Everyone –
I am not trying to get out of our May visit but the last thing I want to do is add stress to your day, week, and final month of the year. For that reason I am going to make this last in-person visit optional. I will still visit with each of you in June for a final evaluations meeting but that will take place once school is out and kids are gone. But for the May meeting I want to give you the option of an in-person or a short WebEx meeting. I know some of you still would prefer a face to face time and that is a-ok with me because I enjoy getting out to schools and visiting. But I know you’ve been extremely busy with quarantined classes and sub shortages so a short WebEx might be more convenient and be just as effective. Please re-visit (or visit for the first time) this spreadsheet and either keep your in-person visit or opt for a short WebEx meeting. Thanks!
Focus on Excellence and Equity…
Bias training with Brooke, Steve, and Skip – if you want to join us for a make-up session of the bias training we will be meeting at Ponderosa on 5/11 @ 3:10pm. Steve said he is providing snacks.
Thank you Kinsey for leading us through the video lesson. For your reference here is the link to the video:
And here are the questions shared by Kinsey:
- Where did the teacher tell students WHAT to think about the subject?
- Where did the teacher tell students HOW to think about the subject (facilitation of dialogue)? Who participated and who didn’t?
- How did the teacher manage “pop-up”/unplanned tangents?
And finally here is a link to the Preparation Checklist for Equity and Anti-Racism Dialogue in the Classroom:
Department News…
From Jon – Can you remind the administrators that we have contract language specific to personal days. We only need to allow 5% of our certified staff and 5% of our classified staff to take personal days on a given day.
We are having a very difficult time filling substitute requests. Keeping personal day requests to the 5% could help us as a district. If staff don’t use personal days this year, then they can bank one or get paid for them at the end of the year.
From Alandra – Several schools have reported receiving information about a teacher appreciation contest with the winning event to be held at Crux. While well meaning, this looks primarily to be a great advertisement for the brewery and would be in conflict with our policy. We should not advertise or solicit nominations for this event, but the group can advertise on their own. Thanks!
From Paul –
Hot Weather – Fans and Doors
There is nothing in RSSL directly related to how to address proper use of fans and the safety of opening exterior doors during warm weather days (or for added ventilation) so our team of health professionals who meets on Fridays gave input into acceptable use.
Fans can only be used if they are pulling fresh air in from the outside (stationed by a window or exterior door) not if they are only circulating existing air in the classroom (therefore, ceiling fans should not be used).
Any exterior classroom door that is within the fenced area of a school can be opened. Exterior doors not within a fenced area can be opened but must be closely supervised (ie. closed when no adult is monitoring it).
Educational Assistant Application Process
In order to reduce barriers for people who want to apply for entry level positions in BLS, we are going to remove the cover letter and three recommendation letters requirements for all EA positions. We will still require a resume and our reference check requirement will fulfill the same role of the recommendation letters. We hope that by reducing these tasks during the application process, we will have more people seeking employment opportunities in these hard-to-fill jobs.
Visitor Entry
Your staff have been doing an excellent job limiting visitors in your building. Please allow BEA President, Sarah Barclay, to visit if she comes by your school.
Updates, Reminders, Info and Rants…
From Kevin re: Summer School Student identification, Enrollment and Staffing:
We are carefully working through the data and identification of students to invite to “Jump Start”.
The goal is to send out something to schools with a list of the “highest needs” students within your school and at each grade. This will include timelines for student confirmation, as well as the number of students that each school will be able to send at each grade, to “Jump Start”. Austin James has worked hard to develop this spreadsheet for us and his talents are appreciated.
As for staffing, we will be interviewing for Student Services Leadership positions early next week. For teachers, we will re-open the posting for Jump Start teachers to include candidates from outside the district. Please let your temp. teachers know of this.
Excellence in Ed Apples – Lora or I will be delivering your Excellence in Ed apples to your building sometime within the next week. Unfortunately with 19 schools it would be difficult to make each of your presentations so these are for you to present. Please make time with your staff to recognize these people publicly for the work they did to earn this award.
BRYT Virtual School Visit: Chickering Elementary School
When: May 19th from 10-11 AM
Where: https://zoom.us/j/92921187005?pwd=dEQ1NjBzdEltUzB2S01hckgrZHVTQT09
Our BRYT coaches have set up a virtual visit with Chickering Elementary School in Dover, MA. The visit will include their program overview and a virtual tour from the build team. We will then break out into job-like small groups for Q and A (admin, support staff etc.). This tour is open to all admin and anyone in your building that may want to learn more about the BRYT model and this school’s implementation.
Interviewing of Student Success Coordinators/Clinicians – Sean has put in extra time and effort to make this as streamlined and effective as possible. On Monday he will be presenting the interviews system he created and how it will work. He will be first up at Horizontal.
Calendar
- 5/10 – 3:30 pm Sean will discuss SSCC hiring
- 5/11 – 3:10 pm Make-up Bias training @ Ponderosa with Steve, Brooke and Skip
- 5/12 – 2pm – 6pm Student Success Coordinator Interviews
- 5/14 – 12pm – 4pm Student Success Coordinator Interviews
- 5/14 – principal self reflections
- 5/19 – 10am – 11am BRYT Virtual School Visit: Chickering Elementary School
- 5/19 – Excellence and Equity Leadership meeting
And Finally…
My good friend Linda Seeburg, who is my counterpart in the Redmond School District, recently shared with me her “manifesto” on retention. I know you have been getting several families inquiring about retention recently and I thought Linda’s work might help you. Please note: this is from Redmond and references policies and practices from their district that might not align with our own. Please do not send this out to parents or use this as our policy. It is meant as information to help facilitate and support some of your conversations and see how neighboring districts are handling retention requests. I do think we could create something similar for us because this is a recurring topic. Maybe a project for an IAL group or someone working on their CALS???