Team,
I hope you had a good launch to the start of the second semester. Below you will see the Upshift roles doc that I mentioned at yesterday’s horizontal. I will follow up with each of you next week on your Upshift system.
In case you didn’t get a chance to read the article from last week, check it out here it is: Article Also, when you finish reading the article, watch the video under Fish On by Simon Sinek!
Have a great weekend! ~Juan (“I got you”!)
To Do
From Lora Nordquist (From meeting earlier in the week)
Team,
First, and most important, I will invite all of you to a voluntary TEAMS meeting at 4:00 PM today if anyone has pressing questions about the three attached documents, which will be shared with BEA members prior to their ratification vote.
Second, at our leadership meeting Wednesday, 2/21, we are extending the meeting to last from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM, with substantial snacks provided, so that level leaders and HR leaders can dig into these provisions in more depth. Between now and then, level leaders will put together a document for folks to ask questions or raise concerns.
Finally, a couple of notes about the attached documents:
- Color coding: GREEN highlighted items mean these will go into effect upon ratification/board approval-February 14. YELLOW highlighted items will go into effect no later than the day after spring break. ORANGE highlighted items will go into effect next year.
- The highlights I have sent to you are not all the changes to the CBA, but they are the ones of concern to site administrators.
- The highlight documents are paraphrased. We will send you the exact language from the new CBA as soon as possible.
Article 16 Highlights Article 18 Highlights CBA Highlights
From Paul Dean
Classified Performance Evaluations
Classified staff who are to be evaluated this year will appear in your Performance and Evaluation Hub on Tuesday, February 13. They will receive the following email/notification on Tuesday:
We are kicking off the classified performance evaluation process for 2023/24. If you were not evaluated last year, then you can expect to complete the following tasks between now and July 1.
- Fill out a goal setting form
- Complete a self-reflection (optional)
- Sign a summative evaluation completed by your direct supervisor
Your supervisor will choose to undertake these steps either (a) digitally through UKG or (b) by providing with your paper copies of these forms which they will upload into your UKG personnel file.
If they choose to use UKG’s digital workflows, then you will need to monitor your notifications/to-do’s within UKG to complete each of these tasks electronically. Due dates for digital workflows will be:
- March 1 for goal setting
- April 1 – May 1 for self reflections (optional)
- May 1 to July 1 for summative evaluations
Your supervisor will communicate with you on which method they plan on using for your performance evaluation process for this school year.
From Kinsey Martin
Black History Month door-decorating contest: This information was shared with your DEI ICCL reps. Here are pictures from last year. Can you please reinforce mesasging with your team so your school is represented? Photo submissions due Feb 27, winners (with prizes!) will be announced Feb 29.
Incoming student nights/family orientations: Don’t forget to schedule interpreters via Linguist Link for upcoming events with families visiting your school (example: 5th Grade Family Nights at middle schools, Academic Info Nights, orientations). Plan in advance for how the interpreter will be used and how multilingual families will access each stage of the event. Language Specialists and Family Liaisons can help you develop a plan.
Upcoming religious dates: Here are religious observances occurring during school days in Feb-March. We have current students and staff who observe these days, so please plan accordingly:
- Ash Wednesday: Wed, Feb 14. Students who observe this day may wear ashes on their forehead. Teachers and coaches should not ask them to remove or wash off the ashes. If other students mock or tease them, please report this as a bias incident.
- Ramadan: Mon, March 11 – Tues, April 9. This observance includes complete fasting while the sun is out as well as additional prayer.
- Students: Teachers should avoid high-stakes exams during this time—if unavoidable, provide accommodations for students as needed. PE teachers and coaches should work with Muslim students modify physical activity as needed.
- Families: Be thoughtful about evening events asking families to come to school after dark, or afternoon events centered around food/meals that might exclude Muslim families.
- Employees: Be thoughtful about staff celebrations (PTA events, social committee) centered on meals during this time period.
- Support: If an employee or student needs accommodations that you are not able to easily provide, or if you want to talk through supports, reach out.
From Aimee Synder
Expectations for Sources of Strength Classes and Clubs
As you make decisions on Sources of Strength classes or clubs, use this list of options to select the best model for your school and use this list of roles and expectations to ensure that your Adult Advisors/Teachers and Peer Leaders are able to meet those expectations.
If your school will have Sources of Strength as a class, direct your counselors to only forecast students who want to be a Sources of Strength Peer Leader and if they can commit to meeting the Peer Leader expectations (see the Peer Leader role on the back of the expectations doc). It’s best to have adults nominate students to be Peer Leaders.
Your school’s Public Health Specialist will be coming to you with these resources and results from your school’s Sources of Strength Team Self-Assessment to ask you to make improvement plans to ensure your program is effective at preventing suicide, substance use, and violence.
From Dave VanLoo (Repeat from last week)
OSAS state testing season is quickly approaching. Here is a very detailed summary document I put together to help get you started. Please share this with your school test coordinators (STC). Let me know if you want to meet in person about OSAS logistics. I am happy to come out to your school and support you with this.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mOiq0TreI7wihCJL3c8XWl1DicngbXM4LuTQ46H4fyk/edit?usp=sharing
This and That
From Stephen Duval
We wanted to inform you about an upcoming districtwide event that we believe holds significant importance. As you may already be aware, on March 5th, we will be hosting a districtwide Life and Career Readiness (LCR) event aimed at families with students in grades 6 through 12.
One of the highlights of this event will be the introduction of SchooLinks, our College and Career Readiness Platform, which we have been in the initial stages of rollout for all middle and high schools within our district. SchooLinks presents an invaluable resource in guiding our students toward their post-secondary aspirations and ensuring they are well-prepared for the transition into higher education or the workforce.
In conjunction with the LCR event, we will be hosting a SchooLinks trainer in person on March 5th. During this day, we are providing our school counselors with time to familiarize themselves with the SchooLinks platform and to begin developing tier 1 agreements for its integration into our comprehensive school counseling program. It is essential that our counselors are equipped with the necessary tools and knowledge to effectively support our students in navigating their educational and career pathways.
To facilitate this professional learning opportunity, we have outlined a schedule for our counselors to begin this developmental work. We would like your support in allowing your counselors to be out of the building during the times below to take full advantage of this opportunity. We understand that this may pose some logistical challenges, but this training is very important to counselors’ professional development.
Below is the schedule for the training on March 5th:
9:00 – 10:30 am: MS Counselors Scope and Sequence Work
11:00 – 12:30 pm: MS and HS Counselors: Course Planner & Personalized Plan
1:30 – 3:00 pm: HS Counselors: Scope and Sequence Work
We appreciate your understanding and support as we continue this important initiative. By working together, we can ensure that our students are equipped with the necessary resources and support to achieve their college and career aspirations.
Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Stephen or Jess Calbreath.
From Jennifer Hauth
| Functional Family TherapyDC Juvenile | Referral formSelf, school, partner agencies |
Reminder
UKG & Red Rover Absences
Important! Please work together with your Office Manager to compare your Red Rover absences with each staff absence in UKG. It was recently discovered at a school site where a staff member had been gone a lot. With a deeper dive with the business office to see the report in UKG, they only had 2 days documented from back in October. Red Rover showed the person out a lot more than that. This is a big problem! This staff member is not getting any of their sick days deducted and even took unpaid days without permission. All staff must be using UKG to request all absences (personal days, sick days, school business, jury duty, unpaid, etc.). It is very important you follow up on this and make sure staff are registering all absences (whether or not they need a sub) in UKG. Lastly, it is not the responsibility of the office manager to intervene with the staff member, but they bring it to you when it raises a red flag. Let me know if you have any questions.
From Sean Reinhart
Learning Specialist Transfer and Hiring process for 24-25 school year:
Hi all, we want to give you a preview of the process for hiring certified Learning Specialist for next year.
- Currently, we are identifying schools that will have opening for Learning Specialists for the 24-25 school year. These are folks that are resigning or are temporary. You will be contacted if you are on the list.
- If you are on the list of schools in need of a Learning Specialist, you will be invited to the transfer interviews, currently scheduled for Monday, March 4(2:30-5:00). We will have a pool of candidates available that have requested a transfer and indicated that one of their choices is your school.
- If you are at the transfer interviews and a candidate is not selected for your school, you will be invited to the pool interviews scheduled on Tuesday, March 11 (1-5 PM). Also, if you now have an opening because of the pool interviews, you will be invited to participate in this pool interview process.
- There will be three postings for Learning Specialist. A La Pine area pool posting, an elementary pool posting, and a secondary pool posting. During this interview process, we will be looking at new candidates that have applied for learning specialist positions in your perspective pool.
- Once we complete the initial round of posting, interviewing, and hiring for all schools, any additional hiring will be completed at the building level with Student Services admin support. This means the posting will be specific to your school and you will be the hiring manager with support from student services admin.
Please let Josh, Colleen, or myself know if you have any questions.
Jamie Goldman BLP Ed Foundation
Friendly reminder we are launching our Spring cycle on Monday…can you please send out a reminder to educators on Friday and again Monday morning?
The Bend-La Pine Education Foundation is proud to announce a Spring 2024 classroom grant cycle! This will be on a smaller scale, but will hopefully provide a meaningful impact for educators across the district.
Spring 2024 Grant Application: https://forms.gle/sTQXdnx9sq1dt46GAThe breakdown for the Spring Cycle:
- Applications can be up to $850
- 3 Buckets:
- STEM
- PE
- ART/MUSIC
- If the number of grant requests exceeds the available funding, we will fund 1 grant per school based on date received and requirements met. Teachers who did not receive funding in Fall 2023 will receive first priority. A grant report will be due by Jun 1, 2024.
- Timeline:
- 2/5 – Grant Application opens
- 3/1 – Grant application closes
- 3/5 – Allocations meeting 12-2pm
- 3/6-3/15 – Grant announcements and distributions
Calendar
February 5-9: National School Counseling Week
February 9: Appreciation Cards for SRO are due
February 19: President’s Day—This is not a paid holiday, so use non-contract if you don’t work
February 20th: 5th Grade Family Night Time TBD by each MS
February 22: MS Horizontal @SVMS at 3:00-4:30
March 3: Education Foundation: Grants are due 3/1: www.blpedfoundation.org