Team,
Please contact HR with any inquiries regarding leave on June 17th and 18th. Let me know if you need any support.
Here is Jess’ & Jennifer’s counselor presentation from Thursday.
Have a great weekend. ~Juan
To Do
Collective Bargaining Agreement (Tentative Agreements):
Although we do not have a finalized copy of the Collective Bargaining Agreement for BEA, HERE are the tentative agreements, by article, that was shared with all members in order for them to ratify. As questions arise, please reach out for clarification. We will continue to train on the changes and our HR team is working with BEA leadership to build systems to support the agreement and clarify implementation.
Read through the tentative agreements at your earliest convenience. I am scheduling 30 minute trainings prior to every HS administrator meeting beginning April 2. Bring questions and wonderings to that session.
Parent Conferences:
If you haven’t already, be sure to schedule your interpreters for parent conferences!
This and that
From Ryan: Excellence in Education:
We’re thrilled to announce that nominations are now open for our Excellence in Education awards!
This event aims to recognize district employees who have showcased exceptional leadership, innovation, professional practice, and positive contributions throughout the 2023-2024 school year, both within the workplace and the community.
We’re seeking to honor one certified and one classified staff member from each school, as well as a staff member from as many departments as possible.
Similar to last year, we’re requesting one nomination from each school or department. Feel free to engage staff members, ICCL leaders, PTO/PTA members, students, volunteers, etc., in the nomination process.
- To nominate a certified staff member, please use this link.
- To nominate a support services staff member, please use this link.
Nominations are due by March 24th.
As you nominate employees, please bear in mind that those recognized as Excellence in Education award winners will be considered for our Employee of the Year, to be announced at a surprise event in Fall 2023. Following that, we will assist each Employee of the Year awardee with applications for state-level recognition in their respective category.
Further details about the celebration event will be provided at a later date.
Please reach out if you have any questions or need the nomination history for your school or department.
Thank you in advance for your nominations. We’re excited to celebrate and honor our outstanding employees at this special event.
More From Ryan:
We are very excited for the 2024 Educator Job Fair, which will be held at Deschutes County Fairgrounds on Thursday, April 4 from 1:00 – 6:00 pm.
Please sign up by Wednesday – March 20th: Here is the sign-up sheet.
We are offering a remote component again this year in an attempt to attract a wider range of candidates. There is a spot on the sign-up sheet to indicate if you are interested in meeting with candidates via MS Teams. Kathryn Moseley will follow up as the event gets closer to those who indicated that they are interested in helping our efforts to reach a wider range of candidates by participating in the remote interviews.
- Some nuts and bolts for the day:
- We have two shifts this year, 12:00 – 3:30 and 2:30 – 6:00
- Lunch will be provided, more info to come.
- Interviews will be 15 minutes long
- Interview questions and rating forms and rubrics will be provided
- The first interviews will be scheduled at 1:00, the final interviews will be scheduled at 5:45
- Please bring a fully-charged laptop
- NO OUTSIDE FOOD OR DRINK PERMITTED
Please, let me know what questions you have and thank you in advance for participating.
From Paul in HR:
This week office managers received information from HDESD about subs and a change to 4 hour sub positions. They will now need to be entered in as 3.99 in Red Rover and they were instructed to watch for this through the end of this year. Check in with your office manager about these new practices for your awareness and reach out if you have questions, reach out to Human Resources with questions.
From Tami Pike
Scoliosis Screenings Discontinued
After careful consideration and in consultation with medical professionals, Bend-La Pine Schools has decided to discontinued scoliosis screenings in our school system. While scoliosis screenings have been a longstanding practice, recent medical research and expert advice have prompted us to reassess the necessity and effectiveness of such screenings.
Spinal health is an important part of comprehensive health and wellness plans for individuals. Students can receive scoliosis screenings as part of their routine well child examinations. Families are encouraged to reach out to their student’s primary care provider to schedule a well child visit.
Below are some resources for students who do not have an established primary care provider:
Bend
Bend High School
230 N 6th Street
Bend, Oregon 97701
541-383-3005
Mountain View High School
2755 NE 27th Street
Bend, Oregon 97701
541-383-3005
La Pine
La Pine Community Campus
51627 Coach Road
La Pine, Oregon 97739
541-536-0400
Family Practice/Pediatricians
Central Oregon Pediatric Associates
541-389-6313
541-389-7741
541-383-3005
541-382-2811
From Jennifer Hauth- StudentSafe Raptor Training:
We have recently expanded our partnership with Raptor Visitor Management System to include one of their new products called StudentSafe. StudentSafe is platform to enter, collaborate, and track data round NSSI (non suicidal self injury), suicidal ideation (suicide risk screens). Eventually, we will use this platform for behavioral safety (threat) assessments for school teams as well. Stay tuned for more information this summer from Eric Powell.
On February 28th, all School Counselors, Nurses, School Psychs and Student Success Clinician/Coordinators were trained in the new platform and will be using this tool for all Suicide Risk Screens and NSSI going forward. School risk screening teams will enter these screens into this system moving forward and we will all be able to better collaborate and track student safety concerns in buildings going forward. You may have already received an alert in your inbox from a risk screen that has been completed in the last 10 days by one of your staff. The emails alerts will come from StudentSafe.
All building administrators have access to their school site(s) dashboards and data. 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 administrator or building team who would like more training, or for any technology issues or related problems, please contact our district Suicide Prevention Coordinator, Jamie Gunter ([email protected]).
U.S. National Model STEM Education Program Opportunity
Announcing the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) 21st Flight Opportunity – SSEP Mission 19 to the International Space Station, Starting September 2024
2024-25 Academic Year Opportunity for a School Community to Engage 100+ Grade 5-12 Students in Real Microgravity Experiment Design and Proposal Writing, with One Experiment In Each Community Selected for Operation By Astronauts on the International Space Station
STEM Project-Based Learning Through Immersion in an Authentic Research Experience on the High Frontier
TIME CRITICAL: interested school districts are directed to inquire about the program as soon as possible, and no later than April 15, 2024
MILESTONE DATES:
Experiment Design and Proposal Writing Phase: September 3 – November 5, 2024 (9 weeks)
Selection of Your Community’s Flight Experiment: December 20, 2024
SpaceX Launch of Your Experiment to the International Space Station: Late Spring 2025
Ferry Flight Return to Earth: Launch + 4 to 6 weeks
SSEP National Conference, likely at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC: early July 2025
PROGRAM OVERVIEW:
The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education announces Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) Mission 19 to the International Space Station. This opportunity gives students across your community the ability to design and propose microgravity experiments to fly in low-Earth orbit on the International Space Station (ISS). Experiments are designed to real world engineering and technology constraints imposed by the flight certified mini-lab that must be used, and the nature of flight operations to and from Low Earth Orbit. One experiment in each community will be selected to fly to ISS on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in FL. Your experiment will launch from historic pad 39A, the same pad from which all Apollo missions to the Moon launched, and 82 Space Shuttle missions. Astronauts aboard ISS will operate the experiment for 4-6 weeks before it is returned to Earth and to your community’s student flight team for harvesting and analysis. SSEP is not a simulation. We are truly inviting your community to be part of America’s Space Program.
Over the history of human spaceflight, a mission patch has been associated with every NASA mission. A community can engage hundreds of students in mission patch art and design competitions, with two patches selected to fly with the flight experiment. SSEP is therefore an authentic STEAM initiative. We invite communities to use their mission patch competition to also celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon missions, and humans returning to the Moon in likely 2025 with NASA’s Artemis Program.
An important consideration – the expectation is that a team of educators in a participating community will engage at least 100 grade 5-12 students (more typically 300+) over 9 weeks of experiment design and proposal writing spanning September 3 through November 5, 2024. Students across the community form teams of 3-5 students, each team designing a microgravity experiment in a science discipline of their choice. Each team writes a formal proposal to make the case for why their experiment should be selected for flight to ISS. Your students will be engaged in a very real research proposal competition, focusing on technical writing, just like professional scientists and engineers. The expectation is that you will secure at least 20-30 flight experiment proposals across your community. A national review board meeting in Washington, DC, will select the flight experiment for your community, and do the same for each of the other Mission 19 participating communities.
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) provides a fully authentic research competition as a STEM Project Based Learning experience. Launch of the Mission 19 flight experiments is currently projected for Spring 2025. Mission 19 occurs across the 2024-25 academic year.
For program details, and how to explore this opportunity for your community, carefully read the SSEP Home Page, which provides a comprehensive summary of the program:
http://ssep.ncesse.org
Program Contact:
Dr. Jeff Goldstein, Center Director
National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE)
Calendar
March 21: Middle School Horizontal @LPMS at 3:00-4:30
March 20: Admin PD at Perseverance Hall at Bend High 3:00-4:30: Focus is on ELL and Newcomers
March 20: Sign up for Job Fair due
March 24: Excellence in Education Nominees are due!
March 25-29: Spring Break
April 10: No classes, Teacher work day, and conferences
April 11: Conferences
April 11: Middle School Horizontal @HDMS at 3:00-4:30
April 12: No school
Fish On
