High School Rock Stars!

To Do:

Please share this schedule with your teachers: January 12, next Wednesday, is the Educator Network Day in which teachers meet with content alike teams.  Here is the schedule which has been created by the teachers (District ICCLs) leading each team. Admin will not be assigned to Educator Network Teams this time. 

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Continue to ensure every teacher has completed Canvas and Synergy set up so their grades are accurate!

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Follow YouthTruth implementation steps we reviewed at our meeting Tuesday.

Information:

From Kinsey: Regarding our dates for upcoming forecasting, ACR, and orientation events:
Please ensure that you have interpreters secured in advance for all family events.  Since we already know these dates, you can submit your requests now (Linguist Link here).  
Ensure all invitations and flyers regarding your family events have been translated prior to sending out.

Also, for the translation of the Curriculum Guides: 
As those are large documents, aim to have your translation request submitted no later than Feb 21, in order to receive it back by the March 14th deadline to share them.  
If yours has been translated previously, highlight the portions you are updating this year on the English version, and submit both that version and the old Spanish version in your request.  That way, the translator isn’t starting over from scratch with the entire document.
Highly recommended: forward this to your office manager or other designee, to help you submit these requests!

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Thank you for reading the winter edition of the Language, Culture, Identity newsletter.  This newsletter is shared with administrators, ELL staff, and LEAD cohort members.  Feel free to share with your staff/team, and if you have questions, concerns, or ideas regarding the content, reach out to Kinsey.

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From your TLC and DEI Colleagues: For yourself and/or your staff, here are great local opportunities for learning and connection:

• Our state is offering an amazing opportunity for racially/linguistically/ethnically-diverse educators to participate in a racial justice institute fellowship.  Details here.  Applications are due very soon, so act quickly (and share with teachers/colleagues asap)!  
• The Father’s Group (a local collective sponsored by our regional partner Better Together through the ESD) has a wonderful film event in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  Details here.   
• COCC and partners are hosting book groups in advance of their Season of Nonviolence indigenous author event.  Groups and event details here.  

Now might not feel like a natural time to engage in deep personal learning, as we grow tired of reacting to Covid.  If an opportunity to learn and reflect in community would fill your bucket, rather than deplete it, these might be for you.   If that’s not for you at the moment, you may know a teacher or student who would like to take advantage.  

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From Lora: I know you’re all aware of the tremendous pressure our staff is feeling at this point (and you, as well!). While negotiations with BEA over a memorandum of understanding are not complete, it is VERY likely that we will reserve a number of additional SIW times for teacher-directed work times. We will continue to include some high-priority professional learning opportunities on the February and April EN days, but these will be voluntary for staff. Here is the link to the updated calendar:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OLzXksPAE9UVBlpPIF3vG9atqCswxqqpdzCuQYI0CyA/edit

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Student masking issues – Prior to break, a few of you shared that a handful of students are not consistently following masking protocols after repeated reminders and conversations with the students and their parents.  We worked with Greg Colvin to develop a letter that can be sent home for our worst offenders and that could result in moving the repeat offenders to BLPO at the semester. Progressive steps of intervention/discipline need to occur first and be documented.  If you think this letter needs to be sent to any of your families, contact Eric or me first so we can discuss the situation with you.

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Test kits – Each school has Covid test kits and should be using them.   If a staff member feels symptomatic, thinks they have been exposed, or needs some peace of mind let them test.  If we run out we will order more. Tami is trying to make sure that all schools are staying stocked.

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Here is a reminder from our HR team: New Request-To-Hire Procedure For Administrators/Supervisors:

We are discontinuing the practice of asking administrators to upload interview packets into google drive.  Instead, you will upload Interview Packets directly into Frontline Recruit & Hire.  
To do that, you will print the packets (Certified Interview Packet;  Classified/Extra Duty Interview Packet) like normal, fill them out during the interview process and then scan them to your email.  
Then, we’ve created this short 1.5 minute video on how to upload the scanned packet into Frontline. Here is a step-by-step guide shown in the video. Open Frontline Recruit/HireLocate the forms module on the left-hand side of your screen Click on “Fill Out a New Form”Under the category “Applicant Screening”, click the Interview Packet box On the bottom-right hand corner of your screen, click “Continue With Selected Forms” It will ask you to type in the specific job and applicant’s name. *Please make sure these match your hiring request* You will upload your Interview Packet to the form, answer the questions, and submit
Important: You will need to upload the interview packet BEFORE you make a Recommendation-to-Hire.  New hires won’t be approved until the uploaded documents can be reviewed by HR.

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Here is the link to the HS VP In-Practice Work session from Tuesday.

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The Crown Act went into effect as of January 1, 2022. HERE is a quick overview of what you need to know about this important law. Please reach out to Kinsey or me if you have questions.

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The gift of time: We have enjoyed being in your schools for learning walks this fall. With Covid on the uptick, we are pausing those visits for a few weeks. We will continue our “walk throughs” in your World Languages and CTE classrooms later this month. Here is the updated schedule.

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Our family newsletter goes out this week: Serve Our Schools: Budget Committee

Calendar:

HERE is the calendar for meetings for the year

Here is a sample Learning Walk schedule you can use as a guide to plan that visit.

SIW schedule

Cancelled: January 7th Work Session

Rescheduled: January 6th and 13th Learning Walks

February 5 – SLGG’s and your Self Reflection due (moved both back to account for the Canvas/Synergy clean up).

Reminder: complete your work calendars.  If you need assistance please contact April Jorgenson.

Mark your calendars for June 20 and 21, 2022 for our Leadership Training Academy.

To Do:

Parent notification about YouthTruth should be pushed out by today. Our YouthTruth survey window runs Jan 3-28 and we are required to notify parents of the survey prior to implementation. Here is some language Dave pulled from YouthTruth’s passive consent form: schools can use to notify/communicate with parents about YouthTruth student surveys. I chose not to modify this at all because it is translated into Spanish (and Russian). Schools have access to the forms this came from.   Check out last week’s BLOG for the text in Spanish and English.

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SIW Equitable Grading 30 min training for MS/HS: Please set aside 30 minutes in January or February for your equitable grading team member(s) to update your staff on the team’s work.  They will have a presentation to cover and provide avenues for staff to provide feedback.  If your building does not have a rep, please reach out to Stephen DuVal to discuss a method for communicating with staff.

Equitable Grading Reps: BSHS – Erin Hoffman – Amy Sabbadini; BTA @ MHS – Alex Greenwood; CHS – Jess Calbreath – Kolina Watt-Garcia – Alex Baltodano – Rayne Cedergreen; LPHS – Pam Price; MVHS – Brandi Ross – Jason Gibbs – Sharon Sieveking – Michael Hicks; Realms HS – NO REP; SHS – Erin Carroll

Information:

Mandatory Canvas/Synergy Clean up: We are seeing progress in the required clean up. This needs to be done by the end of January so student grades are ACCURATE on Canvas and Synergy. Here is the link to the slides from our work session last week. Let us know if you need support as you work with your teachers on this priority project. You goal is to check off that every teacher has completed these tasks by January 20. It is imperative that Synergy and Canvas are in synch.

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From Paul – Human Resources is very excited to be expanding our use of Frontline products Recruit/Hire and Central.  By increasing our digital automation of job postings, hiring and document management processes, we will be able to expedite approvals in a more timely manner and reduce redundancies in our practices.

Some of these changes will include more self-service options giving greater autonomy to BLS staff members when undertaking a variety of HR-related tasks.  Here are some of the changes that we are instituting to the new hire process at the start of 2022:

• When a candidate accepts a job offer from an administrator, instead of asking them to physically show up in HR,  please instruct them to call HR right away @541-355-1101 in order to coordinate drug testing and onboarding paperwork. Third party drug testing needs to occur within 24 hours of the offer.
• New hires will be provided digital paperwork instead of hard copies to complete during the onboarding process
• New hires will spend significantly less time in our office filling out paperwork
• Frontline Central will be the digital repository of applicant documents and their new hire paperwork.

****New Request-To-Hire Procedure For Administrators/Supervisors! – On January 3rd, we will be discontinuing the practice of asking administrators to upload interview packets into google drive.  Instead, you will upload Interview Packets directly into Frontline Recruit & Hire.  

To do that, you will print the packets (Certified Interview Packet;  Classified/Extra Duty Interview Packet) like normal, fill them out during the interview process and then scan them to your email.  We’ve created this short 1.5 minute video on how to upload the scanned packet into Frontline. Here is a step-by-step guide shown in the video.

1. Open Frontline Recruit/Hire
2. Locate the forms module on the left-hand side of your screen
3. Click on “Fill Out a New Form”
4. Under the category “Applicant Screening”, click the Interview Packet box
5. On the bottom-right hand corner of your screen, click “Continue With Selected Forms”
6. It will ask you to type in the specific job and applicant’s name. *Please make sure these match your hiring request*
7. You will upload your Interview Packet to the form, answer the questions, and submit

Important: You will need to upload the interview packet BEFORE you make a Recommendation-to-Hire.  New hires won’t be approved until the uploaded documents can be reviewed by HR.

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From Jackie Wilson re: Sustainability Update – Thanks to everyone who reminded their staff about the Holiday SOP over Thanksgiving. Facilities checked in on 5 schools and they all looked great in terms of energy conservation, overall the buildings were shut down. Please remind staff of the importance of conservation strategies over the two-week break and specifically to make sure all mini-fridges are emptied and unplugged.

Composting has been successful this fall at Miller Elementary and the BSH commissary kitchen. Although a small impact, keeping food waste out of landfill has proven to be successful this fall. We hope to see growth in this program in the coming years. “It is much easier than I thought and the system is working great.” Custodian Glen Carey.  Students are composting food and stacking boats in the attached container keeping their waste to 6-yards weekly. The district on average generates 445 yards of trash weekly, at a cost of $28,000 a month. Small changes can make a big impact. THANK YOU. Happy holidays. 

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Check out this course offered by Quinn Daly on Differentiated Instruction: This course will support you in providing differentiated instruction both in a virtual and face-to-face classroom settings. As a result of this class, you will come away with a better understanding of what differentiated instruction is and you will have created a differentiated instruction lesson you will be able to implement directly into your classroom this year. This course is run completely through Canvas, with a group share on the last day of the course. The dates of the class are from January 18th – February 22nd.

Teachers can register on performance matters. Here is the direct link:https://bend.truenorthlogic.com/ia/empari/learning2/course/viewCourse?courseId=10283&month=0&year=2022&whence=calendar&backUrl=%2Fcal%2FmonthTeaserV2%3Fyear%3D2022%26month%3D0

Calendar:

HERE is the calendar for meetings for the year

Here is a sample Learning Walk schedule you can use as a guide to plan that visit.

SIW schedule

January 4 – Principals Breakfast 7:30 @ Original Pancake House

January 5 – Assistant Principals In Practice Calibration Workshop 7:30-9:00@ Ed Center Board Room

February 5 – SLGG’s and your Self Reflection due (I moved both of these back to account for the Canvas/Synergy clean up).

February 11 – HS Admin Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ Realms HS

Reminder: complete your work calendars.  If you need assistance please contact April Jorgenson.

Mark your calendars for June 20 and 21, 2022 for our Leadership Training Academy.

Thinking about our work…

What’s the big deal? Stephen shared with me this quick video that clearly explains the concerns about zeros on the 100 point grading scale.

To Do:

Parent notification about YouthTruth needs to push out prior to winter break. Our YouthTruth survey window runs Jan 3-28 and we are required to notify parents of the survey prior to implementation. Here is some language Dave pulled from YouthTruth’s passive consent form: schools can use to notify/communicate with parents about YouthTruth student surveys. I chose not to modify this at all because it is translated into Spanish (and Russian). Schools have access to the forms this came from.   English and Spanish are below.

Dear Parent or Guardian,

We are writing to let you know that we are asking your child to participate in the YouthTruth Student Survey in the coming weeks. The YouthTruth Student Survey is a nationally recognized survey used in hundreds of schools and districts across the country, surveying hundreds of thousands of students. The survey asks students about their experiences in the school and with their teachers, including how engaged they are at school, the rigor of their coursework, and their preparedness for the future. Our school, other schools, and researchers may use such information for developing plans to help schools and teachers improve. For information about this survey, please visit http://youthtruthsurvey.org, or speak to a school administrator.

Although we want to hear from all students, participation in this survey is voluntary.

Your child’s ratings will not be identified in any reports because results are shared at the group level. Personally identifiable information will not be released to any third party.

Please be aware that under federal law, you have the right to review a copy of the questions asked of your child. If you would like to do so, you can view a copy of the survey at school.

Spanish

Estimado padre o tutor,

Le escribimos para hacerle saber que le estamos pidiendo a su hijo/ que participe en la Encuesta de Estudiantes YouthTruth en las próximas semanas. La Encuesta de Estudiantes YouthTruth es una encuesta nacionalmente reconocida utilizada en cientos de escuelas y distritos de todo el país, examinando cientos de miles de estudiantes. La encuesta le pregunta a los estudiantes acerca de sus experiencias en la escuela y con sus maestros, incluyendo la forma en que están comprometidos en la escuela, el rigor de sus cursos, y su preparación para el futuro. Nuestra escuela, otras escuelas, y los investigadores podrán utilizar dicha información para el desarrollo de planes para ayudar a las escuelas y a los maestros a mejorar. Para obtener información acerca de esta encuesta, por favor visite http://youthtruthsurvey.org, o contacte a la escuela. Aunque queremos saber de todos los estudiantes, la participación en esta encuesta es voluntaria.

Las calificaciones de su hijo/a no serán identificados en los informes porque los resultados son compartidos a nivel de grupo. Información de identificación personal no será revelada a otros grupos terceros.  Tenga en cuenta que bajo la ley federal, usted tiene el derecho de revisar una copia de las preguntas de su hijo/a. Si desea hacerlo, puede ver una copia de la encuesta en la escuela.

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Mandatory Canvas/Synergy Clean up: Here is the link to the slides from our Tuesday work session. Let us know if you need support as you work with your teachers on this priority project. You goal is to check off that every teacher has completed these tasks by January 20. It is imperative that Synergy and Canvas are in synch.

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SIW Equitable Grading 30 min training for MS/HS: Please set aside 30 minutes in January or February for your equitable grading team member(s) to update your staff on the team’s work.  They will have a presentation to cover and provide avenues for staff to provide feedback.  If your building does not have a rep, please reach out to Stephen DuVal to discuss a method for communicating with staff.

Equitable Grading Reps: BSHS – Erin Hoffman – Amy Sabbadini; BTA @ MHS – Alex Greenwood; CHS – Jess Calbreath – Kolina Watt-Garcia – Alex Baltodano – Rayne Cedergreen; LPHS – Pam Price; MVHS – Brandi Ross – Jason Gibbs – Sharon Sieveking – Michael Hicks; Realms HS – NO REP; SHS – Erin Carroll

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From Dean: your role in supporting your teachers to meet the Syllabus due date (Feb 4): On the next Educator Network Day, January 12, most of the PLCs will have some time to discuss the syllabus requirement for second semester.  The following was sent to District ICCLs and others leading the conversation on the 12^th. 

Principals will receive a documents to share with teachers in next week’s blog to communicate location and major agenda items to share with teachers.

After conversations with Lora, and collaboration with the TOSA team, we’ve come up with a list of syllabus expectations that we can use to help teachers prepare to complete this task.  

There will, of course be plenty of follow-up questions, but as a guideline, here are six items that should exist on the syllabus documents, across all content areas:

1. ​contact information
2. course overview, including overview of units studied
3. a list of curriculum resources most often used (including a suggested disclaimer about current events, importance of responsiveness, and opening the door to some resource use not listed – here is what Lora recommends and which can be used all or in part: In response to students’ learning needs, current events, or newly available sources, for example, I will periodically supplement our major texts with other materials. If you do not want your student to read/view any supplemental materials, please let me know. Your student can wait to read/view the material until after they have shared it with you. )
4. Grading policy/information about how students will be assessed
5. a link to grade level/subject area standards or an embedded list of the specific standards you rely on
6. a link to this document from the Canvas homepage, so it is easily found by both parents and students

Our current plan is for me to loop secondary administrators in so that we can identify any areas where their staff messages might be out of sync with the above and smooth those edges, and then for subject area TOSA’s and ICCL’s can act as resources for their content area teams around this expectation.

I expect to finish the administrative communication cycle this week, so teachers can have the above list next week.  Also, I recognize that there may need to be subject-area specific additions (such as safety information on science syllabi…) Stay tuned.

One way you can provide support in the meantime is:  if you have a syllabus that contains the five content pieces, would you share it with me?  Being able to provide some exemplars to teachers will be helpful, so others can see examples of how the five content items might be organized.

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Your HSS and SIF Budgets should be completed before you leave for winter break.  THANK YOU to those who have completed them!

Information:

Student Success/BRYT Fidelity Indicators:  We know you are all working hard to get you Student Success Program up and running in each of your buildings, but do you often wonder where you are at in your implementation or how you are doing? Here is an important one-page implementation document with 7 different fidelity markers of what you need to have in place during this school year.  Please know that to have a Student Success program in full implementation and running smoothly, will take several years, like 3-5 (yes, we said years, not weeks or months). This one page document has broken down what year one implementation will look like.  This would be a good document to review with your Student Intervention Team and to do a quick check in of where you are at.  Are you on track? Do you need to make plans to address any of the items?  Do you need help?  Don’t hesitate to reach out to your Student Success Coach, Jennifer Hauth, or me.  

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From Dean: This week’s blog post was crafted by Julie Montoya, our World Languages TOSA.  After last year, she has found herself doing a lot of thinking about student autonomy and wondering how to guide students towards rediscovering themselves as engaged students, empowering them to be drivers rather than passengers.  She has settled on a couple of strategies that are working well, and that she was willing to share with us.

To read more about her strategies and her reflections on them: Key to Engagement and Ownership in Learning: Developing Student Autonomy

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From Lora – ​​Substitute Teachers for Professional Learning – (please note, there are some changes to “dedicated subs”, that conflict with what we have shared in the past)

Let me start with the good news: in the last six days of school, we have had zero unfilled certified sub jobs on three of those days. It appears that some combination of the HDESD hiring/training additional subs and the bonus for subs who accept multiple jobs in a month is helping to reduce the number of unfilled jobs in the district.

But while we’re monitoring the data on a weekly basis, we’re not yet at the point where we can allow school/district staff to hire subs for staff professional development. At this point, the district is NOT authorizing the use of certified subs for any professional learning/team work time/staff leadership retreats, etc. Even if your school has “dedicated subs,” (subs that will work only at your site), you may not use these subs for the above purposes. The rationale is two-fold: 1) not every site has this option available to them, and 2) at the last minute, those “dedicated subs” may be needed to cover for a teacher in your building who is taking authorized leave (sick leave, personal, bereavement).

We have had a few teachers/schools with exceptional needs, and they have been authorized to use subs for professional learning. Please contact your level leader directly to discuss the issue if you believe you might have such a need. You will need their approval before requesting subs.

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From Stephanie Bent – Due to COVID-19 we will again be offering a blended model for the First Aid/CPR class.  The class will be done online with a hands-on skills assessment to follow.  The online portion of the class should take about three (3) hours with the skills assessment to follow with a first aid/CPR trainer that will take about 20 minutes.  The online course can be done to fit your schedule.  Your First Aid/CPR card will not be issued until all portions of class are completed.

The process will be as follows: 

1. Sign up for the class in Performance Matters. Stephanie Bent will send you a link from HSI/Medic to get started ([email protected]).   
2. Please check your Junk Mail if it does not appear in your regular inbox.  
3. After each section of the online session, there will be a one or two question quiz. 
4. When scheduled, the hands-on skills assessment schedule will be emailed to you to register if you have completed the online portion.  You can only do the in-person skills assessment after you have completed the online portion of the class.   
5. The in-person skills assessment will be done in 30-minute increments with 1 to 6 person ratio (20 minutes for the class and 10 minutes to clean and sanitize equipment). 
6. First Aid cards will not be sent out until both portions of the class are completed.  

The class currently in Performance Matters opens 12/3/2021 with a completion date by 1/28/2022.  If interested, please sign up now.  

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From Steve Herron: Here are our 2021-22 Inclement Weather Guidelines; we have reverted to the Guidelines as they existed in 2019-20, given that we are exclusively back to in-person learning:

Calendar:

HERE is the calendar for meetings for the year

Here is a sample Learning Walk schedule you can use as a guide to plan that visit.

SIW schedule

December 14 – Work Session: Curriculum Guide Equity Audit @ SHS in the Library 8:00-9:30 (Feel free to invite one counselor and your curriculum secretary). Students will join us for this work session. Please bring you equity stance with you and be prepared to share.

February 5 – SLGG’s and your Self Reflection due (I moved both of these back to account for the Canvas/Synergy clean up).

Reminder: complete your work calendars.  If you need assistance please contact April Jorgenson.

Mark your calendars for June 20 and 21, 2022 for our Leadership Training Academy.

To Do:

School Design Plans: Please send me a quick email letting me know if you have completed your School Design Plan.

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STAS Level 1:
If you have not already done so, would you please click on this link to update your building’s Level 1 team information?
BLS STAS Level 1 Teams (Link)

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A message from Dave about YouthTruth: Just a reminder to watch the 18-minute Kick-Off Webinar, be on the lookout for an email from YouthTruth AND develop a plan for implementing this survey to students and staff in January.

We need to increase the response rate on the part of secondary schools. Dave Van Loo is advocating that an 80% student response rate at each school. Consider how you can create a scenario in your school which allows us to reach this goal. Perhaps have students complete the survey during a special schedule that includes an extension of a period OR during advisory. We will implement YouthTruth in January!

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Leave Sheets: Leave sheets are due by Monday, December 6th.  Please let April know if you have any questions.  The time period that we are recording is 11/08/21 – 12/05/21.  Those with electronic calendars (administrators) can fill in their calendar and let me know when they are done.  Everyone else (paper leave sheets) can send me their leave sheets or email me with their dates of leave and I can fill them out for you.  If you did not take any leave during this period (11/08 – 12/05) just let me know and I will note it.  We are required to turn in a leave sheet whether we have taken leave or not.

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From Kinsey: Multilingual Department Staff Supervision: Our district team has grown!  Updated case loads here.  Your school’s assigned Liaison should be visible in your building fairly consistently, according to the schedule they’ve shared with you. You should have received an email this week with updates on Family Liaisons and Language Specialists (schedules, case loads, mini-observations, and evaluations).  Thanks for reviewing that information, and letting Kinsey know if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions!

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SSC/SSI Proposed Evaluation Domains and Standards

One critical aspect of creating a new role in BLPS schools is determining the evaluation rubric.  Please see the below proposal for this year’s evaluation rubric.  This was vetted through a representative group of SSC’s/SSI’s, and Admin.  The group believed this was a great match and would work well for this year.  At this time, I would like you all to take a look at the proposed eval rubric and provide your feedback HERE.  In the future, the plan is to design a rubric specific to the student success program and your new roles.  

I am also sending this exact email to SSC/SSI for their comments.  I hope to have this process finalized and determine prior to leaving for winter break.  Thanks in advance for your participation.  

Student Services Coordinator Rubric

Proposed Domain: Standards

2.4 – School Culture: Communication

2.5 – School Culture: Relationships

3.9 – Programs and Services: Assessment

3.10 – Programs and Services: Records

3.11 – Programs and Services: Intervention

4.12 – Professional Responsibilities: Professionalism

4.13 – Professional Responsibilities: Self-Improvement

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Information:

Outdoor Masking: Based on recent revisions to requirements issued by the Oregon Department of Education, beginning Monday, Dec. 6, wearing masks while outdoors for Bend-La Pine Schools’ students and staff will be recommended (not required). This change applies to students in grades K-12 and staff in outdoor settings that include, but are not limited to, recess, lunch, PE, etc. 

Additionally, families or other visitors outside on school campus (for instance during student drop off or pick up) are recommended, not required, to wear masks.

Unvaccinated individuals not wearing masks who are exposed to a positive COVID-19 case while outdoors will need to follow quarantine protocols if they are identified as close contact. 

Masks continue to be required indoors.  

Guidance for those participating in athletics and activities remains largely unchanged. 

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No visitors: At our district COVID meeting this week it was determined that we should not be allowing Military Recruiters in our buildings at lunch or any other time because we are still not allowing visitors.  I realize I originally gave the green light for these folks to be in our high schools.  That is no longer the case. We continue to not allow college reps on our campus for the same reason. These folks can connect virtually with students but cannot be on campus during the school day. I understand this is not the news you want to hear.  However, this is where we are for now.

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Secondary Blog: This post is directed towards any teacher that uses text of any kind with students.  Increasing student literacy across disciplines is something new teachers receive focused training in, but might not be a topic more experienced teachers hear much about.  The post contains a few strategies teachers might find useful, as well as a couple of great resources if you’re curious and would like to learn more. Ready to Implement Now…Reading Strategies for All Subjects

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Classified evals – Paul inquired with OSEA union leadership last year and they were not interested in limiting the number of domains for evaluation.  While I haven’t asked this year, I can, but I don’t anticipate their position changing.

Calendar:

HERE is the calendar for meetings for the year

Here is a sample Learning Walk schedule you can use as a guide to plan that visit.

SIW schedule

December 7 – Work Session: Canvas/Synergy @ BSHS 8:00-9:30 in Perseverance Hall.

December 14 – Work Session: Curriculum Guide Audit @ Realms HS 8:00-9:30 (Feel free to invite one counselor and your curriculum secretary). Please email me who you plan to bring by Wednesday. Students will join us for this work session. Please bring you equity stance with you and be prepared to share.

December 17 – Self Reflection due

January 5 – SLGG’s due

Reminder: complete your work calendars.  If you need assistance please contact April Jorgenson.

Mark your calendars for June 20 and 21, 2022 for our Leadership Training Academy.

Thinking about our work…

What if we scheduled time with our most disenfranchised students and invited them to help us improve their school? This book seems to speak to grounding our work in student voice. I am ordering a copy. If you would like me to order you one, let me know by Dec 1:

Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation. by Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan   Corwin  March 9, 2021

Radically reimagine our ways of being, learning, and doing: Education can be transformed if we eradicate our fixation on big data like standardized test scores as the supreme measure of equity and learning. Instead of the focus being on “fixing” and “filling” academic gaps, we must envision and rebuild the system from the student up―with classrooms, schools and systems built around students’ brilliance, cultural wealth, and intellectual potential. Street data reminds us that what is measurable is not the same as what is valuable and that data can be humanizing, liberatory and healing.  

By breaking down street data fundamentals: what it is, how to gather it, and how it can complement other forms of data to guide a school or district’s equity journey, Safir and Dugan offer an actionable framework for school transformation. Written for educators and policymakers, this book

• Offers fresh ideas and innovative tools to apply immediately
• Provides an asset-based model to help educators look for what’s right in our students and communities instead of seeking what’s wrong
• Explores a different application of data, from its capacity to help us diagnose root causes of inequity, to its potential to transform learning, and its power to reshape adult culture

“Street Data calls upon readers to ′flip the dashboard′ from a focus on big data to a focus on the voices at the margins – those learners and their families who have been most affected by deep-rooted systemic inequities.  When we listen closely to these voices with curiosity, courage, and humility, we gain a greater understanding of the meaning and root causes of these inequities, as well as how they can be addressed in ways that transform and heal. Policymakers and educators at every level of the system need this book to forge a path to genuine equity.” — Linda Darling-Hammond

To Do:

Holiday/Thankfulness: If your school engaged in an activity around gratitude, thankfulness or giving, please let us know (examples: student art or writing about what they are thankful for, canned food drive for the holidays, etc.). We will be sharing art, photos and stories during Thanksgiving break and would love to include efforts from as many schools as possible. Email Alandra details and a photo.

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“Culture of Care is offering Free Virtual Drop-In Wellness Circles for all educators and helping professionals across the region to reduce stress, bolster resilience and build connections on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month (3:45-4:15 pm).  All are welcome! The Zoom link will be sent after you register with your email. For specific questions, email Dr Amy at [email protected]. 

Sessions begin Nov 15, 2021 & Dec 6, 2021 (3:45-4:15pm); then the 1st & 3rd Monday (3:45-4:15pm) thereafter.”

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From Paul in HR: Here is the link to the google spreadsheet where you can check the status of coaches who have completed the vaccine status documentation and have been ‘cleared’ to begin the winter sports season.  Athletic Directors should check the link each day and remind coaches who have not submitted documentation to do so.
I will update the spreadsheet each morning by 10 am.
Coaches who have not completed their hiring paperwork to HR are not included on this list.  Once they have done so, they will be loaded into Frontline and sent an invitation to upload their documentation.  Please email Stuart Eaton if you have questions about a new coach’s hiring status.
Please note the coaches who will have to wear 3-ply disposable medical masks as you’ll need to monitor adherence to that additional safety measure. The district has ample mask supplies, and your office manager can order more if you need them.  

Information:

From Steve Herron, Chief Human Resources Officer:

BLS Administrative Staff –

This is a reminder of District masking and illness reporting requirements, and of your responsibility as supervisors to enforce the requirements. Unfortunately, we’ve received several reports of both inconsistent compliance and inconsistent enforcement of the standards. 

FACE COVERINGS

Staff remain obligated to wear a well-fitting, appropriate mask or face covering when at district sites, unless they are actively eating (and distanced from others) or in a private, fully enclosed workspace. Some staff may be required to wear 3-play medical grade masks as a mitigation measure to a vaccine exception, or a KN95 mask when indoors supervising unmasked students under 12 years of age.

“Appropriate mask or face covering” means a cloth, polypropylene, paper, or other face covering that covers the nose and the mouth and that rests snugly above the nose, below the mouth, and on the sides of the face. The following are not face coverings because they allow droplets to be released: a covering that incorporates a valve that is designed to facilitate easy exhalation, mesh masks, lace masks, or other coverings with openings, holes, visible gaps in the design or material, or vents.

Masks that allow light through, such as sports masks, and vented masks are not appropriate, and are not allowed for use while working at Bend-La Pine Schools. See here for the limited exceptions to the forms of appropriate masks.

ILLNESS REPORTING

Also, all district staff are required to report illness to their supervisor, particularly COVID-19 primary symptoms, exposure, a positive test result, or a directive to quarantine or isolate. Supervisors must pass on reports of primary COVID-19 symptoms, exposures, and positive cases to the Health Services Team for follow-up investigation.

In addition to reporting to their supervisor, staff can also report their status via this new tool:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLC1rRILWcqZSTu3RyJOA68L9AVR7vKudyhJi75Q07utINow/viewform

FAILURE TO COMPLY

Failure by staff to comply with the face covering and illness reporting protocols, or by administrators or supervisors to enforce protocols, may result in progressive discipline. Please document and follow these progressive discipline measures:

1. Verbal warning
2. Written Directive
3. Letter of Reprimand (contact Steve Herron or Paul Dean if you are escalating to this step)
   

Do not delay your responses in the face of continued defiance, as you may compromise the District’s ability to respond progressively. 
Please let me know if you have any questions about these reminders.
Thanks – Steve Herron

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Notes from Julianne:

C19 Code Synergy and Attendance Reminder 
When a student is quarantined, the office will place a C19 on the school days that fall during a quarantine. The C19 code is an excused absence. If the quarantine extends past 10 days, the student will need to be inactivated.

HOWEVER…

If the student attends class virtually, the attendance office may enter PVQ. Present Virtual Quarantine (PVQ) is a School Activity code that does not generate an all-day value.  This code may be used before 10 consecutive absent days.

Teachers will not have access to C19 or PVQ. Only the office staff will have the ability to enter these codes.

As a reminder, you may continue to use the BinaxNOW Testing Kits until your supply runs out. If more tests are needed anytime, please send a request to: [email protected]

BinaxNOW Testing Kits: On 10/12/21, all registered schools received the following message regarding BinaxNOW testing kits expiration update:

Dear School Testing Administrator,

The current Delta surge has depleted the federal supply of Abbott BinaxNOW tests, and regular distribution has not yet resumed. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services allows for temporary use of expired pandemic testing supplies when the supply chain is disrupted until non-expired supplies become available. The Oregon Health Authority is temporarily allowing the use of expired Abbott BinaxNOW test kits if individual test kit quality controls remain functional. Because each Abbott BinaxNOW test includes a quality control process, these expired supplies are anticipated to continue to provide accurate test results. Any test without an appropriate quality control check should be discarded. 

These tests have been distributed to schools statewide and this guidance applies to all public and private schools participating in the K-12 diagnostic testing program. The Oregon Health Authority will notify schools via. email once the Abbott BinaxNOW supply chain has been restored and the temporary use of expired supplies ends.

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A suggestion from Rachel Mavis: If a student would like to attend class(es) virtually, a counselor or teacher may call the student and parent to arrange a plan for the student to attend virtually. The student and parent need to know the expectations regarding virtual attendance.  Then the counselor or teacher may work with the office staff on the dates for the PVQ code.

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Military Recruiters: We are allowing military recruiters on our campus to visit at lunch.

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EAP Information from HR to share as needed:

Portal link: https://portal.bend.k12.or.us/employee-info/content/employee-assistance-program

Portal content: Bend-La Pine School employees have access to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and Work-Life Services through Uprise Health. This benefit is free and extends to anyone living in the employees home. The following support services are available:

·    24-hour crisis support

·    Confidential counseling

·    Work-life services, includng finance and legal services

·    24-hour on-demand emotional wellness support

·    Peer support groups

·    Digital mental health services

Call: 800-395-1616; https://members.uprisehealth.com/ ; User access code: OEBB

Calendar:

HERE is the calendar for meetings for the year

Here is a sample Learning Walk schedule you can use as a guide to plan that visit.

SIW schedule

November 17-19 – Katie Out

November 19 – College and Career Day! Please share this FLIER with your staff. Let Alandra know if you are planning anything special for this day!

November 20-24 – Thanksgiving Break – No HS Notes sent this week.

December 7 – Principal Breakfast 7:30-8:30 @ Original Pancake House

December 17 – Self Reflection due

January 5 – SLGG’s due

Reminder: complete your work calendars.  If you need assistance please contact April Jorgenson.

Mark your calendars for June 20 and 21, 2022 for our Leadership Training Academy.

To Do:

Discrepancies in grading: After reviewing the grades from our first term, we continue to see the same discrepancies between our currently and historically underserved students and our students who consistently excel. The gap is widening. A few of you have asking, what can we do? One concrete “to do” is to begin to dig in with your teachers about equitable grading practices.

At our Equitable Grading Think Tank meeting this Wednesday, our team will review research on grading practices such as allowing students retakes, behavior in grades and homework. I encourage you to share/review this data with your staff and continue discussions about how current practices may be hurting our students the furthest from justice.

We know this reality is not unique to our district and two larger district in California are taking action. Check out this article from the Los Angeles Times: Faced with soaring Ds and Fs, schools are ditching the old way of grading – Los Angeles Times: https://apple.news/AYp7jWMrbTjOYmGMhFsT0Rg. These districts are implementing many of the equitable grading practices we are currently discussing with our equitable grading team. The LA Unified and San Diego Unified districts are requiring that teachers “…base academic grades on whether students have learned what was expected of them during a course — and not penalize them for behavior, work habits and missed deadlines. The policies encourage teachers to give students opportunities to revise essays or retake tests to show that they have met learning goals, rather than enforcing hard deadlines.”

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This week’s Secondary BLOG provides support for the same theme: This week’s blog continues where we left off last week – thinking about classroom practices that can be more or less equitable, dependent upon how we design them.  A research topic of the Equitable Grading Team is the concept of allowing students to redo their work.  This week’s post will tell you more about that, as well as provide some thinking around a related topic: extra credit.

Here’s the link: More Lessons Learned from the Equitable Grading Think Tank: Retakes/Redos & Extra Credit

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BRYT Fidelity Indicators:  We know you are all working hard to get BRYT up and running in each of your buildings, but do you often wonder where you are at in your implementation or how you are doing? Here is an important one-page implementation document with 7 different fidelity markers of what you need to have in place during this school year.  Please know that to have a BRYT program in full implementation and running smoothly, will take several years, like 3-5 (yes, we said years, not weeks or months). This one page document has broken down what year one implementation will look like.  Technically, we are in year two, but if we can assure that all of our high schools have these seven fidelity markers in place this year, we will be well-positioned for our Tier 3 students. Please review this doc with your Student Success Team and to do a quick check in and adjust accordingly.  Are you on track? Do you need to make plans to address any of the items?  Do you need help?  Don’t hesitate to reach out to your Behavior Coach or Jennifer Hauth. 

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Sub shortage: We continue to have a moratorium on any professional development that requires a sub. Please have your office manager check personal days and any PD that requires subs that may have been scheduled previously. We did approve subs for CTE teachers involved in a POS meeting with Brook on Tuesday, November 16. I sent an email to those teachers and principals today.

Information:

Sub shortage and reconfiguring classes: We are working with BEA on language about not reconfiguring classes in the event a building has a sub shortage. Certified staff can be asked, but not required, to cover classes. They will be paid. Classified staff can be assigned to supervise groups of students (study halls, etc.) if there’s a sub shortage. Classified staff cannot be asked to provide instruction. However, an administrator could drop in, share with the students what the assigned work is, and then have a classified staff member supervise students.

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School ID’s for BLPO students: BLPO is not a school, it is a program open to any student in our district. Students enrolled in our BLPO program, even if they are full time online, are still connected to their home school and can participate in activities and athletics. Please be sure those students can easily access activities and athletics by ensuring they have a student ID card from your school. Please do not take student ID’s if any of your students enroll in BLPO full time. We have seen some cases of schools asking the students to turn in their school ID and giving them a generic ID. All BLPO students are OUR students and should have a regular school ID. Please reach out if you have questions.

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From Paul in Human Resources: Email Groups: Over the past 12 months, HR has welcomed several new confidential staff members, supervisors and directors.  To provide better service, we’ve also shifted some roles/responsibilities within our department.  To assist you and your staff in knowing how to best direct your HR questions, we’ve created HR email groups so that you no longer need to remember the individual(s) responsible for a specific task and can easily connect with the most appropriate HR department.  

In your email “To” cell, if you begin to type “hr-” and select the search directory, then you’ll see the list of possible HR email groups.  We’ve created a HR reference google doc to capture the new email groups, the tasks/responsibilities within each department, staff members’ names and their phone extensions.  If you ‘Star’ it within google drive or bookmark the page, you’ll have it for easy reference.  This is a live document, and we’ll update it regularly.

HR Holiday Services: With the upcoming holiday seasons on their way, we wanted to communicate that there will be limited HR services during Thanksgiving and Winter Break.  For new hires, Thursday, November 18th & Thursday, December 16th will be the last day to offer positions before each respective break.    

Steve H (503-539-1044) will be the emergency HR contact over Thanksgiving and Paul (541-350-3168) will be the emergency contact over Winter Break.

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An update on SRO’s from Scott Bojanowski: Here is an updated document for our Bend PD SRO assignments to our schools. Due to staffing shortages at Bend PD, starting this coming Monday, 11/15 we will be moving from 5 SROs on duty to 4 SROs on duty.

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From Sean Reinhart: I have had some questions regarding the development of SLGGs by your Student Success Coaches and Student Success Instructors.  With the uniqueness of their role, we have determined, for the purposes of writing SLGGs, that they will be considered TOSA’s.  The guidance from ODE states: 

Teachers on special assignment (e.g. TOSA, instructional coach, mentor teacher) who do not provide instruction to students are not required to set SLG goals. However, they must participate in the evaluation process and may include measures of their impact on school and district goals for student achievement. 

Therefore, they NOT be required to develop SLGGs. 

Also, we are currently developing a rubric for evaluation of Student Success Coordinators and Student Success Instructors.  It will likely be selected areas from 2 domains.  We will gather input from some SSCs/SSIs, admin, and BEA in the process.  Stay tuned for more information. Thanks and let me know if you have any questions.

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Follow up to HS Admin Professional Development this week: Thank you to Jenn Hauth and Whitney Schumacher for the information sharing and facilitation of our HS Admin meeting Tuesday. We have adopted the CASEL framework for our district SEL work and our focus for our year is on Adult SEL and mindsets. Consider how you can continue to support adult SEL and learning in your buildings. Jenn shared several tools you could use to promote this work in your building:

Here is the agenda from this meeting. This document has a link to the Listening Circle Protocol, SEL Journey Map and the Principles of Adult Learning from Elena Aguillar. Additionally, here is the slide show as well as CASEL’s Adult SEL Signature Practices and The Principles of Adult Learning by Elena Aguillar. Feel free to use any of these resources with your staff. Please let Jenn know how she can support you in this work.

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Bend-La Pine Schools Healthy Schools Program: At our HS Admin meeting this week, Aimee Snyder joined us from Deschutes County as our new Healthy Schools Supervisor. We ran out of time to have her present, but she prepared some information to share:

Bend-La Pine Schools is partnering with Deschutes County Health Services to launch a Healthy Schools program. This program is funded 50% by Bend-La Pine Schools and 50% by Deschutes County Health Services.

Healthy Schools will embed a Public Health Specialist into each high school by the 2023-24 school year. 

Each Public Health Specialist will serve both their high school and the middle school/s that feed into that high school. Two high schools will join the program every school year. For the 2021-2022 school year, the following schools will be receiving direct public health services from their Public Health Specialist: 

• La Pine High and La Pine Middle Schools
• Bend Senior High and Pilot Butte Middle Schools

Healthy Schools aims to: 

• Improve supports for social, mental, emotional, and physical health needs available in or through schools
• Increase students reaching Oregon’s Positive Youth Development benchmark
• Reduce unmet physical and mental/emotional health needs amongst students
• Reduce disparities by race/ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation, and income levels

Each Public Health Specialist will serve their high and middle schools by: 

• Serving as a designated School Health Coordinator
• Assessing and reporting school health needs and improvements using collaborative processes
• Creating and implementing a collaborative, data-driven school health improvements plan
• Facilitating coordination, collaboration, and integration across internal and external teams/programs
• Providing or coordinating trainings and coaching to improve school health practices
• Facilitating implementation of district and school initiatives, such as Social and Emotional Learning, Equity and Inclusion, and School Design Plans

Healthy Schools is using the CDC-recommended comprehensive Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child approach (see the model below).

These slides provide more information about the Healthy Schools program, if interested in reading more: https://tinyurl.com/HealthySchoolsPHAB2021

For questions about the Healthy Schools program, contact Aimee Snyder, DrPH, the Healthy Schools Supervisor: [email protected]; 541-408-3630

Aimee Snyder, DrPH, CHES | Healthy Schools Supervisor. Pronouns:  she/her/hers(why pronouns matter)

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Calendar

HERE is the calendar for meetings for the year

Here is a sample Learning Walk schedule you can use as a guide to plan that visit.

SIW schedule

November 16 – Principal Breakfast 7:30-8:30 @ Original Pancake House

November 17-19 – Katie Out

November 19 – College and Career Day is Friday! Please share this FLIER with your staff. Let Alandra know if you are planning anything special for this day!

November 20-24 – Thanksgiving Break

December 7 – Principal Breakfast 7:30-8:30 @ Original Pancake House

December 17 – Self Reflection due

January 5 – SLGG’s due

Reminder: complete your work calendars.  If you need assistance please contact April Jorgenson.

Mark your calendars for June 20 and 21, 2022 for our Leadership Training Academy.

Think abouts…

Here is an interesting summary of research on exclusionary discipline and its ineffectiveness. If you want to dig deeper, read the entire paper: An Empirical Examination of the Effects of Suspension and Suspension Severity on Behavioral and Academic Outcomes.

To Do:

From Lora: Principals, we probably don’t have to tell you that despite our best efforts, we are still facing shortages of subs most days of each week. We hope this situation will improve with new subs being onboarded, bonuses being offered, and decreasing COVID rates, but FOR THE TIME BEING: The district has suspended ALL school-day professional learning activities for staff who need subs. Our expectation is that staff will also not be approved for school-day professional learning provided by partners like the ESD or other private providers.

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From Dean: As the year settles in, please place a copy of your master schedule here. This information will help TLC reach out to teachers and as we schedule our visits.

We have now hired all of the District Level ICCLs across content areas.  This team will provide district level guidance on curricular questions and support other teachers in the disciplines. 

In order to support this district level team we would like a list of building ICCLs. Please put a list of your ICCLs here.  There is a middle school and a high school tab.  Please place your ICCL names in the correct tab.

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Self Reflections: Stephanie Bent has assigned your self reflection. Please complete this doc prior to winter break.

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From Scott Bojanowski: Thank you for helping us get the SRP training video out to all school staff and reviewed this fall.

We need to provide the full one-hour training to new employees and any staff that may have missed the training this fall, or anyone that just wants the full training as a refresher. New hires since January 2021 need to attend one of the training dates below, between now and May 2022. These training dates are in PD Place on the portal for sign-up and they will receive one hour of professional development for attending.

WHAT: Standard Response Training: Standard Response Protocols: Lockout, Secure, Evacuate, Shelter, and Hold. I Love U Guys Foundation 

WHEN:  Choose one of the following dates:  11/10, 12/8, 1/12, 2/9, 3/9, 4/6, 5/11

WHEN:  3:00-4:00, one hour in-person

WHERE:  Ed Center room 314

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Please share this with staff from our Bend-La Pine Schools’ Human Resources Benefits Team: It is time again for our annual flu shot clinics. While we are not able to host clinics at all of our schools and departments this year, we are hopeful one of the locations will work for those who are interested.  Employees are welcome to attend any of the clinic locations noted below – no appointments are necessary.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION :

• Flu vaccinations are optional.
• Your Care, LLC will be providing our flu shot clinics.
• Only employees and their immediate family members (spouse/partner, and dependent children over the age of 2) may attend. Please adhere to COVID and visitor protocol while attending the clinics.
• The flu vaccination is covered by most insurances with no out of pocket cost. Please have your insurance card with you at the time of the clinic.
• If you are uninsured, you are welcome to attend and pay at the time of the clinic.
• If you have questions regarding the flu vaccine, please review CDC information here: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/season/faq-flu-season-2021-2022.htmFrequently Asked Influenza (Flu) Questions: 2021-2022 Season | CDC What’s New for 2021-2022. A few things are different for the 2021-2022 influenza (flu) season, including: The composition of flu vaccines has been updated.; All flu vaccines will be quadrivalent (four component), meaning designed to protect against four different flu viruses.www.cdc.gov   
• COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters will not be administered at the flu shot clinics.

FLU SHOT CLINIC SCHEDULE:

• November 9                      7:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.                 La Pine High School Auditorium Lobby
• November 10                    3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.                 La Pine Elementary Conference Room
• November 17                    7:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.                 Education Center, room 312
• November 18                    9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon               Bend Transportation Department
• November 18                    3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.                 Education Center, room 312

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Interested in contracting? If anyone on your staff is interested in setting up a contract with an outside entity, please be sure they are following THESE guidelines. HERE is the document that must be completed by the person requesting the service. Please be sure all building Administrators as well as your Accounting Tech and Activities Directors are informed about this process as they will be approving these requests prior to contractors being allowed on campus.

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From April: It’s time once again to start working on leave sheets (the period is shorter this time due to the holiday week approaching).  The time period that we are recording leave for is 10/18/21 – 11/07/21.  Those with electronic calendars (administrators) can fill in their calendar and let me know when they are done.  Everyone else (paper leave sheets) can send me their leave sheets or email me with their dates of leave and I can fill them out for you.  If you did not take any leave during this period (10/18 – 11/07) just let me know and I will note it.  We are required to turn in a leave sheet whether we have taken leave or not.

Information:

STAS Updates:

From Steve Cook: A quick note to let you know about a small reorganization of our Bend-La Pine Schools and High Desert ESD Student Threat Assessment System (STAS) work.

As of November 1, I have shifted this critical work from the Safety team to the Student Services team, where it will be wrapped into the whole child efforts taking place to support students’ social and emotional health and well-being.

Thanks to Julianne for initiating and leading this work for the last five years.  She will be passing the baton to the Student Services Team.  Sean Reinhart and Eric Powell will continue to represent our district at regional level advisory meetings.  Eric has begun attending Level 2 assessment review on behalf of the district as Jen Goodman and Kay Ann Well have transitioned into other roles.

This month your ESD STAS contact will transition from Misty Groom (as your main point of contact) to Liz Lawrence (you may remember her from her work with our SROs at the Bend Police Department). More information, including contact information, to come in the weeks ahead.

Julianne Repman and Scott Bojanowski will continue to respond and support as incidents are unfolding at your sites. Student Services will be available to provide relevant supports and interventions to students, via STAS, after situations have stabilized.

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STAS Update (from Eric Powell)
Please review and bookmark this “STAS 101” document (LINK) to help stay up-to-date on the STAS process for our district. If you have a STAS question, you can always call me directly to process and plan (541) 355-4810 [work] or (541) 639-6693 [cell].
For any new staff needing to be trained in STAS, we have sent them a calendar invite for a training on either December 1 or December 8 (from 1:30-4:30pm). If you would like to attend to get re-trained, please let me know and I can send you the invite.

Also, here is the LINK to the BLS Restorative Practices Support Sheet (which also contains this STAS 101 link). This is a one-stop shop for all things Discipline/Restorative Practices.
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HB 3294 Recently, we were made aware of HB3294, the Menstrual Dignity Act.  You can read the details of the Act here.  Maintenance will be installing feminine hygiene dispensers in a your student bathrooms which allows students to have free access to these products.  Some high school students have prepared information related to this which we will share in the near future.

Calendar

HERE is the calendar for meetings for the year

Here is a sample Learning Walk schedule you can use as a guide to plan that visit.

SIW schedule

November 9 – HS Admin Professional Development 8-9:30 @CHS

November 11 – Veterans Day – no school

November 12 – potential sub shortage

November 16 – Principal Breakfast 7:30-8:30 @ Original Pancake House

November 17 – Admin training day 3:30-5:00

November 17-19 – Katie Out

November 20-24 – Thanksgiving Break

December 17 – Self Reflection due

January 5 – SLGG’s due

Reminder: complete your work calendars.  If you need assistance please contact April Jorgenson.

Mark your calendars for June 20 and 21, 2022 for our Leadership Training Academy.

Congratulations to Sal and his team at BTA@MHS. This week, the school received a award from Building a Better Central Oregon in the category of Outstanding Education Opportunity. The award is sponsored by CORA.

To Do:

Consistent Communication is Important  It was brought to our attention at a level leaders meeting, and personally, we have experienced it and seen it for ourselves, that there is inconsistency from school to school,  in what information is being shared or in most cases, not shared, with staff.  It is extremely important that the information we ask you to share is getting shared with all staffs and things we ask you to do are getting done.  We realized that part of the problem is how we are communicating to you, what needs to be shared.  To help improve that, we will be indicating in red, the section that has information that you must share or do.  The expectation is that you would at the very least, put that info in your weekly staff communication.  Sometimes it will be things that you can directly copy and paste, and other times it may be something you need to modify a bit to fit your school. 

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If you have not already trained your staff on this emergency number, please do so.

From Julianne: In case of an emergency response at your school or site; LockDOWN, Secure, Evacuation, Shelter, Hold, schools must call 541-355-8888 as soon as it is safe to do so (after lockingDOWN the school and calling 9-1-1, for example). You do not need to call the line for medical transportation from your site that is not critical.

Voicemail left here is sent to a variety of Cabinet-level leaders who begin to stop deliveries, stage buses, make changes to food service, and other activities to support your situation. This system is in place to expedite support to you and limit the need for you to ‘dial for dollars’ in an emergency, when looking for help. It also improves communication as all recipients of the message hear the same updates – reducing conflicting information.

541-355-8888 must be called at the end of the event, as well.

Feel free to call Julianne if you want to test out the phone line or have questions.

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Concern for 11/12 – We have looked ahead to November 12th and see that district wide 87 teachers have already arranged to be gone that day.  Most of these absences were entered as a personal day – which required your approval ahead of time.  Per our collective bargaining agreement, no more than 5% of your building staff can be out on a personal leave. Please have your office manager go into the system to see if your school has limited the number of personal days to 5%.   Also, please check to see that you have pre-approved the personal day absences already listed. If you have not, please connect with those teachers and approve or deny the personal day as it fits your allowable amount of staff that can be absent on a personal day.   At this time, you cannot exceed that 5%.  This is especially important during this time of limited subs.  Be prepared with a classroom coverage plan as we may re-assign subs to different locations for that day if there are situations more dire than your site. 

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Evaluation and SLGG Requirement Updates  Below is the final revision of the requirements for mini observations as well as a few highlights.  

• Here is the link to the Certified Evaluation Update
• Both the number of observations and the evaluation domains and standards have been adjusted. Note that for certified staff “of concern,” administrators can use additional domains and standards, with proper notification to employees.
• ODE JUST provided additional guidance on SLGG’s, stating that one should be related to academic progress and one related to SEL. At the bottom of this one-pager is a link to a resource document from Dave. Take a look at the document – it has information, steps to take and suggested SLGG’s to possibly use.  You may now move forward with doing SLGGs with your staff.  Let’s target January 1st as our due date for SLGG’s.
• Administrators need to review the adjusted evaluation criteria and required number of observations with their staff.
• Talent Ed is in the process of being set up by Stephanie Bent to reflect these new changes. 
• SLGGs can still be done using the paper method that has been used in previous years.

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A friendly but serious reminder – at our COVID safety meeting we were reminded that if you, or any of your staff members, has suspected symptoms or has tested positive for COVID you must notify your school nurse.  Additionally, all staff must be wearing approved masks correctly at all times. As an administrator it is your responsibility to ensure these practices are being followed.  Please look for an email from Steve Herron that further discusses these topics.

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Did you miss the due date like I did?  We used to have December 31 as our date to finish Safe Schools aka Vector training.  The new date is October 31.  In between passing out candy keep your slide moving!  Please remind your staff.

Information:

From Kinsey: “Religion and Holidays” Equity Audit
The “holiday season” we are entering is a great opportunity to reflect on how we, as a public school system, uphold both the protection of religious liberty as well as the separation of church and state.  
Like most issues that are important to who we are as individuals and as a community, our understanding of respect and inclusion is constantly shifting and expanding.  This comes with awkwardness, discomfort, and an urgent need to calibrate and talk openly together.  
LEAD Cohort members will be reaching out to coordinate an opportunity to check our current practices against our collective values, rights, and responsibilities.  Here is the reflection tool that will be used.  This is just an FYI for now–if you have questions or concerns, or want to talk this through before your LEAD Cohort member approaches you, please reach out to Kinsey.

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Jenn Hauth, our new Director of Social Emotional Learning and Mental Wellness oversees our K-12 counselors. Every few weeks she sends out information to our district counselors. HERE is the latest update so you can continue to support your counselors.

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Room Sharing on overnight trips: The COVID-19 Response and Recovery team processed the ADs request for review of room capacity maximums at today’s meeting.

Current protocol: Two student athletes to a room

New protocol: One student athlete per hotel provided sleeping area (bed, roll-away bed, couch/hide-a-bed)

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From Paul Dean: Masks approved for staff on Exceptions: In the picture below, the mask on the left is the disposable 3-ply medical grade mask that the district has in inventory (email [email protected] to restock).  The mask on the right is a KN95 mask only required when a staff member is indoors and supervising unmasked students (i.e. during mealtime while students are eating).

We have ordered additional KN95 masks that are larger and more comfortable and they should be arriving soon.   
Many fully vaccinated people (myself included) wear either a 3-ply or KN95 mask so there is no way of knowing who uses one because they have an approved Exception or if they want extra protection.

All people who have an approved Exception have signed an Attestation (on file in HR) that they will wear a 3-ply or KN95 mask.  Cloth masks may not be worn by staff with Exceptions unless the person is double masked and is also wearing a 3-ply/KN95 mask.  
Progressive Discipline. Someone with an approved Exception who is not following masking requirement will be placed upon on an Unpaid Leave of Absence if they fail to comply with their signed Attestation.  Document and follow these progressive discipline measures:

1. Verbal warning
2. Written Directive
3. Letter of Reprimand (contact Steve and Paul if you are escalating to this step)

The steps above should happen in quick succession for continued defiance.  Feel free to reach out to Paul if you have further questions.

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Need Masks? – We just received 5,000 of the newer better fitting KN95 masks. To request some of them send an email to [email protected].

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Monthly TO DO Reminders: Skip and Tammy started adding a monthly “to do list” to their blog for elementary principals. I modified it for HS administrators and thought it may be helpful for you, as well:

November

• Complete first formal observation for first year probationary teachers by Friday before Thanksgiving break (add link to any forms/resources)
• Informal and/or formal observations of probationary teachers
• Inform HR and Katie about staff not meeting district standards/ of concern
• Hold 9th grade on track meeting (as part of HSS eligibility) include 9th grade teachers. Required quarterly – at a minimum.
• Review classified schedules for upcoming breaks
• Send out inclement weather procedures review expectations for classified and certified.

Ongoing Monthly Responsibilities

• Hold Safety, Booster Club/family connection meetings, Faculty, Students of Concern and other scheduled meetings
• Send key communication to families
• Meet with Building Accounting Tech to review building budget printout-expenditures and encumbered for all funding sources
• Fire drill/other emergency drills
• Mini-observations

Calendar:

HERE is the calendar for meetings for the year

Here is a sample Learning Walk schedule you can use as a guide to plan that visit.

SIW schedule

October 31 – Civil Rights Training completed with staff and recorded here

October 31 – Standard Response Protocol videos viewed by staff and students.

October 31 – Safe Schools Trainings due

November 2 – HS Admin Work Session 8-9:30 @ CHS

November 9 – HS Admin Professional Development 8-9:30 @CHS

November 11 – Veterans Day – no school

November 12 – potential sub shortage

November 16 – Principal Breakfast 7:30-8:30 @ Original Pancake House

November 17 – Admin training day 3:30-5:00

November 17 and 18 – Katie Out

November 20-24 – Thanksgiving Break

January 5 – SLGG’s due

Reminder: complete your work calendars.  If you need assistance please contact April Jorgenson.

Mark your calendars for June 20 and 21, 2022 for our Leadership Training Academy.

To Do:

Please complete your HSS Building AND School Improvement Funds (SIF) budgets by November 5. If you have questions about this, reach out to April or me.

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School Design Drafts Review: On Tuesday, October 26 8:00-9:30, we will meet in room 314 at the Ed Center to share DRAFTS of School Design plans. Lora and Dave will lead us through a critical friends protocol. Coffee and a light breakfast will be provided.

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A note from Scott McDonald: Teachers MUST update Synergy! Now that teachers are more comfortable with Canvas, it has become evident in IT that several middle school and high school teachers are not using or actively transferring grades into Synergy. Please help us by restating that Synergy is our official grade reporting tool and that grades should be updated regularly.   Additionally, please encourage families to use ParentVue as their primary source for student progress.  ParentVue shows our families “HOW” their student is doing, Canvas shows them “WHAT” their student is doing (stolen from Roger White).  Instructions for how families can join both tools are linked here. The following comparison illustrates why it is critical that our synergy grade book is properly maintained.  

Synergy

Synergy is our student information system, storing our permanent record information for our students and parents.  It is the digital hub for all data related to students Grading (report cards), State Reporting, Scheduling, Courses, Communication, Transcripts, Online Enrollment, Immunizations, Attendance, Discipline, IEP’s, etc.  Supporting data in Synergy is transferred on a daily basis to 100’s of learning applications, data analysis tools (DART), Transportation,  School Messenger communications,  LMS systems (Canvas), and many more.

Canvas

Canvas is our Learning Management System (LMS), which stores all the assignments, learning content, assessments, and details of what each student is learning.  Some supporting data is transferred daily to Synergy for assignments and grading.

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A note from Julianne: In this week’s meeting with the Bend-La Pine Schools’ Health Consultants Team, they shared that they are seeing a dramatic rise in eating disorders. Please be aware and pass this on to your counselors. Don’t be afraid to ask boys and girls questions: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/lets-talk-about-eating-disorders. Look at behaviors and self-talk, not size. Ask students to see their pediatrician and talk to their doctor. Learn more here: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/eating-disorders

Information:

Classified Team members supervising classes: In last week’s BLOG I mentioned that there may be situations in which a classified staff member is used to supervise a class.  When this happens there are important things to remember:

• They are supervising the class, not teaching the class.
• They should be introduced to the class by an administrator or licensed staff member as the someone who will be supervising the class. “Students, Mrs. Smith will be supervising you today while your teacher is gone.  If you need assistance from her as you work on your assignments, please ask her.”
• An administrator or licensed staff member should check in with the classified staff member periodically during their supervision time.
• The classified staff member should not be asked to plan lessons or develop curriculum.

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Reminder from Julianne: Media in your buildings must be pre-approved! Be sure to consult with Julianne and Alandra before you allow media in your building, whether you are requesting them or not. If media show up unannounced, please contact Alandra and Julianne before answering questions – remember that everything you say is “on the record.” with them.

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A message from our Distinguished Administrator of the Year – Tami Pike: BLS Message no longer sends automated exposure notification phone calls to families. If schools would like a phone message to go out to their families alerting them to check their emails, the schools can use their automated phone message system. HERE are a couple of sample scripts that could be used. This is not a requirement for schools. Some may choose not to use this method of communication.

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From Jennifer Hauth – Cultures Aren’t Costumes Checklist for Halloween.  Maybe something to share with staff, students and families.  English – Spanish

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Oregon Promise Question: This question came to me and I thought others may be interested in the response: If a student receives an Extended Diploma, can they be eligible for Oregon Promise?

No. Based on the published Executive Memorandum in 2014, students who receive an Extended High School Diploma are not eligible for Title IV Financial Aid, which includes the Oregon Promise Grant

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LUNA: You have funding available to run LUNA in your buildings. I have budgeted HSS money that you can use to pay for teachers to tutor students after school in your buildings. Each school is allocated 12 hours per week to time sheet teachers. Reach out if you have questions.

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Secondary BLOG from Dean: This week’s blog was written by our Science and Math TOSAs, Colleen Behrens and Linda Adams.  The topic they are tackling:  interdisciplinary connections and how we can attend to them as teachers.  There is always so much to do, but we know that student buy-in increases when they see the ways they’ll use the skills we’re teaching.  We also know that, when considering the disciplines of science and math, there is so much overlap.  

Colleen and Linda have put together a helpful catalog of ideas and resources to assist you. Here it is: The Math and Science Connection: Good for Students, Good for Teachers

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From Human Resources –  We are excited to announce that you can now check your Record of Credit through Employee Online.  Record of Credit has been added to the Personal Information tab – see screen print below.  We have entered all credits we have received up through today so this information is up to date.  We respectfully ask that when you send in new credits moving forward, you allow us a couple weeks to get them entered before following up to see if we have received them. Let us know if you have any questions. 

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Calendar:

HERE is the calendar for meetings for the year: You will notice we will be in schools on Thursday afternoons for learning walks. Lora and Dean, as well as our secondary TOSA’s may be joining us on those days. The goal is to get into schools/classrooms most Tuesdays and Thursdays. Here is a sample Learning Walk schedule you can use as a guide to plan that visit.

SIW schedule

October 26 – HS Admin School Design DRAFT Review – 8:00-9:30 @Ed Center, Room 314

October 28 – Learning Walk – Math and Science 12:45-2:00 @ Caldera HS

October 31 – Civil Rights Training completed with staff and recorded here

October 31 – Standard Response Protocol videos viewed by staff and students.

Reminder: complete your work calendars.  If you need assistance please contact April Jorgenson.

Mark your calendars for June 20 and 21, 2022 for our Leadership Training Academy.

The Case Against Zeros in Grading from Edutopia

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To Do:

Vaccine Mandate deadline: You have received emails from Human Resources and Paul Dean related to the Vaccine Mandate which kicks in on Monday, October 18. Please read these carefully and ensure your staff understands the ramifications on not submitting documentation related to the mandate.  We have been in conversation about this and some of you have more than one person on the “list.”

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Family-Teacher Conferences
Thank you for partnering with us to improve and focus our family-teacher conferences.  We think the tweaks to the process offer a stronger equity lens and maximize access for the students and families we most struggle to support.
Updates/Agreements:

• Teachers still have 4 hours of conferencing outside of contract hours.  An occasional conference (to offer morning or afternoon appointments) might overlap with contracted work/prep time if that is mutually agreeable for the teacher and family (ex: an 8:00am or 3:45pm appointment), but there must be ample evening time available for families who need later appointments.
• First priority will be multilingual families who need interpreters: families of ELL students who your staff recommend for a conference, and/or multilingual families who would like one.  
• After those have been scheduled, the next priority are students with special needs.
• The 4 hours of meeting time with families should occur approximately between November 8-19.  

Suggested Process:

• Oct 18-19: Work with your ELL/Language Specialist and SPED/Learning Specialist to generate a list of students they see as highest-concern.
• Oct 19-20: Have your MTSS team and/or staff add their recommendations to that list (within the priority populations: Multilingual and SPED students of concern).
• Oct 20-25: ELL and SPED Specialists can reach out to all their families to see which families would like a conference, and add them to the list.
• Oct 25th: Specialists and counselors can then work on scheduling team appointments for priority students, and including all relevant teachers in each student’s appointment.
• By Oct 29th: ELL/Language Specialist submits the schedule to Linguist Link for interpreters.
• Nov 1: Gen Ed teachers can then advertise WebEx “office hours” to the rest of their families, for any remaining time to fulfill their 4 hours beyond the pre-scheduled priority appointments.  
• Here is a tool that might help with those steps (start with Tab 1 and work right–if this is useful please make a COPY before editing). 

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Family Workshop:
We will be offering our families a workshop in preparation for conferences.  This workshop (designed and delivered in partnership with our Latino Family Advisory, with input from our Equity Coalition) will cover family rights and responsibilities, how to prepare for upcoming conferences, and in particular how to navigate our high school systems.  
Spanish-language event: Thurs, Oct 21Chinese-language event: Wed, Oct 20
Please see the invitation for details (the middle page is English for your convenience).  Language Dept staff are promoting this event with our multilingual families, but please share with them from your office as well! 
‘Ask’ for each high school: At your earliest convenience, please identify here one counselor (and ideally one administrator, too) who can attend and support (we will time-sheet!).   

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Leave sheets are due on Monday, October 18th.  The dates we are recording for this period are 09/20/21 – 10/17/2021.  Those with electronic calendars (administrators) can fill in their calendar and let April know when they are done.  Everyone else (paper leave sheets) can send April their leave sheets or email me with their dates of leave and she can fill them out for you.  If you did not take any leave during this period (09/20 – 10/17) just let me know and I will note it.  We are required to turn in a leave sheets whether we have taken leave or not.

Information:

Our district Dress Code update was approved by the Board this week, and is now our official policy, effective immediately.  We know many of you have already transitioned into the updated version–thank you for ensuring your communication with students, staff, and families aligns with this version moving forward.  

We understand that changes to policies like this one have an impact on your leadership team and school culture–alignment and enforcement of new expectations take time.  We will work on this together via some scenario examples and discussion in our team meetings this year.  
In the meantime, if you have questions or concerns about enforcement of the new policy or the values underlying the shift, please reach out to me (Katie/Juan), Eric Powell, or Kinsey Martin.  If you would like some student representatives to talk with your staff about the ‘why’ behind this shift, feel free to reach out to Kinsey.

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Mask Mandates at Public Events: We understand that enforcing the mask mandate at public events continues to be a challenge. Here is some support for enforcement and notification compiled by Julianne.

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From Tami Pike: If you receive information about a COVID positive student or staff on the weekends, please complete the COVID Positive, Primary Symptom, Exposure Reporting Form AND CALL THE CONTACT TRACER LINE AT  541-355-6930 to report the case. Calling the Contact Tracer Line alerts the contact tracer that a new case has been reported. (We don’t want to miss any!) 

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We are hiring! Our Nutrition Services is in need of applicants for food service. Please include this flier in correspondence to your families.

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Please do not do this – how often do you hear that!!: BEA continues to hear from our members that one of the strategies being used and/or considered in secondary schools when a sub cannot be obtained is to cancel or collapse classes and have educators take double classes. BEA has confirmed this is being requested of multiple secondary BEA members from buildings across the District. Please discontinue this practice if this is something you have been doing.

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Sub Reminder: Here is a reminder about our sub process.  Please do not try to prearrange a district sub.  They are to be used the on day-of for unfilled positions. Educational assistants can supervise students for a brief period of time. They may not teach.

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From Lora Nordquist: District administrators will be meeting with BEA leaders next week to discuss temporarily reducing the number of required observations of certified staff, as well as identifying “focus standards” for observation and evaluation.

Also, while the media headlines about emergency sub licenses sound great, the change is not helpful for us. The district must manage the subs (not the HDESD), sub licenses are taking approximately 7 weeks to process (so that would be January), and they expire March 31.

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From Lora Nordquist: I recognize we’re all desperate for substitute teachers, but TSPC has sent a directive to all teacher prep programs in the state reminding them of their liability if they allow their student teachers without substitute licenses to sub in schools. As a result, at least one of our program partners has directed their student teachers to LEAVE THE BUILDING if they are asked to cover a class without a certified teacher present in the room. Student teachers CAN be asked to present a lesson if there is a certified teacher in the room, as well.

After we finish the intense process of verifying vaccinations, HR can move forward on requesting emergency sub licenses for all our student teachers. Once that process is complete, (and we will notify you when that is done), student teachers CAN sub in their cooperating teachers’ classes without anyone else present. They should not be asked to sub in other classrooms.

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From Dean Richards: All secondary teachers have access to Newsela this year, with a broad range of applications in every subject area.  With it, you have the ability to provide information – especially current events information – on a variety of nonfiction subjects to your students.  What makes Newsela unique is the content scaffolding, so that the same material can be delivered in a variety of difficulty levels.  You can utilize one version of an article for your younger classes, and a more sophisticated version for your older students.  Similarly, within a class, you can access one version for your struggling readers, one version for your grade-level readers, and one version for your strong readers. It has myriad applications and is pleasingly user-friendly.  Teachers that are using it have been impressed. 

Check out the blog post: Curious about Newsela? Here is a Great Place to Start!

An additional opportunity: If you would like to take a 1-hour *paid* training after school hours, take this survey here!

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Student project Honoring Veterans: Please forward this information to your teachers. It explains a project designed to honor our War Veterans: MAIL CALL REQUEST – PSSST IT’S A SECRET!

Honor Flight of Central Oregon is a local non-profit organization designed to fly our WWII, Korean and Vietnam War Veterans to see their memorial in Washington DC, which was not completed until 2004. Nearly sixty years after the end of the war.

Honor Flight of Central Oregon needs your help preparing for “Mail Call”. Each of the Veterans will receive a package full of cards and letters to open on the flight back home from Washington DC. “Mail Call” is a very personal and touching way to let our Veterans know their sacrifices have not been forgotten. We need YOUR HELP to make it a reality.
Veteran’s Day is around the corner and we ask you to please participate in our “Mail Call Program” by having your student create cards, letters, drawings, etc. for our Veterans Mail Call Package. Be as creative as you’d like!!! You are encouraged to enlist others in this effort –family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and school children. We rely on YOU to help ensure that every Veteran receives letters and knows they are deeply valued. Included are example phrases that might be incorporated into a card, letter, drawings, and notes:
“Thank you for your service”, “Thank you for your sacrifices”, “Welcome Home Veteran”,“Our Veterans are the greatest American Heroes”, “We love our Veterans”, “We Appreciate all that you’ve done for us”, “You guys are the greatest generation of American’s”, “Where would we be without our Servicemen and Women”, “We should thank our Veterans daily, but today is a special day for you”, “Congratulations on a job well done”. We honor Americans by honoring our Veterans”.

After finishing your letters, cards, and pictures can either be picked up by our Honor Flight Mail Call volunteers, Georgea Edwards or Kylie Cross, or mailed to Honor Flight of Central Oregon, PO Box 7963, Bend, Oregon 97708.

Please remember that this is a total SURPRISE for our Veterans! When requesting cards and letters from your family and friends, please let them know to keep the secret! Please email:
[email protected] with inquiries, questions and or concerns or you may call Georgea Edwards @ 503.913.8483. Here is a video from the organization:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wty1-U3ieak

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Calendar:

HERE is the calendar for meetings for the year: You will notice we will be in schools on Thursday afternoons for learning walks. Lora and Dean, as well as our secondary TOSA’s may be joining us on those days. The goal is to get into schools/classrooms most Tuesdays and Thursdays. Here is a sample Learning Walk schedule you can use as a guide to plan that visit.

SIW schedule

October 18 – Mandatory Vaccination Due Date

October 19 – Principal Breakfast 7:30-8:30 @ Original Pancake House (SW Donovan Ave)

October 21 – Learning Walk 12:45-2:00 @ BTA@MHS

October 31 – Civil Rights Training completed with staff and recorded here

October 31 – Standard Response Protocol videos viewed by staff and students.

Reminder: complete your work calendars.  If you need assistance please contact April Jorgenson.

Mark your calendars for June 20 and 21, 2022 for our Leadership Training Academy.