From Kinsey re: Spanish phone message: Family Liaisons can help principals re-record their phone messages! Liaisons officially started back to work Tuesday, and I’m in the process of connecting each school with their assigned liaison, so they should have contact info and be able to start inviting the liaison to school events (and projects like updating phones) by tomorrow! 🙂
Bias Incident Reporting Posters – Here are the English, Spanish, and Chinese posters that we discussed at administrator retreats. Please print and post in a few locations in your building. Recommended: front entry/lobby, counseling office, staff work room, your weekly staff blog.
You are welcome to “try out” the tool, to see how it is laid out and increases access to a few different reporting pathways. Just note “test only” if you are going to hit submit on a test run, please!
As a reminder, coming soon is a student iPad short-cut to a webpage with the form linked, as well as student lessons on bias and how to use this tool (more on that Sept 12th). In the meantime, if you have questions or concerns, reach out to Kinsey.
Family Liaison Team – Here is our 22-23 team of Family Liaisons! Many of you have already invited your assigned liaison to your upcoming staff and family events—thank you. Some members of this team are still waiting on their BLS badges. If they arrive to visit your school, they’ll bring other ID for now—thank you for making sure your office team knows to welcome them as colleagues.
Some liaisons are very part-time (5 hours a week), to support district-wide family engagement efforts. They can support individual school needs—we will just need to coordinate and partner thoughtfully on requests for their time, to be respectful of boundaries. If you have questions about coordinating services, case loads, or schedules, reach out to Kinsey. If you have a specific request of the liaison team, reach out to any member of the group! As shared earlier this week, we are waiting on some phone systems, therefore email is still the recommended contact method for a few more days.
Community Resources and Organizations – Just a reminder that once a year our community organizations and resources may set up a table at an open house, curriculum night or during parent conferences. This might include the HDESD, Camp Fire, Scouts, Bend Park and Rec, 4H… Think about including this opportunity in your newsletter because many times your own parents are part of an organization that might want to showcase their resources. Just pick one time to have them all.
Kids Inc Info – The message below was sent to Park and Rec leadership re: Kids Inc staff. Please take the time to read it and pass this information on to your office staff. There might be some adjustments to how kids are picked up and please be aware that at this time Kids Inc staff only have name tags and not i.d.’s
Dear Kids Inc Leadership Staff –
Over the past couple of weeks we have been reviewing safety protocols and procedures for everything we do including visitor management at our schools. We are requiring that you begin to standardize the process of how Kids Inc staff report to work at their site so it’s the same routine at each school. For regularly assigned Kids Inc staff please tell them to enter through the front door and check in with the office staff. They do not need to use our raptor system to check in but they do need to let the office staff know they are here and they need to be wearing their Park and Rec ID.
This practice is consistent with what we are asking of our own district staff do when teachers and students are still in the building. If there is a sub for a staff member that day they should check in using the raptor system. And for pick up in the evening, please mirror the process you have at the Pavilion. Doors are locked, signage is outside with a phone number to call, parents call the number, staff bring the student to the door, and after visual assessment outside staff walk the youth outside. At no time should the door be unlocked and unsupervised. Similarly, exterior doors to playgrounds should not be unsupervised and unlocked.
I know these requests might be a change from the way things have been done in the past. We are looking forward having you start the year working collaboratively with us as we continue to focus our efforts on safety and access to our buildings. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or to Julianne Repman ([email protected]).
From Alandra – last call to send me photos/videos of how you kicked off the year as a staff. I have been absolutely loving these! (Due end of the day Thursday.) – Alandra
A reminder from HR for benefit eligible employees – OEBB Open Enrollment is happening now! Enrollment is mandatory, takes place online, and must be completed by September 15.
Check out the district’s Employee Benefit Website for enrollment information, plans, rates, and much more. If you need help with enrollment or have questions, our Benefits Team will be hosting in-person help sessions. Tammy went to one today and loved it!
Please feel free to stop by any location – no appointments are necessary.
- September 12th, 3:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Education Center – Room 314, 520 NW Wall Street Bend, OR 97703
- September 13th, 9:00 a.m. – 12 noon Bend Transportation – Small side of lunchroom, 501 SE 2nd Street Bend, OR 97701
If you have questions, please contact the HR Specialist that corresponds with your last name:
- Last name A-K = Monica Ropp = 355-1119
- Last name L-Z = Kristen Marsters = 355-1106
Sustainability with Jackie Mueller With the start of the school year comes the opportunity to get your school involved in the district sustainability program, SustainBLS. In the 19-20 school year, we had 70% involvement. Even with the challenges in the 21-22 school year, BLS managed to keep 57% of schools involved. One of the goals in the sustainability plan is to have 100% of schools involved by 2025. You can assist us reach that goal by recruiting a staff member to serve as the Sustainability Advisor (SA). The SA works with green team students and the whole school community on saving resources, sustainable actions and creating a culture of stewardship. Please review the linked/attached document to learn more. Staff can take 40 hours at the curriculum rate to support this program. Teachers interested in learning more can review the teacher document linked/attached or reach out to me directly at [email protected] Thank you for supporting sustainability in BLS.
TLC Weekly Update Starting next blog, the TLC Update will start having ideas, produced by a pe teacher, for your staff to do in their classrooms. This is another resource your staff can use to add in those minutes!
Calendar
- September 5 – HOLIDAY
- September 7 – First Day of School!
- September 9 @ 2:15 – Relax, first week is over
And finally…