To Do:
Yesterday, Dave Van Loo sent out an email about entering the juniors who opted out of SBAC. I appreciate your help getting that information entered by AUGUST 21. Here is is the note from Dave: most high schools have not yet entered 11th grade Smarter Balanced opt-out students into the district’s Google tracking form. We are required to submit student-level opt-out information to ODE and this tracking form is our data source. Either let Dave know if you see an error in these data or enter all opted-out student information into the tracking form by August 21. Connect with Dave if you need help or have questions!
Mary Erenworth, our keynote for the Innovation Conference Tuesday, August 20 at Pacific Crest, has terrific topics planned for her work with us next week:
8:30-10:00 Keynote: Democratizing Social and Academic Capital: Supporting Kids as Social Learners Through Partnerships, Clubs, and Study Groups
10:15-12:00 All Admin and ICCL’s: Making Sure Your School is a Place Where (all) Kids Thrive as Writers – the Leader’s Role
1:00-2:15-Secondary admin and ICCL’s work time – bring your School Design Plan – HERE are the SDP templates. You have this time to work with your school team on guided questions related to our Literacy work.
2:30-3:45-Secondary admin and ICCLs: Ways to Collaborate Around the Teaching of Writing – Up the Grade Levels and Across the Disciplines
Common Formative Assessments (CFA’s) for English: Representatives from our high school Language Arts teaching ranks worked over the summer to design CFA’s to be administered in 9th grade, 10th grade and 11th-grade classes this year. This effort supports our goals to foster collaboration across high schools, design quality high school assessments that allow our teachers to discuss students progress around skill development and integrate key literacy skills assessed in SBAC into LA classes. The format of the CFA’s aligns with the SBAC testing. The team of teachers, facilitated by Michele Clements, MV Instructor, composed a narrative explaining the design process and recommendations about how best to implement the assessments. Thank you to these teachers for their work on these CFA’s this summer: Grade 9 designers were Kristy Knoll and Lindsey Christen, grade 10 designers were Anita Thompson and Cassie Woelke, grade 11 designers were Ellen Pfeifer and Christen Seymour. Your role is to support the work of our teachers in the roll-out and implementation of the assessments in LA classes this year. We will speak more about how this may look at your school in the coming weeks.
Please send Tami Pike or me your input regarding TB testing: St. Charles Health Care has notified us about new screening requirements for students participating in the Health Occupations Program. Students are now required to have 2 TB skin tests before they can participate. If we go the same testing route as last spring, the fee for each student would increase from $5 to $10 each (if that fee is still the same for the urgent care and/or school-based health center). This fee would need to be paid by the school if the rotation is part of the grade in a class.
If the school-based health centers do the testing, they can complete a quick mental health screening on all of their patients, which would be beneficial for our students. However, Family Choice Urgent Care provided the tests on the school sites last year. If we went with the school-based health center, all of the students needing TB testing would have to physically go to a school-based health center (with the exception of Bend High because the SBHC is on their campus).
Before Tami researches our options further, we want to get a sense of which scenario you prefer: 1. SBHC with the students having to travel off-site to have their tests, but which includes mental health screening or 2. Family Choice Urgent Care who may provide these tests at the school sites? Let Tami or me know your thoughts early next week.
Informational:
Here is a special note from Lora: While the Bend-area Jewish community is not large, we have a significant number of Jewish families in our school district. We were contacted last year by a local rabbi, asking us to avoid scheduling family events on their holiest of holidays. These are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. For 2019, these are the dates these holidays fall:
- Rosh Hashanah-sunset Sunday, 9/29-sundown Tuesday, 10/1
- Yom Kippur-sunset Tuesday, 10/8-sundown Wednesday, 10/9
Please note that these dates do not mean school activities need to come to a standstill, but please avoid scheduling events such as open houses, curriculum nights, etc.
Agreements around school tours: You may be receiving requests for tours of your schools. In the past, High School principals at BSHS, LPHS, MVHS, and SHS agreed to give tours to people who live out of town and are considering moving but agreed not to give tours to people who live in town. I support principals in declining or scheduling tours to times in the year that worked better than others. We are looking to add students to MHS, REALMS (close to capacity here) and Skyline HS, so principals are encouraged to offer access to all interested families.
Calendar:
Mark your calendars for March 2, 2020. We have scheduled PURSUIT for this date. This event is for all sophomores!
8/20 and 8/21 – Leadership academy- 8:00-4:00-Summit/Pacific Crest
8/26- New Teacher Orientation- 7:30-9:30- Sky View MS
8/27- All Staff Welcome Back- 1:00-4:00- Bend Senior High
9/16-HS Admin Meeting 7:00-8:15 – LPHS
9/27-HS Principals Meeting 7:00-8:30 Jackson’s Corner eastside