High School Colleagues:
Thank you for another fantastic week of school in Bend-La Pine! Enjoy the plethora of helpful information this week. Thank you for the high value work you are doing with our staff and young adults!
To Do:
- See you at the HS Admin meeting on Monday @BSHS beginning at 3:15. Thank you for hosting, Chris, Karen and Gabe! We have a full agenda, including presentations from various groups, so please be there a few minutes early. We will begin on time.
- Principals – we meet this Friday, 7:15 @ Jackson’s Corner on the eastside.
Informational:
- The work continues with our STC team to standardize the STC and non credit grad forms so we are using the same forms at every school. We will connect with HS counselors about this, as well, to insure we have their valuable input.
- In addition, the STC team is working to streamline our contacts for job shadows and internships. At our first STC meeting this week, we welcomed our Bend Chamber Internship Coordinator, David Haines. We agreed that the STC team would work with David and me to be the Point of Contact for community connections. I appreciate your support of limiting the amount of contacts businesses are getting from schools so we insure efficiency. Our STC team ROCKS!
- Several months ago, Shay sent out a DACA-related letter to our district sites and facilities, reiterating our stance in providing a safe and welcoming environment to all of our students/families. In light of news that ICE had recent Central Oregon presence and report of at least one of our parents facing deportation, we wanted to share this letter with you again and encourage you to share it with your families. Here is the letter [Spanish] [English].
- Here are a few updates from your Safety Team (Scott, Julianne and Misty):
Drill Guide on the Portal
A quick reminder that our 2018-19 Drill Guide is available on the Portal at https://portal.bend.k12.or.us/system/files/bend-la_pine_schools_safety_drills_guidelines_2018-19.pdf.
This month a lockDOWN, fire and bus evacuation drill are required. Schools are encouraged to deliver fire drills with ‘blocked exits’ and fire and emergency response drills during passing periods, lunch and before and after school.
Please remember to send your drill completion form to Marsha Baro within 48 hours of your drill or emergency response.
- Nationwide Emergency System Test
Please share the following information with your staff via email or staff meeting.
On October 3, 2018, many student, staff and visitor cell phones should receive one emergency test broadcast message with an audible alert sometime between 11:18 and 11:48 a.m.
This broadcast is expected go to Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) compatible cell phones that have wireless carriers that are participating in WEA, which are switched on and within range of the cell tower. These messages are set to alert the public of emergencies — including AMBER alerts and tornado or flood warnings, for example. This test is being conducted by Federal Emergency Management Agency in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission.
We want to make you aware of this for two reasons:
- This could be a teachable moment for you and your students OR it could be a distraction to your teaching and learning environment if cell phones are on and receiving messages during this time.
- This is not a test conducted by Bend-La Pine Schools. This is the first nationwide Presidential-level WEA test and individuals cannot opt out.
Test Details:
During the WEA test, cell phone users should receive a single, distinct dialog box on their device, which should say “Presidential Alert” followed by “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” This text should be accompanied by a special tone and vibration, which should be repeated twice.
To learn more about this test, please review the following documents:
https://www.fema.gov/emergency-alert-test
https://www.fema.gov/frequently-asked-questions-wireless-emergency-alerts/
Suicide Awareness Video on Social Media
You may have heard of this video circulating on social media this week, made by a team of community members with love in their hearts. While the video includes some local students, it is not a production of a local school district, it is rather a video produced by the Hunter Holmes Memorial Foundation.
Some have asked if this video will be shown in our classrooms and to students. The short answer is “no.” Our district offers rich social emotional health and wellness curriculum throughout all levels and uses commercially-produced content, including video, for teaching and learning. As this video was not included in our adopted curriculum, it is not being used in our classrooms.
Teaching young people how to help a friend is an important part of a comprehensive school based suicide prevention strategy. Educational videos that teach basic suicide prevention skills are often a helpful part of the instruction. Videos are most effectively used with an accompanying curriculum and as part of a larger presentation on mental health, mental illness and helping friends in distress.
Please help us empower our students to talk aboutsuicide and depression in productive, meaningful ways and show them where to find vetted resources. Together, we can help normalize conversations about suicide prevention, how to find resources in our community that support youth and adults through stressful times, and how to help our children navigate current entertainment in ways that facilitate increased parent-child communication around youth suicide and youth suicide prevention.
These resources may be helpful to you in discussing this video with your students, if asked:
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
- Oregon Youthline (a free, confidential teen-to-teen crisis and help line; supervised teens are available 4 to 10 p.m. daily; adults available all other times) at 1-877-968-8491 or text teen2teen to 839863.
- The Deschutes Co. Suicide Prevention website has resources and supports that reflect best practices.www.deschutes.org/suicideprevention
- www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org (information and support)
- www.thetrevorproject.org (crisis intervention and resources for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people ages 13-24)
- www.namicentraloregon.org (National Alliance on Mental Illness of Central Oregon)
https://www.bend.k12.or.us/district/organization/student-mental-health (district website with resources)
Calendar:
- The first training for new building admin is Oct. 1 at 1:45 in the board room. The topic is Sped 101/Discipline.
- The first Leadership (all admin) meeting of the year is also on Oct 1@ 3:15 in the Board Room.
- Promoting collaboration between our high schools is a focus area for us this year! With this in mind, consider how we can promote those connections between buildings during our DISTRICT SIW dates: Oct 17, Dec 19, Feb 20 and April 24. In addition to the trainings already planned by departments such as Special Programs and ELL, Brook Rich and I will bring the district CTE teachers together on those dates. Our first meeting will be @ BSHS on Oct. 17. Please communicate these meetings as a priority for your CTE teachers and coordinators.
- We want our counselors to have a strong understanding of our CTE programs so they can promote these options with our students and families. To assist with this communication, the HDESD STEM HUB is sponsoring a CTE-STEM Counselor Workshop at the Redmond COCC campus, in RTEC209 room on Friday, October 26th from 8 or 9 -2 (the time is still being finalized). I will forward you the invite when I get it and you will need to RSVP.
- There will be a Level 1 Assessment training (only those of you who have not had this training need to attend) on Oct. 12 from 12:00 – 4:00. Contact Misty Groom (Ed Center) for more details and to register.