Happy Friday, HS Rock Stars!
I appreciate the reflective manner in which each of you is approaching your work and your relentless focus on continuous improvement. As we continue to focus on insuring Equitable practices and thinking in each of our schools, I am sharing this short article on Implicit Bias from the September Marshall Memo, which speaks to the way our unintended bias’ can impact our work with students.
TO DO:
- Please announce to your staff that start time changes will go into effect Fall of 2019 prior to the Board Meeting Tuesday, October 9. We want staff to hear this news first hand from us. Here is the Executive Summary that explains the decision.
Informational:
- The Fall Town Hall Symposium on Racism is scheduled for Oct 11 from 9:30-2:30 at COCC. Ask your staff and student reps how you can support this important conversation focused on how we can ensure EVERY students feels safe and supported in school!
- At the Leadership Meeting on Monday, Jim explained the District Discipline Philosophy and shared the updated Discipline Matrix which provides guidelines for building administrators to follow when addressing student behavior. This matrix provides us with flexibility to consider individual student stories with an eye on changing behaviors, which is in line with our philosophy.
- Josh Marks led a presentation at the New Administrator Training this Monday on Sped and Discipline. He provided these helpful docs, the Discipline Flowchart and the Discipline Procedures chart to clarify steps to follow you have a student on an IEP with a behavior concern.
- As Shay shared this week, INNOVATION is a key tenet of our work with students. This is evident in the multiple pathways to graduation we currently offer our families. Here is a compilation of the BLPS Alternative Learning Options. Our students benefit from unique learning programs and Choice Schools, in addition to high quality comprehensive, traditional high schools. Let’s continue to consider ways within our larger high schools to support students in non-traditional ways and allow us to “customize” plans for students based on their needs. Current examples of this include our “in school,” supervised online offering, our behavior programs designed to serve students with challenging behaviors, and course offerings that partner core classes, such as LA, with CTE programs. I encourage building leaders to look for opportunities to design “school” in a variety of ways for students. Linda Adams from the HDESD recently shared an opportunity through ODE called the Oregon Math Project focused on integrating math and construction. This pilot is due to being in Fall of 2019 and may be an option for buildings that offer a CTE program in construction.
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Dave Van Loo recently shared and recommended these cut scores for our ACT Aspire Interim Assessments that meet Essential Skills: 162 for Math and 160 for reading.
- A note from Julianne: We want all staff to use the district approved badges, not customized badges. Staff can get a new badge, in the HR department.
- Here are the updated sub guidelines from HR.
Calendar:
- One on One meetings with Principals – scheduled during Oct through the google doc
- MAC Survey Day is Oct 11
- STATS training Oct 12 at HDESD – contact Misty Groom
- Fall Town Hall Symposium on Racism at COCC, Oct 11 9:30-2:30
- HS Admin Meeting – Oct 15, 3:15 at LPHS
- Check and Connect Training – Oct 16 and 17, HDESD
- Grad Coach Mtg – Oct 29, at 2:00, Ed Center
- HS Principal Mtg – Oct 31, 7:15 at Jackson’s Corner (eastside)
- Parent Conferences are Nov 1 from 4-8pm.