Team,
I’d like to give a special shout-out to Jennifer and Jess for their efforts in recognizing and celebrating counselors today. Thanks to everyone who joined us to see the great work being done across middle schools to support students, teachers, and families. ~Juan
To Do
From Stephen Duval
Please take the time to fill out this survey regarding your school’s plans for grading and gradebooks next year. In order to support MTSS data systems, we need to ensure each school has a plan for grades to be accurate and readily available in Synergy. This will also help us support the beginning of the year gradebook setup for staff. Please contact Stephen with any questions.
Certified Evaluations System for 2023-2024
Middle school admin teams, Please ensure you are using the below Modified Evaluation System for Certified Staff, 2023-24 Here is the doc
From Stephen Duval
Please take the time to fill out this survey regarding your school’s plans for grading and gradebooks next year. In order to support MTSS data systems, we need to ensure each school has a plan for grades to be accurate and readily available in Synergy. This will also help us support the beginning of the year gradebook setup for staff. Please contact Stephen with any questions.
This and That
From Nick Shien (Reminder)
As we approach the end of the year, we wanted to get some quick accounting information and reminders out to you all. Please review, and reach out to Nick Shein ([email protected]) if you have any questions or concerns.
- Budgets: A recap of the typical funds available to you can be found here in case you are looking for other budgets to charge expenses too. It is perfectly acceptable to move allowable expenses out of your discretionary budgets and into some of these other funds as a way to balance your budgets or to preserve the spending flexibility that your discretionary budgets provide (ie discretionary can be spent on the widest variety of items).
- Carry Overs: With the reductions planned for next year, we are allowing a carry over of 20% in your school discretionary and athletics budgets this year. That is up from the typical 10%.
- Petty cash: If you have petty cash, please make sure it is counted and reconciled before you close your school for the summer.
Guidance on Gift Cards:
- For Staff: Gift cards for staff CANNOT be purchased with District funds at any time or for any reason. You may, however, purchase gift cards with your personal funds (your own pocket) and give them to staff so long as the value is less than the gift threshold of $50
- For Students: Gift cards CAN be purchased with District funds for students as prizes or incentives. The value must be $10 or less, and the cards must only be valid for stores that do not sell alcohol, tobacco or other items inappropriate for students. You must keep an inventory of the cards if purchasing in bulk. The exception is Title–please do not buy any gift cards with Title funds.
- For FAN: Your FAN advocates cannot accept gift cards to be used for FAN families, so your school should not solicit gift cards for FAN. Your PTOs are separate entities and, though inadvisable, CAN do a gift card drive for FAN if they really want too. However, the PTO must maintain ownership of the cards and will ultimately have to donate the cards to the FAN Foundation instead of your advocate ( https://familyaccessnetwork.org/).
Youth Truth Data (Reminder)
Please process your YouthTruth data with your staff and share key positives and areas for growth, as well as next steps, with your families and students by the end of the school year. Principals, you are strongly encouraged to additionally process your school’s data with your families and students, particularly, with your principal’s student advisory team, with the intention of setting school improvement and student learning growth goals (SLGGS). However, processing with these groups is not required this year.
From Scott McDonald (Reminder)
Greetings,
You are receiving this email because a majority of schools were slated for either a complete swap of their student iPads or were going to be receiving replacements for 6th and 7th gen iPads. This swap is currently on hold. A purchase is still anticipated, but the timeline has changed. The determining factors for this delay are:
• Moving to the next generation of iPad involves investment in peripheral technology that is greater than anticipated – namely keyboard and headphone adaptors.
• Logistical and instructional considerations that may impact school locations that actually need to swap devices.
At this time, plan on your roll-in to continue as planned outside of any devices being retired. iPads will need to be stored like in years past by student last name, next year’s teacher, etc. The Tier 1 website will reflect these changes as soon as possible. Please reach out to your building’s IT Client Services tech, a fellow Tier 1 or Roy Fuller for help or idea’s for rolling in. For a quick reference see below:
Middle School iPads
6th-7th grade iPads will stay with the current student
8th grade iPads will roll down to incoming 6th graders
We will continue to remove any 6th gen iPads that have issues or swap any 6th or 7th gen iPad for a student who needs a newer device for OCR support as we’ve always done. High Schools will continue to receive 9th gens as replacements to keep device types consistent. If any student in K-8th grade needs to have an iPad over the summer (summer school or family request), please have the family fill out the attached form to be given to you before the iPad is taken home.
Culture of Care
Here is the latest news and workshop offerings!
504 Trainings
Option for Administrators from CASE: LINK HERE!
Calendar
June 1: Pride @ Drake Park (BLS Family Advisory hosting a booth)
June 6: Middle School Horizontal @LPMS at 3:00-4:30
June 6: GSA in the Park: 10-1 at Troy Field/Ed Center
June 15-16: Juneteenth Community Celebration in Drake Park
June 18: Last Day of School
June 19: Juneteenth Holiday
June 20: Admin end-of-year celebration @11:30
The month of July: Rest and relaxation!!
Fish On
