Focus on Excellence and Equity…
CFEE Training in June: The Bend-La Pine spaces for the late-July CFEE have all been filled by members of our leadership team, but there are a couple spaces left in the June session (6/28-7/1, entirely virtual). Please reach out to Kinsey by this Tuesday if you are interested in taking advantage of this personal and professional opportunity for growth!
What is CFEE? Coaching for Educational Equity is a deep-dive into the impact of Oregon’s history on ourselves as educators and on the students and families we serve. To date, over 40 leaders in Bend-La Pine Schools have already participated, and it is our intent to continue growing our CFEE-graduate cohort over time. Thanks for considering this opportunity to develop shared knowledge, language, and leadership for equity.
Department News…
From Jon – We are having an extremely hard time filling all substitute requests. Last week we ask that you keep personal days to 5% in the building. This week and for the remainder of the year we are going one step further. We will not be approving anymore personal days unless a substitute can be found. If we have already approved a personal day, then we will honor that decision. Moving forward, however, if an employee, either classified or certified, asks for a personal day, we need to know that positions will be covered before okaying the request. We also would like to remind you that we’ve made special agreements with both associations that employees will be paid for unused personal days.
From Tami – Bend Parks and Rec (which includes Kids Inc.) is a separate program from Bend-La Pine Schools. For a COVID positive individual identified in their program, BPR receives guidance from Deschutes County Public Health. BPR will conduct their own contact tracing and quarantining. BLS will be informed of a positive case but not informed of close contacts. It is our hope that parents will follow the quarantine recommendation information provided to them from Kids Inc. BLS is not tracking or enforcing quarantine recommendations from outside agencies. Please contact Tami Pike with any questions.
From Alandra – We are planning to share a press release celebrating our Excellence in Education award recipients May 21, hoping that will give enough time for schools that want to make the awards a surprise (if you have a conflict, let Alandra know and we may be able to push back the release date). Alandra is also collecting photos of the honorees and is looking for 1-2 events to attend, so if you have something fun planned for your recipients, let her know.
From Sean re: BRYT – One of the first steps I the BRYT planning process for a building team is the MTSS mapping process. Given that the year is ending soon, there will not be time for every building team to go through this process this year. That said, BRYT has opened up a few spots for building teams that want to get a jump start and do the MTSS mapping this spring. This will be a process that involves your building support team that will be working most closely with BRYT and the Student Success Clinician/Coordinator (SSCC). If you have already identified your SSCC, then that is a strong reason to consider participating if you have the bandwidth. Click the link here to pick a 60 or 90 minute time slot which starts in June.
Mask wearing update from CDC: You have likely read or heard about the CDC updating their guidance around mask wearing and folks who have been vaccinated. And you also probably heard that Gov. Brown is going to move Oregon requirements regarding mask-wearing (indoors and outdoors) to align with this new CDC guidance. What you may or may not have caught in the small print (so to speak) is that Gov. Brown also said that for schools, we will continue to follow current RSSL guidance regarding social distancing and mask-wearing for the remainder of this school year (see end of third paragraph). In other words, no changes for us (as of now anyway!) in how we do school this spring.
From Marsha – You will be receiving an email today from Marsha Baro regarding a requirement (SB 155) to display a poster that is a reminder for reporting sexual conduct and child abuse. Please post this where you have other required documents for staff to see. Thank you for following her directions for displaying this.
Updates, Reminders, Info and Rants…
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.
Summer School Planning – Just a reminder to start the process of identifying Jump start invites and to take note of the different due dates identified. Here is the link to Julie’s document and here is the link to Austin’s directions. As always, if you have any questions just reach out.
Calendar
- 5/14 – principal self reflections – thanks for getting those submitted!
- 5/17 – Horizontal @ 3:30 – Dave and Julie present
- 5/19 – 10am – 11am BRYT Virtual School Visit: Chickering Elementary School
- 5/19 – Excellence and Equity Leadership meeting
- 6/4 – Jump Start Enrollment confirmation