September 5

Back To School Celebration

Thanks to all of our team members who were able to gather at the maintenance facility for the Back To School Celebration.

BLAST Professional Development Allocation

Did you know that all BLAST members have a PD budget allocated to them? Here is the relevant language from the BLAST agreement:

10.2. CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS/MEETINGS

10.2.1. Administrators and Supervisors are encouraged to attend conferences, workshops, meetings, and participate in other professional growth activities, with prior approval by the immediate supervisor. The District shall reimburse meals, lodging, registration, mileage and other approved expenses, up to $1,200 per year per employee. The $1,200 per year will be allocated to buildings/sites to be administered at the discretion of the Administrator/Supervisor at the building/site. These monies are not to be used for tuition-based coursework.

OSEA CBA

Here is the 2023-2027 OSEA CBA. This is currently an internal-only document. Please do not distribute.

Complaint Management

Kinsey and the Policy, Advocacy and Equity Department have rolled out an updated complaint process.

NEW Form for reporting a complaint or a bias incident.
Flowchart for navigating complaints, policies, and timelines.
Poster with QR code. The poster leads to this webpage with details on complaints and a link to the reporting form.

Reminders:

In the Dashboard, click on the new complaint to see details, record outcomes, add your team notes, and/or to request additional support.
If something moves from a concern to a complaint, be sure it is promptly recorded via the reporting form linked above.

2023/24 Evaluations

HR will be doing an audit of 2023/24 evaluations and identify staff whose evaluations were not completed. I’ll partner with HR to retrain Ops admin/supervisors how to complete 2024/25 evaluations so that we can achieve a 100% completion rate by the end of this school year.

AQI FAQ Reminder From Safety

Please review our district’s Air Quality Index (AQI) protocols and decision-making resources on the Safety site of our staff portal. We have added an AQI FAQ document that you can review and share with your staff regarding air quality and our protocols.

As a reminder, it should be the operational leadership, and not individual staff members, making the decision on whether or not people should be working outdoor based off this guidance.

Please reach out to Scott or Kayla if you have any questions, or need support in your air quality decision making process.

Taking It Up – Tentative Dates of October 10th/11th

Feedback was given that August was a very difficult time for Ops Leaders to participate in the Taking It Up training. Please clear your calendars for Thursday, October 10th and Friday, October 11th as likely dates for a Fall TIU training.

Film Event Invitation

Our district’s Black Family & Student Union is bringing the director of the documentary film Black Girls in Suburbia to Bend. The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the director and local community members.

Check out the 3-min film trailer and additional details here. As you can see, the film’s topic is important for us as BLS leaders to engage with, and applies to men/boys and folks who aren’t Black as much as it does to the Black girls/women in our community. The film is short, so with the panel discussion the event will run approx 1:00-3:00pm, at the Tower Theater on Sunday, Sept 15^th.

This is a great opportunity for allyship and solidarity, personal and professional leadrship growth, and engagement and dialogue with our community. I hope you can make it! In fact, for each school or district administrator who is interested in attending, the Office of DEI will purchase your ticket so your participation is FREE. Please RSVP here asap if you’d like a free ticket. It would be great to get one leader from each school/dept to attend and support, if possible. You can purchase additional tickets for friends/family/staff using the Tower Theater link above.

Land Use

Notice of Construction Near High Desert Middle School

Departments

Recognition

At a schoolwide assembly, members of our Facility and Maintenance teams were recognized (along with staff from KNCC, BBT Architects and Three Kings) by Bend Senior High School students and staff for their work in getting BSHS ready for the first day of school after the safe demolition of the auditorium.

Upcoming Events

September 15: Payroll Cutoff—timesheets and approvals for this last period (August 13-Sept 15) are due.