To Do:
Our High School PLC work continues to expand. I appreciate YOUR support in emphasizing the importance of these collaborations. This fall, Skip, Marsha Baro and I are working with a small team of high school science teachers to develop a comprehensive plan that supports the work of our HS Science teachers. The focus of our work is on developing a Chemical Hygiene Plan to ensure safe management, storage, and disposal of chemicals, facility review and repair (to include the management of equipment) and teacher training. This representative work team will communicate this work to ALL of the high school science teachers at the Nov 13 District SIW. Please make it a priority for your science teachers to attend that meeting. Location is TBD.
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Aspire vs PreAct: We are considering discontinuing Aspire at the 9th and 10th grade and replacing it with PreACT. Please discuss our options with your school teams and bring your recommendation to the HS Principal meeting on Sept 27. Here are some important points to consider in your discussion:
- Do you want to switch from ACT Aspire Summative in 9th grade to 9th grade PreACT? Pre ACT brochure is attached.
- Considerations
- 9th grade PreACT is paper/pencil just like 10th grade, is a bit shorter than Aspire, and doesn’t include writing
- Aspire Summative can be used to meet Essential Skills, PreACT cannot.
- Considerations
- How are staff at high schools using Aspire Periodic assessment data? Should we consider discontinuing Aspire Periodic at 9th and 10th grade?
- Considerations
- We can’t use Aspire Periodic for meeting Essential Skills
- If we discontinue Aspire Periodic at HS, the district may repurpose the savings into other efforts to support and improve teaching across a broader range of academic content areas.
- Considerations
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Master Schedule Training: Several of you have expressed interest in attending a Master Schedule Building Workshop. There is currently one offered in Eugene, but we are planning to schedule a session for our district in Central Oregon. We will have eight slots for our high school team members. I would encourage you to send your curriculum secretaries and one or two admin, depending on levels of experience building a master schedule. Also, we can request certain dates. Let me know by Sept 27 the staff members you would like to send to this training AND preferred dates to request for the two-day training.
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Discussion and Input Needed by Sept 27: In August we discussed scheduling high school conferences on the same days and times: Oct 16 and 23, 4-8pm. I want to confirm that after discussion with your school teams, we all agree to these dates. Also, at our principal meeting next Friday, be ready to share your format for conferences (ie: scheduled? drop-ins? all teachers in one location (gym)? other?). Be sure you have someone at your school schedule in your interpreters. You may want to get input from your ELL teachers regarding families who may need an interpreter. Also, if we agree to hold conferences on Oct 23, we may run into trouble getting interpreters. In this case, we would want to have them available on Oct 16 and schedule families who can not make that night.
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Information:
Please review this good news about the change in AP and IB scores accepted by Oregon Universities and Colleges for college credit AND funding for Historically Underserved Students taking IB and AP exams.
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Here is an important note from our HR Team: The District has secured a new pre-employment drug testing provider who offers expanded drug testing hours (Monday through Saturday). This will allow our administrators to offer positions on Friday because testing can be performed all day on Saturday. However, with those extended options comes the additional challenge of making sure an applicant is available on Saturday to go to the testing facility. As before, please make sure you know the applicant is available to meet the 24-hour time frame to complete the pre-employment drug test. It is extremely helpful to share the information below instead of directing the applicant to call HR. Also, we are requesting that applicants come to our office by 3:00 on Friday afternoon in order to facilitate the paperwork.
Please inform the applicant they should report to the Human Resources office who will be expecting them and will have paperwork ready for their arrival. Please make sure to restate that we are offering the position contingent upon completion of our pre-employment hiring steps and they have until (insert specific time/date) to make sure the process is completed.
We caution against having the applicant call our office in case we are occupied with new hires and phone calls and are not able to get back to the person right away. They could lose valuable time waiting for a return call, when in fact we have paperwork already prepared for their arrival. We really appreciate your care and effort in helping communicate the steps when making the offer to our applicants. We love knowing they are informed on the next steps and will welcome them and guide them through the process.
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This was sent directly to your building 504 coordinator but wanted you to be aware of this upcoming training as well.
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This year’s Principal for the Day event sponsored by our Ed Foundation) will be held on Nov. 1. A catered lunch is planned for participating principals and her/his “guest principal” at 12:00 @ the Ed Center. I have found this event to be one of the most impactful ways to educate community members about the AMAZING things happening for our students in our schools. I encourage each of you to welcome a “guest principal” into your school for this event! If you have any questions or know of someone who might want to be a guest principal, please contact Michelle Johnson (x5660).
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Calendar:
9/27-HS Principals Meeting 7:00 Jackson’s Corner eastside
10/7-Leadership Team Meeting 3:15 in Board Room
10/9-Future Ready Work Team – all Principals 8:00-9:00 @Bend Chamber Conf Rm
10/21-HS Admin Meeting 7:00am @ MHS
10/31-HS Principal Meeting 7:00 Jackson’s Corner eastside