Posted on September 11, 2020
First we dealt with the plague. Now we are dealing with fires. What’s next? Locust? Thanks for being so flexible and rolling with it. There is only so much we can control so your leadership and ability to calm nerves and reassure people is appreciated.
Mark your calendars – for the next 6 weeks we will be having a Horizontal Meeting every Monday from 3-4pm. This will be a whole group Horizontal and will be hosted on WebEx. After 6 weeks we will reassess our meeting frequency. See you on the 14th in my WebEx room https://bls.webex.com/meet/skip.offenhauser
Childcare – just a quick update on some childcare logistics: These staff will not be using the QR code check-in system because they are not going to be using the main entrance and are going to keep their kids contained in the designated space. Custodians will take care of bathrooms and playground equipment at the end of the day. Park and Rec will take care of cleaning spaces during the day with the custodian doing a deeper clean at the end of the day. Again, the lead will make contact with you on Monday. If you have any questions please ask at that time. Of course all of this, and the spaces being used at your school, might be modified if we move into a hybrid schedule.
The Metrics are looking very good for moving to hybrid. I will be in meetings with Lora and others to discuss what this might look like and the steps schools will need to start making to prepare for this transition.
Put these numbers in your phone – What if someone gets sick in my building… In addition to contacting me, please jot down the following order of contact when you have a potential positive COVID situation that needs to be reported or you need support with (e.g. a potential positive test of a staff member):
- Tami Pike (Text first: 541-350-8387)
- Julianne Repman (541-788-6890)
- Nurse Maria Buagas (541-647-7952)
Our professional development this past Wednesday was a huge hit. We had many, many teachers access the trainings. In case anyone asks, the plan is to do a repeat performance on all these topics and maybe add a couple others. More info on that after the year starts. In the meantime, a great resource to send your teachers to is our TLC blog. It has the latest news on technology and instruction. It also has some great resources to support comprehensive distance learning. Please make sure your staff knows about this site. A fun staff meeting idea would be a type of jigsaw activity where teams find something useful on the site and do a share out.
Attendance – there was a training for attendance secretaries earlier this week and the following two concerns (teachers being informed that they need to take attendance, and teachers being informed about the PV and NPV code) came up a few times. You may have already communicated these items, but your office secretary may not have received it. Please make sure all of your teachers are aware of the need to take attendance beginning on Monday.
Self and Collective Care workshop As you know, earlier this week BRYT offered a one-hour workshop to any BLS employee (similar, but different to the one that you were invited to last week). There wasn’t an overwhelming turnout, but those in attendance found it very helpful/useful. Jim ended up recording the session and was sent the slides and a worksheet that was used or talked about during it. I’m sharing these with you as a tool or starting place for your Culture of Care school team and/or sharing with your entire staff (as I think it would be useful).
Materials distribution – I know the smoke really screwed things up for materials distribution (unless you were Scott or Dan). Keep in close communication with your families but make sure you tell them that any make-up day will be contingent on healthy air quality. Hopefully that will be Monday or Tuesday. If it is later in the week, please make sure teachers are using that time to reach out to families with a phone call or WebEx.
Office phone – Please make sure there is someone available to answer your office phone. Obviously, there are times when someone may need to leave a message leaving a message should not be the default. As you can imagine, the experience felt by a parent or community member leaves an impression that may be difficult to change (positive or negative). Let’s leave the caller with feelings of gratefulness and not frustration by giving them an opportunity to speak with someone when they call.
A wondering just came up around whether I should include Office Managers in the group that receives my weekly Collective updates. If you would like your Office Manager to receive these, please let me know and I’d be happy to begin including them.
Got hours? Please reach out to Kinsey if you have any small piece of classified hours (e.g. 1 or 1 1/2 hr/day) you are trying to still fill. She has a great candidate for a Latino Liaison position she is trying to fill, but needs a bit more time to make this person full-time. By making a combination like this work, you’d be gaining a fluent Spanish speaker in your building – without having to come up with full-time hours to create a new spot.
These Supervisors Guidelines are a great resource guide around things you need to be aware of. This week. In this updated document there is new language around face coverings. Here is the new language: In general, face coverings (masks) are preferred over face shields, as they may provide better containment of small aerosols that can be produced while talking. Clear plastic face shields remain an acceptable alternative in some instances because they enable students to see whole faces. This avoids potential barriers to phonological instruction and reinforces social-emotional cues.
Extra help that might be at your buildings – As you are aware, we have a number of classified employees across our district who are currently not working (mainly transportation and nutrition) due to CDL structure of teaching/learning. A number of these folks want to work and have been given other work to do – some of which is occurring in your building. If you have one of these re-assigned classified employees working at your site then know that she/he has been given an assignment and an on-site supervisor for this work. Do not ask these folks to do other work than what they’ve been assigned. If you have questions regarding this please reach out to Scott Bojanowski.
FYI… One of the building teams that you’ll be forming is for Family Engagement. Likely, this will be a team that includes your FAN advocate (for obvious reasons). This is likely obvious to you, but wanted to mention this just in case.
Have a great weekend. I’ll leave you with this….
