The Fish Basket

Team,

It was great to see you this week in your buildings. I appreciate your hard work and thoughtfulness as you prepare your staffing plans for the 24-25 school year.

Have a restful weekend. ~Juan

To Do

From Dean Richards (Repeat-for March 22 Blog)

Thanks to those schools who have completed the option sets. Everyone should have this completed by May 3rd. Reach out to Dean for more questions.

As we turn to Spring, staffing plans and graduations start to rule the day.  It also begins the process of curriculum requests. While we have not hit the mark yet, it continues to be the goal to have teachers have all requested materials by the first day of work. We are working to increase communication on the process with all involved this year. 

We will need a specific Option Set for curriculum built  by May 5^th. We have been in communication with schedulers about this new request and why it is needed.  This means that for administrators who allocate FTE to have the Admin Section Allocation completed by April 26^th. This allows us to begin Phase 2 of the curriculum requests (these are the course specific requests) on May 6^th. Delays will mean that teachers will not be able to receive approval/denial information before they leave for summer break. 

We are asking for all teachers to have their requests completed by May 31^st. 

Here is a details timeline of our curriculum request timeline.

Additionally, an email was sent to those who typically create the Option Sets about a Curriculum Option Set. This communication went to some Administrators and Curriculum Secretaries. 

This and That

From Kinsey

Title IX Coordinator:

Coordination of TItle IX responsibilities are transitioning from Steve Herron to Kinsey, to align better with current practices and with other Civil Rights-related coordination duties.  

As a reminder, Title IX protections cover: 

• discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity; 
• sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking;
• athletics, academics, and activities;
• admissions, hiring, access;
• pregnant and parenting students

If you have a potential incident or complaint that involves one of the above topics, please promptly:

• Report it via the bias incident reporting form, or
• Contact Kinsey  🙂

Upcoming Office of DEI district-wide events:

Mark your calendars!  Please share a ‘save the date’ with your staff as applicable (flyers and details to follow):

• Queer Prom = Saturday, May 4^th 7:00pm at BTA (Star Wars theme, of course)
• KínderFiesta = Saturday, May 18^th 10:00am-1:00pm at the Ed Center (for newly-enrolling Spanish-speaking kindergarten families)
• GSA in the Park = Thursday, June 6^th 10:00am-1:00pm at Troy Field/Ed Center
• Community celebrations (BLS family advisory groups will host booths):
  • Pride = June 1, Drake Park
  • Juneteenth community celebration = June 15-16, Drake Park

More details to follow.  If any staff wants to volunteer or participate, please reach out!

From Jackie Mueller- SUSTAINABILITY

EARTH DAY RESOURCES: Looking for something to use with students during Earth Day? Here are two great resources to explore:

• Subject to Climate Website
• Oregon Climate Educator Hub

FOOD WASTE REDUCTION VIDEOS: Food waste reduction week, which took place April 1-7^th provided an opportunity to challenge students to make changes in their choices. This initiative not only aims to reduce waste but also plays a crucial role in our greenhouse gas reduction and climate change mitigation.

If you have not had the chance to view them yet, you can watch the food waste reduction video created for elementary schools here and for middle/high schools here. These videos will help you and staff and students learn about the meal program requirements and how to reduce waste through choices.

IDLE-FREE CAMPAIGN: School green teams are preparing for Earth Week, and many will be working on Idle-Free campaigns at schools. Here is a PDF you can share with parents and driving students about idling. Here is some information that was created by the green team at BSH. And lastly, here is newsletter and parent letter ideas.

MAY 8^TH WALK AND ROLL TO SCHOOL: New this year, we will be distributing a google sheet to each school for each teacher to log a simple tally of who walked, biked, took the bus, or drove to school on May 8th. It will take less than 30 seconds and we really appreciate your help with this!

Please join us in celebrating the May Walk + Roll to School Day Event on May 8th! If your school is interested in participating please contact ([email protected]) She can drop off Walk + Roll swag, posters, and informational flyers for to distribute to students. In addition, feel free to use this poster and take-home flyers. The following language can be sent to students and parents:
* Please join us in celebrating May Walk + Roll to School Day on May 8th by walking or rolling to school. Log your trip for a chance to win a prize! See the following link to log your trip and for more information. Thank you!

Reminders

From Paul Dean, Human Resources

HR has been working to better understand what staff may or may not do during their lunch periods and here is what we’ve learned:

• For certified staff:  We cannot enter into any agreement that infringes on their 30-minute duty free lunch. Here is the relevant ORS 342.608
• For classified staff: The district consulted with BOLI as to whether classified employees can voluntarily waive their meal period. The answer we received was to refer to our CBA to see if it includes language allowing classified staff to forgo the meal period and work through it. The BLS/OSEA CBA states the following:

16.5.2: With the supervisor’s approval, employees may work through break
and/or meal period, work a regular schedule, and receive pay for the extra time.

In unusual circumstances, supervisors may require employees to work during break and/or meal periods, provided employees will be granted compensatory time off, for the time worked, or paid time and one-half for the break and/or meal time actually worked.

In summary, certified licensed staff cannot work during their 30-minute duty free lunch period.  Classified staff may agree to work through breaks or meal periods, with prior supervisor approval, and receive pay for this extra time.

Performance Evaluation Reminders

All goals, formal observations and most mini’s should be finalized in UKG by the end of April.  We are asking Level Leaders to review your progress during their next one-on-one site visit.

In addition, please initiate Self-Reflections (SRs) for your staff this week. You may ‘skip’ instead of ‘initiate’ SRs those who are not on a full evaluation cycle this year.  Staff are instructed to complete their SRs by May 1.

• Here is an instruction video to share with your staff on how to complete self-reflections
• Here is an instructional video for admin on how to review, submit and finalize self-reflections

From Dave VanLoo

Just a heads up that some new information and resources have been added to this Important OSAS Testing Information document. New content includes updates to the TIDE user guide, tracking resources related to accessibility, and the SEED survey. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mOiq0TreI7wihCJL3c8XWl1DicngbXM4LuTQ46H4fyk/edit?usp=sharing

Please reach out with any questions or support you need.

Roger White & Family Support

Thank you Patrick for sharing the information about how we can help Roger and his family as they rally around helping their husband and dad as he fights the hardest fight of his life to recover. While it is a Meal Train link, it is also a place to send gift cards and donate money as well. What to help? Click this link.

Calendar

April 16: District ICCL & Admin @Mountain View HS auditorium at 4:15-6:15

April 18: Secondary Instructional Planning Meeting 8:00-10:30 @Ed Center Board Room

April 19: Have Staffing Plans completed

April 25: Middle School Horizontal @PCMS at 3:00-4:30

April 26 & 29: Juan out of office. Limited email but available by text & phone

May 9: Middle School Horizontal @PBMS at 3:00-4:30

Fish On…

Team,

Welcome back and I hope you found some time to relax with family and friends during the break.

Staffing plans must be completed by April 19th. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. I’m looking forward to our one-on-one meetings to learn about and understand your plans. ~Juan

To Do

From Lora Nordquist

Team,

You should all have received information about our April 10^th leadership team meetings, where school teams will dive into Youth Truth data. A couple of important reminders:

• Both meetings are in the board room, NOT Perseverance Hall.
• Elementary will meet from 1:00-3:00 PM, and Secondary will meet from 3:15-5:15 PM. 

From Paul in HR: 

HR has been working to better understand what staff may or may not do during their lunch periods and here is what we’ve learned:

• For certified staff:  We cannot enter into any agreement that infringes on their 30-minute duty free lunch. Here is the relevant ORS 342.608

• For classified staff: The district consulted with BOLI as to whether classified employees can voluntarily waive their meal period. The answer we received was to refer to our CBA to see if it includes language allowing classified staff to forgo the meal period and work through it. The BLS/OSEA CBA states the following:

16.5.2: With the supervisor’s approval, employees may work through break
and/or meal period, work a regular schedule, and receive pay for the extra time.

In unusual circumstances, supervisors may require employees to work during break and/or meal periods, provided employees will be granted compensatory time off, for the time worked, or paid time and one-half for the break and/or meal time actually worked.

In summary, certified licensed staff cannot work during their 30-minute duty free lunch period.  Classified staff may agree to work through breaks or meal periods, with prior supervisor approval, and receive pay for this extra time.

Performance Evaluation Reminders

All goals, formal observations and most mini’s should be finalized in UKG by the end of April.  We are asking Level Leaders to review your progress during their next one-on-one site visit.

In addition, please initiate Self-Reflections (SRs) for your staff this week. You may ‘skip’ instead of ‘initiate’ SRs those who are not on a full evaluation cycle this year.  Staff are instructed to complete their SRs by May 1.

• Here is an instruction video to share with your staff on how to complete self-reflections
• Here is an instructional video for admin on how to review, submit and finalize self-reflections

From Dean Richards

The first round of curriculum requests (tools that are not specific to the content of a course) will begin on Wednesday, April 10^th. Teachers will receive an email from “BLS Instructional Technology.” This first phase is for tools that are used for instructional engagement, productivity, and collaboration, e.g.. Kahoot, Padlet. Schedules do not need to be known for this phase of the curriculum request process as these tools are not specifically tied to a course. Our second phase of the process (course specific curriculum tool requests) is scheduled to open in early May. Access to this FAQ will be included in the email.

Please let your staff to be on the lookout for this email.  

This and That

From Kinsey:

Day of Silence:

2024’s Day of Silence will be Friday, April 12^th.  You will likely have students observing this day in school sometime around that date.  Students have the right to express themselves (including through silence, in this case) as long as it is done in an orderly and nondisruptive manner—see related policy. 

Ensure your teachers accommodate participating students by:

– Planning nonverbal or written options for class participation that day

– Learning about the day and its significance to your students

From Dave VanLoo

Just a heads up that some new information and resources have been added to this Important OSAS Testing Information document. New content includes updates to the TIDE user guide, tracking resources related to accessibility, and the SEED survey. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mOiq0TreI7wihCJL3c8XWl1DicngbXM4LuTQ46H4fyk/edit?usp=sharing

Please reach out with any questions or support you need.

From Becca Burda

With the partial solar eclipse approaching this Monday, April 8th in Central Oregon, it’s crucial to prioritize the safety of our students’ eyes. While we will only experience a 26% coverage and may not noticeably observe the eclipse, direct viewing of the sun without proper protection can still cause eye damage. The whole event will be less than 2 hours with a peak around 11:30. Here are some essential safety measures to implement during the event.

A HUGE thanks to Colleen Behrens, secondary science instructional coach, for providing the following information and resources. Thank you, Colleen!

1. Eclipse Glasses: Use only ISO 12312-2 certified eclipse glasses. Remind students to wear these glasses at all times when looking directly at the sun, even during a partial eclipse. https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety
2. Pinhole Cameras: Encourage the use of pinhole cameras as an alternative safe viewing method. These simple devices allow students to observe the eclipse indirectly by projecting the image of the sun onto a surface. https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/projection
3. Shadow Play: Another safe option is to observe the eclipse’s effects through shadows. Using items like a colander, students can witness the eclipse by looking at the patterns of light and shadows cast on the ground. https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/projection
4. Supervision: Assign designated staff members to supervise students during the eclipse. Ensure that students are using eye protection and following safety guidelines at all times.
5. Education: Take this opportunity to educate students about the importance of eye safety during solar events. Explain why it’s unsafe to look directly at the sun without proper protection and demonstrate the correct use of eclipse glasses and other viewing methods. https://airandspace.si.edu/whats-on/soar-together-air-and-space/eclipse#puppets

By implementing these safety measures, we can ensure that our students have a memorable and safe experience observing the partial solar eclipse on April 8th. 

Let’s make this eclipse viewing a safe and enriching experience for everyone involved!

Roger White support: 

Thank you Patrick for sharing the information about how we can help Roger and his family as they rally around helping their husband and dad as he fights the hardest fight of his life to recover. While it is a Meal Train link, it is also a place to send gift cards and donate money as well. What to help? Click this link.

Calendar

April 8th: E-Bikes are prohibited to be on MS campus (16 and under)

April 10: No classes, Teacher work day, and conferences

April 11: Conferences & Juan School site visit (Staffing Plans 1 on 1)

April 11: Middle School Horizontal @HDMS at 3:00-4:30 Cancelled

April 12: No school

April 18: Secondary Instructional Planning Meeting 8:00-10:30 @Ed Center Board Room

April 19: Have Staffing Plans completed

April 25: Middle School Horizontal @PCMS at 3:00-4:30

April 26 & 29: Juan out of office. Limited email but available by text & phone

Fish On…

If you find yourself in NOLA, go check this place out!

Team,

Please take a moment to review the attached document. I have scheduled a time to visit your school and discuss your staffing plan with each of you. During the visit, I will collect critical information that will play a key role in determining HU distribution. It is important that you have initial ideas and scenarios ready for our discussion.

I wish you all a restful spring break! ~Juan

To Do

From Kinsey Martin

Please complete If you have not filled out the survey from Wednesday’s meeting. Let’s have 100% from the MS level.

Here is Kinsey’s email:

Thank you for your engagement yesterday.  There were many requests for a list of the tangible strategies brainstormed across your tables.  Here is a start—thank you for the great conversations and ideas!

Here is the video we skipped.  I highly encourage you to take 15-20 minutes in a staff meeting to watch together and discuss the assets and strengths your team can identify in the life of the student Moisés.  Here is a list I started—​I challenge you to see if your staff can identify all of those (and likely more).

Before spring break if possible: Please take one minute to complete the follow-up commitment and feedback form.  

​If your leadership team or staff would benefit from school- or dept-specific conversation on supporting the vulnerable student groups we discussed today, please reach out.  

From Josh Marks

“The Student Services Team has been working all year to implement and support Positive Behavior Support Plans. We want to hear from you about your experiences and needs moving forward. Please take a few minutes to fill out the attached survey. We only need one administrator per school to complete it. Thank You! 

Survey Link

This and That

From Dean Richards

As we turn to Spring, staffing plans and graduations start to rule the day.  It also begins the process of curriculum requests. While we have not hit the mark yet, it continues to be the goal to have teachers have all requested materials by the first day of work. We are working to increase communication on the process with all involved this year. 

We will need a specific Option Set for curriculum built  by May 5^th. We have been in communication with schedulers about this new request and why it is needed.  This means that for administrators who allocate FTE to have the Admin Section Allocation completed by April 26^th. This allows us to begin Phase 2 of the curriculum requests (these are the course specific requests) on May 6^th. Delays will mean that teachers will not be able to receive approval/denial information before they leave for summer break. 

We are asking for all teachers to have their requests completed by May 31^st. 

Here is a details timeline of our curriculum request timeline.

Additionally, an email was sent to those who typically create the Option Sets about a Curriculum Option Set. This communication went to some Administrators and Curriculum Secretaries. 

From Paul Dean

HR Offices

The HR Department is moving from the 3^rd floor of the Ed Center to the 2^nd floor (in the space previously occupied by HDESD).  Because of the move, our physical offices will not be accessible during the week of April 1-5, but HR staff will be available via phone (you may use our current extensions) and email throughout that time.

From Tami Pike

The current supply of COVID-19 tests for BLS expires this month. Free COVID-19 tests will no longer be available through OHA. Additional COVID-19 tests can be obtained at a local pharmacy or through a health care provider. 

Calendar

March 24: Excellence in Education Nominees are due!

March 25-29: Spring Break

April 8th: E-Bikes are prohibited to be on MS campus (16 and under)

April 10: No classes, Teacher work day, and conferences

April 11: Conferences & Juan School site visit (Staffing Plans 1 on 1)

April 11: Middle School Horizontal @HDMS at 3:00-4:30 Cancelled

April 12: No school

April 18: Secondary Instructional Planning Meeting 8:00-10:30 @Ed Center Board Room

April 25: Middle School Horizontal @PCMS at 3:00-4:30

Fish On

Team,

For quarter teachers who are on the wheel and will be assessing grades for the end of the quarter—the 3 quarter ends on April 9^th. 

• I will let Scott M know to open the grading window from April 5 to April 12.
• Principals may offer the following to quarter teachers:
  • ½ sub to complete grades (or)
  • 4 hours timesheet to complete grading
• All teachers will participate in conferences on April 10^th and 11^th
• Teachers will receive April 12 as a comp day for conferencing.

Have a wonderful weekend.

To Do

From Sean Reinhart

This is a memo on how to handle confidentiality of students accessing the SBHC.  Admin and front office staff will want to read.  This has come up again and this time it was a middle school student.

From Lora Nordquist

Here is the work calendar for certified staff for the 2024-2025 school year. Doc

From The Communications Department:

Please make sure you share this message with families prior to spring break. We want to make sure our families have the resources for care during break when we are not available to support.

This and That

From Scott in IT:

Your giant Stanley Cup may be costing your school money!

We have been issuing teacher computers to all certified staff since 2006.  Eighteen years ago.  In each of those eighteen years, our breakage has been relatively flat.  That is, until January of this year.  For the first half of the school year, we had 4 teacher laptops turned in for non-warrantied damage.  Since January 2024 we have already received 18!  Eight of which the user reported that a (water) spill was the source of the damage.  

Your school or facility will now be responsible for the cost of any computer repair or replacement caused by damage or negligence.  Any money going toward repair is less money going toward necessary technology updates or innovation.

Now, we can’t officially link the cause of this uptick to the popularity of Stanley sippy cups that seems to have occurred at exactly the same time. However, it is quite a coincidence!   Please help us and your school by keeping any beverage on a separate surface away from your computer.

AI tools: AI tools are considered apps or services!  As such, both IT and Teaching and Learning need to be informed to perform the required Privacy/Security/Quality audit before they are put to use.  The details of this process can be found here.  

CPR/First Aid Training:

The district offers free CPR/First Aid training to all employees. The majority of the training is online with a 20 minute in-person skills check-off by one of our district instructors. Instructions on how to sign up for the class are below.

  How to Register for CPR/First Aid Training/Renewal Course for BLS Staff  in UKG

• Go to UKG 
• My Info (drop down menu, 3 stacked lines upper left side, above your initials) 
• My Career 
• My Learning 
• Access Learning (upper right side) 
• Training (top menu bar) 
• Courses 
• First Aid (on right side) 
• Click on First Aid Link  
• Click on green Enroll Now button 

Please contact Michelle Spetic if you have any issues signing up.

From Dean Richards

Use Approved Guest Speaker List and Guest Speaker Application

District approval is required for all guest speakers providing instruction or guidance to students on Health-related topics in classes and assemblies. This is in order to vet outside speakers messages and maintain a consistent message that aligns with our larger health-related content area.  We want to provide as much protection to teachers and schools when outside speakers are speaking on sensitive topics.

In the past, this has been mostly relevant to Health classes and your Health teachers are aware of this, but this may now apply to assemblies and Advisory or Life/Career Readiness classes if the guest speakers are providing instruction or guidance on Health-related topics, or topics that relate to personal values.

Before bringing in a guest speaker to talk about health-related topics in classes or assemblies, check the district’s Approved Health Curriculum and Resources list.  If the guest speaker is not on the list, direct them to submit a Guest Speaker Application. 

The Guest Speaker application is also available on the Staff Portal under TeacherHub and then Resources. The links will need to be opened, copied and sent to a guest speaker.

Questions, concerns, or issues related to this process go to Dean Richards.  You can also direct potential guest speakers to Dean Richards. 

All guest speakers who contact schools or teachers directly with requests to be a guest speaker should be directed to: 

1. If not on the approved list: To the guest speaker application to apply or to Dean Richards for questions/issues
2. If already approved: To wait until the school or teachers reach out to them with a request.  The contact info for all approved guest speakers is listed in the guest speaker section of theApproved Health Curriculum and Resources list.  

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…

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: 

School Based Health Centers

Bend

Bend High School

230 N 6^th Street 

Bend, Oregon 97701

541-383-3005

Mountain View High School

2755 NE 27^th 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

High Lakes Health Care

541-389-7741

Mosaic Community Health

541-383-3005

Summit Medical Group

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 28^th, 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)

[email protected]

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

Team,

Have a restful weekend. ~Juan

To Do

From Lora Nordquist

Team, 

Two important items…

1. Revised SIW Schedule. Because the week of June 10^th is now a full week, Wednesday, 6/12, will be an SIW. This changes the designation of our June SIW’s. Wednesday, 6/5, will now be a building discretion day; Wednesday, 6/12, will be a teacher-directed work day.
2. End of Year Activities. With the last two days of school being pushed to the week of June 17^th, the district’s expectation is that end-of-the-year celebrations (5^th grade or 8^th grade promotions, field days, etc.) be scheduled during these last two days. Additionally, the high school exam schedules should carry over to the 17^th, at least, or the 18^th.

From Ryan Kelling, Human Resources

Hi Team,

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.

Here is the sign-up sheet.

Please sign up by Wednesday – March 20th

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 Stephen Duval

Thank you for supporting fly up day this week.  We hope your students had a positive experience.  Could you please pass along this survey to the staff who traveled with students to a high school?  We would like to collect feedback for future planning.

This and That

From Tammy Pike

Overdose Emergency Kits

BLS received several Overdose Emergency Kits through OHA’s Save Lives Oregon Initiative. Each kit contains:  Administration instructions, 4 boxes of naloxone, 2 CPR face shields, and 1 emergency box for storage. Each middle and high school received two kits and elementary schools received one kit. 

Overdose Emergency Kit Location

Ideally, the Overdose Emergency Kit box should be mounted on a wall next to an AED cabinet so that it is easily accessible. However, this may not be feasible for your school site. Please consult with your school nurse about where the best location would be for these Overdose Emergency Kits. AED cabinets still contain 2 doses of naloxone. 

Overdose Emergency Kit Location and Expiration Date Information

Once the location of the Overdose Emergency Kits have been identified, the school nurse will add the locations and the naloxone expiration dates to our district AED Master Spreadsheet.

From Jennifer Hauth

Middle school principals, please ensure you or one of your team members attend the middle school presentations. Thanks ~Juan

Calendar

March 1: Education Foundation: www.blpedfoundation.org

March 7: Middle School Horizontal @CMS at 3:00-4:30

March 21: Middle School Horizontal @LPMS at 3:00-4:30

March 25-29: Spring Break

April 11: Middle School Horizontal @HDMS at 3:00-4:30

Fish On..

Team,

I apologize for the delay in sending the blog. Have a nice weekend. ~Juan

To Do

From Scott and Becca: District Snow Day Messaging: 

Here again, for anyone who may have missed our communications this week, are details of the end-of-year schedule changes:

• June 12 will be an SIW day. This is a change.
• June 14 will be a full schedule day, not an early release day. This is a change.
• June 17 and 18 are makeup school days. June 17 is a full day; June 18 is an early-release day (SIW schedule).
• June 19, the District observes the Juneteenth holiday.
• June 20 is a certified staff workday (rescheduled from June 17)

In this year’s Student/Family calendar, these dates were designated as potential makeup days for inclement weather/emergency closures.

This calendar change will not affect our graduation schedule between June 6 and 11.

Please let us know what questions you or staff members have about this.

Welcome Back Survey 

We are working on plans for the Welcome Back event for the 2024-25 school year, to be held on Tuesday, August 27, and would like to hear from employees on the preferred format. Please use THIS SURVEY to vote until Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 5 pm. The planning team is considering three options:

• A virtual meeting with school and department staffs gathering in their buildings to participate. This would last a little over an hour and may include a new interactive experience for participating teams.
• In person with all District staff together in one place, with District buses shuttling staff to and from the central gathering place. This may entail a commitment of up to three hours and include breakfast and employment-related vendors.
• A hybrid in-person/virtual event at multiple locations: For example: High school, middle school, elementary school, and support staffs each meet at separate schools, with a portion of the program being a virtual event to connect all staff, followed by an in-person program with a focus on interests specific to the level or group. This also could be a 3-hour event with breakfast and district buses shuttling staff to and from these four locations.

From Dean Richards

Here is the link to where Admin Team 1 will be supporting teachers during the END.

From Paul Dean

UKG Performance Module Tips & Tricks

The slide below has been added to the Performance Training – January 31 2024 slide deck.

This and That

You also should now have access to your Youth Truth information. We will have some dedicated time in the future to look through these data. If you don’t see an easy way to access the information in your account, please reach out to Dave.

Reminders

Repeat from last week: 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: 5^th 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:  

• 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.

Repeat: From Dave VanLoo

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

Calendar

February 26: Fly Up Day – ALL middle schools FLY to their high schools to learn about CTE and elective options!

February 27: Culture of Climate Task Force

February 28: Educator Network Day during SIW

March 1: Education Foundation: www.blpedfoundation.org

March 7: Middle School Horizontal @CMS at 3:00-4:30

March 21: Middle School Horizontal @LPMS at 3:00-4:30

March 25-29: Spring Break

Fish On…

Team,

I hope you had a productive week and you have a better weekend!

Please know that staffing is around the corner and I know some of are anxiously waiting to know. Hang in there as the Executive Directors are working with Brad and we will get this to you as soon as we are able. Stay tuned.

~Juan

To Do

From Lora Nordquist

Administrators,

Next Wednesday, 2/21, beginning at 3:00 in Perseverance Hall at BSHS, we will be doing a deep dive into the new collective bargaining agreements with BEA and OSEA. It is important for you to review the highlights of the certified CBA ahead of time and record questions and concerns:

Highlights of certified CBA 23-27

FAQ’s on CBA’s

Please read From Scott McDonald

Greetings,

During the summer of 2024, Synergy Gradebook users will be moving from the older “classic” version to the current recommended version.  Your IT team is working behind the scenes even now to ensure a smooth transition. Because of this, you may start to see new buttons or features appear in various Synergy applications.   Many of which will not be active until we cutover to the new version. We will try to announce these changes before they occur to prevent confusion. The first such change will impact the “TeacherVue” application. Users may see the following buttons (widgets):

Hall Pass .   

Kiosk Mode 

Clicking on these buttons will present an Access Denied error (or similar) until such time as they are enabled.

This and That

From Last week 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 Last week-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: 5^th 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:  

• 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.

Repeat From Dave VanLoo

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

Calendar

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 21: Admin Professional Development @3:00-6:00 at Perseverance Hall BSHS

February 22: MS Horizontal @SVMS at 3:00-4:30

March 3: Education Foundation: Grants are due 3/1: www.blpedfoundation.org

February 22: MS Horizontal @CMS at 3:00-4:30

Fish On..

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.

Upshift Roles Doc

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:

1. 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. 
2. 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. 
3. 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: 5^th 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.  

1. 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.
2. 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.  
3. 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.  
4. 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.  
5. 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

Bend-La Pine Ed Foundation.

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

Fish On…

Team,

If your school is on this list, please give me an update on your progress (First Aid)

For our next horizontal, please read the following article by Thursday, Feb 8th. Article There will be a quiz! Kidding. The topic in this article is timely as we begin the last half of the school year. I want to take some time at our next horizontal to unpack the ideas in the article. I hope you find it insightful. Have a wonderful weekend. ~Juan

To Do

Form Dave VanLoo

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

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 Stephen Duval

Are you looking for an opportunity for your students to practice essential problem-solving skills while engaging in engineering and design? The Central Oregon STEM Hub is looking for teams of middle school students to participate in our first annual Central Oregon Middle School Rube-A-Thon! Bring up to 4 teams of 6 students to compete real-time in a fun and engaging challenge. Each team will design and build a contraption, inspired by Rube Goldberg, to complete a simple task like watering a plant or cracking an egg. The official challenge will be announced at the event. There are no costs to you or your school for attending this event and we will cover the cost of subs and buses. Give your students a chance to work on their employability skills (soft skills) in the context of a fun, interactive day of design!  Please contact Lisa Meredith ([email protected]) with any questions.

From Scott McDonald

Enrollment for the Affordable Connectivity Program is ending February 7^th at 11:59 p.m., and will NOT be accepting new enrollments after that time. This program is going through a “wind-down” process as the FCC expects funds for this program to run out by April if Congress does not approve more funding. 

The ACP is a federal program that provides a discount of up to $30/month toward internet service for eligible households, and up to $75/month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. Many households in our region qualify but have not signed up/have never heard of the program. The more people participating in ACP the better. 

More information on the Wind-Down and the ACP Program can be found here: https://www.fcc.gov/acp

Please spread the word and help get households signed up before the deadline. Households can sign up at getinternet.gov or accedeainternet.gov in Spanish.

Internet School Letter

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.  

1. 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.
2. 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.  
3. 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.  

4. 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.  

5. 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.

From Jennifer Hauth (Please read)

Link National School Counseling Week – February 5th

This and That

From Stephen Duval

Hello secondary administrators.  We will be hosting our first annual life and career readiness night on Tuesday, March 5^th from 6-7:30 pm at Caldera High School.  This event is designed for students in grades 6-12 and will feature a kickoff from our new partner SchooLinks and then transition to a career fair.  There will be community members representing a variety of industries, colleges, and our armed forces present to talk with students and families.  We will be using February to start our advertising push so look for language soon to send out to families.

From Kinsey Martin

Policies (follow-up from Wednesday’s admin meeting): 

Thank you for your attention and engagement with the policies that govern our work and decision-making.  Reach out with questions, ideas, or if you’d like training/PD for your team:

Here is the policy revision cycle we discussed at the admin meeting.  Here is a direct link to the input form if you have identified a particular policy issue that needs attention.  Please share as applicable (particularly with staff members or student groups who have an interest in advocacy).  Here is the link to the policies currently in the ‘consult’ stage of review/feedback (e-bikes, diploma types, religion, etc), so you can monitor upcoming changes and/or give feedback.  Here is where you can search within any of our current policies.  

Action Requested re: Bias Incidents:

As this semester closes, please look back through emails/calls from me to be sure you have closed out the investigation and response on each bias incident report.  This includes replying to those messages (if we weren’t partnering on response) with the consequences and outcomes.  

Reporting each alleged incident and documenting all response steps takes a bit of effort up front, but is well worth the investment (compared to the hassle when concerns arise from incomplete processes or records).  If your team would like to discuss bias incident reporting, response, or prevention with Kinsey and/or the equity coaches, please reach out.  Thank you!

Asian Family Night/Lunar New Year Event:

Flyer invitations English and Chinese versions​—thanks for sharing with your staff and families!

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

Bend-La Pine Ed Foundation.

Calendar

February 2: Grades are due and need to be posted in Synergy by 4:00pm

February 2: Groundhog Day (Early Spring-prognostication by Punxsutawney Phil)

February 5-9: National School Counseling Week

February 8: MS Horizontal @PBMS at 3:00-4:30

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

March 3: Education Foundation: Grants are due 3/1: www.blpedfoundation.org

Fish On…