Reflections…
Several of us attended Day 4 of CFEE training today. We spent some time discussing this Equity-Minded Educators Document and considering how these ten aspects are seen in our work. What stood out for me is how do we make inclusion the “normal part of how we interact and operate.”
Our goal is for every administrator to attend CFEE. Please check with Kinsey about upcoming available dates.
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Here is an article from CareerPlug that prompted me to consider my unconscious biases: 9 Hiring Biases that are Hurting your Recruiting Efforts. As a summary of this article, here is a 9 Common Types of Hiring Bias cheat sheet that provides a nice summary.
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From Dave Van Loo: Here’s a new piece from Michael Fullan. It’s definitely neither a short nor a light read, but it’s a doozy. The gist basically is that the entire world is in a precarious state, the education system is irreparably broken and needs to be blown up, and right now we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to prevent the collapse of society. Seriously. He puts forth that the four drivers on the left side of the image below need to overtake the four drivers on the right that currently drive our systems.
While he addresses a lot of things bigger than education, most of this is about schools. It is noteworthy that Fullan specifically highlights the 5 strategies we’ve been focusing on as a major change in schools’ cultures of learning that attacks systems of inequity and the supports the essential systems driver of integrated Wellbeing and Learning. And he makes the case that this work needs to happen in a way that is highly collaborative and that builds another critical driver – Social Intelligence.
To Do:
Hiring reminders and updates
Here is a cheat sheet on anti-bias practices in your hiring process.
Hiring bilingual staff? In order to ensure quality communication services for our families and appropriate compensation for bilingual staff, we are beginning a new employee language assessment and compensation process. This will not begin until next year, so this is just a preview of the process, as it will impact any bilingual staff you have or are hiring now, who may support family communication. If you have questions, please contact Kinsey.
New state legislation
Check out this change to state policy! Oregon is removing the word “English” from the Language Arts graduation requirements. This officially allows credits earned via Language Arts courses taught in other languages to count toward graduation.
What does this mean for you?
Likely, not much impact on you right now–this is designed to support Dual Immersion programs around the state in offering bi-literacy coursework throughout the K-12 program sequence. Non-English LA courses still must be designed around grade-specific LA standards, and must use appropriate LA curriculum (World Language, heritage, and bilingual/ELL courses have their own standards, distinct from LA). We will continue alignment efforts to ensure our LA courses are teaching LA standards, using high-quality diverse curriculum, and meeting graduation and college requirements for these credits.
In the meantime, you can work with your team on shifting your language from “English” courses/departments to “Language Arts.” If you have questions/ideas about courses to support our multilingual learners, reach out to Kinsey!
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Information:
Please share the schedule for our last week (June 14 – 17) with your staff, students, and parent community. If you aren’t sure what that schedule is, here you go!
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be the “regular” HS schedule (bell times of 9:15 – 3:45). IPSI will run 2:10-3:45. Thursday will be a SIW release (bell times of 9:15-1:34).
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Tami sent this reminder out to your nurses. This is a helpful reminder about our process related to seniors: If you identify that one of your graduating seniors as a close contact, the Core Team is asking that you not call the family but rather provide this information asap to your building principal. Your building principal will then take this information to a district “sub-committee” to determine ways that the student may still be able to participate in graduation. Your principals have been notified about this process already from Katie Legace. Your high school administrators will be the school official notifying the parents of what the plan is for the senior.
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Support for employees: Please don’t forget that our School District offers an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to help staff navigate life stressors and/or manage life changing events. The EAP program is administered by Reliant Behavioral Health (RBH). The services they offer at no cost to Bend La-Pine School district staff members (minus substitute teachers) are outlined below.
Counseling Resources
- 24- hour Crisis Help
- In-Person Counseling
- Telephonic Counseling
- Online Consultations
Work-Life Resources
- Childcare Resources
- Adult/Eldercare Resources
- Financial Services
- Legal Services
- Mediation Services
- Online Legal Forms
- Home Ownership Programs
- Identity Theft Services
The counseling resources come with three visits in a rolling calendar year with the possibility of additional visits on a case by case situation as determined by a RBH. The goal is to offer counseling services for single focused short term mental health. To find out more about your EAP, schedule a counseling appointment, or access services call RHB at 866-750-1327 or visit MyRBH.com to find out more. Access Code is OEBB.
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Here is a link to a Spanish-translated document that provides information about borrowed hot spots and (non-) return of iPads. Please share in your next parent communication. [Last week I shared the English translation of the hot spot communication.].
Calendar:
HS Administrator WebEx: Wednesday, June 2@ 10:30
HS Administrator WebEx: Wednesday, June 16@ 10:30
Leadership Year End Wrap Up: Monday, June 21@ 4:00 @ Ed Center (Happy Hour at McMenamins following)
HS Administrator Work Session and Lunch: Wednesday, June 23 9-2 In-Person – location TBD