Staff Update #15: 4/21/24

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Here is a video that Roger (and Wendi) wanted to share with the Realms staff (recorded Saturday, 4/20)

Upcoming Dates

This week

  • All week (4/22-4/26) – RMS ELA SBAC Testing
  • Wed April 24th – Educator Network Day SIW (link to meeting list)
  • Fri April 26th & Sat April 27th – Banff Film Festival

Looking Ahead

  • Fri May 3rd – Better World Day (9th & 10th)
  • Fri May 3rd – RMS Dance (Springa-Flinga) 6pm-8pm (volunteer sign up here)
  • Mon May 6th – Teacher Appreciation Week!
  • Sat May 11th – Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show
  • Tues May 15th – Fri May 19th – RHS Intensives, Round 2
  • Mon May 20th – Thurs May 22nd: 8th Gr Travel Study
  • Tues May 28th – Wed May 29th: 10th Gr Newport Overnight Fieldwork
  • Thurs May 30th – Senior Expo Night 6pm-8pm
  • Tues June 4th – Thurs June 6th – Tentative 8th Gr Passages
  • Wed June 6th – Last Day of Classes for RHS Seniors
  • Tues June 11th – RHS Class of 2024 Graduation, 7PM
  • Thurs June 13th – RMS 8th Gr Promotion, 6PM
  • Tues June 18th – Last Day of School, 2:30 Release

3rd trimester fieldwork overview calendar!

SIW Calendar

Big Ups!

Frank: Big Ups for sharing your music, humor, and words of inspiration with the middle school students at the talent show on Friday! For those who missed it, Frank performed “Somewhere over the Rainbow” on his sax and it absolutely brought down the house. Thank you for modeling authenticity, vulnerability, and a growth mindset. You rock!

Certified Leave Guidance

Teachers – in case you missed this update that Jennifer sent out:

Guidelines for Utilizing 1-4 Hour Increments of Sick and Personal Leave:

  • Certified Staff Requiring Classroom Coverage for 1hr Leave: Staff are responsible for finding coverage to use leave in less than 4hr increments. Staff will utilize colleagues willing to sub-cover class(s) for the period(s) they will be out. This may mean securing multiple colleagues depending on the day’s class schedule.
  • As usual, you will “request time off” in UKG for approval before your desired leave date. Below is a sample of the UKG request entry. Note the “comments” area MUST be completed indicating what periods will be covered and by whom.
  • You will provide sub plans and class rosters directly to the colleague(s) who are covering for you.
  • If you cannot secure a certified colleague, request a HDESD sub for 4 hours by entering an assignment into Red Rover.
  • Colleagues who cover a period or periods for you will enter the time worked on their UKG timesheet, adding in the notes who they subbed for and which period.

Example of UKG entry when requesting sick or personal leave in hour increments:

Check the master schedule to find staff who have open periods for coverage

2024-25 School Year

The following section is simply FYI… there are no immediate to-do’s.

Staffing: This week I submitted our staffing plans for next school year which reflected the reduction in FTE that we will experience if the BLS Levy does not pass. It includes a few tough reductions, including the following:

  • Reduction in HS ELA Department FTE
  • Reduction in MS Humanities and Science Department FTE (probable workshop impact)

If your position has been impacted then you have already heard from me by now.

PD Priorities: Here is the plan for the remaining SIW’s this year:

Below is a rough outline of what those “Advance Planning” Days (5/12-5/29) will include:

Day 1

  • EL Education Implementation Review [IR] Framing & Survey
  • YouthTruth Data Review

Day 2

  • Review IR Results & YouthTruth Goals
  • “Feasibility vs Impact” process to identify specific areas of focus for PD time, which will be used by ILT/Admin to draft the 2024-25 School Design Plan and PD Calendar

My goal is to include the whole staff in this advance planning process as much as is reasonable. Given Roger’s absence, I believe that it is more important than ever to lean on the collective wisdom of our team!

Master Schedule/Bell Schedule Input: Soon (my goal is by next weekend) I will be sharing a spreadsheet prompting you to provide input on things like…

  • What classes (HS) should be shifted to different trimesters?
  • When in the day should Crew be?
  • What other bell schedule changes do you suggest?

Some of these things can be changed… some cannot due to restrictions like AP Tests or Part-Time schedules. Still, it is important that you have a chance to share your ideas! Stay tuned for that spreadsheet…

Beginning the Fieldwork Coordinator Search: As you may or may not know, Caleb will be moving on to continue his education next year, which will leave behind a massive hole! If you know of anybody that would be an awesome replacement, please let me know or share my contact with them!!

Coming Soon: Detention Guidance for Teachers from Caleb, Kat, and Zach

Right now we’re working on school-wide guidelines around lunch detention, and a little bit of a tune up on student discipline in general, so that we can approach this as a united front and provide fair, appropriate responses to violations of our school norms that don’t feel totally different in different parts of the school. We’re also working on communication to students to make sure that they understand what the guidelines are and to avoid situations (that we’ve had already) where students tell teachers “you can’t make me come at lunch!” or otherwise flaunt consequences. Stay tuned (I bet you’ve heard that before in a staff blog), we’re working on clear, usable, and effective guidelines that we can hopefully take into the future!

Class Break Resources

As we near the end of the school year, it can be tougher to keep students engaged for entire class periods. Brain breaks can be a great way to break up lessons and re-focus, but they need to be done intentionally and with supervision.

Running out of ideas? Here are a couple of brain break ideas and resources!

Reminders from last blog post

  • Rubbish Renewed Volunteers Needed!

Event Set Up: https://volunteersignup.org/9LKJC

Event Help: https://volunteersignup.org/WKPM [we are in particular need of 2 people with OLCC alcohol server permits to check ID’s!!]

Jobs on your own time: https://volunteersignup.org/X83H3

  • EL Education Summer Institutes: Please email if you are interested in attending!