To Do:
HS Counselor information event Monday: Thank you for ensuring that all of your counselors attend the information tours of Realms HS and BTA next week! The event is scheduled for this Monday, January 8. HS counselors will begin at Realms HS at 1:30, then head to BTA for a presentation at 3:30. Roger and LaKisha, the principals will each do a brief presentation and tour of their schools. MS counselors will visit the schools as well, but in opposite order. Administrators, if you would like to join, you are more than welcome.
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YouthTruth is here! Here is a “Cheat sheet” developed by Dave to help schools with survey implementation. Among the many things included in here are links to YouthTruth’s standard parental notification and opt-out form in English and Spanish. Reach out to Dave with questions.
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Educator Network Day is this Wednesday, January 10. Here is the info about sessions on that day. The admin teams from CHS, LPHS, MVHS and RHS are signed up to help this week. Please be sure to have teachers check in on this QR Code. Thank you for supporting these important opportunities for teachers to collaborate.
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UKG support: Part of our time together at the ALL administrator training on January 31 will be devoted to Q and A and refreshers related to UKG. We would love to know from you the area in which you’d most like support. Thank you for completing this brief survey to help us plan our time.
Reminders/Action Items:
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)
Information:
During the Educator Network Day next week, language arts teachers will be working on site. Their task is to develop an aligned CDA administration plan for each grade level. Completed plans will be submitted to Michele and Torie, who will collate and share the plans with you, Dean, and Katie.
These plans are being developed in response to the request from language arts teachers district-wide to set conditions for extrapolating meaningful data from the CDA. Because meaningful site-wide, common assessment data results if administration conditions are aligned, teachers have been asked to develop a plan for each grade level at each site, and have been encouraged to align around the following topics:
- a window of time for CDA completion
- an agreement about how much class time to spend on the CDA
- a plan for practices to avoid AI outcomes – (We strongly recommend students keeping a written record of their process (writer’s notebook), and handwriting a draft or the entire essay.
- an agreement about bringing in other sources, or deleting 1-2 sources, and what that should look like
- a plan for counter-argument work, if applicable
Michele and Torie have been working with Dean and Katie to develop a clear plan for the next two years of CDA work in language arts. Site-wide alignment on the when and how of CDA administration is the first step. Information about the full two-year plan will be available soon.
Thank you so much for your support!
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Sources of Strength class for 2024-2025: Be sure to include this course on your online course requests (OCR) for this spring so we know how many students are interested. We will advocate for S of S with our grant partners after we know the level of student interest.
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From Stephen regarding COCC changes: As we move in to the New Year, we are excited to introduce the launch of COCC’s Office of High School Partnerships (OHSP). This office reflects a reorganization of the College Now program and other existing high school partnership programs. The goal for this office is to provide strategy, infrastructure, and support for COCC’s high school partnerships with a focus on accelerated learning opportunities. Our hope is that by centralizing efforts and resources around accelerated learning, COCC will be better able to support and expand opportunities for our K12 partners. As COCC’s OHSP continues to develop, additional information will be shared, including information on key initiatives and services provided. Below please find information regarding the OHSP team and an important note regarding recruitment and outreach work.
OHSP Team
- Krissa Harris, Director of High School Partnerships ([email protected])
- Erika Carman, College Now Program Coordinator ([email protected])
- Courtney Nolta, Instructional Specialist ([email protected])
- TBD, Career Connected Learning Systems Navigator (position currently open)
Please note, all recruitment and outreach efforts will continue to be managed by COCC’s Recruitment and Outreach team. This includes high school visits, admissions support, COCC campus visits, Preview Day and other events.
Recruitment and Outreach Team
- Kayleen Schweitzer, Assistant Director of Recruitment and Outreach ([email protected])
- Sarah Hopkins, Admissions Coordinator ([email protected])
- Sofia Stranieri, Admissions Coordinator ([email protected])
- Jill Ridling, Health Careers/Public Health Outreach Coordinator ([email protected])
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From Kinsey:
ASL Interpreters:
Wondering how to request an interpreter for American Sign Language (ASL)? In your Linguist Link account, when you enter the “new project” page to make a new request, you’ll see instructions for accessing ASL support. Please share this update with applicable staff.
CAFE Program:
Need an interpreter or translator in a pinch? An updated list of CAFE Program members is available here (it also lives on the Portal’s Equity page, under ‘Employee Resources’). You are welcome to contact anyone on the list, not just those at your site! Please continue to use Linguist Link for the majority of your requests—CAFE members are bilingual staff who can support as linguists if you have a time-sensitive matter, but should not be relied on for these services regularly.
District Family Nights:
Please mark your calendar for two upcoming events:
–Wed, Jan 31st: Black History Month kick-off celebration
–Thurs, Feb 8th: Lunar New Year celebration/AAPI Family Night
Both will be evening events with dinner included. It would be great to have our leaders support our families by attending either or both of these events. More info to follow—for now, save the dates!
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From Lora: In communications from the Education Foundation, I learned that the foundation received multiple classroom grant requests for calculators. We should consider calculators essential supplies for our students provided by their schools/the district, not supplemental or enrichment tools funded by grants. In the future, site administrators should not sign off on classroom grant requests for essential supplies.
If you are having difficulty financing necessary supplies for your students, please work with your level leader to identify possible budget sources for funding these.
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From Paul in HR:
Hello District Administrators: You may have noticed that you received a UKG notification a week ago regarding the start of the 2023/24 performance evaluation process for district administrators. You simultaneously received a To-Do item to complete your yearly goals.
During the October 25th district leadership meeting at Bend Senior High School, I reviewed with you how to navigate this process. To further assist you, I’m including some resources below and will also be presenting this information during the January 31st leadership meeting at BSHS.
- UKG Performance Evaluation Guide for District Administrators
- Slides from the October 25 BLAST training
- Goal setting tasks for administrators (1 min 56 second video)
- Staff member’s goal setting process (3 min 38 second video)
- Virtual Performance Q & A on Thursday, 1/11, from 10 am – 11 am. Drop in at any time by Clicking here to join the meeting
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Updates from our Public Health Partner: Greetings Bend – La Pine Schools UpShift Teams! Welcome back to the second half of the school year. We have some important notifications and reminders to share with you:
Challenges in UpShift Roles or Implementation: If your school site is facing challenges filling UpShift roles or implementing the program efficiently (data tracking, finishing sessions, etc.), we are here to help. We will be coordinating with teams to schedule strategizing sessions as needed. Each school site should have:
· Admin Support
o Entering incident into Synergy
o Coordinates disciplinary response
· An UpShift Screener
o Could be the same Admin Support
o Conduct 3-part screening tool
o Route student to appropriate path of care
o Contribute to tracking sheet
· At least one UpShift Specialist
o Delivers Teen Intervene to students and potentially families
o Ensures survey completion
o Contributes to tracking sheet
Care Solace (High Risk/Tier 3 Referrals): Care Solace has added an “UpShift Tab” that automatically populates when referrals related to substance use/addiction are entered. If you enter a substance use disorder (SUD) related referral into Care Solace originating from the UpShift screening, PLEASE ensure to check the corresponding box (see example below).
Another quick reminder about the survey links – the QR codes for the BLS student pre/post surveys and the family survey have been updated to Survey Monkey instead of Google Forms. If you are still utilizing the Google Forms links, please unbookmark them and switch to the Survey Monkey links.
UpShift Participation Tracking Forms: PLEASE ensure that your UpShift participant tracking forms (Google Sheets) are up-to-date as possible! Accurate tracking is crucial for effective program management and support.
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From Leah in the Business Office: UKG administrator reminder:
In the past, much of the BLAST time off was collected in a google doc. Since we now have UKG, leave must be requested and recorded in UKG. Please be sure to get those requests in before or during the time period that you are gone. Submissions after the timesheet has closed require an additional submitted form from you and are extremely labor intensive for the payroll staff. If you used any Non-contract time over the holidays, those requests need submitted asap, the closing day for this pay period is January 14. Instructions for submitting requests can be found on the portal Employee-How to Use UKG__Requesting Time-off.pdf . Please feel free to reach out to payroll with any additional questions. 541-355-1123 or [email protected].
Thank you from your payroll department
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From our College Board Partner, Kerry Stern: With 2023 ending, I wanted to send along one final AP district email with three quick, but important, items to close out the year:
1. AP Access January Webinar: Which Courses Can Have the Biggest Impact for Students
2. African American Studies – Available for All Schools in in Fall 2024
3. Reminders for the Start of 2024
Please share this with your school sites before or after their holiday break. I am looking forward to what is ahead in 2024, and I am wishing you and your loved ones a joyous and restful close to the year.
AP Access January Webinar: Which Courses Can Have the Biggest Impact for Students? – January Webinar
Join us (and invite your school leaders) for an informational webinar and discussion on the role that AP African American Studies, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Precalculus, and AP Seminar can play in increasing access to advanced coursework.
When: Thursday, January 25th
Time: 3:00-4:00pm (PST) / 4:00-5:00pm (MST)
AP African American Studies – Available for All Schools in Fall 2024
After more than three years of work by scholars, teachers, and the Advanced Placement Program, I’m excited to share that the AP Program released the revised operational course framework for AP African American Studies this month. This framework will guide the full nationwide launch of the course in the 2024-25 academic year. This dynamic and robust course introduces students to the rich history, culture, and literature of African Americans and the larger African diaspora.
Below are some helpful resources as your schools consider adoption of the course, but please do not hesitate to reach out if there are any ways I can support conversations and considerations that are happening in your district.
· AP African American Studies – Course Brochure
· About the Course (including details about how cost for teaching resources will hopefully not be a barrier for school sites)
Reminders for the Start of 2024
- January 18: Deadline to submit accommodations requests and supporting documentation (if needed) through SSD Online for spring assessments. Learn more about accommodations.
- January 31: AP Course Audit deadline. Final deadline for initial AP Course Audit submissions, all renewals, removal of teachers and courses, addition of online/distance learning courses, and AP Course Audit form approvals for 2023-24 courses. Learn more about the AP Course Audit.
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From Jenn: Here is an informational flier with upcoming training and resources to support our LGBTQ students.
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From Kayla in Safety: Officer Chris Smelser started this week replacing Amy Ward at Bend High SHS. Here is the SRO folder for admin and OMs to reference for the most current version of our SRO documents: SRO Google Drive
Calendar:
Here is LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24.
January 8: HS Counselors visit Realms HS (1:30) and BTA (3:45)
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 Library
January 31: All Admin PD @ Perseverance Hall, 3:00-4:30
February 6: HS Administrator work session, 8:00-9:30