Everyone – <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next big thing on your plates is hiring and the good news is that the staffing log jam is clearing up.\u00a0 BLPO teachers and instructional coaches are being identified and hired this week and next and I predict early next week I will be giving you the green light to start filling some of those positions that you have in your buildings.\u00a0 Please be sure to always reference the transfer list first before conducting any interviews.\u00a0 We had some great candidates there that might just be the perfect choice for your school.\u00a0 Make sure you get out of the building today as soon as you can and start enjoying your weekend.\u00a0 Hopefully the weather will warm up so all those flowers you planted last week don\u2019t die. June is right around the corner – Hallelujah!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you everyone for participating in our Wednesday leadership meeting. Kinsey has provided us with this resource<\/a> to help us complete our equity stance. Here are your next steps in this process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n By June 7, share your personal Equity Stance <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>(no need to have it polished\/final yet, just a current draft you feel good about and can pick back up in August)as follow-up after yesterday’s session? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Superintendent communication on masks –<\/strong> by now you have all seen Lora\u2019s update on masks.\u00a0Deciding how you handle masks coming off and back on is good decision opportunity for your Safety Team. Personally, I think just having kids put their mask around their neck or in their pocket is the easiest approach. That way if the have to come into the building for some reason – office, bathroom, health room… – their mask can be put back on. But no matter how you proceed, I predict we will probably have kids losing their masks during the transition to recess so I\u2019ve asked that more be sent your way.\u00a0 Disperse them to classrooms and entrances as needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From Chad in IT<\/strong> – On Monday, next week, all elementary staff will receive an email asking to set up Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). This will be similar to the email that Admins received about MFA in early March. The deadline for elementary staff to set up MFA won\u2019t be until July 26th<\/sup>, but for their own convenience it would be best to set it up before that deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Help Desk and IT Techs will be available to help support staff with MFA, but we are also asking each school to identify 1 or 2 people to be an on-site resource to help their fellow staff with MFA questions. These people should set up MFA themselves using the Authenticator app so that they are familiar with the recommended process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From Scott in IT – <\/strong>Please share in your next parent communication: <\/p>\n\n\n\n All students who have a district-issued hotspot at their home are asked to return the hotspot and charging equipment to the school front office<\/strong> by June 18th<\/strong>.\u00a0 Service to all hotspots will end on June 18th.\u00a0 Any hotspot that has not been returned to school will cease to function beyond this date.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Related, but not for parent communication: If you learn of a student who is in need of a hotspot for summer work, a plan is being developed now to accommodate this request as best we can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From Amy – <\/strong>Please share in your next parent communication:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear Students and Families,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Once again students will be allowed to keep their loaner iPads with them throughout the summer months. This will provide students with a device to continue learning opportunities over the summer. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you will not be attending a Bend-La Pine Schools program or school next year, please return your iPad, charging brick and cord to your current school. Schools will be communicating their return schedule directly to families. If you will be attending a different Bend-La Pine Schools program or school next year, keep the iPad you have and take it with you to your new site in September.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes plans change during the summer. If you find yourself moving out of the area or leaving the district during the summer and need to return your iPad, please drop it off Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Education Center located at 520 Wall Street, Bend. Please remember to also return your charging brick and cord at this time. The fee for missing cords are $5 and missing charging bricks are $20.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n From Christie Boen <\/strong>– don\u2019t forget to check out this week\u2019s EdTechBytes<\/a>. There\u2019s some good information there on Spring cleaning and lexia and dreambox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Summer School Student Identification – <\/strong>As you start to prepare your list of students to invite to the Jump Start program, keep in mind that the data provided by Austin is a starting point and is not the final deciding factor. For example, the data might recommend a specific student be invited but that student may also be on the ESY list. If this is the case then ESY would be their program. If you need to know who is invited to ESY please talk to your SpEd teacher \u2013 they have access to the list. Another factor to consider might be students who require a level of support that is just not feasible for the summer program or who will struggle to attend regularly. These students might not be ones to consider for Jump Start either <\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, use the data from Austin as a starting point for your conversations but also include in your decision making process those things you know by the day-to-day interactions with kids and your history with students and families. In other words, use a certain degree of professional judgment when creating your lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Communicating with families about Jump Start <\/strong>– FYI – in the \u201ctalking points\u201d about summer school there is a question about transportation and Kids Inc. Once we know who is attending, we will send information to parents about these questions, so schools don\u2019t need to ask. We just need to know who is coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Horizontal Meeting<\/strong> – I need to move our Horizontal this coming week to Wednesday @ 3:30 in my WebEx room. I had a last minute meeting come up on Monday that I cannot miss. If this conflicts with something you already have planned just let me know. Thanks for adjusting your calendars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admin hiring update: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bear Creek<\/strong> – As you may have heard, JP Richards will be moving on from Bend-La Pine. He has accepted a position in Pendleton that will have him overseeing an elementary school and also taking on some human resources responsibilities. I know it was a hard decision for JP to make but the opportunity to get some central office responsibilities and move a bit closer to his daughter and new grandchild was hard to pass up. Please join me in wishing JP success in his new role. I apologize for skipping this announcement in the last weekly update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are in the process of identifying and selecting JP\u2019s replacement.\u00a0 I hope to have news on that in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n High Lakes – <\/strong> we recently offered the HLE principal position to Kimberly Sundberg and thankfully she has accepted. Human Resources is finishing up things on their end to finalize the hiring and a press release will be coming out soon. Kim is currently serving as assistant principal and dean of students for Haines School in Haines, Alaska, a position she has served in for three years. She also has 18 years of classroom teaching experience in Alaska. If you would like to reach out to Kim to welcome her aboard her email is kimasundberg@yahoo.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Silver Rail <\/strong>– since we stole Tammy from SRE we needed to fill her position. Conducting a search this late in the year would have proven difficult so lucky for us we had someone internally who expressed an interest and was ready to take over for Tammy. Please join me in congratulating Stephanie Jensen as the interim-principal of Silver Rail. We will be posting an interim VP position to take her place. Next spring we will review how things are going at SRE and remove that interim tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please pass this onto your staff <\/strong>– please share this free summer learning flyer<\/a> with any\/all on your staff. The topic is Trauma-Informed Engagement Practices<\/strong> through the process of continuous improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enjoy the pics and videos below from Heather Korman at Elk Meadow. She said she might never teach inside again.\u00a0 Our daily math, reading, and writing instruction is definitely important but there’s something about playing with dirt and worms that stick in kids\u2019 memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone – The next big thing on your plates is hiring and the good news is that the staffing log jam is clearing up.\u00a0 BLPO teachers and instructional coaches are being identified and hired this week and next and I Continue reading May 21, 2021<\/span>
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\n\n\n\nAnd Finally\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n