Welcome, Donna!
It is my pleasure to welcome Donna Servignat to Bend La Pine Schools and our High School Superstar Team as she becomes the next Principal at Summit High School! Here is the media release shared with the community this week that shares a bit more about Donna. Donna will be coming to Bend for a meet and greet in late April or May. Stay posted!
To Do:
From Scott M.: Levy presentations with your staffs: It’s important that we dedicate time this spring to help District staff understand the levy and how it would help us address unmet needs in all of our schools. Our levy talks for staff meetings would touch on the tax rate, estimated cost for property owners, the amount this would raise annually over 5 years, and our 6 priority areas for investing the levy funds. We also can go over the rules on employee advocacy for the levy.
Would you like us to visit your school to provide a short levy overview? Anytime between April 1 and May 20 is available, although ballots will be mailed to voters May 1, so April is the preferred window of opportunity. Please sign up for a time HERE.
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Communication to Families about E-Bikes and E-Scooters:
After much public comment to our school board and administrators, and in consultation with law enforcement, we have created a new rule governing e-bikes and e-scooters on school campuses (KGB-AR: Public Conduct on District Property).
Under this new rule, those who operate bicycles, electric bicycles or electric scooters must be in compliance with Oregon motor vehicle and bike regulations and laws on school property. The rule also states, “E-bikes and E-scooters are prohibited on district property for persons under age 16.” Accordingly, the District will no longer allow any student under age 16 to bring an e-bike or e-scooter onto school property.
We are giving families time now and April 8 to adjust to this change and are asking each school to send out this family letter to our families.
HERE is the family letter (in Spanish and English) for each school to send to their communities. Please send at your earliest convenience. If you want to personalize the message for your school, or add additional details to the second bullet on which office or staff member can issue parking permits, please make sure a CAFE Program member adds that same info to the Spanish version on page 2.
Scott Maben will be sending each school a few of the signs to post at your bike rack areas.
Management of E Bike and E Scooters on High School Campuses:
- We treat e-bikes and e-scooters as we do student motor vehicles
- Students must register their e-bike and e-scooters and receive a parking pass that must be clearly displayed on the e-bikes and e-scooters at all times while on campus
- e-bikes and e-scooters parking passes could be a small sticker on the bike and on the student’s ID card
- e-bikes and e-scooters registration use the same or similar form we use for motor vehicles
- The registration process will include age verification through a Synergy look-up
- No fee to register e-bikes and e-scooters
- e-bikes and e-scooters on school grounds without proof of registration will be locked/chained in the bike rack
- We have launched a comprehensive district marketing campaign regarding the new policy and practices at each school; information has been sent to K-12 families and staff. High schools are asked to send this letter to families at your earliest convenience.
Please reach out to Katie or Kinsey if you have questions.
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From Jackie: Student Voice Council Applications: are now open for the 2024-2025 school year! Applications will be accepted until April 3rd.
The Superintendent’s Student Voice Council is seeking new students to represent their school’s student body. Council members collaborate to evaluate current district practices, engage school communities in deeper understanding, and cultivate leadership, communication, and advocacy skills. Members attend monthly Board of Directors meetings, deliver an SVC report, and provide genuine student voice and perspective in Bend-La Pine Schools.
We are looking for 5-10 applicants from each school, from which 2-4 members will be selected. Please share this opportunity with students whom you and your staff believe would be excellent candidates for this leadership role.
Please share this document with staff and student candidates. There is a video link with additional information from current council members and link to the application. Thank you.
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From Sean: This is a memo on how to handle confidentiality of students accessing the school based health centers. Please be sure every administrator and front office staff reads this information. Please reach out to me with questions.
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From Student Services: We have 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!
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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.The countdown to spring break is on and for many, it’s a time for rest and a little adventure. It also comes with stress and challenges. It’s important to stay mindful and take care of ourselves.
Reminders/Action Items:
- Culture of Care: Check out the Wellness Activities for Families!
- Tentative BEA Agreement can be found HERE
- Be sure to schedule your interpreters for parent conferences!
- Secure your vendors for graduation
- If you plan to require your certified staff to attend graduation, you must notify them in writing ASAP
- Excellence in Education Nominations are due by March 24:
- To nominate a certified staff member, please use this link.
- To nominate a support services staff member, please use this link.
Information:
From Lora: Here is the link to the Inservice Week Certified work calendar for 24-25
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From Dean and Stephen: We are in the process of a multi-year project of creating a more systematic course catalogue across all of our high schools. We will be looking to synchronize the course titles and descriptions for the district course catalogue. The courses that were selected were courses with the same course number and title that are taught across multiple schools. Courses only taught at one school will not need to change the course description.
In the next few weeks and months, teachers in the visual and performing arts and CTE will be receiving the email below. In this email we will be asking for their input on a new draft course catalogue description for their course. The teachers receiving the email are the teachers who are teaching the course this year.
We are sharing this with you so you can field any questions that may arise from teachers:
As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure consistency and accuracy in our course descriptions across the district, we have been diligently reviewing the course descriptions to align them with both Synergy and the district course catalog.
In this regard, we have drafted a new course description that we believe encapsulates the key concepts taught in your course. Our aim with this revision is not to alter the content or structure of what you are currently teaching, but rather to provide a more generalized description that accurately reflects the core concepts covered in the course at every school within the district.
We greatly value your expertise and input in this process, and we would like to invite you to review the draft description provided and share any comments or suggestions you may have. Your feedback is crucial in ensuring that the description effectively captures the essence of the course while maintaining consistency across the district.
Please take a moment to review the draft description and make any comments you deem necessary. If you would like to share with other colleagues, please feel free. Once we have gathered feedback from all stakeholders, we will carefully review all comments and work towards finalizing the description. We will share the final version that goes into the curriculum guide.
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From Jenn: It has been brought to my attention that a few of our 8th grade teachers may have an end-of-the-year writing lesson for students that involves students writing letters to their “future selves.” At the end of the activity, students address the letter to themselves and the teachers either volunteer to mail the letters to the student/family in four years or they will pass the letters onto HS counselors to be handed out at the end of the student’s senior year.
A family recently received a letter from their son, who passed away a year and a half ago. As you can imagine, this was a traumatic experience for this family, and they were very upset and questioned how we allowed this to happen.
While this activity has some value for students, there are many uncontrolled variables that could impact the success of this activity and we believe the impact can be just as effective with a student choosing to open the letter after graduation on their own. If a teacher chooses to do this letter writing activity in 8th grade (or at any time), we would like students take the letter home or give it to the families upon completion of the school year. There are also digital platforms that allow an email to be sent to the student’s email.
Again, our preference is that a student/family have the option to choose to open the letter upon graduation without facilitation from the HS counselors or mailed by the school/district at a later time. We have had several students pass away in the past few years which raises concerns about whether those students have written letters that are now sitting and waiting to be mailed home to their families. If you have had a student pass away who attended your school in the last four years, please confirm with your staff that they do not send a letter to these student’s homes.
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From Dean: 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:
- If not on the approved list: To the guest speaker application to apply or to Dean Richards for questions/issues
- 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.
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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.
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From Dean: Your art teachers may be approaching you about attending an art workshop during a future SIW. It is the principal’s discretion whether you approve their participation. HERE is the link to the opportunities.
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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.
Calendar:
LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24.
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—enter in UKG which days you will be taking as non-contract
April 2: HS Administrator CBA work session: 7:30-8:00 @ Realms HS
April 2: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ Realms HS
April 4: Central Oregon Job Fair
April 23: HS Administrator CBA work session: 7:30-8:00 @ BSHS/Future Center
April 23: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30@ BSHS/Future Center