Thought provoking shares and think abouts:

February is Black History Month! Here is the LINK to the work completed by the LEAD Cohort this Fall. I encourage you to look it over and share it with your staff. You may or may not have seen this blog post regarding some highlighted Black authors and recommended videos that could be used for instruction this (or any) month. Here is a link that will bring you other educational resources.

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Remote learning isn’t a new concept. Schools closed in the 1930s due to the Polio outbreak and lessons were taught via radios. Check out the other correlations to our current situation in this article. I am so impressed with the work you are doing to recreate how we serve our families and students!

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TO DO:

With the bulk of staff vaccinations scheduled for Thursday and Friday of next week, we are moving to a remote learning format for next Friday, February 12 to accommodate the anticipated adverse reactions to the second vaccine shot. HERE is the letter to staff Lora sent out today. Schools will be open on February 12. HERE is the letter to families sent today. For high school, we will follow the schedule for the B Cohort Day (that group will have met Tuesday). There is no school on Monday, Feb 15 due to President’s Day, so as of Tuesday, Feb 16 our rotations for each cohort will be equal.

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What we are learning is that 20-30% of those who receive this second vaccination have side effects noticeable enough to keep them out of work for one or more days. If a staff member needs to be out of the building to get their vaccination shot or take leave due to symptoms after vaccination, please code both of these as “other leave” and put something like “illness due to vaccination” in the reason for leave. This will come out of a staff member’s 5-day COVID leave, and not the typical sick leave allocation. Contact HR if you have questions about this.

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Last week I shared with you a letter that outlines the communication steps that will occur every time there is a positive COVID case at a school. Here is the Chinese language version. Please share this letter (English and Spanish) in your next parent communication. [Don’t forget to make a copy of these letters first – as well as check the access to the link to make sure parents can view it.]

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Thank you Alandra for facilitating the completion of a new MS/HS safety video which is not posted on our district’s website. Please review it. I know many of you developed your own safety videos, but feel free to pass this one along to your families as you see fit. Here is the link to that video.

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Please share this substitute request flow chart with your office manager and anyone else that you think may need/use it. Please remind your Office Manager to put leave requests in early (as early as they find out) and check them often. A number of sub requests have not been getting filled through the ESD already this year.

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Information:

If you have any new/temporary certified staff for the remainder of this year, here are a couple pieces of evaluation news that you need to know:

The temporary teachers that we are hiring right now will not work the 135 days to count as a full year for TSPC.

Therefore, we are not required to complete the two formal observations.  Since we are halfway through the year, I would recommend that we have administrators complete a minimum of two mini observations.  I’d also like them to complete an evaluation so that we have a record of how the teacher performed this year.  Let Jon or myself know if you have any questions regarding this.

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Any temporary classified people hired after the dates below, will not qualify for medical benefits.  HR communicates this at time of hiring but we recommend schools inform interviewees too:

• EA ‐ HS (Bend and South County) (182 days) 02/18/21        
• EA ‐ HS (Skyline and Marshall ‐ Trimester schools) (181 days) 02/18/21
• EA ‐ HS (REALMS ‐ Trimester School) (179 days) 02/17/21
• EA ‐ MS (Bend and South County) (179 days) 02/17/21
• EA ‐ MS (REALMS) (179 days) 02/17/21
• EA ‐ ES (Bend and South County) (177 days) 02/16/21

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MOU: In order to satisfy this requirement in the MOU:

Each school site will post the school’s COVID-19 Safety Checklist and a copy of the OSHA emergency temporary standards on the safety bulletin board.

Please post a hard copy of your latest Checklist and a hard copy of this document (103 pages) on your staff bulletin board.

Here are links to two documents that Jon referenced in our Horizontal this week. First, the final MOU with BEA for Hybrid instruction. Also, this MOU key points document.

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Here are some notes from Paul:

New County Metric Guidance

Last week, the state issued new indoor/outdoor guidance that applies to our after-school activities.  Here is the information to share with your team (mostly applicable to high schools) for Deschutes County which is still in the extreme zone.

Rapid Testing

RSSL requires schools to have the capacity to offer rapid COVID-19 tests (BiomaxNOW) available to symptomatic students/staff by March 1.  Here is the rollout timing:

• Week of Feb 1 and 8: District personnel attend OHA trainings and develop district and school based protocols
• Week of February 16:  Information sessions for school personnel; BiomaxNOW registration and testing kit ordered by each school.
• Week of February 22: Final site coordinator and testing facilitator Q&A
• Week of March 1: Testing available for symptomatic students/staff at each school site

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Here is some important information related to quarantining from our district lawyer, Sharon Smith. This information may help you answer questions for staff and families.

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BLS COVID-19 Cases

The district will be creating a dashboard that reflects positive COVID-19 cases within our schools.   The data will be updated every Wednesday after OHA’s weekly Kindergarten-12th grade school report is released.  We will also include a list of FAQs to explain more information about the data.  

Non-Masking Students On Buses

If you receive a complaint of students not wearing masks on a bus, it would greatly assist transportation if you can gather the following information prior to emailing Kim/Tina:  

1. Your school and the bus route number
2. Reporting student’s name (to check their assigned seat number)
3. Seat number (all bus seats have seat numbers) or name of non-mask wearing student
4. Time of day (i.e. 2:15pm)

Students should report non-masking behavior immediately to the bus driver.

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A note from our communications team: Now that schools are reopening for in-person learning, we wanted to reshare this helpful media guide that also applies to school newsletters, websites, teacher emails, and any other communication to families. Please be sure that the photos you share reflect the consistent safety practices you have in place in your buildings. Here are a few helpful reminders:

1. Mask up! All photos on campus should include students/staff wearing masks over the NOSE and MOUTH 😊
2. Keep your distance. Make sure folks are spread out in any photo shared.
3. If you use a photo that is pre-pandemic, be sure to list the year it was taken when you share it.

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Cleaning supplies for electronics shipped to you: We are making more of the Grace Bio-Labs spray available via our PPE supply process. 1-4 (depending on school size) of these bottles will auto-ship to your school this week. We have more on order and plan to auto-ship additional bottles in the next week or two. These spray bottles are a 70% isopropyl alcohol solution intended for cleaning electronic screens (iPads), keyboards, mice, and trackpads. These spray bottles should be distributed to those at your schools working with computer labs, computer carts, and shared iPad carts.

We recommend spraying the solution onto a micro-fiber cloth and then cleaning surfaces with the cloth. Please see the attached document for questions on the product, but note that we do not recommend spraying the solution directly on to technology devices.

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Our athletic trainers can be allowed to schedule use of computer labs to administer IMPACT testing to athletes that have not responded to online testing.   These dates/times need to be:

1. outside of school day hours (after 4:00pm)
2. scheduled w/athletic director and principal of individual buildings 
3. small groups monitored by AT.
4. following all COVID school protocol

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ACT DECISION: We will not administer the ACT to all juniors this year. We are exploring how best to offer ACT to interested students in our district including schools becoming ACT test sites and reimbursing families taking the test.

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Here is the latest BLOG from our Secondary PD team: Last week, the blog focused on the unique needs of students entering classrooms for the first time in many, many months.

This week, we’re focusing on teachers.  We’re recognizing that all of the school’s staff (you included!) have been through experiences that are complicated, stressful, challenging, depressing.  If you have been fortunate enough not to have lost a relative during this time, you definitely know someone who has.  

We know teachers will best be able to care for our students, if they give themselves permission to recognize their own self-care needs.  This week’s blog encourages all of us to take simple actions to minimize those stressors during the workday.  

First Things’ First:  You Need to take Good Care of Yourself

Calendar:

HS Administrator WebEx – @1:00 Thursday, Feb 11, 2021

YouthTruth Training – @2:00 Thursday, Feb 18, 2021