This and That:
SIW Agenda: SIW this week is “school discretion.” This will be “team time.” I want to make sure I am clear that “team time” means that I expect the time is used to meet with your team. It is NOT a choice for a team to decide we just won’t meet because one of our teammates is absent or “we rather work on our own.” Please run any exceptions by me, otherwise, I will expect that your team is meeting for the whole 90 minutes.
Staff Meeting Agenda: Our staff meetings and EBISS meetings will have a new start time of 2:20 for the remainder of the school year so we have time to cover all that we need to cover. At our staff meeting this week, we will be going over changes to the certified evaluation process for this year, talking about our school design plan goals, and going over some reminders regarding LockDown and Secure procedures.
Focus on Excellence and Equity:
TLC Update: No new update this past week.
Attendance Article: “Why student absences aren’t the real problem in America’s ‘attendance crisis’“: A great short read that challenges some common thinking about student absences. Here is a quote:
These policies assume that missing school for any reason harms children academically because they are missing classroom instruction. They also assume that schools will be able to effectively intervene to increase academic achievement by reducing student absences. We find neither to be the case.
As a result, these attendance policies end up disproportionately punishing families dealing with out-of-school crises in their lives and pressuring schools who serve them to get students to school more often.
We instead suggest using unexcused absence from school as a signal to channel resources to the children and families who need them most.
COVID/ Safety Related Information:
COVID Resources Update: Below is some COVID-related resources that will repeat in each of our newsletters for easy access.
- Flowchart for COVID-19 Questions and Concerns: Please follow this flowchart. If in doubt about what to do, you can always check with Frank or Kelle. Frank is our Safety Team Lead, and Ann Hollenberg is our School Nurse.
- BLS Return to School Website: – There is A LOT of great information on this webpage including quarantine and isolation information for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.
- EME COVID Anonymous Safety Concern Form: Link here.
Staff COVID Reporting Reminder: If you have suspected symptoms or have tested positive for COVID our school nurse MUST be notified. You can do that by connecting with Christi, Cindy, Kelle, or Ann and we will add it to the spreadsheet so that a nurse can connect with you.
Masking Reminder: All staff must be wearing approved masks correctly at all required times.
To Do:
Vector Training: Did you miss the due date like I did? We used to have December 31 as our date to finish Safe Schools aka Vector training. The new date is October 31. Oops!
Compacts: Please give your completed compacts to Debbi McMahon for safekeeping. Title I requires that we hang on to these for 7 years.
Important Dates:
- SIW Schedule for the year
- Tuesday: Staff meeting,
- Wednesday: Secure Drill (New name for LockOUT), SIW/ Team time,
- Thursday: Grades K-2 EBISS Training