Everyone –
When there is an exposure at your school families will receive a very official letter from you with notification of what occurred at the school. These official notifications can sometimes cause alarm. To help ease this concern Tami, Julianne, and Alandra, with the help of Linda Burley, 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.
I had previously asked that all schools send this letter to their families. But as I looked back on my blog posts I realized I wasn’t very clear with my directions. I apologize for this – completely my fault. So if your school has not sent this letter please do so ASAP. Here is the link to the English, Spanish and Chinese versions of the letter. Thank you for getting this out if you haven’t already.
Focus on Excellence and Equity…
We will have an Excellence in Equity meeting on Wednesday @ Cascade from 3-4:30. At this meeting we will be reviewing our goals and we will be asking people to dig deeper on their goals. Now is your time to make any modifications to your goals. Also make sure you take time to review and respond to the goals from others.
Department News…
From Scott Bojanowski – In accordance with the RSSL and state law, we must make sure each student does at least one fire drill per month and the two emergency drills per school year.
The RSSL says that if we are in cohorts and/or split days, we need to ensure multiple drills are done that month to capture all students in the different cohorts (section 2m – pages 48 & 49 of the current RSSL).
Raptor and Contact Tracing News from Scott Bojanowski – While visitors and volunteers are still not allowed in schools and facilities, there may be some situations where essential visitors are allowed. If there are essential visitors entering our facilities, they will need to sign in on the Raptor system and wear a badge while in our schools (in accordance with district visitor/volunteer policies).
We have added a contact tracing capability to Raptor for those essential visitors signing in. They will answer the required contact tracing questions through Raptor and will not need to fill out the QR or paper logs for contact tracing when signing in through Raptor.
The IT techs are working this week on getting all the Raptor kiosks updated with the new contact tracing function at each of our schools.
Please continue to advocate for remote meetings with visitors through telephone or video conferencing. Building administrators have the discretion to determine if a visitor is essential and can meet in person at the school, ensuring all RSSL safety protocols are being followed.
Examples of essential visitors – DHS worker conducting an investigation, fire marshal or law enforcement on official business, student’s medical service dog conducting mandatory training, etc.
Families going on vacation – If you hear that a family is going on a vacation there is no need to send a letter to that specific family about recommended quarantine procedures. Rather, school wide communications in a newsletter or class wide communication are the better route. Personal emails directly to a family might make them feel like we are singling them out.
From Kerry Morton, Math Coach – We have a wonderful opportunity! Teachers Development Group is hosting their Leadership Seminar virtually this year! TLC is able to pay the registration for one participant from each elementary building!
The theme of the seminar this year is: Lessons Learned from an Extraordinary Year: Insights about How to Enact More Equitable & Inclusive Prek-12 Mathematics Teaching & Professional Learning. You can find a list of speakers and additional information here.
Dates and times:
Wednesday, March 10th 9:00-12:15 (no substitutes available)
Thursday, March 11th 3:00-6:15
Saturday, March 13th 9:00-12:15
As you think about who to send, consider members of your team that are: professional developers, school administrators, or teacher leaders since this is a Leadership Seminar.
Participants will be asked to share their learning during a staff meeting at their building and hopefully present an idea during the Innovation Seminar in August.
Participants will also have the opportunity to register for 1 graduate credit from OSU by completing reflections and a final project based on their learning. More information will be shared at a later time.
Please type your selection here by Friday, February 19th so Wendy Reeves can register each person.
From Paul Dean
Classified Evaluations – If you remember way back to pre-COVID days, the classified rubric was updated last school year and you can find the new forms in this folder. On Monday, February 22nd, HR will be sending you a list of the employees that you are slated to evaluate during the 2020-21 school year along with instructions on how to complete them before May 1st.
School Safety Team – RSSL requires that schools Create a simple process that allows for named and anonymous sharing of concerns that can be reviewed on a daily and weekly basis by the designated RSSL building point-person. Example: Anonymous survey form or suggestion box where at least weekly submissions and resolutions are shared in some format.
Each school’s safety team is required to identify either a digital or physical method for staff to submit COVID related concerns. The safety team will publicize the method for submissions and communicate the team’s problem-solving resolutions to the staff at least on a weekly basis.
Project HELP update – Mara Stephens will be leaving our district later this month. Sandy Schmidt, a longtime FAN Advocate, will be taking over for Mara. Please welcome her to this new role when you see her at your school.
Updates, Reminders, Info and Rants…
Subs – This is becoming one of my least favorite topics. I know not getting jobs filled has been frustrating. I don’t really have too much to say or any sage advice to give other than plan ahead as much as possible. When a job does not fill, look internally first and feel free to cancel Title groups, ELL groups or SpEd groups to provide coverage. Cancelling groups for a day or two is something we expect to happen. And as you know classified subs are even more scarce. If a classified job doesn’t fill, and internal coverage can’t occur, you may try to get a licensed sub for that position.
Square Footage Spreadsheet – As kids come and go please ask your secretary or registrar to keep updating the square footage spreadsheet. I had Amy Stafford update all the numbers on Tuesday but it is really important that we keep up on changes. Maybe suggest that on a weekly basis it gets reviewed and updated. This is the spreadsheet I refer to when deciding if a student can return from CDL or BLPO.
Lessons Learned – Thank you Kelle for the information shared regarding what to do when you quarantine a class. It was very helpful. For those of you unable to attend here is the document Kelle put together. Everyone should try to prepare as much as possible but realize that every situation is a bit different. But don’t worry, you’re not alone. Tami, Julianne, Alandra, and Paul will help you along the way. One bit of advice, get in the habit of bringing your computer home each night. These unfortunate events seem to happen at inconvenient times.
The Trout Guys – The Fish and Wildlife program that teaches kids about fish and the health of our streams might be contacting you about coming into the building. While they have been a longtime partner of ours, we are trying to limit our visitors this year to our buildings. I think we need to tell that we will be taking a year off. Sorry. It’s a great program and hopefully we can welcome them back next year.
Safe Touch Training – Tim Burdsall has graciously agreed to to host a Safe Touch training for us. Those of you needing training, or just need a refresher, please join Tim at North Star from 2:00 – 3:30 on Wednesday, February 24th. It only cost me a six pack of beer to get Tim to agree to doing this. What a deal!
February Visits – If you haven’t signed up for your February visit please do so. During this visit I have a few things just to check off my list – SLGG’s, safety plans, schedules, etc. and then I want to talk about Lexia and Dreambox usage. We’ll log into the dashboard for each, look at some year to date numbers, and talk about some goals over the next month or so. If you haven’t logged into Dreambox or Lexia recently you may want to spend some time exploring each. You can access both systems via Clever.
Student Photos – just a reminder to get those scheduled.
Calendar
- Friday 2/12 – no kids. CDL instruction day
- Tuesday 2/16 – 3:30 – 4:30 Horizontal (Monday is a holiday)
- Wednesday 2/17 Leadership @ Cascade 3:00 – 4:30
- Friday 2/19 – 1:00-2:00 Principal round table with Dr. Cook (group 1)
- Wednesday 2/24 – 2:00 – 3:30 Safe touch Training @ North Star with Tim Burdsall
- Friday 2/26 – 1:00-2:00 Principal round table with Dr. Cook (group 2)
- Monday 3/1 – 3:30 – 4:30 Horizontal
- Monday 3/15 – 3:30 – 4:30 Horizontal
And Finally…
I know I already announced Linda’s big news earlier in the week but I just wanted to say one more time how much I will miss her. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Linda for many years and my wife, Kelli, has had the privilege of having Linda as her principal. Kelli was very bummed when Linda announced her retirement to her staff. Linda has been a great leader at High Lakes and has done a fabulous job with the entire school community. So everyone, please make sure you get your vaccine because we need to have a party at the end of year to send Linda off the right way.