From Stephen: Please mark Monday, February 26th on your calendars for our 2nd annual CTE fly up day. We will be following a similar structure where our 8th grade students will head up to their high school to experience hands on learning in our CTE classrooms.
HERO Kids Registry is a voluntary, no-cost system that lets any Oregon family record critical health information about their child before an emergency. Registry information can be accessed quickly by EMS and hospital emergency departments at the moment they need it.
Registering with HERO Kids is especially useful for young people who are medically fragile, or for those who have complex conditions, developmental disabilities, or mental health conditions. Young people in a crisis can’t always communicate their needs. Family members may not be present, or they may too distressed to help. Language barriers can impede communication. HERO Kids Registry can help offset some of these challenges.
Parents and legal guardians can register their child or young adult with HERO Kids online, and there is a paper registration option for people who prefer it. Young adults aged 15-26 can register themselves. HERO Kids Registry is secure and HIPAA-compliant.
Please share this information with your families in your next family newsletter. It is specifically for Families of Students with Complicated or Chronic Health Conditions, Developmental Disabilities or Mental Health Conditions.
From Dave: It’s time to begin prepping for the YouthTruth survey which will go out in January.
Principals, or administrative test leaders, please watch this 11-minute pre-recorded kick-off webinar (at 1.5x speed) by Friday, December 1. To change the playback speed, click the settings “gear” icon in the lower right-hand corner of the video screen. The video will demonstrate how to prepare for surveying and review important information such as due dates and survey topics.
Reminders/Action Items:
Task Force Input: I emailed to the principals, the updated QR codes for the family, student and staff surveys. Thank you for gathering this input by Friday, December 1.
From Stephen and Dean: REMINDER: In order to keep on pace for the Standards Based Grading conversations and ICCL/Admin meetings, please be sure to have the follow up meeting of teachers completed by November 29th.
Our next ICCL/Admin meeting is on the second Tuesday after Thanksgiving Break, 12/5 at 4:15 in Perseverance Hall at Bend High School.
Correction in Staff Spotlight: In the message from Board Chair Dholakia in this week’s Staff Spotlight, there was a statement, “…our honors diploma now includes multiple options for capstone work – AP, IB, DI, and CTE.” The proposal to broaden the type of courses needed to earn an Honors Diploma is up for approval as part of the administrative regulation related to graduation at the upcoming board meeting in December. We apologize for any confusion.
From Kayla and Scott B: Here is the updated SRO/SRD list. Amy Ward, Bend High School’s long-time SRO, retired this week. Sergeant Joe Pacheco will be covering Officer Ward’s schools, while still serving as the SRO supervisor, until the vacancy is filled.
All certified staff are required to submit goals through UKG
Classroom teachers are required to submit SLGG goals and their UKG form is organized as such
Everyone else is prompted to submit goals but are not asked to submit SLGGs
Jennifer Hauth has emailed a goal template for Student Success staff for them to copy, complete and upload to their UKG goal form
Josh Marks has provided a goal template for Speech staff to do the same
If a staff member has not been provided with a template from someone who oversees their program, then they are to follow the instructions within UKG to provide their own personal goals for the year
Rollout Update:
By November 18 – All building administrators (principals, assistant principals, deans) will be able to access and complete their goal setting forms which will then flow to their direct supervisor for approval and finalization.
By December 2, all remain BLAST members will be able to access and complete their goal setting forms which will then flow to their direct supervisor for approval and finalization.
In April, all BLAST members will be assigned the self-evaluation form to complete.
In May, BLAST members responsible for evaluating other BLAST members will be assigned the summative evaluation form for each of those individuals.
IMPORTANT: Evaluation and Non-Renewal Reminder
If you have a Probationary 3 or Temporary 3 staff member of concern, this is another reminder that you should have already entered into the Focused Performance Review process with that person AND emailed [email protected]. Here is another method of viewing the P3/T3 staff that you are responsible for.
During a recent investigation, we learned a lot about video and how it relates to FERPA. Here is some information you may find helpful: FERPA-Security Video Resource.
Calendar:
Here is LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24.
November 20-24: Thanksgiving Break
November 28: MS and HS Administrator Training with Human Resources 8:00-9:30 @ BSHS, Perseverance Hall.
Training focus: Processes to support probationary and temporary teachers; processes to work with challenging teachers; questions related to UKG and performance goals. Thank you to Scott O for volunteering to lead our community building activity that morning!
December 12: HS Principal Planning Session 7:30-12:00 @ TBD
From Laura Clark: Here are the English and Spanish one-pagers for Canvas Observer sign-ups adapted from the current parent guides on our website. Please share these instructions with your families so they have access to Canvas. These resources will be useful for parent communication, parent events, and engaging new families.
All certified staff have performance profiles and should be viewable by their direct supervisors. Follow the delegation instructions in this UKG Performance Module Overview Document if you want to share tasks with Assistant Principals and/or Deans.
Support:
The virtual drop-in sessions have been lightly attended so I’ll reduce them to just once a week. Click here to join the meeting on Tuesday, 11/14 from 10 am to 11 am.
Safe Schools Reminder
The safe school compliance videos were due to be completed by 10/31. Below is a reminder of how staff may access them. Please be sure to share this requirement with staff hired after September 1.
From Stephen: It’s that time of year again. November 17th is College and Career Day in Bend-La Pine Schools. As with last year, we are looking to draw attention to the multitude of pathways available to students after they graduate high school. This is a K-12 day! We want all students to be dreaming about what options they have after they leave our schools.
Here are a few things you could do at your site to make the day a success. It would be great if classrooms or advisories could look to do something for just 10-15 minutes this day.
Dress as a professional
Encourage students and staff to dress up as someone from a career they are interested in. Remember there are a lot of great careers out there!
Wear college colors
Encourage students to wear the colors of a favorite college. Remember, college can mean community college, trade school, 4-year university, etc. Be careful with wording here as college brand clothing can be expensive and prevent students from feeling like they can participate. Colors are more inclusionary.
Consider incorporating videos or lessons bringing awareness to careers and colleges.
Our 6-12 sites could lean into some of the activities in SchooLinks. All of our secondary counselors have been trained and could help support here. Consider onboarding all your students if you haven’t already done so. Students are required to take a “Find your Path” assessment when first logging in that will jumpstart the college and career exploration process.
Wayfinder also has some great resources, especially their integration with Roadtrip Nation.
Here is a great website from the State of Oregon called Career Journeys. There are amazing short videos, lesson plans and other activities any teacher could do.
Finally, here is a great resource full of college videos. Students could scroll through and watch short videos on all kinds of colleges.
Consider inviting parents from the community in to talk about their careers.
This could be done in a variety of ways from assemblies, to advisory, to lunch. You could also ask parents to submit a short video of them talking about their jobs and stitch them together for students. Remember our visitor and volunteer requirements if you decide to invite parents in.
We hope you’ll join in the celebration. Please send pictures of your participation to Stephen DuVal or Scott Maben.
From Heather Tang, Community Health Strategist for Deschutes County Health Services regarding Upshift: Heather shared this information with our Public Health Specialists. I feel it is important for you to have this information, as well:
I want to extend my appreciation to each school site for their efforts in implementing UpShift and updating the UpShift Participation tracking forms. Additionally, I would like to offer a few friendly reminders:
Ensuring the BLS UpShift roles are filled and functioning well will be a continuous process throughout the school year(s). If you find it challenging to fill these roles, particularly UpShift Specialists, please reach out to myself or the Public Health Specialist at your school. It is important that schools have a few individuals identified in order to distribute the work load.
Some additional consider things regarding the UpShift Specialist Role include the following:
· The district has identified a few individuals as district-wide support. If you have an influx of students needing Teen Intervene, please contact me, and I will facilitate connections with district support, provided they are available.
· Time sheeting is still an option for staff members designated in the UpShift Specialist role who work part-time or take responsibilities outside of their regular job duties to meet with students.
It is important to keep in mind that all schools should enter substance use policy violations into the synergy system. This, or the accompanying form, should be completed by someone on the admin team.
Here are instructions with visuals aids to guide through the process which includes entering the UpShift disposition into Synergy. If you are not directly entering into synergy, please share with whomever at your school is.
From Sandy regarding MAC Survey: The Fall MAC Survey will be the week of November 6th and MAC looks different than in previous years. You will have just 6-12 staff at your school sites who are a part of the MAC cost pool.
To be able to participate in the MAC Survey, you must be trained annually. I have emailed our untrained cost pool staff directly with MAC training information. In order for this slimmed down, intentional approach to be successful, it is imperative that staff in the cost pool complete their MAC training and participate in the MAC Survey.
Automated messaging from Multnomah ESD will go out only to those staff in the cost pool one working day prior to the MAC Survey day and again on the morning of the MAC Survey.
Please feel free to reach out to me or the FAN Advocate at your school if you have any questions or if you would like a list of your staff who are in the Fall MAC Survey. As the majority funding source for our FAN program, your support of MAC is greatly appreciated!
When to use the Webhelpdesk support ticket system.
There are several ways to communicate with your Bend-La Pine Schools IT support staff. The most effective of which is the webhelpdesk ticket. If you have a quick question, call the help desk (1200) or shoot an email to your client service representative. But if you have an expectation, or a request that will require action, you should ONLY use the web help desk ticket system. Why?
• a web help desk ticket will direct your request to one of 30 IT staff that is best suited to answer your question.
• It is the only communication method that will alert IT support if it remains unanswered. (1 day happy and green 3 days yellow and SCARY RED at day 5!)
• It tracks common issues that could be addressed to benefit all BLS users.
As of mid-day on Monday, November 6, you will be able to initiate the goal setting process for all of your contract and prob/temp classroom teachers, specialists and elective teachers. These staff members will have received both an email and a notification within UKG with the following message:
We are kicking off the 2023/24 performance evaluation process!
The district and BEA leadership have an agreement to adjust the number of mini-observations this year for all certified contract status staff (regardless of your on/off year summative evaluation status this year). The agreement includes one goal setting meeting (mini #1) and two additional mini-observations (#2 and #3) and a reduction in the domains/standards to be evaluated at year’s end. [The agreement does not apply to probationary/temporary staff or those who are involved in focused goals, support strategies or plans of assistance].
The 2023/24 performance evaluation process includes the following tasks:
You will be sent a To-Do notification through UKG to identify your personal goals and two student learning growth goals (SLGGs) for the year. Due date for goal submission is December 1.
Administrators/supervisors will meet with you to review the goals that you submitted through UKG (this will count as mini-observation #1)
For contract status staff, administrators/supervisors will conduct two additional mini-observations (#2 & #3) during the school year. These two mini-observations will be tracked through UKG with the administrator/supervisor entering an Observation form which will then flow to you for digital confirmation
In early April, you will be sent a To-Do notification to complete a self-reflection through UKG. Due date for the self-reflection is May 1.
Probation and temporary staff will follow the same process as in past years:
submission of goals and a goal setting meeting (mini observation #1)
2 formal observations
3 additional mini-observations (#2 – #4)
a self-reflection
a summative evaluation
For Contract Certified Staff who DID NOT receive a summative evaluation last year, your administrator/supervisor will complete a summative evaluation in May/June which will be sent via UKG to each person to review, comment and sign.
You will soon receive both an email and a notification in UKG with instructions on how to submit your 2023/24 goals. Here is a sneak peak video overview of the goal setting submission process.
Certified Staff on Alternate Rubrics: By Monday, 11/13, all certified staff on alternate rubrics will be viewable and ready to initiate. BLS and BEA are still in conversations regarding a possible reduction in their domains/standards for 2023/24.
Administrative Evaluations; In early December, we will begin rolling out the UKG evaluation process for building and district administrators
Use of Time is coming up. Please read instructions to be best prepared.
Student Conference (Student Contact Data input): We will be sharing initial data to administrators very soon, please make sure you are inputting your data so you can track student contacts and programming/interventions!
Thank you!
Calendar:
Here is LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24.
November 6-9: Katie out of the office – at CASEL Conference
November 6: BSHS and SHS Parent Conferences
November 8-11: Realms HS Parent Conferences
November 14: HS Principal Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ BTA
November 15:All Admin Professional Development 3:00-4:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall
November 16: Annual district-wide Latino Family Night at Pilot Butte Middle School at 5:30-7:45
November 28: MS and HS Administrator Training with Human Resources 8:00-9:30 @ BSHS, Perseverance Hall
December 12: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ Realms HS
Oct 11 END attendance: Principals, continue to follow up on END attendance. Please reach out to Dean if you have questions.
Information:
From Jenn: Attendance for students on medical leaves: Occasionally a student will experience a significant medical situation that requires an extended absence. While our attendance policy addresses basic options for this, we have developed additional guidance to support teams in navigating these infrequent situations. Here is district guidance.
From Dean and Michele RE: CDA letter to Language Arts Teachers: This letter from Michele Clements, our Secondary Language Arts TOSA, will be sent to your Language Arts teachers in the coming days. Thank you for supporting your LA teachers to plan collaboratively so they can implement the CDA with fidelity, by grade level, this year.
From Dave: YouthTruth surveys will be happening in January. This is our fourth year working with the organization. Here is a simple timeline of how the process should unfold over the next few months. All dates are from YouthTruth’s documentation.
Nov. 14 – We will receive a brief 10-20 minute pre-recorded Kick-Off Webinar for principals to watch by Nov. 24.
Nov. 27 – YouthTruth will send principals (and any site survey coordinators listed on the submitted School Information Form) instructions on how to access their school’s unique Survey Implementation Guide. This is the first email that school-level teams will receive directly from YouthTruth.
Nov. 27 – Dec. 22 – School teams use the instructions in the Survey Implementation Guide to prepare for surveying. This should take a few hours total.
Jan. 2 – Jan. 26 – This is the survey window for all student, staff, and family surveys.
Here is the recap of the MTSS Tier 3 process reviewed at the HS work shop Tuesday.
Specialist Evaluations
Evaluations School Psychologist
Administrators you should have received an email from Colleen Funderburg and Josh Marks outlining your responsibilities for evaluations of School Psychologists. If you need additional clarification please reach out.
Evaluations Speech Pathologist
All observations and summative evaluations for Speech and Language Pathologist are completed by the assigned sites. In the event that your SLP is shared with another site, you would work together with the other site to complete the observations and summative evaluation.
Site administrators are responsible for all observations and summative evaluations. In the event your school counselor is shared with another site, you would work together with the other site to complete the observations and summative evaluations.
As part of the BLS Comprehensive School Counseling Program, School Counselors are to develop Tier 1 and Tier 2 School Counseling Department goals that are aligned with schoolwide outcome data. They have been given guidance to use these two goals as their SLGGs.
Student Success Coordinator/Clinician
Site administrators are responsible for all observations and summative evaluations.
We recognize that we released a firehose of information during Wednesday’s Leadership meeting on the Performance module. Feel free to access the following resources:
We will be hosting two optional virtual drop-in sessions next week:
Wednesday, 11/1, from 10 am – 11 am (link will be shared next week)
This will be a Q&A with no new information shared
Friday, 11/3, from 1:15 pm – 2:15 pm (link will be shared next week)
We’ll begin with a rollout update
Q&A afterwards
Student-Teachers
Recently, there have been a number of aspiring student teachers who have reached out directly to our schools to inquire about securing a placement at that particular site, so I’d like to take a moment to explain the process we follow for placing student teachers.
Currently, we have established agreements in place with George Fox, OSU-Cascades, and Lewis & Clark that allow us to readily accept student teachers when we can match them with a supervising teacher who suits their needs. For requests from other institutions, we require that they be directed to our Human Resources department so that we can engage the institution in the process of developing an MOA that meets both parties’ needs.
Each request beyond our established agreements is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Typically, we only consider such requests when they offer opportunities for our existing employees, such as Educational Assistants seeking licensure, or when they present a chance for us to develop relationships with individuals pursuing hard-to-fill positions like Special Education or Advanced Mathematics.
If you’re approached with any inquiries, please direct them to Ryan Kelling to continue the conversation. And if you ever have questions or need further clarification, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Ryan.
From Scott B:Updated Background Checks: We have now switched over to our new Background Check Provider and are using the new links to background check for our Volunteers and Independent Contractors, as applicable. Each applicant should use the link appropriate for their group type. Please visit our Volunteer Page for the new link where potential Volunteers will complete their background check application. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the red “Register” tab.
Calendar:
Here is LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24.
Date
School
Event
October 24
BTA
Parent Conferences
October 24
MVHS
Open House/Parent Conferences
November 1
LPHS
Parent Conferences
November 2
CHS
Parent Conferences
November 6
BSHS
Parent Conferences
November 6
SHS
Open House/Parent Conferences
November 8-11
Realms HS
Parent Conferences
October 30-Nov 3: Katie out of the office – at Synergy Conference
November 6-9: Katie out of the office – at CASEL Conference
November 14: HS Principal Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ BTA
November 15:All Admin Professional Development 3:00-4:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall
November 16: Annual district-wide Latino Family Night at Pilot Butte Middle School at 5:30-7:45
November 28: MS and HS Administrator Training with Human Resources 8:00-9:30 @ BSHS, Perseverance Hall
December 12: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ Realms HS
Upcoming HS work session: In preparation for our work session on Priority Standards Tuesday, be sure to put your lesson in the appropriate folder here. Kudos to BSHS and CHS for submitting your plans!
SLGG Tools: You may have staff use this google form digitally or print version.
Vector Trainings (Safe Schools): Due 10/31
Review this policy (INB-AR) and check that you staff is following the guidelines when it comes to Parents and Guardians receiving Notice and Alternative Options whenever controversial issues are being discussed in a classroom.
From Lora: Here is the agenda for Wednesday, October 25 all administrators professional development meeting. Agenda
From HR:
Certified Evaluation Process
BLS and BEA have reached an agreement to modify the certified evaluation process for 2023/24. Please share this document with your staff. The document will be automatically sent out to all certified staff in early November through UKG/BLS email when we go-live with the Performance module.
New administrators are learning about the BLS certified performance review process during a meeting on Thursday, 10/19. We recommend that all administrators re-familiarize themselves with the Certified Growth & Performance Manual.
On Wednesday, August 25, at 3 pm, we’ll be presenting to BLS Leadership the Performance Review module. If you want to get a preview of the 10/25 presentation, you can access the following resources:
HERE is the ACR/Forecasting timeline for 24-25. Note that new course proposals are due November 9. Feel free to share this document with your curriculum and counseling secretaries as well as your counselors. Please support your counselors to collaborate with your feeder MS counselors to determine the times for forecasting incoming 9th grade students.
Assessment of Essential Skills Graduation Requirement Suspension Extended through 2027-28
The Senate Bill 744 suspension of the Assessment of Essential Skills graduation policy was extended through 2027-2028 by the Oregon State Board of Education on Thursday, October 19, 2023. Here is a flyer with helpful information from ODE about the announcement.
This adoption by the Oregon State Board of Education allows further time for the Oregon Legislature to address the SB 744 Report, Community-Informed Recommendations for Equitable Graduation Outcomes, published by ODE on September 1, 2022. Additionally, the current extension will allow for community engagement to better support operationalizing the two determinations and the remaining seven recommendations on graduation requirements.
Note: The Oregon State Board of Education’s extension of SB 744 applies to the Assessment of Essential Skills requirements for receiving a Regular or Modified Diploma and does not suspend the local performance assessment requirements for students in grades 3 through 8 and at least once in high school.
Though not related directly to assessment, it is important to note that Oregon’s challenging credit requirements and the Personalized Learning Requirements (education plan & profile, career-related learning, and extended application graduation) remain in place, as well.
For additional information or questions regarding the Assessment of Essential Skills policy, please contact [email protected]
From Tami Pike: This guidance on reducing illness transmission is courtesy of our Health Services Department. Please help us limit the impact of flu, colds, COVID and other seasonal illnesses.
From Scott Maben: Come to The Drop on Tuesday, October 24th for Rec Night. We will be painting pumpkins! Please pass this along to any youth or young adults in the community who may be interested in attending this fun activity!
As a reminder the Drop is a safe and supportive space for youth and young adults in Deschutes County between the ages of 14-27 to connect with each other and community resources.
We offer a variety of activities and resources for young people, including peer support, snacks, computer access, games, a Wii, a washer and dryer to do laundry and hygiene products.
We are open Mondays from 2-5:30pm, Tuesdays from 5-6:30pm, Wednesdays from 2-5:30pm, and Fridays from 1-4:30pm.
Calendar:
Here is LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24.
Date
School
Event
October 24
BTA
Parent Conferences
October 24
MVHS
Open House/Parent Conferences
November 1
LPHS
Parent Conferences
November 2
CHS
Parent Conferences
November 6
BSHS
Parent Conferences
November 6
SHS
Open House/Parent Conferences
November 8-11
Realms HS
Parent Conferences
October 20: HSS and SIF Budgets Due
October 24:HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ SHS
October 24: Graduation Meeting 9:30-10:00 @ SHS – Principals and graduation leads
October 25: All Admin Professional Development 3:00-4:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall
October 30-Nov 3: Katie out – at Synergy Conference
November 6-9: Katie out – at CASEL Conference
November 14: HS Principal Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ BTA
November 15:All Admin Professional Development 3:00-4:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall
November 16: Annual district-wide Latino Family Night at Pilot Butte Middle School at 5:30-7:45
November 28: MS and HS Administrator Training with Human Resources 8:00-9:30 @ BSHS, Perseverance Hall
December 12: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ Realms HS
From HR: Building Leaders, please remind your teachers of INB-AR which is related to to discussions in class about controversial issues.
It is a requirement that parents/guardians are notified AND that teachers present topics in an unbiased manner. Here is relevant wording from the AR:
Responsibilities of the Teacher:
A teacher must be knowledgeable of the role of controversial issues in education and recognize their own potential for prejudices and biases. The teacher must recognize that their own opinions may serve to inadvertently indoctrinate students. Full knowledge of policies, the students, the school and community is essential.
Notice and Alternative Options:
Parents / guardians will be informed in advance regarding controversial issues discussed in courses either through a course syllabus or direct home communication and will be afforded the opportunity to withhold their student without penalty. Alternative activities must be made available to students who object or whose parent / guardian objects to the content.
Reminders/Action Items:
UKG: Confirm Staff assignments in UKG by going to My Team>Employee Assignments. Use this google form to identify the corrections needed at your site. Due by Monday 10/16.
Priority StandardsTraining submission: As your ICCL team works to create the lesson you will be delivering to your staff, please add your lesson in the appropriate folder here. As you work with your team, you could find other school’s work to guide your thinking.
Information:
HS Curriculum Guides: At our HS work session this week, I reviewed our plan to consolidate the HS curriculum guides into one comprehensive guide. I also shared the list of course descriptions rewritten last year and those that will be rewritten this year.
Last year, we also rewrote the introductory material for the curriculum guides. Please be sure that this information is included in your curriculum guide.
From the Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion:
Halloween costumes: A reminder to be thoughtful as you prepare for any staff or team costume themes: avoid cultural appropriation or offensive caricatures or stereotypes. Some examples here. LEAD/Equity Coaches have shared with your school’s DEI-ICCL rep some resources for talking with students about this issue as well. HERE is an example of a poster Pacific Crest MS is using. Thanks, Sean Keating!
International events and increased awareness: Please keep extra eyes and ears out for anti-Semitic comments or incidents right now. Our Jewish community is deeply impacted by recent international incidents and have indicated concern for increased bias incidents in this regard. Thank you for swiftly interrupting and reporting anything of this nature.
Upcoming Office of DEI events:
Thurs, Nov 16th: Our annual district-wide Latino Family Night will be November 16th at Pilot Butte Middle School. Dinner 5:30pm, Opening 6:00pm, Sessions 6:30-7:45pm. Please join us to welcome and connect with your Latino families! Feel free to invite your staff and families directly.
Fri, Dec 1st: Restorative Justice & Equity Town Hall for high school students. Just an FYI for high school calendars—RJ&E will invite additional adults/BLS staff as space and ideal student-to-adult ratios permit.
Mon, Dec 11th: Spanish-language FAFSA Night. More details to follow.
From Dean and Linda: We are again providing professional development supports for teachers who are seeking ways to accelerate the learning of students who are currently performing below expectations in mathematics.
This day long professional development class is designed to support evidence-based instructional moves that teachers can give to accelerate learning. The main audience is the classroom teachers. Special Education teachers may also benefit from the professional learning. Ideally, a team is sent to the professional development day.
Substitute costs will be covered by buildings.
October 25th from 8:00 to 2:00 (This is a teacher directed SIW, teachers may stay and work with colleagues or return to buildings) at the East Side Library.
Topics to be discussed:
The role of manipulatives in instruction
Determining the content for math support
Ways to deliver explicit and systematic instruction to increase conceptual understanding.
To attend this professional development, please email Dean Richards with a request to attend
If a staff member is not doing their regular job due to training, they MUST submit a Time-off Request for ‘School Business’ Leave. This will not affect their accruals in any way, but it does help the district track employees who are not in their regular position. This Time-Off Request should NOT be overridden in the timesheet with a Secondary Job if it is in their regular work day.
IF the employee works later than their regularly scheduled time, only then must they add an additional line to their timesheet in UKG, on the date of training, and add those hours, selecting the appropriate Secondary Job and include a GL code if necessary. Staff should not modify any existing lines on their timesheet.
For instructions on how to properly record this time in UKG see this document.
Additional Note: When subs are needed to cover a staff members job, while they are away for training, notations of where that sub needs to be charged must be noted in Red Rover, not UKG. Red Rover is a separate system which needs this information to ensure costs of subs are accurately tracked. Red Rover does not talk to UKG.
At our ICCL and Secondary Administrator workshop on Tuesday, school teams worked on designing their staff trainings. As your ICCL team works to create the lesson you will be delivering, please put your lesson in the appropriate folder here. As you work with your team, you could find other school’s work to guide your thinking.
Educator Network Day is Wednesday: This year we are breaking up the administrative supervision for the Educator Network Days into 2 groups. Team 1 will be on for 10/11 and 2/28. Team 2 will be on for 1/10 and 4/24. Here are the assignments for Team 1 for Wednesday October 11th.
The administrator role at the END is to be present and available to support the facilitator. Your secondary duty is to take attendance. Putting a teacher facilitator in the position of taking attendance on peers can place them in an awkward position. Please print this page to have teachers scan or type the short url.
Wayfinder Summative Assessment: The deadline to complete the Wayfinder Summative Assessment has been extended through next week. Our minimum participation goal is 75% . Kudos to the BSHS team, who has met 75%!
Family Engagements coming up: On October 17th (Bend Area) and November 1st (La Pine) we will be hosting two district family engagement events for Financial Aid. Please share with your community via newsletters, messenger, etc.
Please note that there will be a separate Financial Aid Night for Spanish Speakers. There are some upcoming changes to the FAFSA/ORSAA process so the counselors will be planning this event with leadership from Kinsey and her department. We will get that information to you as soon as it is ready.
From Stephen and IT:Please share this with your teachers: Questions pertaining to standards grading setup and maintenance in Synergy Gradebook, need to be addressed at the site level with Tier 1’s and veteran teachers. Additional resources are available through ‘TeacherHub’ website and the Canvas course ‘Teaching with Synergy’.
From Scott B: Schools are off to a great start with their safety training to staff and students and completing their first fire drill and lockdown drill of the school year.
A reminder, please ensure that once your school has completed your drill(s) for the month, to update the drill tracker with the date you completed your drill, and the drill evaluation form and save the form in your schools google safety resources folder.
Please reach out to Kayla or I with any questions.
New Diploma Credits implemented for the class of 2027: Building leaders, please read through this ODE memo about New Graduation Credits. Beginning with the class of 2027, Oregon students must complete a 0.5 credit in Personal Financial Education and a 0.5 credit in Higher Education and Career Path Skills as part of their 24 required credits to earn a diploma.Stephen will convene a work group to focus on the Career Path Skills and Higher Education requirement. Dean and Monica will be leading on the Personal Financial Education credit.
DHS Training Video: Please watch this 6 minute video as it is important learning for you regarding the state’s process in investigating child abuse in schools (that is when there is a question about something that has happened at school or on our buses). There were several of these investigations last year in our elementary schools. This will help you better understand the process should it happen at your school.
Reminders/Action Items:
HSS and SIF budgets: These budgets need to be completed by Friday, October 20, 2023. Please reach out to April or Katie if you have questions.
What data do you need?: Thank you to the school leadership teams who have completed this survey. The information we collect will help us to better understand how schools use and access student data. School leadership teams are encouraged to discuss these questions as a team and complete the survey as a group.
Information:
From Lora:
Questions about bargaining:
Some of you are being asked questions about bargaining from staff or families. Please know that any discussion/update on the bargaining process in this context could be considered an unfair labor practice. Instead of trying to respond with information, here’s an example of what you could say (to staff): “I am not involved in this process. Your building rep/association leaders would be good people to check with if you have questions”; (to parents) “I am not involved in this process. If the district has new information to share about the process, it will be part of our family newsletter.”
In the meantime, Steve Cook or Steve Herron will continue to provide updates for administrators only at our monthly meetings.
Recommendations for students for private schools:
We recently received a question from one of our local K-12 private schools about policies prohibiting teachers from writing recommendations for students to attend private schools. BLS does not have such a policy. On the other hand, staff should feel NO PRESSURE to complete these types of recommendations. My only suggestion is that in order to avoid bias, staff do not “pick and choose”…either they are willing to complete a recommendation whenever asked or as a matter of practice they politely decline.
After some internal discussion with administrative staff who oversee the UKG Suite of Products, we’ve decided to pause the launch of the Performance module for two reasons: (1) we have some people/supervisors mismatched and want to avoid workflows of goal setting and observations forms from landing in an incorrect To Do mailbox, and (2) we’ll be meeting with district leadership on Wednesday, October 25th and will be providing a more extensive overview of the module functionality and answer your questions at that time.
Please continue your mini/formal observations as you’ve been doing and we’ll provide you with information on the 25th about how to enter that data into the Performance module. For those administrators who are preparing to work with their staff on creating student learning growth goals (SLGGs) during the month of October, you may have staff use this google form. Staff can either make a digital copy to complete or they can print and fill out a hard copy. On the 25th, we’ll review the method that certified staff will use to upload the goal setting form into the Performance module.
For those creating school wide or team SLGGs for non academic areas, I came across SLG Goals for Social Emotional Learning & Engagement that I think is a great resource. Here are two more resources that I think will be particularly helpful:
We are asking building leaders to confirm that their staff assignments in UKG are correct. You may navigate to your My Team tab, then go to My Saved Reports and Staff Assignments to view your people and positions. If you see something that isn’t accurate, please use this google form to identify the corrections needed at your site.
Professional Development for Inclusion Educational Assistants
We are very excited to share that we are partnering with The National Resource Center for Paraeducators, NRCP, to provide monthly professional development opportunities for all Inclusion Educational Assistants. These trainings are designed to help deepen the understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Please read more about these trainings HERE. Your learning specialists and inclusion EAs were provided this information earlier this week in our Special EDge. For additional questions please contact Krista Hought and Stephanie Smith.
CPI Trainings
We are offering additional CPI training. An initial CPI training is scheduled for Thursday, October 26. This is a non-workday for elementary and middle school inclusion EAs due to conferences. If your inclusion EA has not been trained and chooses to attend, the student services department will pay for the timesheet. This training should be in UKG soon! Upcoming CPI refresher and initial training will be scheduled on February 2, 2024.
Student Services Coaches – Roles and Responsibilities
Our team of eight is incredible and we are fortunate to have so much expertise and specialized skill sets. Because they are so amazing, they are often requested to support in ways that are not aligned with their roles and responsibilities. They have three domains of focus: Staff Development, Leadership/Contribution to Learning, and Working with Teams. Please familiarize yourself HERE to read more about expectations and how they can support you and your special education teams. If you have any additional questions about how your student services coach can support your school and teams, please contact Colleen or Josh. Additionally, if you need a quick reference for who is assigned to support your site, check out our ‘2023/2034-Who is Where Quick Guide’.
Fire Inspection FYI from Dan Dummit: Dan has been making the rounds with the new fire inspector recently. He wanted to be sure that you all have this document, (created by Portland Fire and Rescue) which outlines the expectations for our classrooms when it comes to fire safety. To highlight a few things that we want to draw your attention to because they are common problems, please refer to #4, #8, #9. Also, while you notice there are some things on this sheet that, if done correctly can be used, they go against our sustainability practices and should be avoided, #10 and #18 for example.
Calendar:
Here is LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24.
Date
School
Event
October 24
BTA
Parent Conferences
October 24
MVHS
Open House/Parent Conferences
October 30
BSHS
Parent Conferences
October 30
SHS
Open House/Parent Conferences
November 1
LPHS
Parent Conferences
November 2
CHS
Parent Conferences
November 8-11
Realms HS
Parent Conferences
Wayfinder Assessment window extended to October 12 – ALL students; ALL high schools
October 6: Complete this google form with your UKG corrections by TODAY!
October 10: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ CHS
October 11: Educator Network Day – administrator assignments
October 19: MTSS Administrator Lead Professional Development @ 3:00-4:00 @ Ed Center Board Room
October 24:HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ SHS
October 25: All Admin Professional Development 3:00-4:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall
Learning Opportunity regarding the importance of investigating suspected bullying: Just wanted to share this story with you about a law suit in Eugene that was just settled in the student’s favor. The part where it states that the court found that the principal “knew of the bullying but did not investigate or intervene” is a good reminder about the critical importance of our leaders and staff using the bias incident reporting and response process appropriately and consistently.
Action Items:
HSS and SIF budgets: These budgets need to be completed by Friday, October 20, 2023. If you need to change them over the year, that is fine, but the initial plan should be completed. Please reach out to April or me if you have questions.
We are asking building leaders to confirm that their staff assignments in UKG are correct. You may navigate to your My Team tab, then go to My Saved Reports and Staff Assignments to view your people and positions. If you see something that isn’t accurate, please use the link below.
Please don’t undertake this task until Monday, October 2 and complete this google form with your corrections by Friday, October 6th
Performance Evaluation Module
We are going to use the week of October 2nd to complete our testing (thank you Julie and Sky View MS staff for helping us with this) and then roll out communications regarding the launch of Certified goal-setting, observations and evaluations processes. Certified staff can expect an introductory notification through UKG regarding the launch of Performance by October 6th.
Administrative/supervisor are invited to view the google document Performance: Certified Evaluation to begin to acclimate yourself to this module. It includes short video tutorials. I am scheduled to conduct a Performance training with all administrators on Wednesday, October 25th at Bend Senior High School, but you’ll need to be interacting with this module for Certified goal-setting and Observations prior to the 25th. I will schedule a couple of weekly virtual drop in sessions and advertise those in next week’s blog to assist with any questions that you have.
From Stephen: Please check with your AP and testing coordinators to see if they have been notified of any student receiving National Recognition awards from the College Board. If so, have them reach out to Stephen DuVal.
Reminder/Action items:
Tribal History/Ethnic Studies WorkShop: Plan on sending your building administrator who oversees social studies to This workshop from 8:00-12:00 next Thursday, October 5th in the board room. Given recent bias incidents at the high school level as well as the nature of this workshop content, advanced awareness and preparation will help you support your teachers as they soon move into this work.
From Jennifer: Please read through this Memo and make sure your office staff and counselors understand the guidelines for outside service providers meeting with students on campus during school hours. Thank you.
Information:
From Dean: Professional development for high school Language Arts teachers:
There is a professional development day that is designed for middle school teachers, but may be of interest to hish school teachers who are teaching students well below current grade level expectations in Language Arts. This professional learning class would be appropriate for teachers teaching in co-taught or in credit recovery situations. Special Education teachers may also benefit from this professional development. A Mathematics course is planned for late October, details to come.
Substitute costs are covered by building budgets.
Language Arts:
October 16th from 8:00 to 4:00 in the Wall Street Lab (basement of the Education Center)
Topics to be discussed:
Increase understanding of the role of foundational skills in reading
Strategies for teaching multisyllabic words
Strategies for improving word and world knowledge
Comprehension strategies
To attend this professional development, please email Dean Richards with a request to attend
AP Testing Costs: AP has released their 2024 pricing at $98 per exam. ODE will be covering $20 of this, meaning the cost to students will be $78 this year. As a reminder, free and reduced lunch students will be able to take their exams for free.
From Jenn regarding Wayfinder summative survey: Thank you to all of the schools that started or completed the assessment this week. Shout out to Bend High (75%) and La Pine Middle (80%) for the highest student completion rates so far!
We know there were some bumps for student logins, but we are hopeful those have all been sorted. If you have not started/finished, please make sure you have time scheduled next week for all of your students to complete the assessment (about 30 minutes). All students will access Wayfinder through the Clever app on their ipads. Please do a test run with a few students/teachers to make sure everything is working. Here is the one-pager as you are helping students login.
Also, if student are not able to see their “To-do” list on their ipads, please make sure that students rotate their ipad screens to see if that helps, or try to use their fingers to pinch in/out to see if they can find the to-do list.
The assessment closes at the end of the day on Friday, October 6th. Your school will have access to the results of the assessment on your admin dashboard for all of your students in the six core skills. The results will show celebrations in what strengths your students already have and help guide your school team in areas of growth as a school community.
Heart of Oregon YouthBuild is currently offering Information Sessions about our upcoming enrollment. This school year, enrolled YouthBuild students in our construction track will be building a home from the ground-up in Bend in partnership with First Story. Please reach out if you know a student who needs an alternative option to completing their education. We can also schedule in-person meetings with young people, families, and counselors.
From Student Services: Need emergency EA Support Now?You have funds for that. All building discretionary budgets contain a line item titled “High Needs”. These dollars come directly from the Student Services discretionary account for buildings to use. The purpose of these funds is to support building administrators to quickly staff for students with high needs. The funds are available to use at your discretion for supplemental subs and equates to 70 hours of a substitute classified educational assistant. This is an annual allocation, and the typical carryover (10%) rules will apply as with all other discretionary monies. These funds are only to support high-need students that you believe require additional staffing. Some other considerations when utilizing the high needs students discretionary funds:
The high needs student discretionary funds are not exclusively tied to students on an IEP or 504 and can be used with any student.
Supplementary substitutes should never work directly with a high needs student. Rather, the substitute should fill-in for our trained staff that can work with high needs students.
Additional Student Services Staffing Requests: Any requests for additional Student Services staff (included unfilled positions) need to come directly from building administrators and not from learning specialists. Each request will be reviewed by a team of Student Services administrators and level leaders for consideration. Some considerations when requesting additional student services staff:
All high needs student discretionary funds (see above) must be spent first.
Prior to requesting additional staff, develop a plan for how the person will be utilized, duration of the request, plan to fade support, and the name of staff member facilitating the sub and plan implementation.
Any additional student Services staff requested via this process would need to directly serve students under the umbrella of special education (unlike the 70 hours above)
From Scott B: Safety Site Visits: Starting next week, Kayla and I will be visiting one school per week to partner with your administration team to conduct a safety site visit.
A few days prior to our visit, you will receive an email from us with the checklist of safety related areas we will be visiting.
We will typically be at your school for 2-3 hours per site visit. We always welcome you to walk with us during our visits to highlight safety strengths and concerns for your building, but we understand it’s not feasible for you to spend the entire time with us during our visits.
These visits are not a “gotcha” moment, but more of an opportunity for the district safety team to spend time in your schools partnering with you to ensure you have the safest learning environment possible.
Please reach out to us with any questions.
Calendar:
Here is LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24.
Wayfinder Assessment window: September 26-October 5 – ALL students; ALL high schools
October 3:ICCL and building administrator training 4:15 @ BSHS; Perseverance Hall
October 5: Tribal History/Ethnic Studies workshop -(admin who oversee social studies); 8:00-12:00; boardroom
October 10: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ CHS
October 11: Educator Network Day more info coming soon!
October 19: MTSS Administrator Lead Professional Development @ 3:00-4:00 @ Ed Center Board Room
October 24:HS Administrator Principal Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ SHS
October 25: All Admin Professional Development 3:00-4:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall
Non Classroom Mini Observation: Thank you for providing time for your teachers to set up their grade books together with support from your CST (Canvas Support Team) member and other experts in the building. Each school has chosen a method for reporting grades with Synergy and/or Canvas and your building team is the Tier 1 support for this process.
As a reminder, here is a checklist for staff when it comes to Canvas minimum requirements.
Make it a mini!: Taking 20 minutes now to ensure all setup is correct can save a ton of time and heartache later in the semester. Scheduling time to review the grade book/Canvas set up with each teacher can count as a non-classroom mini observation.
What data do you need?: Leadership teams from each school are being asked to complete this survey so we can better understand how schools use and access student data. You are encouraged to discuss these questions as a leadership team and complete the survey as a group.
Survey questions are organized into groups with a number and a letter (e.g., 1a, 1b, 2a, etc.). Each number and letter combination (e.g., 1a) really is a multi-part question. If you answer the first question about the type of data, be sure to answer all follow up questions specific to those data. Please be as specific and descriptive as possible when answering these questions.
Please complete the survey by Wednesday, October 4. Contact Dave VanLoo with any questions about the survey.
From Lora: Years of Service Apples: In the coming days, your level leader will deliver the “years of service” apples to the appropriate building principals. Please find a few minutes in a staff meeting or at the start of an SIW to formally recognize the outstanding staff who have served our district for many years.
Possible (Temporary) Changes to Supervision and Evaluation Requirements for Certified Staff: Paul Dean and I are working with Sarah Barclay on some temporary changes to the supervision requirements for certified staff who have contract status. Our hope is to help relieve some of the observation burden for our administrators. STAY TUNED! In the meantime, as we’re waiting to bring UKG fully on board for this process, you can complete observations using any tools you regularly use. This information can be uploaded into UKG at a later date.
Per the CBA, classified staff who are scheduled for more than six hours receive:
a 15-minute paid morning break as close to the middle of the morning workday as possible (between the start of the workday and the 30-minute meal period)
a 30-minute duty free (no students) meal period as close to the middle of the workday as possible, and
a 15-minute paid afternoon break as close to the middle of their afternoon workday as possible
(You may view Article for 16.5 for breaks/meals for employees working less than 6 hours)
We understand current staffing challenges, but these breaks and meal periods must be arranged and scheduled per the contract. We ask that you double-check with your classified staff in the next week to confirm that they have written schedules and that those schedules include the appropriate break/meal times.
OSEA leadership is committed to supporting their members and will reach out to building/level leaders if they are notified that someone is not receiving their regularly scheduled breaks.
UKG Data
We anticipate checking in with school administrators next week to confirm the accuracy of staffing data within UKG. We’ll provide a google form for you to log incorrect staff in your My Teams view. We appreciate your patience as we continue to work through PAs and system updates.
Performance Evaluation Module
The district (Lora) and BEA are in discussions to modify the number of mini-observations and reduce the number of standards to be evaluated for all certified contract staff (probationary/temporary staff requirements won’t change as we must conform to ORS rules). We will likely have the same amount of mini’s for both on & off cycle staff. Stay tuned for more information on this.
In the meantime, please continue your normal classroom visits while we get ready to roll out the Performance Evaluation module in UKG. You’ll have the opportunity to enter prior mini’s once the new module is launched.
We are currently testing and making tweaks to the Performance module in preparation for an October rollout. We have to create a different profile for each certified group that has a unique evaluation rubric. We are prioritizing the classroom teacher rubric first as that is our largest group of certified staff. We’ll then move to Learning Specialists, Counselors, Student Success Clinicians, School Psychologists, TOSAs and Speech Pathologists
This workshop is taking place on Thursday, October 5th. We are starting with elementary and middle schools, but high school will soon participate in this work.
Given recent bias incidents at the high school level as well as the nature of this workshop content, advanced awareness and preparation will help you support your teachers as they soon move into this work.
Therefore, each high school is strongly encouraged to send an administrator to this upcoming workshop (the morning portion only—I’d recommend 8:00am-lunch). Please rsvp using the registration form on link above. Thanks!
Reminders:
The Wayfinder Assessment window opens Monday: September 26-October 5 – ALL students; ALL high schools
Information
From Jennifer: Thank you all for your continued support of Wayfinder. I have drafted newsletter content for your families. Please remember that we are not using Social Emotional learning when speaking or promoting Wayfinder.
o Waypoints information for grades 6-12 (grades 3-5 coming in 2024!) BLS will have students in 6-12 complete this assessment between September 25th and October 6th.
o Here is a Resource Guide with additional resources and support.
From Sean: As a part of our suicide intervention efforts for our Adi’s Act plan, suicide prevention trainings are required for our staff. All of our trained suicide risk screeners, which are typically your school counselors, school psychs, some nurses, and some SSC’s attend the ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) PD every 5 years. This year, ASIST will be offered on Nov. 2 and 3, which will be required for those who have never been trained. There will be two additional ASIST trainings offered in the winter and spring for those who need to recertify. School sites are responsible for sub coverage for staff who require it. For questions, please reach out to Jamie Gunter ([email protected])
The following applies to personal devices only and not school issued student iPads.
Students have always been able to access Bend La Pine Schools digital applications from a personal device (such as a cell phone or desktop computer )while at home. This year, access from a personal device is still encouraged, but in the interest of security and data privacy, just a bit more challenging.
Students will need to complete multifactor authentication prior to accessing BLS applications on their personal device. Multifactor authentication adds a critical second layer of security before any student information is visible on a device that is not known by our organization. The steps to complete multi-factor authentication can be found on the following link:
Printed as well as Spanish versions of these instructions are available from the Tier One Technology representative at each school.
It is important to note that the most efficient way to complete the steps for multi-factor authentication is by using a student iPad. We in IT would strongly encourage sending iPads home to complete the MFA process (especially for elementary age students).
The following BLS applications are commonly accessed by students from personal devices. Lexia, Dreambox, Clever, Canvas, Really Great Reading, Google Drive
From Stephen: Update on SchoolLinks: As you are aware we have brought SchooLinks on board as our College and Career Platform. One feature we are very excited about is the integration with parchment for transcripts. Both current students and alumni will be able to request transcripts at no cost to them through SchooLinks. We currently have this up and running for current students, but have hit an unfortunate snag when it comes to alumni. There is a technical aspect to loading alumni transcripts with SchooLinks causing a delay. Up until now, this was no problem as we still had a separate contract with Parchment for alumni transcripts where we picked up the cost of their request. Unfortunately, this contract expired yesterday.
What this means is, currently, we do not have a free transcript option for our alumni. Again, this is alumni ONLY. We are hopeful we can have the free SchooLinks process up and running very soon, but we can’t give a definitive date just yet. In the meantime, this unfortunately means it will cost our alumni $4.40 for a transcript. I will state it is very common practice in many districts to have a fee associated with alumni transcripts, but it will still be an adjustment to our past practice.
Therefore, if you have alumni who need a transcript and can wait, we should have the issue resolved soon. However, if there is immediacy needed to the request, the $4.40 option is all we can do at this time.
We apologize for the inconvenience and will update you as soon as we have a firm date for the SchooLinks alumni transcript feature.
There are still a few schools that do not have a staff Sustainability Advisor in place for the school year. The SustainBLS program is one of the ways ALL schools can make sustainability, stewardship and conservation the norm across our district. Through SustainBLS, a certified staff member takes on the role of the school Sustainability Advisor and works with a school green team. This team can be a class, a select group of students or an environmental club. Our first training of the year is next Wednesday from 4:30-6:00 in the Facility Development Office behind admin.
Transportation
Walk and Roll Prizes
Walk and Roll to school day is on October 4th this year. If your school wants to have some give aways stickers, please apply by September 27th to Street trust. Teachers should be encouraged to gather information about student transportation to assist BLS. There are tallys here that can be sent to sustainability coordinator, Jackie Wilson Admin via inner district mail.
Get There Challenge with Commute Options
The Get There Challenge is an annual competition to encourage people who live or work in Oregon to drive alone less and use transportation options more. Running for two-weeks, October 1-15, the Challenge helps promote commuting by teams will competing for recognition and prizes by logging trips taken by bike, foot, carpool, vanpool, and transit and remote workdays. Your school can create a team and sign up here. Any member of your team can be the team captain, but there needs to be one for each team. Check out the great prizes, including a $1000 gift card for the winning team. There will be a special district prize for the team with the most trips logged.
Remember to keep building energy use in mind at the end of the day and on weekends. The building automation system sets schools to unoccupied modes over the weekend. If you have any questions or concerns about your school facility, please contact [email protected]
Please make sure members of your School STAS Level 1 team sign up for the SIRC training.
What is SIRC
The Sexual Incident Response Committee sets of assessment protocols and safety planning procedures overseen and administered by a unique collaborative team. The SIRC process is much like the STAS process, but is used when the event is sexual in nature (harassment, assault, etc..).
All Level 1 Team members must register for a full day of SIRC training if they have not previously attended. It is only necessary to attend one day (not both). There is a maximum of 50 participants for each day. Training dates have been separated by elementary and secondary levels. Additional dates will be determined as needed. Registration links for SIRC trainings are attached.
SIRC Training Dates:
October 16, 2023 8:00 – 4:30 @ High Desert ESD (Middle & High School)
We are working to improve the workplace experiences and sense of belonging of our employees. One of the many ways we are doing this is through co-designed systems of support and networking called Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). Details here—page 2 has FAQ, in case you get questions.
In 22-23 a few different ERGs met regularly throughout the year, with awesome facilitators and lots of fun activities! Thanks to those of you who participated or encouraged your staff to participate. We are re-launching groups for 23-24, and need your help:
Can you please ensure all staff are aware of this opportunity?Here is a pre-written message you can send your staff—thanks for sharing in the next week or so. (If you haven’t shared last week’s CAFE Program info with your staff yet–or if you’d like to send a reminder–here is that staff message again as well.) Thanks!
Technology Resources for Parents: Your IT team would like to encourage you to share the following links with your office staff and directly with families. The links include step by step guides for parents who wish to sign up for:
From Kinsey: Here are the Bias Incident Lesson Series materials.
Required (by Oct 27): the revised-but-similar version of last year’s single lesson.
Highly recommended: The other three lessons in the series are Wayfinder activities that our equity coaches have carefully selected and sequenced, to facilitate classroom climates conducive to dialogue around identity and bias. Feel free to require the whole four-part series in your building! 🙂
Please connect with your ICCL DEI reps, to include teacher leadership in preparing the lesson roll-out for successful implementation across your building.
Reach out to our district LEAD/Equity Coaches to schedule support for your staff, and let me know if you have questions or concerns I can support!
Information:
ACR implementation change: In recent practice, students on an ACR who desire to move back to their home school are not given priority consideration over other students who submit an ACR.
Recently, a decision was made to approve any student on an ACR who would like to move back to their home school.
Process: Families/students will still complete and ACR, which will be approved. We will work with the home school on timing to minimize losing credit. Student attending Realms HS or BTA who wish to move back to their home high school should complete the Choice School application, found on our website here: Choice School AR (check out page 4 under exceptional situations). Please reach out with questions.
From TLC: Welcome back! Here in Teaching and Learning we are super excited for the 2023-24 school year and are lining up PD opportunities for your math teachers.
Last year we offered a one-day workshop on supporting struggling math students plus most of our high schools had at least one lesson study/studio day where teachers learned the latest in best practices and strategies for engaging all students in mathematics and to meet the diverse needs of our students.
This year we’d like to offer that opportunity again to high school AND to our middle school teachers. We could offer up to 3 days, half or full depending on the school’s ability to partially fund this. One possibility is that teachers spend half of the day working on pedagogy and best teaching strategies and the second half working on PLC-standards work. In most cases I would facilitate the math strategies piece but am also willing to help organize the PLC work if desired.
TLC will also hold a new math teacher training, Introduction to Mathematically Productive Teaching Routines on October 3 for those who have not recently (or ever) had a best teaching strategies course for math early in October. this training will give teachers the background for the Studio-Math Teaching Strategies work during the year. Look for the flyer coming out soon with details.
We would love to start getting dates on the calendar (Mountain View already has theirs) so if this is something that you and your math team desire this year, please let us know. It is also good to consider including your math support teachers and these strategies are helpful for their classes as well. This time together also builds teams allowing them to plan more in the in between sessions. All the best for a wonderful new school year, Dean and Linda
From Paul in HR: Staff Data in UKG: Human Resources/Payroll are aware that data in UKG regarding staff assignments is not currently up to date. Please refrain from contacting either of our offices about this until a future blog entry in which we will be soliciting feedback from you on anything that is not correct. Payroll is also working on updating accruals that are incorrect (like accumulated personal time).
Processing of PA in UKG: HR/Payroll are diligently processing PAs and prioritizing changes that impact an employee’s base compensation. Other compensation like extra duty and ICCL stipends in which hiring was completed prior to September 1st, will appear on an employee’s September paycheck. Other non-compensation related PA’s (positions, budget codes) will be processed in the order that they are received and be updated in UKG by mid-October at the latest. Anything that administrators completed after that date will likely not appear until October’s paycheck.
Certified Evaluation Update: Lora, Paul and Sarah Barclay are meeting this week to discuss certified evals for 2023/24. This doesn’t mean that admin can’t begin mini-ops now and tracking them on your own before we share how we plan to do this for the 2023/24 school year. By all means, feel free to start those. We will have the following information to share with admin at the beginning of October:
IMPORTANT Reminder: It is critical that administrators/supervisors login to UKG at least once a day to read/process To Do Items. If, for example, there is a HR Action that has compensation implications (i.e. changing FTE, adding an extra duty stipend) and it is not approved by all of people in the workflow before payroll cutoff (which was last Friday, September 8), then the employee will not receive the correct wages on their September paycheck and will be very unhappy. Processing your UKG To Do’s at least once a day will prevent these types of issues.
Update on UpShift: We are continuing to implement the UpShift program at ALL high schools this year as an alternative to suspension program to vaping. At this time, you should have identified which of your building administrators will serve as the UpShift Coordinator.
Starting next week, any new UpShift team members will be trained on either the UpShift Coordinator or UpShift Specialist role at their schools.
For those of you who have already completed an UpShift training in the past, we’ve prepared some helpful refresher videos that you can refer to as needed. Here’s what’s available:
1. Overview of UpShift Training Video:This video provides a comprehensive background on UpShift, explaining the ‘why’ behind it, the different UpShift roles, and how we track and monitor our efforts.
3. UpShift Coordinator Refresher Video : If you’re involved in coordinating adolescent disciplinary responses, contacting parents/guardians, or screening students for substance use disorder risk levels, this video is for you.
If you have questions or need further guidance, please reach out to me or the Public Health Specialist at your school. Your success in the program is important to us, and we’re here to support you!
Thank you for working through any implementation barriers and being committed to UpShift. Contact Heather Tang, if you have questions or need support for implementation.
Change to GED testing process: HB 3068 removes the requirement that GED testers under 18 need to have a release from compulsory attendance from their local school district or ESD, and instead requires just parent/guardian approval. For students who are houseless and do not have a relationship with a parent or guardian, there is a procedure under McKinney-Vento to work with the testing centers.
Calendar:
Here is LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24.
September 19: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ MVHS
September 20: All Admin Professional Development 3:00-4:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall
Wayfinder Assessment window: September 26-October 5 – ALL students; ALL high schools
September 28: MTSS Administrator LeadProfessional Development @ 3:00-4:30 @ Ed Center Board Room
September 29: Principal Breakfast 7:30@ Original Pancake House in Bend
October 3:ICCL and building administrator training and work session location TBD
October 10: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ LPHS
October 11: Educator Network Day
October 19: MTSS Administrator Lead Professional Development @ 3:00-4:00 @ Ed Center Board Room
October 24:HS Administrator Principal Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ SHS
October 25: All Admin Professional Development 3:00-4:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall
Congratulations to Andy Worcester, Student Success Instructor at Mountain View High School, who is Bend La Pine School’s Champion for Students recipient this month:
