Hello Team,
I hope you all had a great week. Remember we are not having a middle level meeting on Monday, December 13. Instead, I am suggesting we meet over at 10 Barrel East, to socialize, connect, share stories, and have some fun with a White Elephant gift exchange. The gift should be of $15-to $20 value and not to exceed $20. You can also find something in your garage! Central office admin are invited too, everyone, please ensure to RSVP.
You might have seen an email from Eric Powell regarding students and masking. Please reach out to him if you are having this difficult behavior crop up in you building. The team downtown is working on a response. Stay tuned as more information coming. If you have a concern or question around this behavior, don’t hesitate to contact me or Eric.
Have a great weekend! And let it snow!!
To Do
From Lora – Substitute Teachers for Professional Learning – (please note, there are some changes to “dedicated subs”, that conflict with what we have shared in the past)
Let me start with the good news: in the last six days of school, we have had zero unfilled certified sub jobs on three of those days. It appears that some combination of the HDESD hiring/training additional subs and the bonus for subs who accept multiple jobs in a month is helping to reduce the number of unfilled jobs in the district.
But while we’re monitoring the data on a weekly basis, we’re not yet at the point where we can allow school/district staff to hire subs for staff professional development. At this point, the district is NOT authorizing the use of certified subs for any professional learning/team work time/staff leadership retreats, etc. Even if your school has “dedicated subs,” (subs that will work only at your site), you may not use these subs for the above purposes. The rationale is two-fold: 1) not every site has this option available to them, and 2) at the last minute, those “dedicated subs” may be needed to cover for a teacher in your building who is taking authorized leave (sick leave, personal, bereavement).
We have had a few teachers/schools with exceptional needs, and they have been authorized to use subs for professional learning. Please contact your level leader directly to discuss the issue if you believe you might have such a need. You will need their approval before requesting subs.
From April re: SIF Budgets – April is in the process of transferring the funds for the schools’ SIF budgets and she has processed the ones where the budget in your staffing document is completed. Please complete your SIF budget by January 7th. April will check this off her list and get you your funds.
From Julianne – She will check-in with you individually and cover the new Test to Stay/Modified quarantine protocols released by the state. Please let me if you have any questions about this one.
From Stephen DuVal
Please set aside around 30 minutes in January or February for your equitable grading team member(s) to update your staff on the team’s work. They will have a presentation to cover and provide avenues for staff to provide feedback. If your building does not have a rep, please reach out to Stephen DuVal to discuss a method for communicating with staff.
Here is a list of building representatives.
Middle SchoolsCMS – Katie Lyons – Jake Slodki – Leticia GuestHDMS – Ingrid Hoban – Libby Estenson – Nishka Morton – Lauren Houslet – Dave McKaeLPMS
– Jessica ColburnPCMS – Mary WellingtonPBMS – NO REPRealms MS – Roger WhiteSVMS – Christine Clark
High SchoolsBSHS – Erin Hoffman – Amy SabbadiniBTA @ MHS – Alex GreenwoodCHS – Jess Calbreath – Kolina Watt-Garcia – Alex Baltodano – Rayne CedergreenLPHS – Pam PriceMVHS – Brandi Ross – Jason Gibbs – Sharon Sieveking – Michael HicksRealms HS – NO REPSHS – Erin Carroll
Youth Truth Survey
Please be sure to send the following message to your families in order to increase participation. Feel free to adjust the message to fit your personal school.
Dear Parent or Guardian,
We are writing to let you know that we are asking your child to participate in the YouthTruth Student Survey in the coming weeks. The YouthTruth Student Survey is a nationally recognized survey used in hundreds of schools and districts across the country, surveying hundreds of thousands of students. The survey asks students about their experiences in the school and with their teachers, including how engaged they are at school, the rigor of their coursework, and their preparedness for the future. Our school, other schools, and researchers may use such information for developing plans to help schools and teachers improve. For information about this survey, please visit http://youthtruthsurvey.org, or speak to a school administrator.
Although we want to hear from all students, participation in this survey is voluntary.
Your child’s ratings will not be identified in any reports because results are shared at the group level. Personally identifiable information will not be released to any third party.
Please be aware that under federal law, you have the right to review a copy of the questions asked of your child. If you would like to do so, you can view a copy of the survey at school.
Spanish
Estimado padre o tutor,
Le escribimos para hacerle saber que le estamos pidiendo a su hijo/ que participe en la Encuesta de Estudiantes YouthTruth en las próximas semanas. La Encuesta de Estudiantes YouthTruth es una encuesta nacionalmente reconocida utilizada en cientos de escuelas y distritos de todo el país, examinando cientos de miles de estudiantes. La encuesta le pregunta a los estudiantes acerca de sus experiencias en la escuela y con sus maestros, incluyendo la forma en que están comprometidos en la escuela, el rigor de sus cursos, y su preparación para el futuro. Nuestra escuela, otras escuelas, y los investigadores podrán utilizar dicha información para el desarrollo de planes para ayudar a las escuelas y a los maestros a mejorar. Para obtener información acerca de esta encuesta, por favor visitehttp://youthtruthsurvey.org, o contacte a la escuela. Aunque queremos saber de todos los estudiantes, la participación en esta encuesta es voluntaria.
Las calificaciones de su hijo/a no serán identificados en los informes porque los resultados son compartidos a nivel de grupo. Información de identificación personal no será revelada a otros grupos terceros. Tenga en cuenta que bajo la ley federal, usted tiene el derecho de revisar una copia de las preguntas de su hijo/a. Si desea hacerlo, puede ver una copia de la encuesta en la escuela.
This and That
From Jennifer Hauth
Student Success/BRYT Fidelity Indicators: We know you are all working hard to get you Student Success Program up and running in each of your buildings, but do you often wonder where you are at in your implementation or how you are doing? Here is an important one-page implementation document with 7 different fidelity markers of what you need to have in place during this school year. Please know that to have a Student Success program in full implementation and running smoothly, will take several years, like 3-5 (yes, we said years, not weeks or months). This one page document has broken down what year one implementation will look like. This would be a good document to review with your Student Intervention Team and to do a quick check in of where you are at. Are you on track? Do you need to make plans to address any of the items? Do you need help? Don’t hesitate to reach out to your Student Success Coach, Jennifer Hauth, or Juan Cuadros.
From Dave – Just an FYI that the Youth Truth survey will be conducted in January. More info coming soon for you, your staff and your families.
From Stephanie Bent – Due to COVID-19 we will again be offering a blended model for the First Aid/CPR class. The class will be done online with a hands-on skills assessment to follow. The online portion of the class should take about three (3) hours with the skills assessment to follow with a first aid/CPR trainer that will take about 20 minutes. The online course can be done to fit your schedule. Your First Aid/CPR card will not be issued until all portions of class are completed.
The process will be as follows:
- Sign up for the class in Performance Matters. Stephanie Bent will send you a link from HSI/Medic to get started ([email protected]).
- Please check your Junk Mail if it does not appear in your regular inbox.
- After each section of the online session, there will be a one or two question quiz.
- When scheduled, the hands-on skills assessment schedule will be emailed to you to register if you have completed the online portion. You can only do the in-person skills assessment after you have completed the online portion of the class.
- The in-person skills assessment will be done in 30-minute increments with 1 to 6 person ratio (20 minutes for the class and 10 minutes to clean and sanitize equipment).
- First Aid cards will not be sent out until both portions of the class are completed.
The class currently in Performance Matters opens 12/3/2021 with a completion date by 1/28/2022. If interested, please sign up now.
From Dean Richards
On the next Educator Network Day, January 12, most of the PLCs will have some time to discuss the syllabus requirement for second semester. The following was sent to District ICCLs and others leading the conversation on the 12th. Principals will receive a documents to share with teachers in next week’s blog to communicate location and major agenda items to share with teachers.
After conversations with Lora, and collaboration with the TOSA team, we’ve come up with a list of syllabus expectations that we can use to help teachers prepare to complete this task.
There will, of course be plenty of follow-up questions, but as a guideline, here are six items that should exist on the syllabus documents, across all content areas:
- contact information
- course overview, including overview of units studied
- a list of curriculum resources most often used (including a suggested disclaimer about current events, importance of responsiveness, and opening the door to some resource use not listed – here is what Lora recommends and which can be used all or in part: In response to students’ learning needs, current events, or newly available sources, for example, I will periodically supplement our major texts with other materials. If you do not want your student to read/view any supplemental materials, please let me know. Your student can wait to read/view the material until after they have shared it with you. )
- Grading policy/information about how students will be assessed
- a link to grade level/subject area standards or an embedded list of the specific standards you rely on
- a link to this document from the Canvas homepage, so it is easily found by both parents and students
Our current plan is for me to loop secondary administrators in so that we can identify any areas where their staff messages might be out of sync with the above and smooth those edges, and then for subject area TOSA’s and ICCL’s can act as resources for their content area teams around this expectation.
I expect to finish the administrative communication cycle this week, so teachers can have the above list next week. Also, I recognize that there may need to be subject-area specific additions (such as safety information on science syllabi…) Stay tuned.
One way you can provide support in the meantime is: if you have a syllabus that contains the five content pieces, would you share it with me? Being able to provide some exemplars to teachers will be helpful, so others can see examples of how the five content items might be organized.
Thank you so much!
Calendar
M.S. Horizontal Meeting Schedule
- December 10th & 13th-Juan out of building. If you need assistance access Lora, Katie, Skip or Dean-I will be available by phone or text.
- (Canceled) December 13-Horizontal Meeting 7:30-9:00 @Sky View Middle School-Here is the Draft Agenda (Canceled)
- December 16-Middle School Social 4:45 pm or soon thereafter @10 Barrel East (Please be sure to RSVP-This will be important for our White Elephant Protocol/Gift Exchange.)
- December 20-December 31 No school
- January 1st-SLGGS Due
- January 7th-SIF Budgets are due
Fish On…
