To Do:
From Jess and Katie: High School Choice Options Applications and the area change request process are opening after the winter break and are due January 19, 2024. Bend Tech Academy and Realms HS are inviting ALL high school counselors to come for an information session and tour to learn more about what unique opportunities are available to students at each of these choice high schools
The visit will take place on Monday January 8th from 1:30-3:45 pm. We will start at Realms HS and then transition to BTA.
HS administrators, please prioritize and create time for your counselors to visit these two schools on Monday, January 8. It is important for our HS counselors to understand recent changes to these schools and what opportunities they offer students!
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Information:
From Paul in HR:
Principals & Supervisors –
This email marks the time for us to pivot in earnest to our renewal/non-renewal and extension/non-extension process. BLS aspires to place the best teachers possible in front of students, and as such we want to be very deliberate in renewing third-year Probationary/Temporary status teachers.
The primary means for removing underperforming Probationary/Temporary staff member before they reach Contract status is non-renewal of their contracts prior to the end of their third year of probation; once a teacher attains Contract status, separation of a deficient performer from the District becomes a much more labor-intensive process.
******Please note a change in practice for Temporary 3 certified staff. We are now required to follow all Probationary 3 practices for Temporary 3 certified staff. When you write a letter of support for a Temporary 3 staff member, then you are obligating your school to employ this person for the 2024/25 school year and beyond*********
If you have a third-year Probationary/Temporary certified staff of concern, I trust that you have been in conversation with HR/Your Level Leader regarding the remediation measures that must be extended and completed before the School Board’s meeting in March, where the renewal/non-renewal process culminates. If you have not yet undertaken the requisite measures with a third-year Probationary/Temporary staff member that you don’t believe should be granted Contract status, we are fast approaching the point beyond which you will not be able to meet deadlines to non-renew that teacher.
As you may also recall from experience or new administrator training, those of you with third-year Probationary/Temporary certified staff being recommended for Contract status need to generate letters of support for each one. The School Board wants each of us to be able to articulate the specific reasons any third-year Probationary/Temporary teacher should move to Contract status, and they take time to read every letter you prepare.
Timeline
No later than Friday, January 5th:
- You should have emailed[email protected] regarding any third-year Probationary/Temporary certified staff about whom you have concerns with
- Met with and notified those staff member that they are being placed on Focused Performance Review (contact Lora regarding what this improvement plan needs to look like)
- Begun writing your letters of support for third-year probationary/temporary certified staff with whom you are recommending for Contract status
No later than Friday, January 26th
- Met with and notified third-year staff member of concern that they are being placed on Support Strategies (contact Lora regarding what this improvement plan needs to look like)
- Completed and uploaded all of your Renewal Recommendation letters into the appropriate school folder with this google drive
Resource Links
- Here is the google drive link of third-year probationary/temporary certified staff (some P2/T2 are also included by administrator request)
- Here is a draft template/sample Renewal Recommendation letter for your guidance (make as many copies of the letter as you need)
- Certified Professional Growth and Performance Manual (edition_5_-_evaluation_manual_-_certified_teacher.pdf)
- Rubrics for certified staff (link)
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From Scott: Season’s Greetings from IT,
Parents can take an active role in how and how often school issued iPads are used while at home. Sending the following information home may be beneficial before the long winter holiday.
There are two device monitoring applications available for Bend-La Pine families. The application descriptions and set up instructions are linked below.
- Apple Screentime Screentime is simply a group of features found in the settings menu on most all Apple devices. Using Screentime is probably the easiest method to start for most families. Screentime allows parents to restrict applications and set time limits for device use. Just remind parents to to turn off their “secret” passcode before the student returns to school!
- JAMF parent This application is installed on the parent’s phone and has a few alternative features that are not available in the screentime settings. It is important to note that any restrictions applied in JAMF parent will not function during normal school hours (7:30AM-4:30PM) Monday through Friday.
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From Jackie: Sustainability Updates
Holiday SOP
With the winter break upon us, it is time to remind staff about the Holiday shutdowns in schools. HVAC will be set to unoccupied mode in schools which means the temperatures will be set to 58 in the buildings. Please remind staff to shut down electronics, empty all mini-fridges and unplug them, close blinds, and turn down lights. The Raptor computers remain on for updates, but the screens can be turned off. The Standard Operating Procedures can be found here.
The Good of the Green Team
BLS has green team leaders in all but 5 schools this year and they are doing amazing work. Here are a few updates. Summit High students partnered with Miller to collect usable toys and are hosting a gift give for families at Bear Creek. Northstar, Ensworth, and Buckingham students completed waste audits to get baseline data for waste reduction efforts. Amity Creek is starting the 2024 school year with plates. BSH put waste stations throughout the school and Caldera Green team is inspiring students and staff to bring reusables to their pancake breakfast. The High School Green Leadership Coalitions wants to remind you all to have a great holiday and to reduce waste in how we wrap presents.
Thanks so much and I hope you all have a great holiday season.
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From Stephen: Mark your calendars for March 5th as we host our first ever Life and Career Readiness night. In partnership with Caldera DECA, we will be hosting a career fair type event at Caldera for grades 6th-12th from 6-8 pm.
At this event students can explore different career paths with representatives from a variety of fields, learn more about the new future-oriented website Schoolinks and learn about postsecondary paths including college, military, trade school, gap year, and the workforce. There will be both middle and high school student information available as well as food carts. We hope you and/or others from your site can join us. We expect a big turnout and there are already over 40 different representatives signed up.
Please reach out to Stephen or Jess Calbreath with questions.
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From Jess and our counseling ICCL’s: BLS School Counselors will be hosting an “Academic Information Night” at the end of January. As a school counseling ICCL, we thought it would be a great idea to do a districtwide event leading into “Forecasting.” As part of our CSCP and district goals, we are focused on providing families with resources that support our students with their academic planning.
Forecasting is a huge part of our programming each year and falls in line with our responsibility to support students with their Educational Plan and Profile (updated four year plan each year). While the forecasting process may look a little different at each school, the information and resources leading up to students selecting classes is very similar. We thought we would do a general event and then have breakout opportunities for families to as questions for their specific school site curriculum pathways.
After the break, we will have more information to send out and share with families in regards to this event once we get our documents from translation. We just wanted this to be on your radar!
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From Aimee and our Public Health Specialists: Hello, BLS District leaders.
Below is family newsletter content the Public Health Specialists are distributing through middle/high school family newsletters with mental health promoting activities and conversation starters for winter break.
English Newsletter Content
A break from school creates a unique opportunity to discover the simple things we can do to care for ourselves and each other. Click here for activities & conversation starters your family can try to calm, cope, and connect. Visit https://sourcesofstrength.org/ for more information.
Spanish Newsletter Content
Tener vacaciones escolares crea una oportunidad única para descubrir las cosas simples que podemos poner en práctica para cuidarnos a nosotros mismos y a los otros. Tilda aquí para informarte sobre actividades y pautas para iniciar una conversación que tu familia puede probar para calmarse, enfrentar las dificultades y conectarse. Para más información entrar a https://sourcesofstrength.org/
You’re welcome to use this content in the district newsletter or in elementary newsletters, but it may not be relevant to all schools because they come from Sources of Strength and not all schools have Sources of Strength. Thank you, Amanda and Lani, for developing this content!
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From Sean: Raptor Student Safe is a new platform to enter, collaborate, and track data round NSSI (non suicidal self injury), suicidal ideation (suicide risk screens) and behavioral safety (threat) assessments for school teams.
At the January 10 Educator Network Day, the Student Services Team will train school counselors, school psychologists, student success coordinators and nurses on how to enter NSSI and suicide risk screens into this system. After this END training, school risk screening teams will enter these screens into this system moving forward and will be better able to collaborate and track student safety concerns in their buildings.
All building administrators have access to their school site(s). Here is the BLS Raptor/StudentSafe Navigation Walkthrough document. Please make sure that you can log in to Raptor StudentSafe (using your district email address, no password required). Any technology issues or related problems, please contact our district Suicide Prevention Coordinator, Jamie Gunter at [email protected].
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Calendar:
Here is LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24.
December 18-January 1: Winter Break
January 2: Classes Resume
January 9: HS Principal Planning Session Part 2 7:30-10:00 @ Realms HS
January 10: Educator Network Day
January 15: No School in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 17: Secondary Office Staff meeting (all office staff at your site attends) 2:30-3:30 @ Ed Center Board Room.
January 23: HS/MS 504 Administrator Leads training 8:00-9:30 @ MVHS
January 31: All Admin PD @ Perseverance Hall, 3:00-4:30