time of year is always busy, so earlier is better for getting your purchase requests in. _________________________________________________________________________________

Dana sent this out to you earlier this week: MAC survey day is Tuesday, April 27th… please make sure your staff is aware. _________________________________________________________________________________

See you next Tuesday for our MS Horizontal, starting at 8:00.

TO DO:

Principals, please send your Leave Sheet to Stephanie Bent (instead of Amy Stafford). (At one point we were thinking that Janet Bojanowski may collect Leave Sheets… but have landed on Stephanie collecting them for now.) _________________________________________________________________________________

Principals, please plan on having your evaluation Self Reflection completed in Performance Matters no later than May 15. (Again, my meeting with you in May will have a focus on discussing your goals and your overall thoughts on this year… and June we’ll discuss your Summative Evaluation.) _________________________________________________________________________________

The planning for summer instruction continues and is becoming clearer day-by-day. Would you please share this flyer with your staff regarding summer learning work opportunities with all of your employee groups? The plans being made for instruction will only work if we have staff members who are interested in being involved. Temporary employees are also welcome to apply to postings once they are advertised. _________________________________________________________________________________

And speaking of summer instruction, the grades 6 – 12 programming has a name, its Sparks. Wendy has created a very helpful and informative document that provides behind-the-scenes information regarding what this summer will look like for students and staff. Please share this document (and read through it yourself) with your staff.

THIS and THAT:

It was verified this week that iPads will not be turned in this June. Due to summer learning opportunities, we will ask our students to hold on to their iPads (just like they did last spring). _________________________________________________________________________________

Some of you have wondered about what the last week of school schedule will look like this year. Now that we are all-in, and assuming we stay all-in for the remainder of this year, we will be following the original calendar during these last days of this school year. Specifically, during the last week of school, Monday and Tuesday are “regular” days, Wednesday is a “regular” (full-length) day, Thursday will be an “SIW release” day, and Friday is a work day for teachers and their last day. _________________________________________________________________________________

The following is a To Do (if you haven’t already), or Reminder (you received this from Paul earlier this week) – but definitely a This and That (you can share with your staff) regarding Secondary School Mandated Rapid Testing:

On Monday, the latest metrics were released and because Deschutes County was over 200 cases/100K, secondary schools (not elementary) are required to offer rapid COVID-19 tests to symptomatic students/staff.  

Q14: My school is in a county that exceeds its metrics and is required to offer testing. How long does my school have to implement the BinaxNOW testing program?

A14: Schools required to offer access to this program will have two weeks to register, train for, and administer the program when or if metrics change in their county in a way that makes this program a requirement.

Our date to have this program up and running in our secondary schools is Monday, April 26th.  If your school has not ordered rapid testing kits, this should be done ASAP (COVID-19 Testing K-12 Registration Form).

Here are some resources to assist you in implementing the Rapid Testing Program:

• Step-by-Step School Guide
• OHA FAQ
• Recorded Webex testing overview with MS admin and athletic directors

I’ll open up my WebEx room ( https://bls.webex.com/meet/paul.dean ) at 8 am on Friday, April 23rd, if you have any implementation questions.

REMINDERS:

Our next Horizontal meeting will focus on the instructional framework PD that Dave and Dean have been presenting to us throughout this year. See you all next Tuesday at 8:00! _________________________________________________________________________________

Please have your Staffing Plan completed by next Friday, April 23. After that date I will let you know if you can begin submitting posting requests for any openings you have. _________________________________________________________________________________

This is a repeat communication regarding ACRs and pointing of students that you received from Amy Stafford a few days ago:

JoAnne Kienzle and I are working on pointing students in Synergy who have submitted ACRs for the 21-22 school year. We will have this completed by the end of this week. There are some students, that for whatever reason, we are unable to point. If this is the case, you will receive an email from me, asking you to point them. If you run into any trouble, please reach out and we will solve this together!

From this point forward, ACRs will only be approved by principals IF there is a one-to-one change. If you have any questions about an ACR that falls outside of the one-to-one parameter, please reach out to Jim Boen.

You will no longer receive emails from me letting you know that an ACR is sitting in your Home tab of the 20-21 ACR Middle School Workbook. This is now up to your school to monitor.  Once an ACR has been approved, it automatically populates into your schools REQ tab, letting you know that the student needs to be pointed in Synergy.