Please know that you will see extra presence from Ed center administrators during the first week of school. Due to all the safety and security questions in the community and of staff members, cabinet decided to show support for schools by being available before school, at lunch and after school. There is no need to attend to them or stop what you are doing to meet with them. They are strictly another person to help supervise. If you are wondering who is coming your way and when, here is the link.
Happy Friday! I hope you all get a chance to get out and enjoy the three day weekend. ~Juan
To Do
From Kinsey
Bias Incident Reporting Posters
Here are the English, Spanish, and Chinese posters that we discussed at administrator retreats. Please print and post in a few locations in your building. Recommended: front entry/lobby, counseling office, staff work room, your weekly staff blog.
You are welcome to “try out” the tool, to see how it is laid out and increases access to a few different reporting pathways. Just note “test only” if you are going to hit submit on a test run, please!
As a reminder, coming soon is a student iPad short-cut to a webpage with the form linked, as well as student lessons on bias and how to use this tool (more on that Sept 12th). In the meantime, if you have questions or concerns, reach out to Kinsey.
From HR
A reminder for benefit eligible employees : Please share the below information with your staff.
- OEBB Open Enrollment is happening now!
- Enrollment is mandatory, takes place online, and must be completed by September 15.
Check out the district’s Employee Benefit Website for enrollment information, plans, rates, and much more.
If you need help with enrollment or have questions, our Benefits Team will be hosting in-person help sessions.
Please feel free to stop by any location – no appointments are necessary.
September 12th, 3:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Education Center – Room 314, 520 NW Wall Street Bend, OR 97703
September 13th, 9:00 a.m. – 12 noon
Bend Transportation – Small side of lunchroom, 501 SE 2nd Street Bend, OR 97701
If you have questions, please contact the HR Specialist that corresponds with your last name:
- Last name A-K = Monica Ropp = 355-1119
- Last name L-Z = Kristen Marsters = 355-1106
This and That
From Kinsey
Family Liaison Team
Here is our 22-23 team of Family Liaisons! Many of you have already invited your assigned liaison to your upcoming staff and family events—thank you. Some members of this team are still waiting on their BLS badges. If they arrive to visit your school, they’ll bring other ID for now—thank you for making sure your office team knows to welcome them as colleagues.
Some liaisons are very part-time (5 hours a week), to support district-wide family engagement efforts. They can support individual school needs—we will just need to coordinate and partner thoughtfully on requests for their time, to be respectful of boundaries. If you have questions about coordinating services, case loads, or schedules, reach out to Kinsey. If you have a specific request of the liaison team, reach out to any member of the group! As shared earlier this week, we are waiting on some phone systems, therefore email is still the recommended contact method for a few more days.
From Stephen Duval
As we move forward with many of our classrooms using the 0-4 scale, it is important to be aware of a flaw with using the Canvas gradebook. Canvas has percentages on the 0-100 scale hardwired to the letter grade. Basically, it is not possible to show students their grade without showing them a percentage. We have been able to compensate for this by changing the 100-point scale to match our 0-4 scale. However, you will need to bring your stakeholders up to speed to ensure they understand this quirk. The important piece is that the letter grades a student sees is correct and can be trusted. Students and families should just ignore the percentage as it is not helpful.
We’ve asked Canvas for a workaround, but their only solution was very expensive and only worked for the desktop version. We know most of our students and families use the mobile version, so we decided to pass on spending such a large sum of money. We will conti nue to investigate with Canvas to determine if we can remove the percentage from the visual.
Here is a chart that shows how we’ve altered the 100 percentage to match our new 0-4 scale. This version is for high school, but middle school is the same without the plus and minus delineation.
Additionally, there is language in the FAQ that was sent out earlier for parents you can use.
Of note, Synergy can display a decimal instead of a percentage next to a grade but using ParentVUE would mean staff would once again be responsible for keeping up two gradebooks. Our team determined this was not a favorable option.
Finally, it is important for staff to know that EVERY single assignment in Canvas needs to be entered into the gradebook with a maximum of four. If teachers want certain assignments to be worth more, they should create weighted categories. Things will get out of place very quickly otherwise.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Stephen.
From Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine
Greetings — WELCOME BACK-TO-SCHOOL! With a brand-new school year, excitement is in the air! We know our K-12 educators are working hard planning, developing, and executing stellar programs and curriculum for our Bend-La Pine students. To help with that, we are offering our 2022 Back-to-School Classroom Grant opportunity for funding. Please see the attached Classroom Grant Guidelines and Classroom Grant Application, both of which can also be found on our website. We understand that the first few weeks of school are busy, so the deadline for applications is Friday, October 15, 2022, and all application requests must be emailed to our office at this email address: [email protected]
Funding decisions and fund distribution will occur November 1, 2022.
The Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine Schools is an independent non-profit 501(c)3 that has aided local schools since 1988. Our mission is to prepare our students for success and the future through educational and extracurricular opportunities. Since 2003, the Education Foundation has invested over $2.1 million into local schools through endowments, special projects, and our main programs. For more information about the Education Foundation, please visit our website at www.engagedminds.org.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or our Program Coordinator Jessie Norman at [email protected]. We look forward to receiving your applications and continuing to help make opportunities possible for our students and teachers!
Sustainable Program
With the start of the school year comes the opportunity to get your school involved in the district sustainability program, SustainBLS. In the 19-20 school year, we had 70% involvement. Even with the challenges in the 21-22 school year, BLS managed to keep 57% of schools involved. One of the goals in the sustainability plan is to have 100% of schools involved by 2025. You can assist us reach that goal by recruiting a staff member to serve as the Sustainability Advisor (SA). The SA works with green team students and the whole school community on saving resources, sustainable actions and creating a culture of stewardship. Please review the linked/attached document to learn more. Staff can take 40 hours at the curriculum rate to support this program. Teachers interested in learning more can review the teacher document linked/attached or reach out to me directly at [email protected] Thank you for supporting sustainability in BLS.
Sustainable BLS Admin. Sustainable BLS Teachers
Class Grants
Reaching out as we enter into the 2022-23 school year for your help finding submissions from your staff for our KTVZ “One Class at a Time” $500 awards. As you may know, these are news stories to recognize good things happening in education, innovative class projects or dynamic teaching that would benefit from some community visibility and resources.
If you can have your teams send those my way, we can work on selecting and scheduling with Mid Oregon and KTVZ to follow up.
Thanks for your consideration and participation, we appreciate your support!
Kyle
Vice President, Marketing & Community Relations
Reminder
Advisory
Please remember that the advisory course should be an ungraded P/NP course. Dean is working with James in IT to be sure that the courses have the same grading scheme. Let me or Dean know if you have any questions.
From Jennifer Hauth
Introducing our new partnership with Care Solace. Care Solace secures mental health and substance abuse appointments in a fast time frame, care companions speak 200+ languages, match clients to culturally and gender appropriate care, and are available either anonymously via a weblink or through a warm handoff by school staff.
General Information Flyer – English and Spanish
Family Letter – English and Spanish
Staff Training on August 30th from 1:30 to 4:00 pm at Caldera: School Counselors, Student Success Coordinators, Nurses, School Psychs and Public Health Specialist.
Calendar
September- 5th Holiday
September-7th 6th Grade Only Day
September-8th All Grades Begin
Fish On..
I think this one is worthy of a repeat.