{"id":872,"date":"2021-10-07T15:48:50","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T15:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/pcms-staff\/?p=872"},"modified":"2021-11-17T18:44:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T18:44:06","slug":"october-8-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/pcms-staff\/2021\/10\/07\/october-8-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"October 8, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thursday’s Secure Event<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I again want to say thank you for the way you molded exterior calm and adherence to guidelines during Thursday’s Secure event. I’ve received a lot of parent emails about the incident and some of them were kind enough to include that their student felt calm and safe due to their teachers’ actions. The most important responsibility we have is to keep our students safe, and I’m delighted to know that we did that this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The timing of events like Thursday’s are never good, but this one was particularly annoying, as I had long-planned to share this video detailing the new Standard Response Protocol (SRP) language<\/a> we are using to make things clearer. Please watch the six-minute video<\/a> and complete this one-question Google Form<\/a> attesting you have done so by Friday, October 29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that Summit High School families were notified of the event through BLConnect while our families were not and that is an error that we discussed today with our district safety team. Typically, families will not<\/strong> receive a notification through BLConnect of a Secure<\/em> event at a school, as there is no imminent threat to students as determined by law enforcement organizations. That said, it is a great idea to take this opportunity to ensure you are registered with BLConnect<\/a> so you can be aware of any happenings that are communicated about PCMS (inclement weather season is drawing nearer).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tragedy, Equity, and the LEAD Cohort: <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I said at Wednesday’s staff meeting, I’ve received a number of emails in the past two weeks about the shooting death of Barry Washington Jr. in Downtown Bend. A man was killed in our community – the location of his death is inside Pacific Crest’s boundary – and students, staff, and families are struggling with how to process this happening here in Bend. I’m not here to adjudicate the case or to weigh in on any of the many layers this horrific event contains, but rather to talk about how we can support our students – and each other – process this event and others like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When questions like this arise, please let your students know that their counselors are tremendous resources who are available for them to process difficult events. Additionally, I\u2019ve found these guidelines from Common Sense Media<\/a> to be useful in talking to my own elementary school children at home over the years when the headlines aren\u2019t pleasant and also aren\u2019t avoidable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our building’s equity work takes many forms, and each of you is involved in different ways.  One way we know is critical for sustainability is to involve students–to have productive conversations with students around equity issues and to make thoughtful steps forward as a team, so we can learn together as a community.  To help us with that, our district’s LEAD Cohort has developed some awesome resources<\/a>. Later in the year, departments will be responsible for incorporating some of the strategies and resources in their classes, so please take a look and see what Tier-1 strategies you might begin to work into your teaching now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conferences<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane Ward sent out an email to all staff today with much, if not all, of the information you’ll need to prepare for Conferences – thanks Jane! I want to share that Certified staff are not required to be present in the building for conferences, something I learned today. If you plan on conducting your conferences from home or school or a catamaran in the Caribbean, you need to be logged in to WebEx for the entire time you are scheduled to work, as a family can pop in to your WebEx without an appointment, even though we are heavily encourage them to sign up via Conference Monkey (I know that’s not the name and I know I’m re-using this joke too much, but it brings me great joy to imagine a bunch of monkeys sitting around a conference table discussing how to innovate<\/em> and synergize<\/em> in an effort to improve Monkey, Inc.’s bottom line. Like, I am literally tickled by this thought and want it to be real). Also, HUGE shout-out to Renee McCoy for all of her work to get the invites out and the schedules built and all the other stuff that’s needed to make this endeavor work smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PD Opportunities on the Horizon<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We cannot approve any substitute time for PD right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s not needed. In particular, what I am hearing is that teams need time to meet and plan together and that this would be invaluable. In years past, we have provided half-day subs for teams so they can plan. Since we cannot do that this year, the ICCL team is working on a plan to provide up to 4 hours of curriculum rate pay to teams who want to plan together outside of school hours and not feel like they are further stretching themselves. More details to come, but I wanted to put that on your radar now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking Field Trips<\/span><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BLP COVID response team decided they would begin allowing walking<\/em> field trips if the following conditions are met:<\/p>\n\n\n\n