High School Rock Stars!

Action Items:

Our next HS Work Session is scheduled for Tuesday, September 19. Schools will share about the important work happening in your buildings the first few weeks of school. Please add your slides, school norms and school and classroom routines developed as a result of your professional development during inservice week to this shared folder.

We will also spend our time together talking through the fall bias lesson.

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From Stephen about SAT testing: Please send the following SAT information to all staff.

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From Stephen: Please include the following in your next communication home.

In Bend-La Pine Schools we are determined to create a strong career & college going culture in our high schools. INSERT SCHOOL NAME has embraced the State of Oregon’s ASPIRE program that offers education, support, and mentoring opportunities for all students.

 ASPIRE student supports include 1:1 mentoring, group mentoring, and activities or events that focus on career exploration, career and college research, admissions applications, scholarships, and financial aid. If students choose to participate in the mentor program, it is important to know that all ASPIRE staff and community mentors go through a background check and that confidentiality is required as mentors will have access to student academic records. Mentoring will take place in person or in a combination of virtual, electronic communication following Bend-La Pine Schools guidelines. If you do NOT want your child to participate in the ASPIRE program, please contact our INSERT SCHOOL NAME School to Career Program Manger (INSERT STC NAME) to opt out the ASPIRE program.

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From Kinsey:  CAFE Program

Please read and share applicable portions with your staff:

A key tool we offer for translation/interpretation support is the Bend-La Pine Schools’ CAFE Program for staff.  Full details here.  Note: School and dept administrators should be familiar with items 5 and 6 on page 2.  

We are lauching the sign-up process to add new members to the CAFE Program.  Please help us ensure all staff have access to this information and opportunity: Here is a pre-written message you can copy and send to your whole staff (all certified, classified, administrative, and confidential staff are welcome to participate).  

Thank you for sending that message within the next week!  Additional information about CAFE, including the most up-to-date list of members, can always be found on the Portal’s Equity page.

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From Sean in Student Services: Please make sure you review the building level process for suicide information and present the information to staff at some point this fall.

Information:

ACT Testing in the spring: We rotate hosting the ACT test between CHS, MVHS and SHS. Because Caldera will be preparing for their first graduation with their first senior class this year, they will host for the 2024-25 school year. HERE is the rotation for host schools.

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From Jennifer: For Schools Starting Sources of Strength Classes or Clubs 

Last Call: Our last planned Sources of Strength Adult Advisor/Teacher training is on Sept 19, from 8:30-3:30pm, at the Ed Center (#314).  This is the promo flier with the registration link.  We have 12 spots left.  Share the flier with anyone you’d like to send to the Adult Advisor training so they can register.  Regardless of whether your school is doing a class or club, the ideal ratio is 1 trained Adult Advisor/Teacher for every 6-7 Peer Leaders.  

This is a list of all the Sources of Strength Peer Leader trainings happening at schools between Sept 8 – Oct 17.  Students need a signed parent/guardian permission slip to attend the Sources of Strength Peer Leader training and the training would be required for participating in the Sources Peer Leader classes or clubs.  Jamie Gunter ([email protected]) is the person to contact about the parent/guardian permission slips.

Your school’s trained Adult Advisors/Teachers should attend your Peer Leader training because they will support the Peer Leaders at the training and then also in the Sources class or club.  The Peer Leader training is important for establishing the adult-to-peer leader relationship.  If your Adult Advisors are teachers and need sub coverage, use the $1,000 in start up funds your school received from Matchstick to cover the sub costs.  There’s also additional $1,000 mini-grants available that your Public Health Specialists are aware of and can help your school apply for. 

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From Jennifer: Thank you all for participating in the Wayfinder trainings last week. We trained 33 schools in one tool – a huge success and lots of great feedback. Many of you have been so excited about Wayfinder and you are ready to share information with your families.  I am working with Scott Maben on content that can be shared, we want to be mindful to use Life and Career readiness when speaking about our new tool so please wait to share with families until we get some agreed upon text.

Our focus has been teachers and students for this first wave of training. Later this month, we will prioritize Student Success, Learning Specialists, School Psychs and Speech and Language for logins and training. Many secondary people in this position have received training with their school site and are waiting on a login. We are working on it😊

The Waypoint assessment that all 6^th through 12^th graders will be taking opens on September 26 and closes at 4 pm on Friday October 5^th. There are 43 questions and you should allow 30 minutes for students to compete the assessment on their ipads. You will have access to the data on your admin dashboard once the window closes.

For ongoing tech assistance, please use the process below for Austin’s team:

 Q: A teacher has the wrong grade level materials, what do I do?

A: Digital Tools- Please make sure that the teacher is loaded into Synergy correctly. In theory, Clever will synch with Synergy each night and assign the correct digital tools. If you do this and they continue to have the incorrect tool, please refer to the “Request new tool” feature listed below.

A: Workbooks- Your administrator should collect numbers for workbooks needed for the school. Then, they can USE THIS FORM to do a curriculum request which comes to Julie and Stephanie.

Q: A teacher is teaching a blend and needs both grade levels, what should they do?

A: For Digital Tools-the teacher should have the lower grade level materials. If they need another grade level to explore, please ask that they use the “Request new tool” feature listed below.

A: For the Workbooks (Middle School only. No workbooks for HS)- See above

Q: I have teachers who should have access to all grade levels (Counselors/PE teachers, Music teachers, etc.) How do we go about getting them access?

A: For Digital Tools- Make sure they are loaded into synergy correctly and then ask that they request the tools using the feature below.

Instructional Tech and Information Technology partnered to build an application where teachers can see what tools have been deployed to each of their classes. At the top of this page there is a feature where they can request a new tool.

This can be requests to add, change, or remove tools.

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From Tami Pike re: Communication to the School Nurse After School Hours

Non-Urgent Student Matters For any non-urgent student health matters, please email your school nurse and they will get back to you on the next school day. Please do not phone or text after school hours.

Urgent/Emergent Student Matters For any urgent/emergent student health matters that need to be addressed immediately, please contact Tami Pike for assistance. (please text first 541-350-8387)

Employee Health Related Questions. For any employee health-related questions/concerns, please reach out to Human Resources at 541-355-1100.

WHEN TO STAY HOME REMINDER

Illness Symptoms and When to Stay Home. Bend-La Pine Schools follows the Oregon Health Authority/Oregon Department of Education’s Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools. This guidance includes when an individual should be excluded from attending school on site (including any school-related activities such as clubs and sports). 

For information on symptom-based exclusion guidelines, see page 8 of the Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools. 

• Fever – An individual must be fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications.
• Diarrhea/vomiting – Must be 48 hours since last episode.

COVID-19 is no longer an excludable disease (unless symptoms of fever, vomiting, and/or diarrhea are present). 

Parents/guardians/staff are no longer required to report positive cases of COVID-19 to the schools. COVID-19 test kits and medical grade face masks are available to students and staff upon request. Check with your school nurse about how to obtain a supply for your school.

You may also refer staff to the Health and Wellness section on our Bend-La Pine Schools website for more information about when to stay home.

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From Walt Norris: Rock Chucks, and Mice, and Squirrels—Oh My!  As you all know Central Oregon is home to many critters who like to set up camp in and around our school buildings.  Each year the Custodial and Maintenance Dept fields many phone calls and receives multiple work orders regarding various pests.  Here is the newsletter created by Oregon State University Extension Service regarding Intergrated Pest Management and what you can do to avoid these critters in your schools. (cliff notes: ALL food should be stored in plastic tubs with tight fitting lids!) Wes and Walt appreciate the seriousness in which you take these guidelines, as it truly does help keep the pests at bay.

Calendar:

Here is LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24.

September 13: First School Improvement Wednesday (SIW). Early release schedule.

September 19: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ MVHS

September 20: All Admin Professional Development 2:45-4:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall

Wayfinder Assessment window: September 26-October 5 – ALL students; ALL high schools

September 28: MTSS Administrator Lead Professional Development @ 3:00-4:00 @ 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  

TO DO:

From Kinsey: Fall Bias Lesson (this was sent to admin in an email Wednesday)

Here is information on the Bias Incident Student Lesson for this year:

All students should participate in this learning—except those whose families opt them out, as required by policy.  Plan for your teachers to complete this lesson by October 27^th(Advisory or 1^st period would work great again). 

This year, the lesson is actually a series of four lessons: 

• 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!  🙂

Our LEAD/Equity Coaches are available to launch, preview, and/or rehearse this lesson with your staff at an upcoming SIW or staff meeting in Sept-Oct.  They can also come co-teach the lesson with specific teachers when it is delivered to students, but your teachers should be directly involved in implementation.  

These coaches will soon share the lesson sequence and updated materials with you and the ICCL member who is your liaison to our district DEI/LEAD efforts (details about that here).  If you haven’t submitted the name of that person yet, please share it asap.  

Ask of you as admin colleagues:

• Be familiar with the lesson content, in particular the one required lesson;
• Contact the Equity Coaches for any support your staff needs;
• Send the family letter a week-ish prior to your school’s lesson delivery;
• Be visible and participate in classrooms when teachers teach this; 
• Ensure the Bias Reporting tool is posted around your school for student, staff, and family access;
• Send any other questions, overly-concerned community members, or feedback my way!

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From Jess: College Kick Off Night for families: Here is the link to share. The information is in English and, if you scroll to the bottom, you will see it in Spanish.

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From Stephen: Dual Credit Tracking: In order to better support our dual credit classes and students, we would like to centralize information around articulation agreements.  We are asking that you create a list of all courses at your site that can be offered for dual credit and share it with Katie and Stephen by the end of next week.  Here is an exemplar from MVHS. Please reach out to Stephen if you have any questions. 

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From Jenn: Giving staff access to Wayfinder Tools:

We are getting lots of questions in our trainings around teachers not having the correct Wayfinder digital tools and workbooks associated with their name.

1. My teacher has the wrong grade level materials!
   1. Digital Tools- Please make sure that the teacher is loaded into Synergy correctly. In theory, Clever will synch with Synergy each night and assign the correct digital tools. If you do this and they continue to have the incorrect tool, please refer to the “Request new tool” feature listed below.
   2. Workbooks- Your administrator should collect numbers for workbooks needed for the school. This should be sent in one e-mail to Julie Walker, Dean Richards, and Stephanie Bent.
2. My teacher is teaching a blend and needs both grade levels!
   1. Digital-Your teacher should have the lower grade level materials. If they need another grade level to explore, please ask that they use the “Request new tool” feature listed below.
   2. Workbooks- See above
3. My teacher should have access to all grade levels! (Counselors/PE teachers, Music teachers, etc.)
   1. Digital- Make sure they are loaded into synergy correctly and then ask that they request the tools using the feature below.

Instructional Tech and Information Technology partnered to build an application where teachers can see what tools have been deployed to each of their classes.

https://instructionaltools.bend.k12.or.us/

At the top of this page there is a feature where they can request a new tool

This can be requests to add, change, or remove tools.

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INFORMATION:

From Lora regarding PT staff attending SIW’s:

Article 15, section B of the CBA states that members have the obligation to attend SIW’s consistent with their FTE.  For example, .5 certified who work in the morning ARE required to attend half the scheduled SIW’s. The contract is silent on “split shifts,” so that’s not at issue. Here are a couple of important caveats:

• The 90 minutes twice a month need to be built into their schedule. This means that the .5 employee’s work day should be approximately 3 hours and 50 minutes, which would provide 100 minutes every two weeks to attend SIW’s.
• The administrator chooses which SIW’s the certified employee attends each month, in consultation with the employee, keeping in mind that for a .5 certified employee, one SIW every two months should be teacher-directed prep time.

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From Lora: As we begin the 23-24 school year, the district expects schools to enforce visitor sign-in policies, including district staff, during staff working hours-not just when students are present. This means that if you are attending an inservice activity or a meeting at another district site during staff working hours, you need to sign in and sign out. If you are wearing your badge, another district expectation, this process takes about 10 seconds.

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From Stephen: Here is the link to Rick’s presentation from Wednesday if any staff were unable to attend.

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From Doug Pigman: Summer and fall can mean smoky air in Central Oregon.  The amount of smoke in the air will vary across our 1,700 square mile District, so recommended strategies to keep the smoke outside will also vary.  You can find the DEQ operated air quality station nearest you at:

Oregon DEQ Air Quality Index Map

Indoor Mitigation Strategies

First, please keep your doors and windows closed during smoke events.  I know this seems simple, but our facilities have lots of doors and windows, so it’s best to walk the building and check.  If you have smoke in the building, opening doors and windows will not help the smoke leave the building.

Second, let the filters do their job.  The filters in our air handlers will filter interior air 4 to 6 times per hour.  The units will also pull a small amount of outside air 4-6 times per hour, which is filtered as it enters the building.  Please do not shut off the air handler units! 

Third, use the air scrubbers provided to each school by our Custodial Department (541-355-6601).  This added filtration can help in areas that may be smokier than others (ie entryways).  If the smoke in the facility appears to be excessive, please call our Maintenance team at 541-355-4700 and they will evaluate the system. They may ask you to shut down the air handler system with the shut-off button at that time.

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From Scott in IT: 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 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 webhelpdesk 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.

Your IT team looks forward to serving you during the 23-24 school year!    

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From Scott in Safety: Safety Reminders:

• Please ensure all of your staff are familiar with the  BLS Culture of Safety document on our staff portal. This is the document we discussed during Leadership Launch and outlines our key safety policies and procedures.

• All staff that are visiting schools or facilities outside of their primary duty location (i.e. attending training at a school other than their own), need to sign in and out with their staff ID badge at the visitor management kiosk in the front of the school during duty hours.

• All staff need to visibly wear their staff ID badges at all times during duty hours.

• Please remember to complete your first fire drill within the first ten days of school and to complete your Lockdown drill within the first 30 days of school. You can find the drill guidelines handbook and the drill completion tracking sheet on the Safety Resources Google Drive.

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District Athletic Directors: Dave Williams will continue as our District Athletic Director for high schools and Dan Curfew will be the District Athletic Director for our middle schools this school year.

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Sent earlier this week: Bend-La Pine Education Foundation’s fall classroom grants cycle runs from August 29th-September 30th, with funds distributed in October. Check out the flyer for more details.

2023 fall classroom grants

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Health Services Support

Our district student support needs have shifted over the summer.  We have seen increasing numbers of type 1 diabetes diagnoses along with an increasing number of students with complex medical needs starting school. With these increased needs, I wanted to send out a reminder to schools about how best they can support their student population. 

• Health Room Responsibilities
  • A (non-nurse) staff person and a backup staff member, (designated by the school administrator) are responsible for the health room duties. This includes medication intake and administration, first aid, students presenting with rashes, supporting ill students, etc. Staff should follow the Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools to help determine if a student should be excluded from school.  (Pages 9-10 in the CD guidance specifically address symptoms that are criteria for school exclusion.)
  • Administrators, please remind your designated staff about their role in health room management. The school nurse can be notified for an urgent/emergent situation such as: broken bone, breathing difficulty, profuse bleeding, loss of consciousness, etc. 
• Student support
  • Due to the increased number of students with type 1 diabetes attending sites throughout the district, a (non-nurse) staff person and a backup staff member, (designated by the school administrator) should be identified to support diabetic  matters in the absence of a school nurse following the student’s health management plan. The school nurse (or designated substitute nurse) is available by phone for guidance. Nurses will do their best to assist with direct care diabetes support. However, most nurses have more than 1 site they are responsible for and unfortunately cannot be at multiple places at once. 

School Nurse Responsibilities

School nurses are responsible for developing, maintaining, and/or updating health management plans for students with chronic illnesses and disabilities (including obtaining health care provider orders for care),  staff trainings (health plans general and student specific, delegation and follow up of specific health service tasks, scheduled and emergent medication administration), direct care support, concussion management, care coordination between school teams and community health partners, suicide screening, IEP/504 participation, communicable disease prevention/management, etc.

CALENDAR:

September 4: Labor Day

September 6: Ninth grade only day; regular daily schedule (8:00-4:00)

September 7: First Day of School for All Grades

September 19: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30

September 28: MTSS Administrator Lead Professional Development @ 3:00-4:00

October 3: ICCL and building administrator training and work session

October 10: HS Administrator Work Session

October 19: MTSS Administrator Lead Professional Development @ 3:00-4:00  

Action Items:

From Stephen and Jenn: We have adopted School Links as our comprehensive Life and Career Readiness platform. Our counselors will be trained in how to use the platform next week. Please to share this information about School Links in your next family newsletter: English and Spanish.

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From our DEI Department: September Tier I equity and inclusion strategies:

Menstrual Dignity Act: 

When your staff teaches behavior expectations in different areas of the building this fall, be sure to explicitly teach the purpose and expectations for use of the menstrual products and dispensers in the bathrooms.  Basic talking points and additional resources here.  

Also be sure that school tours include mentioning where and how all students can access gender-neutral bathrooms and expectations for behavior in those spaces.  

Classroom practices: 

Share with teachers: Our district equity coaches can help teams walk through Menstrual Dignity Act, Bias Incident Lesson (more on this soon), or other sensitive topics.  Reach out to the team!  Additional tips and strategies available on the LEAD website.

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From Jackie: Please share the Sustainability Overview with all incoming staff. This document will give staff and overview of why sustainability is important in Bend-La Pine Schools as we start the school year. 

BLS is striving to have a school wide Sustainability Advisor in each school to work with Green Teams. Details will be coming soon, but please check with staff to see if there is any interest in this position. 

If you would like to stay informed on Sustainability in BLS, bookmark the Sustainability blog for resources and education ideas.

A few of the 22-23 accomplishments

• Green Teams working on Food waste reduction through Love Food Not Waste
• Cafeteria commercial composting at 9 schools and silverware at 16 schools
• Vanpool in place at Three Rivers
• 14 schools certified as Oregon Green Schools
• Earth Day celebration at Miller Elementary School 
• BLS involvement in Climate Teach-in day
• Year 6 of the Strategic Energy Management program – $56,000 in energy milestones and savings
• Sustainability goals embedded in the District Design Standards
• Grant for reusable dishware kits for schools – to be used for in-class celebrations and staff celebrations – to get one for your school email [email protected]
• 400+ students involved in BLS Green Teams

Important Reminders:

From Jenn: Wayfinder Training next week is required for ALL staff next week. Here are the school scheduled times for each school staff. There will be a district representative joining each training to support.

The window for schools to implement the Wayfinder Summative Assessment is September 25-October 6. The purpose of the assessment is to gather baseline data about where our students related to our second board goal the every student has a plan for their future.

Plan to schedule in 30 min (43 questions) for ALL students to take the assessment. Notify Jennifer ASAP in what class you intend to have students take the assessment. She will then connect the course code. If this does not happen prior to the window, students will not be able to access the assessment.

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Lesson on Bike Safety: We discussed this at our meeting Monday: Please review these slides on Bike Safety with students during the month of September.

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From Scott in Communications: Our Welcome Back virtual presentation for all district staff will be Tuesday, August 29, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. This will be a Microsoft Teams meeting. Plan to gather your building staff for a group viewing of our Welcome Back event!

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Please complete this HS leads and teams document for your school by Sept 1.

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From Scott in Safety: Please review the Safe Oregon Point of Contact Roster that was sent out by the safety department on 8/21/23 to ensure your contact information is correct. Please also ensure you have the Safe Oregon Tip Line number saved in your cell phones so that you know it is the tip center when they attempt to contact you. Safe Oregon Tip Center (844) 472-3367.

If you would like to receive text alert notifications when the district puts out information about incidents taking place at schools (i.e. a school goes into Lockdown), please sign up through our district website for the BLConnect text messages.

Information:

Change in practices for all high schools:

Parking Permits:

Our high school administrators have come to agreement that schools will no longer charge for a parking permit. After discussion and reflection, our team determined this was an inequitable practice that unfairly impacted our students furthest from justice.

Schools are working to refund families that have already paid for a permit and notifications of this change will be sent to families in the coming weeks.

Managing Personal Electronic Devices:

Beginning with the 23-24 school year, our high schools will regulate the use of personal electronic devices at school. The expectation of Silent and Away will be in place during classroom time.

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From Dean: Instructional Tools Update

1. This week we plan to send status updates to every teacher who made a request in the Spring via email.
2. The Instructional Technology staff continues to work hard to deploy all of these instructional tools.
3. In a communication this week, teachers will receive a link that directs them to a new resource that has been built by IT.
4. This site, https://instructionaltools.bend.k12.or.us/, allows teachers to see everything that is currently deployed for each of their classes.
5. For the next month, this content will be updated daily.
6. By Tuesday, August 29^th, if teachers do not see expected instructional tools, please have them email Austin James and Dean Richards to get an update.
7. New tools (including from new teachers), should be requested through the link at the top of the webpage.

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From Scott in IT: The IT message is short and sweet this week.  Please encourage your teaching staff to check out the “Teacher Hub” located in the Staff Portal Quick Links.   This is your one stop resource shop for all new and returning teachers.   

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From Stephen: Honors Diploma Process Update:  The DRAFT of the revised Honors Diploma has not been approved. The current requirements to earn an Honors Diploma will remain in place for the class of 2024.

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From Dean: Since there are several new staff in the Academic Intervention role, HERE is the job description for building leaders to review. The Academic Interventionist is not assigned to teach classes. Rather, they serve a case load of about 50 students and provide Tier 2 academic support to groups of students.

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From Dana: Here is a summary of what FAN advocates are and what they do in our school system. FAN

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From Stephen: Here are a number of documents to support your families if you have staff working toward our new grading scale.  Additionally, here is a LINK to the district’s grading webpage with a timeline and FAQ. Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can be of support.

Parent Communication. BLP Grade Doc MS

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From our DEI Department:

Who is our school’s Latino Family Liaison?

Family Liaison team hiring has been ongoing since last spring–getting closer!  Liaisons’ school assignments should be ready as soon as hiring is complete, by end of next week at the latest.  Thank you for your patience—I know you need this information yesterday.

In the meantime, please use Linguist Link to request interpreters for back-to-school events like Open House.  You can also request an interpreter to come to your office for a couple hours to make phone calls, etc.  (Make sure you submit translation requests ASAP for all welcome-back newsletters and invitations to your events.) 

If you need more immediate support, there are various tools available for language access.  If you need a Family Liaison for a specific family support situation beyond interpretation, please contact the Welcome Center (x6820 or [email protected]).  If you have other questions, reach out to Kinsey. 

ICCL liaison to LEAD/equity work:

By next Thurs Aug 31, please submit here the name of your ICCL team member who will serve as the liaison/representative between your building’s leadership team and the district’s LEAD/equity work.  Some context and FAQ on this ask are available here—if you or your ICCL have additional questions not addressed there, please reach out to Kinsey. 

Calendar:

Here is LINK to the SIW Calendar and HS administrator work sessions and agendas for 23-24

• Inservice Week Schedule
• August 28: 7:30-9:00: New Teacher Orientation Day at Northstar Elementary
• August 29: 8:30-9:30+ District Virtual Welcome Back Event; be sure that ALL STAFF are in one location for this event. Be ready to send pics to Scott in communications!
• August 30: Building Led Professional Development
• August 30^th am focus:  Assessment and Feedback Practices (formerly known as Equitable Grading)
• August 30^th pm focus: Tier 1 MTSS framework:  Teaching and supporting the development of prosocial behaviors.
• September 6: Ninth grade only day; regular daily schedule (8:00-4:00).
• September 19: 8:00-9:30 HS Work Session

To Do:

From our Public Health Specialists: Please complete this document for your school:  BLS UpShift roles document.

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From Misty Groom: Please complete this doc indicating your team members for STAS/SIRC.

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A reminder: Concussion Study notification to families: All high schools, please mail home these letters to your families by today, Friday, August 18: Information about the Ready for School Project, Letter to Families in English; Letter to Families in Spanish. Feel free to contact Jody Slocumb: [email protected]., if you have questions about the project and encourage families to do the same. This is the last year of the project. Thank you!

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From Colleen and Josh: Crisis Prevention Intervention Training Opportunities. This training is our non-violent crisis intervention training.  This is a requirement for each school to have a team trained in their building.   HERE is the link to currently trained employees.   Registration for these trainings in UKG.

We have 3 CPI trainings this month. 

Aug 24 – CPI for Administrators ONLY

Aug 31 – CPI Refresher Course

Sept. 1 – CPI Initial Course

If you have specific questions, please contact Magadalyn Hasse in the Student Services office at ext. 1060.

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From Ryan: Be ready to introduce your new staff at the New Certified Staff Orientation will take place Monday, August 28^th at North Star Elementary. Breakfast service will begin at 7:30 and it would be great to have as many admin there as possible before 7:30 to welcome our new hires and create a positive and supportive atmosphere.

The program will begin at 8:00 with a welcome address from Steve Cook, to be followed by each site introducing their new staff members (name and position) to the whole group. Following the introductions, our new hires will go into breakout groups for the duration of the morning, and admin can clear out.

It is a full day for our new hires; following the breakout sessions, they have a BEA-sponsored lunch and then finish their day in trainings specific to their roles.

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Honors Diploma Update: We are continuing to work on the proposal to the Honors Diploma. Those changes have not yet been approved, so the current Honors Diploma is still in effect. Please share this with your staff.

Information:

From Dean: Instructional Tools Update

1. Of the requests received in the Spring, about 60% are processed
2. 15% of the requests will be purchased at the school level. School Accounting Techs and Office Mangers were informed of the account codes by Austin James.
3. About 20% of the requests are held up until school schedules are published in Synergy. We need this information to know quantities for purchase.  These are largely digital tools and can be turned around quickly.
4. The remaining 5% are one off requests and are being processed.
5. During the week of August 21^st, we plan to send status updates to every teacher who made a request in the Spring via email.
6. The Instructional Technology staff is working hard to deploy all of these instructional tools.

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Wayfinder Administrative Training:

Thank you for all for attending the training on August 11^th with Diana from Wayfinder. I know a few of you missed it so I wanted to send out the recording. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions. Also, the Wayfinder booklets have been delivered and many of the schools were short booklets. Stephanie Bent has been working to order more workbooks based on the most recent enrollment numbers and those should be delivered soon. Austin James is working on the Clever integration for teachers and access to the digital curriculum.

Bend-La Pine Admin Training Recording. Passcode: ^aOe9v#D

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From Scott in IT:

The Help Desk:

Your excellent IT Help Desk is for district staff only!  

Please do not forward or give our IT help desk number to students or families for any reason. 

Nope! Not even for the reason you are thinking about right now!

Student Connectivity Solutions:

For the previous three years, our district has provided hotspots to students who did not have internet access at home. The demand for these hotspots has decreased significantly from over 600 in 2020-21 to 132 in 2022-23. Additionally, the federal funding for student hotspots has moved toward a family-centered solution called the Affordable Connectivity Program.  

The Affordable Connectivity Program allows qualifying families to receive internet from almost all providers at a significant discount. I encourage you to promote this program to your families in any way possible. Families from any of our CEP campuses automatically qualify. If you are a principal from a CEP school, you can use the attached letter (in both English and Spanish) as a starter template. Be sure to modify all of the highlighted areas before distributing the letter to your families.  

Finally, we in IT know that connectivity is a significant barrier (ranked 5^th) to student learning. Other solutions (including hotspots) for those with insecure housing are being considered. We will communicate additional possibilities as they become available.

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From Paul in HR:

UKG and My Team members

Building leaders may notice that there are employees on their My Team area of UKG who were temporary teachers last year and are still appearing as if they are on your 2023-24 roster.  This is due to a deliberate decision that we made in June to not terminate temporary certified staff (a) because so many of them are rehired, it would create double work if we had terminated them on June 30th, and (b) if we terminate them, then they would not have BLS email access nor UKG access to track job openings and communicate with hiring managers

On August 18th, we will begin the process of terminating temporary certified staff from the 2022-23 school year who have not been rehired.  As we process those, you’ll notice them drop off of your My Team rosters.  

Before building leaders departed for the summer, office managers emailed an updated certified FTE list for the 2023-24 school year to [email protected].  We are still processing the changes from those FTE lists and assisting new hires so your My Teams information will become gradually more up-to-date each day.  

July was devoted to BLAST new hires and movements (we had an unusually large volume of these this past year) and assisting moving new certified staff through the onboarding/licensure process.

Onboarding New Employees

Please note that once an external candidate accepts an offer of employment, it can take 7+ days for them to be cleared to work.  Drug testing takes as long as 5 days once the person goes into the lab and background checks can take an average of 3 days after they submit the necessary information.  In addition, the new hires have to complete all of their onboarding paperwork before they are legally allowed to show up at your site. DO NOT HAVE THEM WORKING PRIOR TO NOTICE FROM HR.

If you post a job today, begin interviews after 5 days, do your necessary reference checks, submit a request to hire, wait for HR approval, get a verbal offer of acceptance THEN the 7+ day onboarding process begins.  Please take this timeline into consideration as you may need to have a substitute to begin the school year for people who have not been cleared to work in time for the start of school.

Supervisors will receive an email from one of our Specialists when employees clear the hiring process and are permitted to begin working, but if you want to check the status of a new hire, please wait until at least 7 days after the verbal acceptance to email [email protected]. REPEAT: DO NOT HAVE THEM WORKING PRIOR TO NOTICE FROM HR.

HDESD Sub System: Red Rover Replacing Frontline Absence Management

We are hearing from staff that they have received a login notice from Red Rover.  Please help us communicate to staff that HDESD passed last year’s data from Frontline to Red Rover therefore it is NOT up to date with 2023/24 data,  Office managers will need to work with HDESD to align current staffing assignments with Red Rover accounts as this is outside the scope of BLS HR’s work.

We have not received a request from HDESD to give them updated data from the 2023-24 school year yet so it will be a few weeks before you can expect to see anything different in Red Rover.

Update:  We received this email from HDESD on Thursday morning

Good morning HR partners,

I wanted to share the email below that was sent to your office managers yesterday with the news that invitations had been sent out to staff to login to Red Rover and set up their profiles. We go live on Monday and at that point, staff will be able to add absences and select their preferred substitutes. Also, on Monday, our substitutes will be able to begin accepting jobs.

Please know that we will be working alongside office managers, staff and substitutes during this transition and while we know there may be anxiety with a major software change like this, we stand ready to assist in any way we can.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

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From Tami: Illness Symptoms and When to Stay Home

Bend-La Pine Schools follows the Oregon Health Authority/Oregon Department of Education’s Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools. This guidance includes when an individual should be excluded from attending school on site (including any school-related activities such as clubs and sports). 

For information on symptom-based exclusion guidelines, see page 8 of the Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools. 

• Fever – An individual must be fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications.
• Diarrhea/vomiting – Must be 48 hours since last episode.

COVID-19 is no longer an excludable disease (unless symptoms of fever, vomiting, and/or diarrhea are present). Parents/guardians/staff are no longer required to report positive cases of COVID-19 to the schools. COVID-19 test kits and medical grade face masks are available to students and staff upon request. Check with your school nurse about how to obtain a supply for your school.

You may also refer staff to the Health and Wellness section on our Bend-La Pine Schools website for more information about when to stay home.

For any additional questions/information, please contact the Bend-La Pine Schools Human Resources Department directly.

Calendar:

• August 21: 8:00-10:00 HS Check in @ Caldera HS
• August 22 and 23: 8:00-4:00 Taking it Up training for those who have not attended previously
• Inservice Week Schedule
• August 28: 7:30-9:00: New Teacher Orientation Day at Northstar Elementary
• August 29: 8:30-9:30+ District Virtual Welcome Back Event; be sure that ALL STAFF are in one location for this event. Be ready to send pics! (see Scott’s note above).
• August 30: Building Led Professional Development
• August 30^th am focus:  Assessment and Feedback Practices (formerly known as Equitable Grading)
• August 30^th pm focus: Tier 1 MTSS framework:  Teaching and supporting the development of prosocial behaviors.
• September 6: Ninth grade only day; regular daily schedule (8:00-4:00).
• September 19: 8:00-9:30 HS Work Session

To Do:

HS Teams and Leads: Please update this document with 23-24 administrative leads from your school by Sept 1. The only name on the list that will not be an administrator is the ICCL Lead coach.

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Concussion Study notification to families: All high schools, please mail home these letters to your families by Friday, August 18: Information about the Ready for School Project, Letter to Families in English; Letter to Families in Spanish. Feel free to contact Jody Slocumb: [email protected]., if you have questions about the project and encourage families to do the same. This is the last year of the project. Thank you!

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From Eric Powell, Assistant Director of Student Services : SIRC (Sexual Incident Response Committee) /STAS (Student Threat Assessment System) Information

*Please review your SIRC/STAS Level 1 Team for the school year (and add/update names as needed): 2023-2024 SIRC/STAS Teams Link

*Please sign up for one of the SIRC/STAS trainings below to be prepared for the school year:

2023-2024 Training Dates (STAS)

2023-2024 Training Dates (SIRC) – Elementary

2023-2024 Training Dates (SIRC) – Secondary

*Here is a link to our SIRC/STAS 101 document (also linked in the ‘Resource Guide’) for you to reference as you think about threat assessment for the school year: SIRC/STAS 101

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Information:

Here are the slides from our trainings this week:

August 8 Culture and Climate: Tier 1 Instructional Practices session: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sLk8dQvSljZOBO7CRUzfqSWkm89OjzSdDrRBFXwu4dU/edit?usp=sharing

August 8 Culture and Climate: Tier 1 Teaching and Reinforcing Belonging for ALL students

August 9 Office Managers Meeting Powerpoint-in case you were wondering what was covered.

August 10 Secondary Administrator Training

Task Force Team Members: HERE is the list of team-members on the task force.

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From Lora: Just a friendly reminder that is in violation of Oregon law to require or even ask K-12 students to provide or pay for ANY supplies required for their “free and appropriate public education.” Here are the exceptions:

• Instrument rental
• PE uniforms
• (applies only to elective classes) Materials for projects that the student will keep (i.e. jewelry). Students cannot be prohibited from taking the class if they don’t pay a materials fee, they just can’t keep the projects.

For the law/policy geeks, here is the law: https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_339.155

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From Scott Maben, Communications: Our Welcome Back virtual presentation for all district staff will be Tuesday, August 29, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. This will be a Microsoft Teams meeting. In the event it runs a little past 9:30, we advise not scheduling other staff activities before 10 a.m. that day.

We encourage you to gather your building staff for a group viewing of our Welcome Back event… perhaps serving breakfast treats, creating a Bingo game, using a campfire theme. Have fun!

A “save the date” postcard was recently mailed home to all district employees and noted more information will be shared via email. We anticipate sending that email to all district no later than Monday, August 14. Our final agenda planning meeting will be this Friday.

You may be asked why, post-pandemic, we are still holding this meeting virtually. It’s about the logistics of gathering all staff in one location and the distance employees need to travel. The impact on the rest of the workday is especially challenging for our south county schools. We want to make it as easy and stress-free for all employees to join us for this one-hour kickoff to the school year.

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From Scott McDonald, Director of Instructional Technology Greetings, Your IT System Support team provides many important training opportunities for admin, office, and support staff at the start of the year. You can find a calendar of available offerings and support documentation on the “Office Staff Essentials” page in the staff portal. PLEASE make sure your office staff is both aware of the training calendar and that they are protected from schedule conflicts as much as possible. Our IT team is not available for make-up sessions. One-to-One support will need to be provided by staff in similar roles. 

Any of these training sessions are open to administrators. Having multiple people in your building with operational knowledge of our systems is strongly encouraged.

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Calendar:

• August 22 and 23: 8:00-4:00 Taking it Up training for those who have not attended previously

• Inservice Week Schedule
• August 28: 7:30-9:00: New Teacher Orientation Day at Northstar Elementary
• August 29: 8:30-9:30+ District Virtual Welcome Back Event; be sure that ALL STAFF are in one location for this event. Be ready to send pics! (see Scott’s note above).
• August 30: Building Led Professional Development
• August 30^th am focus:  Assessment and Feedback Practices (formerly known as Equitable Grading)
• August 30^th pm focus: Tier 1 MTSS framework:  Teaching and supporting the development of prosocial behaviors.
• September 6: Ninth grade only day; regular daily schedule (8:00-4:00).
• September 19: 8:00-9:30 HS Work Session

Congratulations to the Corn Hole Champions, Juan and Susie:

Enjoy this video of our ROCK PAPER SCISSORS Semi-Championship round at our Leadership Launch this week! Watch Dr Clark defeat Dr Cook!

Welcome to the two NEW members to our team!

Dr. LaKisha Clark, Bend Tech Academy Principal

Kelly Beaudry, Assistant Principal, Bend Senior High School.

To Do:

From Jennifer: Wayfinder training: Recently you received a login code from Wayfinder, and an invite from Jennifer Hauth, to a mandatory 45 minute virtual admin training with Wayfinder on Friday, August 11, starting at 9:00.

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From Deby in Support Services: Be sure you send your administrative and office team members to these trainings in August. The Office Manager training is

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Kinsey: Taking It Up workshop: Our district’s intention is that all staff—prioritizing leadership—participate in Coaching for Educational Equity (CFEE, a week-long intensive workshop) and/or the two-day Taking It Up.  Many of our leaders are already CFEE graduates, so we’re well on our way.   

CFEE and TIU are incredibly valuable ways to engage in the ongoing journey of understanding oppression in Oregon’s history and education system, as well as to develop shared language as a leadership team and staff.   

If you have not yet participated in CFEE and don’t anticipate being able to do so in the next year or so, please sign up ASAP for Taking It Up this August 22-23.  ​Please include this invitation in your welcome-back message to your staff and encourage them (particularly your ICCL members) to sign up.  

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From Ryan in Human Resources: Please encourage your new certified staff members to attend the New Licensed Staff Orientation on Monday, August 28th at Silver Rail Elementary School with all our newly-hired certified staff.

The orientation will take place from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with breakfast service beginning at 7:30 AM. Lunch will be from 12:00 – 1:00, hosted by Bend Education Association, and job-alike sessions will be held from 1:00 – 4:00. A more detailed agenda for the day will be available at the orientation. 

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Staffing Plans: Keep on updating those plans as changes occur in your staffing! In September, April and I will schedule a time to meet each school’s Principal and Office Manager to review your school’s plan.

Information:

From Lora: Leadership Training next week: Our two day Leadership Launch is scheduled for August 7 and 8 next week at the Riverhouse Convention Center 8:-4. Plan to join our BLAST team at Dana Pederson’s home the evening of August 7@ 5:00.

The MS and HS Horizontal Team training is scheduled for August 10 8:00-4:00 @ BSHS in Perseverance Hall.

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Inservice Week : Here is a reminder of the the guidelines for inservice week, as you and your leadership teams plan and prepare to launch the school year.

August 30 is our District Training Day. That morning, plan to have your staff meet in the same room for the virtual welcome back event. After that event, building leaders will lead training with your staff focused on priority standards/equitable grading and MTSS Tier 1 student support systems. More to come on this during our August 10 MS/HS training.

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From Dean: The job description for the Graduation Coach has been updated.  Here is the link. The main updates are:

• Being a part of the decision-making process for the GED
• Tracking supports for Native American students (per ODE direction)
• Participate in Ninth Grade On Track meetings

Dean will be scheduling a meeting with Grad Coaches and Admin who oversee them in the first weeks of school to solidify the role of the Grad Coach in each school.

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HDESD Substitute Management: You may have received this email from Kristen at the HDESD regarding the new substitute software.  She suggests that teachers run through the module prior to school beginning – which takes about 20 min.  Here is her message:

You’ve likely heard that HDESD is transitioning to a new substitute placement software platform in the coming school year. We are pleased to introduce Red Rover, which will significantly streamline the processes around absence management, sub placement and time tracking. Red Rover is a one-stop shop that is more secure and user-friendly than the current process which requires two systems (one to find sub placement and another to clock hours). 

We wanted to keep you informed as we will be communicating with school office managers, teachers and substitutes beginning next week. They will receive instructions and training directly from Red Rover and we will be working alongside them to ensure they have what they need to use the new platform, including the free mobile app. We will also be asking school office managers to help us communicate with their accounting, billing and secretarial staff as well as serving as point of contact for each school (with support from our HDESD sub team). 

HDESD will officially go live with Red Rover on August 21st, at which time subs will be able to start accepting assignments. Meantime, we will be working with teachers to build their profiles and enter absences beginning August 9. 

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From Scott McDonald: This is the second reminder that this coming fall, we will be switching from WebEx to Microsoft Teams as our preferred video conferencing platform.   

Although there is plenty of time to get comfortable with teams before WebEx goes away in late October, we hope that many of you will consider making the jump sooner rather than later.

If you regularly host meetings with students or staff, I recommend watching the following training videos-  

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/join-a-teams-meeting-078e9868-f1aa-4414-8bb9-ee88e9236ee4

Watching all the tutorial videos will surely make you a Teams Wizard.   However, if you only have time to watch one, then choose “Manage Meetings” and you will get by.

Obviously, there is a great deal more that you can do professionally with the Microsoft Teams app besides video conferencing.  The Microsoft Teams Help and Learning Site is full of resources that will help you better understand how to make the most of the platform at work.

Feel free to call the the Help Desk at 541 355 1200 if you have specific questions about this change or any other IT related matter. 

Also…

Beginning this week, a new network for personal devices (Bring Your Own Device) is available in our schools and district facilities. This network is called BLS BYOD.  BLS BYOD will be replacing BLS Wi-Fi (our old personal device network). Staff and students needing a wireless connection for their personal device should now use BLS BYOD.  This change does not impact district issued computers, iPads or other devices. Additionally, district owned devices should never be connected to BLS BYOD.

The password to connect to BLS BYOD is knowledge. After connecting, you will be prompted for your district username and password.

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From Doug Pigman, Executive Director of Facilities: Welcome back Administrators! 

We hope you had a restful summer, and you had an opportunity to do something fun. 

We wanted to send out a recap email to provide an update on the current state of our Outside Services crew. Knowing that we have struggled in the past to get the needed summer help,  we posted the positions mid-February in an attempt to get our posting out before the competition. We were looking to hire and onboard 13 temporary summer staff but received very little response. At that time, the job openings were posted, and the projects and workload had been identified, but by mid-June, we had only one (1) additional summer staff member on board. By late July, we had only four (4) additional summer staff onboarded, however, during this time, we were then five (5) permanent staff down, putting our team at a deficit of one (-1). As a result of being extremely short-handed, our staff has been working overtime in an attempt to keep up as much as possible, but everyone can clearly see it is not humanly possible with this much of a staffing shortage. Our permanent employees, who would normally be committed to summer projects, have now had to switch to mowing and maintaining the grounds the best they can. The normal areas where attention has been historically focused, such as weeding, parking lot sweeping, sidewalk edging and other normal summer tasks, were simply out of our control to fully maintain. Field lining is set to begin next week; therefore, we will need to move employees from the mow crew to complete field lining on time, which means we will have even fewer employees maintaining grounds at this time. 

The Outside Services crew takes great pride in their work and would like to have everything finished for the returning students this fall.  If there are specific projects you may have requested to be completed this summer and it has not been done, our team requests your patience as we are working to the best of our ability. 

For your viewing pleasure HERE is a copy of 2022 Bond projects progress.

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From Garra in Nutrition Services News:

Due to the Oregon “No Shaming Law” we are only  allowed to discuss meal balances with parents or guardians. Uncollected charges are considered debts to the district and as such may need to be covered with general fund dollars which takes money from the classrooms. To avoid this, our staff work diligently in sending notifications by email, US mail, and phone calls to parents trying to get payment or a free and reduced application. When all of these efforts have failed, our staff may look to you for support. Often a phone call from an administrator is more influential.

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From Paul in Human Resources:

New UKG Interface

On August 4th, UKG updated their dashboard interface.  This is a cosmetic change only.  Please be patient as you grow acclimated to the new interface and access the content as you did prior to the upgrade.  This video provides an overview of the changes.

Safe Schools and Professional Development Opportunities

UKG’s Learning module will store our Safe Schools Compliance Training materials and replace Performance Matters as the method to view and sign up for professional development opportunities. Here are some resources to orient yourself to the Learning module:

• Video Overview of the Learning Module
• Video Overview For Safe Schools Access
• Google Doc of Learning Module Tips

Safe Schools trainings are now available in Learning as are many Summer PD classes.

New Substitute Request System

HDESD has replaced Frontline’s Absence Management/Aesop/Sub-Finder software with Red Rover.  The ESD will be sharing information on how to access, set up and use Red Rover prior to the start of the school year.

IMPORTANT CHANGE: Effective immediately, all staff will submit their time off requests through UKG.  If a staff member requires a substitute for that absence, then they will ALSO submit a substitute request through Red Rover.

Time off requests will be made through the Self-Service tab by clicking on the button (see below) and following the prompts. Each staff member’s time off options are different depending upon their position.

Tech Support

• Support for UKG Timesheet/Time off questions contact Payroll Department: [email protected]
• Support for UKG HR questions contact HR Technical support at: [email protected]
• Help Desk phone support at x1200 for issues like login and multifactor authentication problems

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From Kinsey: Inclusion and belonging are critically important values in our organization.  A key opportunity to demonstrate these values is to respect important holidays observed by faith groups in our community.  Some of these dates are not designated days off school within our district calendar, so we need to do our best to keep them free of major activities.  

On the following fall dates, please do NOT schedule school family nights, special events or trips, or exams/required activities or trainings (for staff or students) that can’t be made up. In addition, share with your office, athletics, counseling, and teachers as applicable.

• Saturday, Sept 16 Rosh Hashanah
• Monday, Sept 25 Yom Kippur

Learn more about these holidays and how to accommodate here.   Guidance for best practices around religion in our schools here. 

Calendar: 

Here is the link to the SIW calendar for 23-24

• August 7, 8:00-4:00 at the Riverhouse Convention Center: A Culture of Safety and Belonging: K-12 Leaders
• August 7, BLAST (Bend-La Pine Administrator and Supervisor Team) K-12 and District Admin Dinner at the home of Dana and Dan Pedersen, 5:00. You and your spouse/partner, are invited to an amazing dining experience catered by our own nutritional services department. Come and enjoy a relaxing time to eat, drink, and be merry, with your colleagues at the Pedersen’s beautiful country setting. Dana’s address is: 62880 Dickey Road (east out Hwy 20).
• August 8, 8:00-4:00 at the Riverhouse Convention Center: A Culture of Leading and Learning: K-12 Leaders
• August 10, 8:00-4:00: MS/HS Team Launch 8:00-4:00 @ BSHS in Perseverance Hall.
• August 11, 9:00-10:00; Wayfinder training, virtual link sent to you from Jennifer Hauth.
• August 28, 7:30-9:00: New Teacher Orientation Day at Silver Rail Elementary
• August 29, (time TBD, but plan for about 1.5 hours around 8:00) District Virtual Welcome Back Event and District Training

Congratulations to all of our of 2023 graduates! Check out these beautiful photos from our ceremonies:

To Do:

Summer Office Hours Sign – please print this sign and post it on your front doors.

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From Sean: Healthy Schools Family Letter Toolkit

The Healthy Schools team is going to develop a communication toolkit for schools this summer so schools can easily send letters to families on various health topics (think vaping, social media, substance use, etc.).  We would like to collect ideas from you.  What health topics would you like developed in the toolkit?  What types of information do you want to communicate to families?  The survey below will take 30 seconds.  Toolkit Survey

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Support for your College Now Teachers: COCC is looking to host all of our College Now (dual credit) staff during in-service week to kick off the year and ensure they are ready to go once students arrive.  We’ve landed at 2:00-4:00 on Thursday the 31^st as a time.  I understand you may have other PD planned for this time, but if you do not, could you please let your folks know they are free to attend?  Or if you haven’t planned out your PD calendar, maybe work around this time slot?

Finding time in a tight week was tough but any support you can provide for these folks to attend would be greatly appreciated.

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Please read and share this with your staff: “Please see the email from Kinsey this week about CFEE and Taking It Up.  This training is a significant priority for our school board and district leadership team, and is the underpinning of the work we are doing around instruction, inclusion, and belonging.  Be sure to sign up if applicable, and please forward it to your teachers ASAP.”

Information:

Great news from Kim in Transportation: I shared in an earlier post that Kim and her fantastic team in the Transportation Department have added routes that allow for our choice high schools to align start and end times with the comprehensive high schools.

Additionally, they have added two buses to ensure that students attending BTA@MHS OR Realms HS, who elect to participate in athletics or activities, have a direct ride to their home school.

Kim communicated to me this week: “We are going to be able to have an additional bus for each high school at BTA and REALMS. Student athletes (and/or club participants) can ride this bus directly to their home school. We will get a list from the school, or AD’s of students for each season as this bus is only for students participating in athletics/club during their season. The buses will be at REALMS or BTA by release time, so if students hop on quickly the bus can get them up to their home school quickly.”

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From Student Services: An all day CPI Crisis Prevention Intervention (restraint) training will be offered for administrators on Aug. 24th.  The sign-up will be in UKG.  All building leaders are encouraged to attend.

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From Jackie:

Standard Operating Procedure for School Holidays

Summertime holiday shutdowns are a great way to help conserve resources and save money. Please make sure all the staff see the Standard Operating Procedures for school holidays. Shutting down electronics can assist BLS in decreasing energy waste. Please see the attached District SOP.

Vanpool for the 23-24 school year

If you have staff that are currently or have been wanting to start a carpool to get to their schoolwork site, they might be interested in a FREE Vanpool with Commute with Enterprise. Through this program, staff are provided with a van, a gas card and gain time from their commute. This program has been established in the spring with Three Rivers and can expand to schools in the fall. Please see the attached flyer and if staff are interested, they should contact the sustainability coordinator [email protected] 

Thanks so much. I am in the office next Monday and then on a service trip with students Tuesday the 13-22^nd. If you have any questions, please reach out on Monday. Have a great rest of the graduation week. I am super grateful there was no lightning for the Summit graduation last evening!

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From HR:

Temporary Employees – Very Important

HR will not be shutting down access to BLS email and UKG for temporary employees whose temp contracts end on June 30th.  In order to give those employees the ability to apply for open positions and allow admin to communicate with those temporary staff about interview invitations, we are keeping those accounts open until August 18.  We will close them on the 8/18.

FTE List Reminder

Each school received an email from Trish Uhart on May 5^th with the subject line 2023-24 Certified FTE lists.  Please read and respond to that email no later than June 23rd.

Updating Staff Assignments for 2023-24

Members of our HR team are holding an optional meeting with Office Managers on Tuesday, June 20th, from 12:00 – 2 pm at the Ed Center to review how to update staffing assignments through UKG.  Lunch will be provided and this session is highly recommended for office managers who are still getting used to the HRIS module and HR Actions.

UKG’s Learning Platform

Performance Matters will be going away at the end of June, this year and replaced by UKG’s Learning platform. This means that anyone that wishes to pull their transcript data or certificates of completion for courses taken will need to do so BEFORE June 30, 2023.  Go into your Performance Matters account -> MyCourses (at the top toolbar) -> My Transcript

If you want a sneak peek into the Learning module, here is a video overview of it.  More information will be shared in August.

ICCL Hiring

Don’t forget to request to hire your ICCL candidates through UKG.

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Calendar:

June 19: Juneteenth Holiday. School offices Closed – be sure to communicate this with families.

June 20: HS Administrator meeting about scheduling for part time teachers 12:00-1:00 @ LPHS Library – snacks provided!

June 20: HS Administrator Work Session 1:00-4:00@ LPHS Library

June 21: BLAST end of the year lunch and celebration 11:30 @ Ed Center

June 22: Last day with CEL–Leading Equitable Schools 8-2 @ Perseverance Hall, Bend High

August 2: New Administrator Orientation 8:00-1:00 @ Education Center

August 7 and 8: K-12 Administrator Training – 8:00-4:00 @Riverhouse Conference Center

August 10 or 15: HS administrator Welcome Back!

Celebrating our Graduates!

Congratulations to our first graduate, Monir, from our District’s Newcomer Program!  🎉. Kinsey, the team at Mountain View HS and the Newcomer Program staff hosted a surprise graduation party for Monir this week! Kinsey wrote, I am so proud that our district offers this program to our community.  I wanted to take a minute to celebrate not only our student but also this incredible team—this accomplishment is thanks to you, and this celebration is yours as well.  ¡Salud!  

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Congratulations to our first Graduating Class of Dual Immersion Students! The DI program and our students were also highlighted on the front page of the Bulletin: HERE. The program has been at Bend Senior HS and will be located at Caldera HS next year. An impressive accomplishment for these students!

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Congratulations to the students earning an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma! These Bend Senior HS students were celebrated at a special ceremony this week!

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Congratulations to the team at Summit HS for a successful graduation last night! Can you guess the parent of these Summit graduates…?

To Do:

From Instructional Technology: Please take a look at this secondary iPad roll-in information as we work to clean up iPads for the summer. Not only do these efforts get a jump on ready-to-use iPads in the fall, they also introduce organizational skills of digital materials. For a complete view of what’s happening district-wide, check out the Spring iPad plan. Take a look at BLS tier one page or reach out to your site tech with questions.

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From Stephen: COCC will be running a Sponsored Dual Credit (SDC) training this summer to prepare HS instructors interested in articulating PS 201, Introduction to US Government and Politics (4 credits). This aligns well with APGov or similar (IB equivalent?). Would you mind sharing this out to BL high schools that may have interest? No cost to instructors/districts to attend.

Training Dates:

Friday, 8/4, 8am – 11am

Friday, 8/11, 8am – 11am

Friday, 8/18, 8am – 11am

Friday, 8/25, 8am – 11am

Link to register for training here.

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From Walt Norris: Since we are getting closer to summer, it’s time for our custodial crew to start firing up for summer clean. One thing that happens every year that is an issue, is the teacher’s personal items left in the classroom. Because of security, safety and personal reasons custodial will not be handling them. This soft furniture, bookshelves, rugs, aquarium’s, plants, animals etc. shouldn’t be a custodial responsibility to clean and is ultimately a risk if there is breakage, missing or otherwise. Please encourage teachers to take their personal items home for the summer. The custodial crew thanks you!

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Please share with staff these upcoming trainings offered through the HDESD:

Collaborative Problem Solving
Tier 1: Essential Foundations Training
When: August 23 & 24, 8:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Where: Crook County High School – Commons
Breakfast & Lunch Provided

Complete the Interest Form

Learn More About Collaborative Problem Solving

Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity’ Book study Returns in Fall 2023!

Complete the Fall 2023 Session Interest Form

Information:

Queer Prom: Kudos to Kinsey for organizing our first Queer Prom last Saturday! The event was a huge success with about 70 students form and all of our high schools were well represented.  There were no issues or disruptions of any kind. A special shout out to Officer Ward who was an amazing support at the event.  

Additionally, Kinsey organized a Field Day for our GSA clubs this week! Thank you to all of the MS and HS GSA advisors who helped to make this day a success! EVERY student deserves to feel happy and proud!

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A Celebration of our Counselors! On Friday June 2^nd, counselors gathered in the level groups to celebrate their school counseling program.  During our time together, counselors delivered short presentations to share data and program updates that looked at how students are different as a result of school counseling programming.  In alignment with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), school counselors evaluate and share the results of their programs impact and effectiveness with key shareholders. We are so grateful for those that were able to attend our celebration.  If you weren’t able to attend, we encourage you to meet with your school counseling team to go over their data and slides.

Below are the slide decks by level for your reference:   

Elementary School End of Year School Counseling Presentation

Middle School End of Year School Counseling Presentation

High School End of Year School Counseling Presentation

Thank you again for all of your support of our K-12 School Counseling Program.  “Without administrator support, school counselors will strive , but not thrive.”   -Dr. Trish Hatch

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From Lora: Here is guidance to follow when creating your master schedule.

Guidance for Part-time Scheduling Doc

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From HR:

Revised Request To Hire Guidance

We are removing the Hiring Checklist from the request to hire process as of Monday, June 5^th [insert cheer].   The instruction video has been re-recorded to reflect this and we’ve also updated where to change a candidate’s hiring stage from Applicant to Request to Hire as the old video became outdated when UKG performed a software update last month.

UKG and Hiring Season

Please reference UKG Job Requisition, Interview Prep, Applicant Screening and Hiring Tips as we enter into peak hiring season. We have important information about ICCL hiring in this document (cut/pasted below).  Within the document is also access to a Veteran’s Preference report where you can easily view which external candidates are veterans.  

REMINDER: Certified Temporary/Probationary 1 & 2 and Contract Staff of Concern

As you complete Summative Evaluations, it is imperative that you note any performance deficiencies in both the domain/standard rating AND in the summary section at the end.  

You may use language like, 

• “Teacher AB does not meet performance expectations in [insert any/all that apply]”
• “It is necessary that AB becomes effective in these domains”
• PROBATIONARY/TEMPORARY ONLY: “Failure to meet performance objectives will result in probationary non-renewal at the conclusion of the following school year or failure to move from probationary to contract status by March of year three”  
• “Teacher AB will be placed on Focused Performance Evaluation at the beginning of the upcoming school year” [or insert Support Strategies if you’ve already completed the Focus Perf. step] 

HR will be contacting administrators in August/September to identify probationary teachers of concern.

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From Magadalyn Hasse:  In case you weren’t aware…Magadalyn has been hired to replace Denise in Student Services. Please send Magadalyn a list of your 2023 -2024 504 coordinators before the end of the month. 

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2023-24 SIW Schedule – Here is the SIW schedule for next year.   Thank you Stephen Duval for putting this together.  

Calendar:

June 9: La Pine HS graduation @ 7:00 pm

June 10: Mountain View HS graduation @ 10:00 am

June 10: Bend Senior HS graduation @ 3:00 pm

June 12: Bend Tech Academy @ Marshall High School graduation @ 7:00 pm

June 13: Realms HS graduation @ 7:00 pm

June 16: Last Day of School – Follow your SIW schedule

June 19: Juneteenth Holiday. School offices Closed – be sure to communicate this with families.

June 20: HS Administrator Work Session 1:00-4:00 TBD

June 21: BLAST end of the year lunch and celebration 11:30 @ Ed Center

June 22: Last day with CEL–Leading Equitable Schools 8-2 @ Perseverance Hall, BSHS

To Do:

From Kinsey: June DEI lessons: Here is a lesson on Juneteenth and a lesson for Pride Month.  Just as we expect teachers to teach about topics like Hispanic Heritage Month, Lunar New Year, or the American Revolution, we similarly ask teachers to include the history and heritage related to these two topics in June (which are directly represented in state learning standards within Ethnic Studies and Health, and in line with our school board priorities for representation and belonging within curriculum and instruction).  

Please share these with your teachers asap, participate in some classrooms during these conversations, and/or reach out to a LEAD/Equity Coach or to Kinsey if you’d like partnership!

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Information:

Priority Standards: At our administrator work session this week, our secondary TOSA’s shared with us the fantastic priority standards work our teacher representatives have been embarking on with Anne McCarty-Perez this spring. Here is an example of the progress made in the five content areas so far.

In addition to a summary of the priority standards work, we reviewed the latest draft of the professional development plan for next year, as it relates to moving staff forward. Feel free to get input from your ICCL team members on this latest draft. We will discuss the next draft at our June 20th wrap-up work session. Here are the slides from our HS work session from Tuesday.

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CPR/First Aid Updates

From Stephanie Bent: With summer break quickly approaching I just wanted to give an update on First Aid / CPR certification. 

If you would like to renew your First Aid / CPR (or take it for the first time) before school starts again in the fall, PLEASE SIGN UP THRU PERFORMANCE MATTERS BEFORE JUNE 13, 2023 

HANDS ON SKILL CLASSES (20 min class) will be offered at the end of August.

THERE WILL BE NO HANDS ON SKILLS CLASSES DURING THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER.They will resume again in October. 

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From Lora Nordquist: If your site is not meeting state ratios, BEA members may be paid the curriculum rate and OSEA members will be paid their hourly rate to take the training. Sites can cover their time away from their worksite with subs.

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From Tami Pike: Please remind your office managers/secretaries to check the orange first aid bag for supply expiration. Schools need to reorder supplies to replace those expired items in their bags and to be prepared for the return to classes in the fall. Items may include: Burn shield dressing gel, burn gel packs, instant hand sanitizer packets, first aid and burn cream packets, and eye wash.

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From Julianne – It is that time of year again… controlled burns are taking place throughout the region and skies are smoky. To that end, we want to be sure that you review these air quality tools so that you can make decisions about student and staff safety at your school sites.

Calendar:

June is graduation month!! All graduation ceremonies are located at our high schools

June 8: Summit HS graduation @ 7:00 pm

June 9: La Pine HS graduation @ 7:00 pm

June 10: Mountain View HS graduation @ 10:00 am

June 10: Bend Senior HS graduation @ 3:00 pm

June 12: Bend Tech Academy @ Marshall High School graduation @ 7:00 pm

June 13: Realms HS graduation @ 7:00 pm

June 14: Regular school day (Wednesday) – no early release!

June 15: End of the Year ACR discussion (principals only) 1:30-3:00 @ Realms HS

June 16: The LAST day of school! Schools on SIW schedule.

June 19: Juneteenth Holiday. School offices Closed – be sure to communicate this with families.

June 20: HS Administrator Work Session 1:00-4:00 @La Pine High School

June 21: BLAST end of the year lunch and celebration 11:30 @ Ed Center

June 22: Last day with CEL–Leading Equitable Schools 8-2 @ Perseverance Hall, Bend High

To Do:

Prepare your CEL work for June!  Here is your bridge to practice to have done before our June 22 work.  NOTE:  you need to talk to some teachers, so don’t wait until they are all gone!   Also, your canvas (google slides that have been made for you) should be in at least a draft form for your presentations that day. You will need to share those slides which can be done by printing them or showing them on your computer.  We will be at Perseverance Hall from 8:00-2:00.  (original time was 9-3, but got changed).  Let us know if you have any questions. 

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From Kinsey:

Graduation and name pronunciation:  Principals, please don’t forget to have whoever is reading names at graduation clarify and practice correct name pronunciation.  Synergy’s voice-recording of name pronunciation is a good resource (if/when a student has used that tool and has a recording filed there), and/or your Multilingual Services staff can help you rehearse as well. 

Your ICCL team and LEAD/Equity work: 

As you prepare to hir ICCLs, please keep in mind the following information: Next year each school will identify one ICCL member to serve as the ‘liaison’ between your school and the district’s LEAD/Equity work.  This person will have regular collaboration time (within their ICCL role and via sub-release time–not additional hours) with our Office of DEI leadership team, to connect the needs and work of your building with the district-wide efforts and priorities for equity and inclusion.  Just a heads-up as you begin to hire—please be thinking of which member of your team will serve as a point person (someone with a strong interest in matters of equity, inclusion, and school systems to support our priority populations).  Kinsey will reach out in fall for the name of this person!

June LEAD student lessons: 

Our LEAD/Equity Coaches are finalizing two lessons that will be available to you and teachers next week: One for teaching about Juneteenth and one for Pride Month.  Just as we expect teachers to teach about topics like Hispanic Heritage Month, Lunar New Year, or the American Revolution, we similarly ask teachers to include the history and heritage related to these two topics in June (which are directly represented in state learning standards within Ethnic Studies and Health, and in line with our school board priorities for representation and belonging within curriculum and instruction).  

Please: review these lessons when you receive them next week, encourage your teachers to give them a try, participate in some classrooms during these conversations, and/or reach out to a LEAD/Equity Coach or to Kinsey if you’d like partnership!

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From Tami Pike and Aimee Snyder:

Students in Bend High’s Design Justice class developed an Overdose Prevention PSA video that can be shared with students at your schools. 

We plan to share the video through Health classes in the remaining weeks this year.  An email will go out to your middle and high school health teachers Monday morning asking them to share the video with their Health classes before the end of the year and to complete a questionnaire after they show the video.  These are the instructions that will go out to Health teachers. 

As a district, we will consider sharing this PSA to students and similar information to families more broadly next year following fielding testing of the PSA in the Health classes in our remaining weeks this year. 

For your information: The instructions include the PSA script, additional resources to direct students to, and content for a future family newsletter.  Please use the PSA script to answer any questions that may come up related to overdose risk. 

If you have questions or concerns, contact your school’s Public Health Specialist, Tami Pike, or Aimee Snyder:

• Tami Pike: Bend-La Pine Schools Assistant Director of Health Services
• Lindsay Seibel: Public Health Specialist for Bend High, Pilot Butte Middle, Bend Tech Academy
• Amanda Armstrong: Public Health Specialist for La Pine High and Middle
• Lani McQuilkin: Public Health Specialist for Mountain View High, Realms, Sky View Middle
• Emily Wommack: Public Health Specialist for Summit High, Cascade Middle, and Pacific Crest Middle
• Aimee Snyder: Healthy Schools Supervisor filling in for Public Health Specialist for Caldera High, High Desert Middle

The video was made in partnership with Deschutes County Prevention and Health Promotion.  The content in the video aligns with best practices for preventing adolescent substance use. 

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Information:

Access to The Office Group: In the May 5th post, I included a statement that we did not have an agreement in place allowing us to exchange student information with The Office Group. For those of you unfamiliar with this organization, their website gives this description: “The Office Group in Bend, Oregon offers hardworking and deserving high school students in challenging situations the services necessary to maximize their higher education possibilities.”

Over the years, members from The Office Group have worked with some school staff to assist students with post high school planning. We have learned that many students have benefitted from this assistance, and we are grateful. 

Because of the success of this support, we are formalizing this partnership while ensuring that we are meeting our legal obligations to protect student information. We are currently collaborating with The Office Group to develop an agreement that meets this requirement.

It will take some time to work out the details and get an MOU into place. In the meantime, with the end of the school year a few weeks away, there are pressing deadlines to ensure that high school students receive the opportunity to benefit from their support.  

We have received assurances from The Office Group that any protected information gathered on our students will be collected through a voluntary application process, signed by parents/guardians.  Because of this, we are allowing Corben, The Executive Director, to have access to students in your schools as early as is mutually convenient for both parties.

Reminder to school staff: We are legally obligated to ensure that student information is protected at all times. If you are interested in working with an outside organization to benefit students, please reach out to your building leader or a district office administrator to inquire about establishing an agreement.

If you are currently working with an outside organization and are unsure if there is a contract in place, reach out and we can check for you. We would much rather you double check then not be sure and continue without having an agreement in place.

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From Lora: This week we heard broad support from the legislature for an increase in state school funding, from 9.9 billion to 10.2 billion. With this positive news (NOTHING is final), we can approve schools moving ahead with staffing at their original allocation levels. This means that with your level leader’s approval, you may hire for all open positions. Level leaders are holding a few spots for staff who may need to be placed, etc. so there are a few positions we will not hire for at this time.

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From Chad in IT: This is a reminder that our new computer allocation covers certified teacher laptop replacements but nothing else. Office staff computers are each school’s responsibility. This is a great time of year to be thinking about upgrading some of your office machines. We also recommend attempting to spread out these upgrades so that you don’t have 1 year where 10 machines are needed.

Many of you have office staff using computers that are 8-9 years old. If you have those machines in your office please use your discretionary budget to fund replacements. Your IT Client Services tech can (and likely already has) provide you with a list of those machines.

Specifically, right now many office staff are running a Mac mini desktop from 2014. This model of Mac will only receive security updates from Apple for 1 more school year. This means we will be requiring them to be removed from service next summer. A replacement Mac mini for office staff currently goes for $699. Purchase requests can be done by your office manager through our IT Help Desk system (https://bls.fyi/help).

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From Our HDESD Culture of Care Friends – Join the HDESD Culture of Care team this summer for professional learning opportunities to kickstart your school year with care!

                                2023 Summer Care Institute

Registration is now open! 

 2023 Summer Institute.pdf

Hope to see you there! Amber, Amy & Erin

Calendar:

May 26: Project and announce Val and Sal AND send Val/Sal and class of 2023 info to Scott and Katie.

May 29: Memorial Day – No School

May 30: HS Administrator Work Session 8:00-9:30 @ SHS

June 1: Excellence in Education Awards, 5:00 @ Summit

June 2: All counselor End of the Year Celebration 8:00 @ Ed Center boardroom

June is graduation month!! All graduation ceremonies are located at our high schools

June 8: Summit HS graduation @ 7:00 pm

June 9: La Pine HS graduation @ 7:00 pm

June 10: Mountain View HS graduation @ 10:00 am

June 10: Bend Senior HS graduation @ 3:00 pm

June 12: Bend Tech Academy @ Marshall High School graduation @ 7:00 pm

June 13: Realms HS graduation @ 7:00 pm

June 14: This Wednesday is a regular school day – no early release!

June 16: The LAST day of school! Schools on SIW schedule.

June 19: Juneteenth Holiday. School offices Closed – be sure to communicate this with families.

June 20: HS Administrator Work Session 1:00-4:00 TBD

June 21: BLAST end of the year lunch and celebration 11:30 @ Ed Center

June 22: Last day with CEL–Leading Equitable Schools 8-2 @ Perseverance Hall, Bend High