As we bring our kids back into school I think one of the many challenges we’ll be facing is stamina – for our kids, for our teachers, and for ourselves. Remember, we haven’t been in school for about 9 months. Take these first few weeks to build stamina and focus on establishing relationships and routines. Now is not the time to welcome our kids back with tests! Remember, you’d never run a marathon without first building a good foundation of miles.
Focus on Excellence and Equity…
Nice White Parents Podcast – I think some of you have already heard of this podcast so I apologize if I am late to the party. If you haven’t heard of it, you might want to give it a listen. I am only a couple episodes in but it is pretty thought provoking so far.
Department News…
From Paul Dean, COVID Czar- As you know, each of your schools has a School Safety Checklist on our district website. What you may not be fully aware of is that these are being read frequently and thoroughly. It is really important that these checklists are not only up-to-date, but also contain complete information (everything that you have in place at school should also be communicated in your plan). Thank for taking a look at yours and making any necessary updates and modifications.
Another from Paul Dean, COVID Czar – If you have a student who refuses to wear a mask (and the reason is not IDEA or health-related), do not make this a discipline issue. In this situation, remove the student from the general population (office or meeting room where other students are not present) and see if this can be resolved. If it cannot, please call the parents to explain the situation. If it still cannot be resolved, then explain that the educational options for students who chose not to wear a mask are BLPSO or district CDL and help them get connected to one of these. Further, if a student refuses to wear a mask on the bus in the morning then the drive will bring that student to school (rather than leave them unattended at the bus stop) and notify the school. You should make every attempt to meet this student prior to them entering the building (notify whoever will be doing your visible checks of students at the door) and go through the same process as just described.
From HR re: Round #2 of the Vaccine – As we discussed on Monday, Paul created a survey to gather info on upcoming appointments (i.e. next covid shot). Please MAKE A COPY OF THIS SURVEY and send it out to your staff (If you haven’t already done one on your own). We would like to get some raw numbers by the end of next week so we know the potential impact might be on our sub pool.
From Andre Wilson – Attention! – There was a mistake about conferences. Initially conferences were published as April 7 and 8. They are actually April 14 and 15. It has been corrected online but you will need to start notifying families now and keep reminding them.
From Julianne and Alandra – At some point, it is likely that your school will have some exposure to a positive case. Our district has prepared a number of family letters related to a variety of exposure examples. You can find these letters on the Portal at this location. Here is the site on the Portal that includes many of our documents that are COVID-related. As you know HLE had an incident this week and notification letters were sent to families. This alarmed some parents because they had no idea of our policy for notifying an entire school population of an exposure. To help ease this concern Tami, Julianne, and Alandra, with the help of Linda, created a letter that explains to families our process and what types of communications and notifications they might receive. Hopefully, this explanation will prepare families for when (if) an official notification letter comes their way. This letter is currently being translated so as soon as it’s ready we would like schools to send it out to their families.
January 28th Teaching and Learning Center Happenings! – Here is the link to their update. Be sure to read it as it’s full of useful information and updates.
Updates, Reminders, Info and Rants…
Bargaining Update – We completed our bargaining for hybrid instruction this week. The key points form the BEA/District MOU on Hybrid instruction can be found here. On Monday Jon Lindsay will be joining our horizontal to go over the key points that you need to be aware of. At this time please do not send me any questions. Print out a copy, write your questions in the margin, and be ready to hear what Jon has to say on Monday.
My Phone– I am in and out of my office so much that sometimes my voicemail gets out of control. I will walk in and see the light on but I won’t be there long enough to listen and return calls. For that reason I am having my office phone forwarded to Amy Stafford. So if you call my phone it will go to here. She can track me down or take a message but probably the best way to reach me is to text or call my cell.
Substitute Teachers – I know subs (or lack of) is on everyone’s mind. We have hired a pool of district subs that will help but they will definitely not solve the problem. It is very important that sub requests are put into the system as soon as possible and monitored closely. Ultimately the district subs will be managed via the ESD system. For now we are deploying them from here. If you have a teacher absence follow these steps for now:
- Put request into the ESD – monitor closely
- Job doesn’t fill? Call Skip or Julie about a district sub.
- No District sub available? Look internally – ERC, SRC, Title, EA’s with licenses, student services, VP, Principal, Psych (to cover duties if not licensed)
- No internal solution? Call Skip or Julie about deploying a coach or other district staff to the classroom
These steps will change a bit once we get all our district subs on board and get the ESD managing their deployment.
Proper storage and disposal of masks – Here are two documents that you may want to share with your staff. One has to do with proper storage of disposable masks. The other are directions of how to put on and take off a disposable respirator mask (KN95).
Report Cards – This year, more than most, it is VERY important that all semester 1 report cards are completed by Monday, Feb. 8. On this date all students who are moving from brick and mortar school into either BLPSO or district CDL will be dropped from your enrollment.
Thanks Andrea! – If you get in a jam with not having enough front office coverage (e.g. staff are out due to quarantine) please know that Andrea Wilson has mentioned that she is willing to come help for an immediate need if you find yourself in a pinch.
Snow? – if we have significant snow, both late start or cancellations are possible. Language around what teaching/instruction will look like on a “cancellation” day is still being worked through with BEA, so don’t communicate any plans yet. Lastly, we are asking that you (and all of your building staff) continue to check-in and check-out every day at your site. This means you will either need to limit the number of doors to enter/exit, or provide check-in/out opportunities at each location.
Remind your Staff – Please consider these CDC quarantine recommendations if your family has plans for either domestic or international travel in the months to come.
Bottom line for both – Individuals who have traveled out of state (domestic or international) are recommended to:
- Get tested 3-5 days after travel AND stay home for 7 days after travel.
- Even if you test negative, stay home for the full 7 days.
- If your test is positive, isolate yourself to protect others from getting infected.
- If you don’t get tested, it’s safest to stay home for 10 days after travel.
- Avoid being around people who are at increased risk for severe illness for 14 days, whether you get tested or not.
Also, take these actions for 14 days after you return from travel to protect others from getting COVID-19:
- Stay at least 6 feet/2 meters (about 2 arm lengths) from anyone who did not travel with you, particularly in crowded areas. It’s important to do this everywhere — both indoors and outdoors.
- Wear a mask to keep your nose and mouth covered when you are in shared spaces outside of your home, including when using public transportation.
- If there are people in the household who did not travel with you, wear a mask and ask everyone in the household to wear masks in shared spaces inside your home.
- Wash your hands often or use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.
- Avoid being around people who are at increased risk for severe illness.
- Watch your health: Look for symptoms of COVID-19, and take your temperature if you feel sick.
- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-during-covid19.html
- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/after-travel-precautions.html
- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html
SLGG’s for teachers and for you – just a reminder that you should be getting SLGG’s from your teachers. For principals, here is the form we can use. Make a copy of this document and either share it with me or send me a hard copy. I would like these by mid February if at all possible please. Call if you have any questions. Thanks.
Calendar
- 2/1 Horizontal 3:30 – 4:30 – My WebEx room
- 2/15 – Admin SLGG’s due
And Finally…
Shared by Brian Kissell. This is why we do what we do…
