TO DO:
I appreciate that you have been extra vigilant about attendance this week. If students have not shown to school and your staff hasn’t heard from families that they will be coming, please remove your “no show’s” by the close of the day on Monday. This will help us to more accurately track students in our schools. Thank you for your help with this!
Please encourage your employees to enroll in insurance benefits! Open enrollment ends September 15th and currently there are 1,130 employees who have not yet elected their benefits for the 2019-2020 school year. Please encourage your staff to complete enrollment at their earliest convenience so that any technical difficulties or questions can be addressed ahead of the enrollment deadline. To enroll, please visit: https://myoebb.org/oebb/!pb.main
Information:
At our leadership team meeting September 16th, our team will spend most of the meeting focused on our district’s 2019-20 Excellence and Equity Review. We will begin with some background information and logistics, then transition into small group listening sessions.
While I don’t want to waste your precious time now providing lots of information, I want to make sure you have a basic idea of the Excellence and Equity Review because it will be on the agenda of the September 9th school board meeting.
Here’s the purpose statement:
The primary purpose of the Excellence and Equity Review is to gather and analyze information related to the academic, social and emotional experiences of our students, particularly those from underserved populations. Our information about students’ needs helps us to more effectively prioritize strategies, allocate resources, and develop staff’s knowledge and skills.
The district’s process for our first review is a comprehensive one, as you’ll see in our meeting. For almost a year, we have been planning implementation of a systemic review of our academic strengths and needs, similar to the Sites and Facilities Review process. Fortunately, our planned process and activities will also meet Oregon’s new requirements for districts’ outreach, etc. related to spending with Student Success Act funds…along with a host of other new requirements.
Gabe Pagano and I will be representing high schools in the District Safety Team this year. This of representatives from many departments/levels (custodial, classified, certified, admin, HR, SPED, etc.) meets once a month and is facilitated by Scott and Julianne. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions of anything related to school or district safety (e.g. current practices, safety improvement ideas, etc.) please pass those on to Gabe or me for sharing/asking of this group.
Here is another reminder about agreements related to morning practices and classes:
Early Bird Athletic Practices:
- Each sport has the option of offering no more than two practices each week prior to the school start time of 8:45.
- Practices will end by 8:00, so teacher-coaches are available to assist students in classrooms, participate in meetings by 8:15 and/or prepare for the day. This allows students to access teachers for help and get ready for their day.
- Swim practices can continue in the am due to impacted facilities usage at Juniper Swim and Fitness.
Sport specific PE classes and After School Practices:
After school practices can begin at 4:00 and not before. Students can be enrolled in PE or conditioning classes that meet during the last period of the day but should not be required to be enrolled in such classes as part of being on any team. The lines should not be blurred between the last period of the school day and the 4:00 start of practices.
Welcoming Week Sept. 13-20: This year Bend-La Pine Schools is a supporting partner for the City of Bend’s Welcoming Week activities. Alandra is sending a poster about the events to every school — please hang this on your school’s community bulletin board. She is also sending signs that say “I’m a Welcomer” or “(insert school name) welcomes you”. Feel free photograph staff or students holding these signs. You can share on social media or email photos to Alandra.
What is Welcoming Week? Welcoming Week is a series of events that bring together immigrants and those born within their countries to build strong community connections. These events are guided by the principles of inclusion and creating communities that prosper because everyone feels welcome, including immigrants and refugees. Learn more: City of Bend site and National Welcoming Week site
With the thunder and lightning storm, we had this week, Sal sent out the district protocol. HERE it is for your convenience.
Here is an important note from Dave Van Loo: ACT Aspire is transitioning to a completely different website this year. There is a message on the old website that it is only to be used for viewing reports. We submitted our 2019-20 Aspire order, but ACT still has not sent any credentials for accessing the new website. IT was going to upload student and staff information on Monday, but that is going to get pushed back. For now Aspire tests can’t be administered. I’m guessing it is at least a week or two before testing is possible.
Please be sure that you and your staff are staying up to date on safety trainings. Here is list of Safety TRAINING from Julianne.
Sean has some good news about the upcoming CPS training on October 9-11: Through the Culture of Care grant, I have 33 scholarships available for subs (worth $500 each). Each school that sends a staff member is guaranteed at least one scholarship. If not all schools use the scholarships, we will divide them up evenly among schools that are participating. If you were already sending staff members, please consider sending some more. Please indicate which staff members you would like to attend to Denise Sevigny no later than Friday, September 13th. After the 13th, we will sell slots to other districts that are very interested in this training. Please let me or Denise know if you have any questions.
A special Note From Hayley! School Teams: Our fabulous Behavior Coaches are doing their best to respond to emergencies but their attention is needed in other areas for the time being. It is our hope that they will be back and running by 9.16.19. Thank you for your patience!
Calendar:
9/16-HS Admin Meeting 7:00-8:15 – LPHS
9/16 – Leadership Team Meeting – Board Room @3:15
9/27-HS Principals Meeting 7:00-8:30 Jackson’s Corner eastside
10/9-Future Ready Work Team – all Principals 8:00-9:00 @Bend Chamber Conf Rm