October ’25 COO Blog

Leadership Launch

On August 7, Jeannie Bloome from COREN (Central Oregon Regional Educational Network) led our teams through a KPI (Key Performance Indicators) exercise. She will be joining us three times this year to build on that initial session with the goal of developing one or two KPIs in each of our respective areas.

Our next session will be in small department groups in November/December. Stay tuned for an invite on your Outlook Calendar. Here are digitized copies of each department’s August work.

Mandatory Ops Virtual Complaint Training

Kinsey has conducted trainings with all school-based administrators on how to handle a complaint investigation involving their staff. I’ve asked her to do the same with our Ops Leadership and here are the links to the sessions. You only need to attend one of the two sessions (if you don’t directly supervise someone, you may opt out of this training).

Thursday, November 13th from 10:00 – 10:30 am (Join the meeting now)
Monday, November 17th from 12:00 – 12:30 pm (Join the meeting now)

***Add the meeting/link to your Outlook calendar as your reminder to log into the session***

Goal Setting & Evaluations for 2025/26

You should be meeting with the people that you supervise to complete 2025/26 goal setting. Every staff member should be go through a full evaluation cycle every other year at a minimum. It is a best practice to complete the goal each year even if you will not be completing a full evaluation. Contact HR if you have questions about who needs to be evaluated in your unit this year.

District Admin Goal Setting Document.pdf (hard copy to print, write, sign and scan back to Paul)
Fillable Admin Goal Setting Form (download and type your info)
Leading Initiative

October All Admin Meeting: Dignity and Belonging: Community Engagement From Kinsey – Office of Policy and Advocacy:

Here is the Bingo card from our leadership meeting. Please keep a copy throughout the year that you cross out as you go.

This spring:

completed copies will go into our raffle for some great prizes!
we will share the number of leaders from each school/dept who completed the full Bingo, and celebrate the creative ways your team engaged with the community in this process.

Community Visit #1: The Giving Plate sign-up. The dates for this tour/visit are coming up, so sign up soon!

Here is our home visit guidance. If home visits don’t really apply to your role, you are welcome to replace those two squares with two other activities (visits to schools to engage in student and staff activities, engagement with industry partners, other community-based events). Let us know if you want to talk this through at all, otherwise feel free to have some flexibility with the home visit options on the Bingo card—if you choose to participate in this, we want you to have a fair shot at getting some of those raffle prizes! 😉

Election Season and Political Topics – From Kinsey Office of Policy and Advocacy:

As election season approaches, this is a good time to revisit our expectations around political topics in our school and workplace. While this November may not bring the same intensity as a presidential election year, maintaining neutrality in our professional capacity remains essential.

Here is our policy around staff engaging in political activities. This is a great tool outlining boundaries and appropriate use of district equipment, time, and resources in relation to election topics. District leadership asks that each employee read the information in those links carefully. Let me know if you have any questions or need clarification.

MOUs/Contracts/Agreements – From the Superintendent

If any of you or your direct reports are responsible for contracts, MOU’s, or Agreements, that require signatures, be sure to monitor any commitments or assurances that may exist in the contracts. There have started to be evidence of assurances added to certain contracts, all Federal so far, that may be incongruous with our values.

If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to Heidi.

Dr. Steven Cook

Safe Schools Training – Administrator Guidance

Dear Administrators,

Wanted to take a moment to fill you in on what to expect with safe schools and some other mandatory trainings this year. By now your teams should have received an invite to begin trainings in vector (they will not need to log into UKG).

As an administrator, you are expected to ensure your teams complete the required Safe Schools trainings, which are due no later than October 31, 2025.

During the first weeks of September, Stuart Eaton will be manually assigning permissions to allow you to view your team’s progress. Our goal is to have your access set up by September 10, 2025. Principals and Office Managers will be able to view team members and generate completion reports.

Special Situations to Be Aware Of

Employees at multiple sites – Some staff may be assigned to more than one location. Please coordinate with the other administrator(s) to ensure training is tracked appropriately.
Data processing time lag – Changes to team assignments may take up to 10 business days to appear in Vector due to our weekly automated upload. Please allow this time before reporting an issue.
Data errors – If, after the 10-day period, you still do not see an employee or notice incorrect information, contact Stuart Eaton in our HR office at [email protected] for assistance.

Instructions

To View a Single Employee:

Log in to Vector: https://bend-or.safeschools.com/login
Select Employees from the grey menu on the left (once your permissions are set up).

You will see a list of employees you have access to. Use the search bar to find specific individuals.
Click on an employee’s name to view their details.
Select the Training tab to view all scheduled trainings.
A green checkmark indicates completion, with the completed date listed.

To Generate a Team Report:

Vector offers many reporting options, but here’s a basic report for tracking team progress:

From the grey menu, select Reports.
Along the top, choose Compliance by Employee.
In the Detail tab, select Summarize by Person.
Select Run Report – results will display on the screen.
Use Export Report to create a file you can sort and filter in Excel as needed.

For technical support, please contact:

Stuart Eaton – HRIS Analyst – He/Him/His

Bend La Pine School District – Ed Center RM 219

541-355-1107

HR Update: New Employee Onboarding

We are excited to announce the first iteration of mid-year orientation and onboarding for new hires, beginning Thursday, October 23 and continuing every other Thursday for the remainder of the year.

These sessions are designed to ensure our new employees enter their roles feeling confident, connected, and supported. Each orientation will include:

Payroll, Human Resources, and Policy: An overview of organizational practices and role-specific information.
IT Support: Small group time to set up single sign-on and other key systems.
Union Introductions: Opportunities to hear from OSEA or BEA, if their position is represented.
Role-Specific Training: A half-day dedicated to job-specific skills and expectations.
- For school-based staff, Level Leaders will take the lead on this portion.
  - For non-school-based staff, HR has collaborated with Directors, Assistant
    - Directors, and Supervisors to develop tailored plans.

Important Note: All candidates who accept a position after Friday, October 10 will not be permitted to start work until they have attended one of these orientations.

This new process reflects our shared goal of ensuring that every employee starts their journey with Bend-La Pine Schools on strong footing, well-prepared to contribute and thrive.

Thank you for supporting this important step in welcoming our newest colleagues. Please connect with Ryan with any questions.

HR Quick Reminder: Check Your UKG To-Do List

Please take a moment this week to log into UKG and check your To-Do list.

Pending Personnel Actions (PAs) can hold up key processes like pay changes and assignment updates if they’re not approved in a timely manner.

Regularly reviewing your To-Do list, even when you don’t expect anything pending, helps keep workflows moving smoothly and ensures your employees are set up for success without delay.

This should be done regularly, but is particularly important on and around the Payroll cutoff dates, which can be found on the Portal on the Payroll page.

If you have any questions about what’s showing in your queue or how to clear an item, reach out to [email protected] for support.

Thank you for helping us keep things running efficiently.

Departments

Facilities

Bend Senior High 50% construction drawings for phase 2/3 page turn review process is the next step in the construction.
Maintenance is working on getting heating systems up and running for the heating season.
Outdoor service and custodial are preparing for our winter snow removal season.
Sustainability/Custodial is working on recycling district curriculum as the new adoption moves forward

Safety

Lillah has been conducting Student Threat Assessment trainings with school administrators and counselors
We have implemented the drill manager function of Raptor – as schools complete their first lockdown and evacuation drills
Scott and Kayla will be presenting at Safe Schools conference in November on the best practices our district uses for visitor management/safety
Safe Oregon is presenting our district/SROs with awards for how we manage our Safe Oregon tips in the district, as a state wide best practice example

Transportation

Bend PD will be following school buses (up to 4 buses each morning )to help alleviate and ticket red light runners.

Cyber October update- Just who is Bend-La Pine IT and what is the best way to get a hold of them?

There are 30 people who work in the basement of the Education Center who represent our IT team.
The document linked here shows you a little bit about what each person does and how best to reach them.

To Do’s

Complaint Training: Attend one of the two November virtual trainings

Vector Safe Schools: Follow the instruction within the August 14th email and complete your trainings by October 31st. Run a report now to see who has not completed their trainings and give them a reminder about the 10/31 deadline. Failure to complete trainings by 10/31 will be referenced in a person’s evaluation.

Goal Setting & Evaluations: Be sure to complete all evaluations steps for your direct reports who were not evaluated last year or are new to BLS.

Department Leaders: Dr. Birk’s Strategic Initiatives 2025-2026 Clickable.pdf. Please complete your department’s strategic initiatives document by October 24th. The Board will have access to them for a November work session.

UKG: Check regularly to clear out To-Do items

October All Admin Meeting: Play BINGO