Ready or not, there go the masks. It’s going to be kind of strange to see full faces on Monday. Beards, mustaches, nose rings, braces… all will be revealed! Remember, not everyone will be comfortable without a mask so it’s important that we be respectful and honor the choices we each make. And please take some time to ensure teachers follow through with the activities Jennifer Hauth has put together for Friday, March 11th and Monday, March 14th.
A reminder from April Jorgenson – Leave sheets are due to the business office on Monday, March 14th. The period we are recording for this time is 02/14/2022 – 03/13/22. Please record your leave on your Google leave record and let me know when you are done. If you do not have any leave to report this period, please email me and let me know. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Teacher Transfer Interviews – we are finalizing a date with Paul and will advertise this out shortly. As a reminder, this year teachers will have the option of participating in a face to face interview or recording themselves.
ACR’s – there were two questions regarding ACR’s at our Horizontal meeting this week. Here are the answers:
#1 – Can ACR requests be viewed by schools in case there is an issue with a family that needs to be communicated? (ie potential transportation issues) Answer: If there is a potential issue with a family please communicate that name to Stephanie so she can look for that family ahead of time and discuss the situation with you. Otherwise, elementary ACRs turning before March 1st are automatically approved unless the school is projected to be over capacity.
#2 – Will the electronic form completely replace the paper form? The short answer is yes. We are moving completely away from the paper form. If electronic ACRs are submitted mid year Stephanie will contact schools before approving.
Just a reminder – School design plans are due by Spring Break. Here is the link to the School Design folder
From Instructional Tech – This month is all about digital citizenship. We all know it’s important but hardly have time to fit it in. Check out Digital Citizenship Made Simple. This week we’re looking at social media. Our latest post, Instagram Ready, includes a quick social media Kahoot all ready to go. As always, visit our blog for more bright ideas.💡 (And to our subscribers: please pardon the broken link this morning. This email will get you where you need to go.)
Bend Science Station – Each year 5th graders used to visit the Bend Science Station – one of our favorite partners. Unfortunately the BSS has had the grant funding for these trips greatly reduced plus we don’t have transportation available. I recently met with BSS and they are willing to bring the 5th grade program to your school if we could find the funding. In reviewing school discretionary accounts it is clear that schools have more than enough to make this happen. The per school cost is going to be about $1700. If this causes you any concern please give me a call so we can discuss and I can let you know what your discretionary budget balance is.Thanks!
Silver Rail Principal Interviews – Students, staff and community members are invited to meet the four finalists for the principal position at Silver Rail Elementary School during a virtual forum Thursday, March 10 at 5 p.m. Here are the finalists.
From Dave – Very soon, we anticipate having i-Ready Diagnostic Assessment in place as a replacement for SAT-10, which we have used as an academic assessment as part of the TAG eligibility process. I-Ready should provide a better experience than SAT-10 for staff and students. The hope is to have it available when students return from spring break. This is not 100% finalized, but we are close enough that it is worth getting this on schools’ radar. Here is a quick summary.
Benefits of i-Ready Diagnostic Assessment for TAG
- Group administered and works on iPad (SAT-10 only works on computers)
- 2-hours or less total to complete reading and math assessment
- Clever integration to manage students (SAT-10 requires schools to manage students manually)
- Adaptive test (SAT-10 is fixed form)
- Because it is designed to be used 3x/year, retesting is free and easy when needed
- Newer and more frequently updated norms than SAT-10
- Strong technical characteristics (reliability and validity)
- Math assessment is available in Spanish (SAT-10 is only English)
- Available for 3rd grade or younger if needed (SAT-10 can first be administered in spring of 3rd grade)
We are planning to have schools use i-Ready this spring with a small number of students, in part to help make up for missed opportunities in state testing over the past two years. Recall that in 2020 no OSAS tests were given. In 2021, 3rd graders only took ELA, while 4th graders only took Math. The plan is to provide schools with a list of current 4th and 5th grade students who scored very high on OSAS last year, and have those students take both the Reading and Math i-Ready assessments. Schools are welcome to include other potential TAG-eligible students in this testing as well. To provide a bit more context, here is an estimate, by school, of the number of 3rd and 4th grade students who scored at the 90th percentile on OSAS last spring. Please be aware that we may use a higher standard than the 90th percentile, which would decrease the number of students taking the i-Ready assessment.
| School ID | Estimated Number of Students to Test |
| 241 | 8 |
| 245 | 4 |
| 246 | 13 |
| 247 | 13 |
| 250 | 8 |
| 261 | 1 |
| 1205 | 2 |
| 1266 | 3 |
| 1308 | 9 |
| 1317 | 20 |
| 1324 | 3 |
| 1976 | 5 |
| 3218 | 41 |
| 3219 | 27 |
| 3221 | 5 |
| 3947 | 15 |
| 4646 | 4 |
| 4680 | 39 |
| 4793 | 2 |
| 5293 | 13 |
| 5349 | 1 |
| 5452 | 10 |
| ResdSchlInstID | 1 |
| (blank) | |
| Grand Total | 247 |
The Red Zone – Things to Share or Do…
Erin’s Law–Child Abuse Prevention For those of you who have not yet delivered “Safe Touch” this year and pressed pause, we are now ready for you to hit play, just in time for April, which is Child Abuse Prevention Month. A big thank you to the Salem-Keizer Schools and a group of our elementary counselors, who got together to format the K-5 lessons from the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Program. This program is an alternative to “Safe Touch” that we will be piloting instead. If you have already completed “Safe Touch” this year, no problem, as that is also acceptable. Please fill out this form and send it to April Jorgenson as soon as the teaching of your program is complete. If you have not delivered the curriculum, please pass on this link, which is to complete slide decks and prepared lessons, to the people in your building who will be delivering the lessons (4 lessons @ 15-20 min each).
You must notify families ahead of time and give them the opportunity to opt their child out of the lessons. Here is the family letter that you need to send home. Here is the Spanish family letter and we will send the Chinese one when it comes back from translation.
It is recommended that a classroom teacher provide these four lessons to their students. Child abuse is a sensitive topic and is delivered most effectivley by a student’s trusted adult which is traditionally a classroom teacher. When a school has a school counselor, School counselors are available to partner with teachers. If you know of a student that has already experienced reported abuse, please work with the student and family to create an alternative plan for the student during instruction if they feel it is necessary.
COVID Corner:
- As promised – Here is an update around some frequently asked RSSL Questions. This is not for public consumption so please don’t send it out to families.
- RSSL update – here is the complete March 2 update to the RSSL
- From Tami Pike – Here’s some updated COVID-19 information from the the Health Service Team
Summer School Update from Kevin Milner – Programming for summer programs is off and rolling. Kevin Milner is taking the lead on this, with summer learning options looking similar to last year. Programming (Jump Start (Gr. 1-5) and Spark (Gr. 6-8) will target learning and enrichment opportunities for our district’s traditionally underserved student populations (gr.1-8) and help these students to get an early start on learning classroom/school routines, along with strategies that will help them to be successful learners in the year ahead. In addition, we will offer participating students with enrichment opportunities that they normally would not experience during their time when they are outside of school.
The process to select students for Jump Start and Spark will be coming up in April.
Some details:
Programming Dates: August 1-19, Monday-Friday
Times:
Jump Start – (8:00-3:30) Day will have two segments: a morning academic focus and an enrichment focus in the afternoon.
SPARK – (9:00-1:00) Day will include academic, with enrichment built into the schedule.
Elementary Sites:
Ensworth: Students from Juniper, Silver Rail and Ensworth.
Pine Ridge: Students from Elk Meadow, Miller, Jewell and Pine Ridge)
Buckingham: Bear Creek, Ponderosa and Buckingham
High Lakes: Students from High Lakes, Highland, North Star and Lava Ridge
Elementary LaPine Site:LaPine Elementary (Students from Rosland, Three Rivers and LPES)
Middle School Sites:
Pilot Butte (Students from PBMS, Realms,…)
Cascade: (Students from Pacific Crest and Cascade)
Sky View: (Students from High Desert and Sky View)
LaPine Middle School
Postings for Jump Start Students Services and Spark Deans of Students will be coming out soon, with postings for classroom teachers, enrichment teachers, educational assistants, office managers, food service, nurses and other positions to follow in April. (Please share this hiring with staff)
Calendar
- March Visits
- SIW schedule – this is the newest version
- Horizontal Meeting Schedule – there have been changes – check it out now!
- Monthly checklist
- March 10 – Silver Rail Principal interviews
- March 21-25 – Spring Break
- March 31st from 8-9:30 YouthTruth survey training – virtual, link TBD
- April 4 – Preparing to Lead Equitable Schools–Principals only. 3:30-5:00 location TBD
- April 11 – Horizontal – school BRYT visits follow up 3:00 – 4:30, Board Room
- April 18, 19, 20 – Tammy and Skip out
- April 25 – Horizontal 3:00-4:30
And Finally…
Puzzle Masters from Monday
