Team,
During this winter break I hope you find time to decompress, reflect on your successes, and look forward to the yet to come opportunities! I will reflect on these three while taking walks on the beach with my puppies.
Take a look at the following resource. I think it can be helpful as we think about strengthening our relationships between schools, families, and our community. You might also find it useful in enhancing school climate and culture. Might be a read over the break.
I will see you in 2024! ~Juan
To Do
High School Choice Options
High School Choice Options Applications are opening after the winter break and are due January 19, 2024. Bend Tech Academy and Realms HS are inviting ALL middle school counselors to come for an information session and tour to learn more about what unique opportunities are available to students at each of these choice high schools
The visit will take place on Monday January 8th from 1:30-3:45 pm. We will start at BTA and then transition to Realms HS.
Please encourage and create time for your counselors to take advantage of this opportunity. We want to see all MS counselors there!
Heads Up: There will be updated videos and information for middle schools to share with their students and families during the first two weeks of January. Please be on the lookout for those resources!
From Paul Dean, Human Resources
Principals & Supervisors –
This email marks the time for us to pivot in earnest to our renewal/non-renewal and extension/non-extension process. BLS aspires to place the best teachers possible in front of students, and as such we want to be very deliberate in renewing third-year Probationary/Temporary status teachers.
The primary means for removing underperforming Probationary/Temporary staff member before they reach Contract status is non-renewal of their contracts prior to the end of their third year of probation; once a teacher attains Contract status, separation of a deficient performer from the District becomes a much more labor-intensive process.
******Please note a change in practice for Temporary 3 certified staff. We are now required to follow all Probationary 3 practices for Temporary 3 certified staff. When you write a letter of support for a Temporary 3 staff member, then you are obligating your school to employ this person for the 2024/25 school year and beyond*********
If you have a third-year Probationary/Temporary certified staff of concern, I trust that you have been in conversation with HR/Your Level Leader regarding the remediation measures that must be extended and completed before the School Board’s meeting in March, where the renewal/non-renewal process culminates. If you have not yet undertaken the requisite measures with a third-year Probationary/Temporary staff member that you don’t believe should be granted Contract status, we are fast approaching the point beyond which you will not be able to meet deadlines to non-renew that teacher.
As you may also recall from experience or new administrator training, those of you with third-year Probationary/Temporary certified staff being recommended for Contract status need to generate letters of support for each one. The School Board wants each of us to be able to articulate the specific reasons any third-year Probationary/Temporary teacher should move to Contract status, and they take time to read every letter you prepare.
Timeline
No later than Friday, January 5th:
- You should have emailed[email protected] regarding any third-year Probationary/Temporary certified staff about whom you have concerns with
- Met with and notified those staff member that they are being placed on Focused Performance Review (contact Lora regarding what this improvement plan needs to look like)
- Begun writing your letters of support for third-year probationary/temporary certified staff with whom you are recommending for Contract status
No later than Friday, January 26th
- Met with and notified third-year staff member of concern that they are being placed on Support Strategies (contact Lora regarding what this improvement plan needs to look like)
- Completed and uploaded all of your Renewal Recommendation letters into the appropriate school folder with this google drive
Resource Links
- Here is the google drive link of third-year probationary/temporary certified staff (some P2/T2 are also included by administrator request)
- Here is a draft template/sample Renewal Recommendation letter for your guidance (make as many copies of the letter as you need)
- Certified Professional Growth and Performance Manual (edition_5_-_evaluation_manual_-_certified_teacher.pdf)
- Rubrics for certified staff (link)
From Sean Reinhart
Raptor Student Safe is a new platform to enter, collaborate, and track data round NSSI (non suicidal self injury), suicidal ideation (suicide risk screens) and behavioral safety (threat) assessments for school teams.
At the January 10 Educator Network Day, the Student Services Team will train school counselors, school psychologists, student success coordinators and nurses on how to enter NSSI and suicide risk screens into this system. After this END training, school risk screening teams will enter these screens into this system moving forward and will be better able to collaborate and track student safety concerns in their buildings.
All building administrators have access to their school site(s). Here is the BLS Raptor/StudentSafe Navigation Walkthrough document. Please make sure that you can log in to Raptor StudentSafe (using your district email address, no password required). Any technology issues or related problems, please contact our district Suicide Prevention Coordinator, Jamie Gunter at [email protected].
From Scott McDonald
Season’s Greetings from IT,
Parents can take an active role in how and how often school issued iPads are used while at home. Sending the following information home may be beneficial before the long winter holiday.
There are two device monitoring applications available for Bend-La Pine families. The application descriptions and set up instructions are linked below.
- Apple Screentime Screentime is simply a group of features found in the settings menu on most all Apple devices. Using Screentime is probably the easiest method to start for most families. Screentime allows parents to restrict applications and set time limits for device use. Just remind parents to to turn off their “secret” passcode before the student returns to school!
- JAMF parent This application is installed on the parent’s phone and has a few alternative features that are not available in the screentime settings. It is important to note that any restrictions applied in JAMF parent will not function during normal school hours (7:30AM-4:30PM) Monday through Friday.
This and That
From Stephen Duval
Mark your calendars for March 5th as we host our first ever Life and Career Readiness night. In partnership with Caldera DECA, we will be hosting a career fair type event at Caldera for grades 6th-12th from 6-7:30 pm. At this event students can explore different career paths with representatives from a variety of fields, learn more about the new future-oriented website Schoolinks and learn about postsecondary paths including college, military, trade school, gap year, and the workforce. There will be both middle and high school student information available as well as food carts. We hope you and/or others from your site can join us. We expect a big turnout and there are already over 40 different representatives signed up. Please reach out to Stephen or Jess Calbreath with questions.
From Jackie Mueller
Sustainability Updates
Holiday SOP
With the winter break upon us, it is time to remind staff about the Holiday shutdowns in schools. HVAC will be set to unoccupied mode in schools which means the temperatures will be set to 58 in the buildings. Please remind staff to shut down electronics, empty all mini-fridges and unplug them, close blinds, and turn down lights. The Raptor computers remain on for updates, but the screens can be turned off. The Standard Operating Procedures can be found here.
The Good of the Green Team
BLS has green team leaders in all but 5 schools this year and they are doing amazing work. Here are a few updates. Summit High students partnered with Miller to collect usable toys and are hosting a gift give for families at Bear Creek. Northstar, Ensworth, and Buckingham students completed waste audits to get baseline data for waste reduction efforts. Amity Creek is starting the 2024 school year with plates. BSH put waste stations throughout the school and Caldera Green team is inspiring students and staff to bring reusables to their pancake breakfast. The High School Green Leadership Coalitions wants to remind you all to have a great holiday and to reduce waste in how we wrap presents.
Calendar
December 18-January 1: Winter break
January 2: Classes Resume
January 11: MS Horizontal @HDMS at 3:00-4:30
January 25: MS Horizontal @PCMS at 3:00-4:30
January 31: All admin Professional Development @Perserverance Hall BSHS at 3:00-4:30
Fish On…
