It’s hard to believe that it’s been about a year since we have had all our students back in school. So much has happened in the past twelve months that I am having a hard time remembering things that we said and did just a month ago. Keep up the good (great) work. Your efforts are paying off and you should be proud of what you’ve accomplished. Unfortunately the race isn’t over quite yet. This is a marathon and right now we’re only at mile 20. Keep cheering your teachers on. We’ve got this!
Focus on Excellence and Equity
From Kinsey –
Pronoun communication:
In the staff Spotlight newsletter next week, we will share this communication. This is an FYI, so that you have the info in advance. This is not required of anyone, but if you’re interested in modeling this inclusive practice yourself before it goes out to all staff, the bottom of the document can help you update your signature.
Equity lens:
This time of year brings lots of opportunities to make important decisions. Here is our district Equity Lens (special thanks to Matt Fox’s students for the design of this document!). We will use these questions during our April 28 admin Equity PD session, but feel free to use before then, too. Consider discussing each question with your team (an interview panel, your master scheduling team, etc) as you make decisions together in upcoming weeks.
New sign:
On this document, you’ll see the new sign that you’re getting (and why you’re getting it). Just a heads-up that they are on their way–yours should be delivered before the end of April! LEAD Cohort members or Language Specialists can help your office team find a great spot for it in your front entry. Reach out to Kinsey if you have questions about any of this info!
Updating your equity goal – from our Monday discussion: If you want to revise your goal go to this link and follow these steps:
Department News…
Testing update from Dave – Dave has recently forwarded us a couple of updates on State testing. Expect in a week or so some kind of communication you can send to parents. It will include information on testing and information on how to opt out.
Reminders from from Alandra…
- Reminder on Elected Officials and Candidates in our schools: If an elected official would like to visit your school or speak with a class, please send them to Alandra or Julianne before you confirm the visit. Please also ask clubs and classes who would like to host elected officials or candidates for elected office to run the visits through the Comms Dept. first. A lot of unintended consequences.
- In advance of the May election, this is also a great time to share and review our handy dandy Election Guidance document, which outlines key dos and donts for public employees related to elections. Please share this resource with your staff.
- When staff members visit another school, they need to: Enter through the front door; sign in; wear their badge in a visible place. This is especially important because, with masks, it can be harder to identify even staff that are familiar. Let me (Alandra) know if you have any questions!
From Dana – Homeless Student Enrollment: A question came up recently regarding timeframes for enrolling students with an IEP who qualify for services under the McKinney-Vento Act. Below is the clarification Sandy Schmidt, our new Homeless liaison, received from Dona Bolt at ODE:
The McKinney-Vento Act supersedes federal, state, and local laws, including IDEA, in the provision of immediate enrollment for homeless students. The McKinney-Vento Act requires districts and schools to immediately enroll eligible students, regardless of whether they lack records, immunizations, etc., and there are no exceptions for students on IEPs. There are even higher expectations for districts with MV subgrants, such as Bend-La Pine SD Schools, that their schools support compliance with the MV Act.
From Paul –
Instructional Programs – We know that many people rely upon outside speakers to provide real-world context to course content. We want virtual tools like WebEx to be the primary option for speakers to engage with our students. In unique situations where the instructional needs require an onsite demonstration, building leaders can approve speakers to meet outside with students while maintaining normal safety measures.
Some examples of when this might be appropriate:
- A K-9 demonstration with law enforcement partners
- High school AP physics students teaching a science lesson to a MS/ES class (in outdoor classroom space)
- A botanist visiting a school garden
We still want to restrict non essential visitors so parent volunteers are not allowed at this time during normal school hours.
Community Gatherings After Hours In Our Schools – We are getting lots of questions regarding sports banquets, awards celebrations and other school-specific gatherings. Since these events occur outside of the instructional day, we have to refer to the County Risk Sector Guidance instead of RSSL.
This chart is a great overview of the limits placed on gathering sizes and is based upon Deschutes County COVID infection rate. On Friday, our county is moving from the Moderate to the High category. The next county reset will be released on Tuesday, April 20th and effective on Friday, April 23rd (it resets every 2 weeks).
To assist in interpreting the chart, as of Friday, outdoor gatherings in Deschutes County are limited to 15% of outdoor occupancy limits and indoor limits are a maximum of 25% occupancy or 50 people, whichever is smaller. Since most of our indoor cafeterias, gyms and auditoriums have large occupancy capacity, in most situations you’ll be limited to no more than 50 total people for an indoor event. Click here for steps to determine outdoor occupancy
BLS recommends that events be planned for outdoors and then move indoors should the weather require it. For both indoor and outdoor events, BLS requires that:
- No serving of food/drink is permitted
- Events be coordinated so that there is no overlapping use of spaces with sports/other activities
- Custodians be involved so that they are aware of cleaning needs
- A specific person is responsible that all COVID-19 safety measures are met
Vaccinations for Those Age 16 & Older – Now that Oregon is allowing people 16 years and older to register for vaccinations, we encourage high school student leadership groups to educate their peers about COVID-19 and the efficacy of vaccinations for reducing severe health effects of the virus and limiting its spread.
Fundraising – As you know, we have had strict limits on fundraising this school year. As of May 1, we are allowing school groups to fundraise once again. Please encourage your groups to be extra sensitive in their promotions as many people are still feeling financial impacts from the pandemic.
Updates, Reminders, Info and Rants…
Staffing plans – Jim and Katie and I are targeting April 23rd to have staffing plans completed. During the week of April 26 I will be busy reviewing them and approving them. If you need some time to brainstorm and talk through aspects of your plan don’t hesitate to reach out to me. As a reminder, we will not be permitting any hiring until staffing plans are done, staff are all placed, and transfer interviews have been completed.
High Lakes FYI – the High Lakes principal position has been posted. It closes on April 23rd and interviews will be on May 5th. Jon and I met with staff on Thursday to gather their thoughts on priorities for their next leader. I will be sure to let you know when/where the virtual community forum is so you can check out the candidates.
What would be helpful for 5th graders? – Jim Boen has asked all our middle schools to create a general video about their school. This will be completed no later than May 19. He will collect the links to each of these videos and share them with me – so I can share them with our elementary schools. The hope/idea is that the elementary school 5th grade teachers will show their MS feeder school video sometime in class before June 1.
Each MS will also hold an evening parent Q & A for 5th grade parents. These will occur between May 19 – May 30. I’ll get you the list of dates/times in the coming week or so.
Lastly, Jim needs your help with this one… Would you mind sending him 5 – 7 questions that a current 5th grader wants to know about their middle school by May 23? Each of our MS will have their students and/or staff answer these questions on video – which will also be shared with your schools and can be watched in your 5th grade classrooms.
Contact Tracing – just a reminder to make sure the really great practices you’ve established in your grade level classrooms are also occurring with specialists and teachers who work with small groups. For example, any student who might be a small group should be documented and during that small group students should be assigned seats and keep the recommended distance apart. If anything ever happens we need to be able to identify who was in a particular group and where they were located.
Train your Brain – thanks for supplying your contact information for this program. I feel very strongly about kids wearing helmets and having helmets that properly fit. As a cyclist, I’ve had my share of spills and I’ve actually been hit by a car before. Helmets are vital to surviving these unexpected events so thanks for making sure our kids are protected.
Kindergarten Orientation Nights – be sure to let Alandra know the date, time, and link for your orientation night. Here’s the link. IF you change your date or time or link call Alanadra as she’s already posting these on the web. Call on the tech team for any help you may need.
Transfer interviews – These interviews will take place on April 20th. They will start at 3:30 and be held at Pine Ridge Elementary. Jon will be sending info to teachers shortly about the process if they want to participate. I know some of you will not have to hire but your help is needed and appreciated. Please add your name to this list. Thank you!
POP Science – the word is getting out about the POP Science work the Bend Science Station did. There will be a post on the Instructional Tech blog for teachers to read. If teachers are ready to start using the materials you can start giving it out to them. Thank you again Bend Science Station and Scott McDonald for their help with this.
Calendar
- 4/12 – NO HORIZONTAL – CANCELLED!
- 4/16 – no school
- 4/19 – Horizontal (Dave VanLoo – instructional framework)
- 4/ 19-29 – Kindergarten WebEx orientation nights
- 4/20 – Transfer interviews @ Pine Ridge
- 4/21, 4/22, 4/23 – Skip is out of town
- 4/23 – High Lakes principal posting closes
- 4/26 – Regular Horizontal
- 4/28 – 3pm @ Cascade: Leadership Team / Excellence & Equity Collaborations
- 5/3 – Horizontal – Kinsey, LEAD video
- 5/5 – High Lakes principal interviews