To Do

From Scott and Kayla in Safety:

Building leaders, please share this information with your staff next week:

In an effort to support our bus drivers and bus monitors, who sometimes are not able to access the main entrance of our schools because of where they have to park the buses, and because they are on a quick turnaround timeline, we have provided updated protocols for those employees to enter our schools during their duty hours to access staff restrooms. 

There are updated protocols for district bus driver’s and bus monitor’s access to school restrooms in our Culture of Safety document on the staff portal website here, and in the Safety Resources Google Drive (for administrators and office managers) here. The updated protocols are under the Access to Buildings Procedures section, paragraph (D), subsection (2) on pages 4 & 5 of the document.

Our transportation staff’s key card access will be limited between the hours of 7:00 AM – 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday.

Please reach out to the safety team with any questions.

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From Paul in Operations:

COO Ops leaders from Transportation, Facilities/Maintenance, Safety, IT and Custodial/Sustainability will be facilitating the March Leadership Team meeting.

Please submit at least one question, concern, curiosity or comment that you have for one or more of our departments at this link.

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Please share this with relevant staff:

Motivational Interviewing Training(s) 

Upcoming Opportunity for Staff involved with UpShift (those delivering the Teen Intervene Curriculum, screening students, or supporting administrators) 

Empower your staff with the tools they need to make meaningful connections with students and families.

Training Details

Join us for a 90-minute experiential training designed to strengthen motivational interviewing (MI) skills. Led by Heather Lynch, a seasoned Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) member, this session focuses on building confidence, fostering partnerships, and inspiring positive change with teens and caregivers.

Why Should Staff Attend? 

This interactive training will:

·        Provide practical MI tools and techniques.

·        Enhance communication strategies.

·        Support effective implementation of UpShift goals and outcomes.

Training Information and Registration Link(s):

Option 1:Wednesday, March 19th 2:30-4:15 pm at the Deschutes Public Library (507 NW Wall Street) Brooks Room 

Option 2:Wednesday, April 2nd 2:30-4:15 pm at the Bend – La Pine Schools Ed Center (520 Northwest Wall Street) Room 312

Encourage your team to take advantage of this unique professional development opportunity. Together, we can build stronger connections and foster lasting positive change in our schools!

Refreshments will be provided

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From the 1/17/25 post by Ryan in Human Resources:

Be sure your certified staff are aware of the timelines for finalizing grades/progress reports:

1. Progress Reports Submission Deadline:
   • Special Education Progress reports must be submitted by 4:00 PM on 1/31 this semester.
   • Middle/High School progress reports must be finalized in Synergy by 4:00 PM on 1/31.
   • Elementary progress reports must be finalized by 4:00 PM on 2/3.
2. Work Location for End-of-Term Days:
   • Employees who have met the deadlines in regards to grading and/or progress reports in previous semesters, and who have met other expectations surrounding the timely completion of professional responsibilities, will be permitted to work from an off-site location on end-of-term work days.
   • Employees who have not met these deadlines, and/or for whom their supervisor has further articulable concerns about the timely completion of professional responsibilities, will be required to work from their assigned school site.

From Departments

From Jennifer:

National Counseling Week is next week!

National School Counseling Week (NCSW) 2025 is Feb. 3-7, 2025, to focus attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within our schools. The theme this year is: School Counseling: Helping Students Thrive. The special week honoring school counselors provides recognition for school counselors who “implement comprehensive school counseling programs, a vital part of the educational process for all students as they meet the challenges of the 21st century”.

NCSW is always celebrated the first full week in February and there are multiple resources available below to help you celebrate school counselors next week at your school site. We will celebrate our student success staff the week of March 3rd during school social worker week.

Here is a “Certificate of Appreciation” that you can use for your counselors and click on slide below for some resources to help your school celebrate this week with your counselor(s)😊

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From Scott in IT:

Here is a good news sandwich from your IT department.

Top Bun- Beginning this week, our elementary report card is now available in 11 different languages! (Jason Schneider).

Bologna- Make sure your TV / projection system is off when you leave for the day! (Scott McDonald)

Bottom Bun- AirPlay functionality has returned to normal with the latest available OS update, (Chad Brewer)

Even if you prefer to not have Bologna in your “good news” sandwich, please try your best to choke it down today.  😊

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From Kinsey — Policy, Advocacy, & Office of DEI:

Taking It Up:

Great news: we have re-scheduled the Taking It Up workshop (postponed from August)!  It will be Tues-Wed, February 18-19 (full days).  

Substitute costs will be covered as applicable.  A notice will go out to staff early next week with instructions to sign up.  Space will be limited and this powerful workshop usually fills quickly, so encourage folks to sign up fast.  If you are a leader in our district who has not attended the week-long CFEE workshop or this two-day version that is Taking It Up, please consider arranging your schedule to attend.  

If you are a CFEE grad and willing to serve as a table facilitator, please email me ASAP.  Administrators, I am happy to cover the cost of a substitute for a teacher-leader in your building to serve as office support while you’re out (if you have an admin intern you could tap, etc).  

Linguist Link:

If you are experiencing issues with Linguist Link services (interpreters not showing up, no responses to your messages, poor quality of linguist services), please A) send a note via the “message all” feature of your project/request in the LL system, and/or B) shoot me an email to let me know. 

There are some transitions going on within those contracted services, but I have been reassured this should not impact the quality of service you receive.  As a reminder if you’re ever in a pinch, here are the various resources and levels of support available to you for translation/interpretation.  

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From Ryan in Human Resources:

We are very excited to be adding a Director of District Activities and Athletics to bring our secondary school athletic and activity programs together under one vision. This role is focused on ensuring that every student has access to consistent, high-quality extracurricular experiences, no matter which school they attend. By aligning programs across the district, we’re creating more opportunities for students to grow, connect, and succeed—academically, socially, and emotionally.

This will be a BLAST position and we’ll be posting this position on our site Monday and sharing it widely across the region to attract a strong pool of candidates. If you’d like to learn more about the role or have any questions, please connect with Ryan.

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From Paul in Operations:

We want to take a moment to clarify differing practices in our district with regards to animals on school grounds.  We have many playgrounds with this sign:

However, we do not have any district policy that prohibits dogs outside of school hours on our property.  ING-AR: Animal Visitors under Owner Responsibility reads:

• Owners walking animals on school grounds must follow city or county ordinances regarding leashing and sanitation. 
• Principals and their designees have the authority to exclude persons and their animals from play fields when he/she determines that there are associated health and/or safety concerns. 

In order to align our signage with our policy, we will be removing all fence signage pertaining to animals.  In place of those signs, our maintenance department will install one of the signs below.  They will communicate with the head engineer and building principal regarding where you want the new sign placed.

Building leaders have the authority to temporarily close school playgrounds in accordance with Facility, Playgrounds, Fields & Property Community Use Guidelines [here is a Spanish Version].   We have created this Community Use Violation Notice [and here is a Spanish Version] that you may copy, edit, print, laminate and zip tie to your gate(s) when you are restricting public access by locking your gates.  

If you would like to order additional signs ($65 each), please submit a work order request along with a budget code.  Maintenance will collaborate with you regarding where to place your additional signs.  Please reach out to Dan Dummitt for further assistance with signs.

HS Only

2025 Oregon Music Hall of Fame

College Scholarship Applications

OMHOF is pleased to announce that applications for our college scholarship program are available again with a deadline of February 14, 2025. Each applicant should be studying music and graduating spring 2025 from an Oregon High School and continuing to college in the fall of 2025 with a major or minor in music. We strive to inspire the continuing higher musical education by offering assistance with college expenses, so that these music students may aspire to a higher level of performance and success in their field of interest. Thanks to the generous contributions of EPB&B (11th year in a row), our scholarships rose from $1000 each to $2500 each (6 total) for 2024, including a special winner who will major in music education! ! In addition Oregon Music Hall of Fame is pleased to announce a new scholarship program, Gloria Johnson Scholarship for women studying Broadcasting, Teaching, Performance, Music Industry degrees. This $2500 yearly scholarship program is open to all women continuing their musical studies at the College/University level seeking a degree in these fields.

Any questions may be emailed to: [email protected]

An application form is available here: https://www.omhof.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/OMHOF-Scholarship-Form-2024-fillable.pdf

Women in Music Scholarship: https://www.omhof.org/music-education-scholarships/

All items must be mailed together, in order to qualify. All applications are fillable online, but must be printed, signed, and mailed (no digital copies accepted).

Oregon Music Hall of Fame

PO Box 82173,

 Portland, OR 97282

Here’s to creating the music of tomorrow through focused musical studies today,

J.M. Rundle

Janeen Rundle

Oregon Music Hall of Fame

Co-Founder & Director of Music Education

[email protected]

Calendar

• February 11: HS Administrator work session 8:00-10:00 @ Summit HS
• February 11: ICCL/Secondary Administrator 4:15-6:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall
• February 19: All Admin PD 3:00-4:30 @ Bend HS in Perseverance Hall
• February 25: HS Principal work session 8:00-10:00 @ Caldera HS

March 18: AP Requests DUE on this sheet

Where in the World

Keep those pictures coming!

This week, we are highlighting Mary Thomas her summer trip last year at the Kinderdijk Windmills in the Netherlands.

To Do

Finish your probationary letters ASAP: These are due tomorrow. Contact HR if you have any questions.

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Sign Up for Mandatory Admin Trainings:

We have two mandatory trainings coming up. The first is related to Mandatory Subjects of Bargaining and the other is related to AI Guidance for the 2025-2026 school year. We will have several options to take these trainings over the next few months in an effort to accommodate many different schedules. Each training is 2 hours long. On January 31st (the report card workday), we will have three options to complete the Mandatory Subjects of Bargaining training. Sign up by clicking HERE. Other trainings opportunities for this and the AI training will happen on various Thursdays throughout the winter and spring. More details to come. 

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Admin PD:

Bring your laptop to Bend High on Wednesday for our admin PD. We will be discussing chapter 1 of Thriving Leaders. There is not a requirement to read the chapter ahead of time but if you want to walk in more prepared, feel free to do so.

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Evals and SLGGs:

Principal, Assistant Principal, and Dean Evaluation Information:

1. These are updated and in our system. You can attach your SLGGs using the paperclip if you haven’t already. You level leader needs this too
2. All of the details for each scoring area can be accessed by clicking on the question mark to the right of the rating section. You will also notice that Domain 9, 10, 11, and 12 have more specific information than they have had in the past. This is to be more in line with the current district work with which we are engaged. If you have questions about these sections, please reach out to your level leader.
3. Please refer to this UKG guidance doc for specific actions. 

From Departments

From Lisa:

Optional Admin PD Opportunities (sign up by clicking link and then clicking on the training of interest):

1. Dave will be leading a testing topic training on 2/6 from 8-10. If you want to come this week, please sign up before tomorrow close of business!
2. Other trainings available before Spring Break are related to SIOP, Evaluations and Feedback, SPED and SPED Law, Financial Management, Positive Behavioral Support Planning, and Instructional Frameworks. Click the link above to sign up. Note: Sign up by tomorrow (1/24) if you want to attend the 1/30 SIOP training.
3. If you have an idea for a future training, let me know!

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From Eric (Part 1):

Synergy Updates from IT/Student Services

#1 – Discipline Incident Wizard to be “LIVE” in Synergy by February 5th

Our IT staff have been working on many Synergy-related projects of late (Thank you!). By February 5th, we will have the ability to access the “Discipline Wizard” in Synergy to enter Incidents. Please review the walkthrough linked HERE to familiarize yourself with this new tool. We referenced this Wizard at the Welcome Back Administrator training (when we launched the Code of Conduct). Now that the known issues with the Wizard have been fixed by Edupoint, we can begin utilizing this helpful resource!

Jason & Ted in IT have offered to help with trainings for the Wizard (as needed), so please reach out if you want any additional support in this area. 

#2 – Message Directly from Jason & Ted Regarding IDS Reports (Helpful Accessing Reports!)

Earlier this year, it was not possible to run Synergy incident reports (IDS reports) which would display violation details like what many staff were used to in prior years due to the Code of Conduct changes. However, it is now possible for an IDS report (for example, IDS401: Student Discipline Listing or IDS403: Discipline Disposition List) to identify the violation details by selecting the “Use Sub Codes” checkbox on the Options tab of the report.

Example:

Additionally, it is recommended to change the output type on the Sort / Output tab to Excel (or CSV) for use with Excel (which makes it easier to read and work with).

This should allow you to answer questions related to the details of violations / dispositions.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to Jason Westmoreland or Ted Helton for assistance:

Ted Helton = 541-355-1224 [[email protected]]

Jason Westmoreland = 541-355-1222 [[email protected]]

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From Eric (Part 2):

Quick Message Regarding SIRC/STAS Assessments and the Important “Outcome and Safety Plans”

For any SIRC (Level 1) or STAS (Level 0 or Level 1) assessment that your team works through, we are required to submit the assessment materials utilized AND an Outcome & Safety Plan. The Outcome and Safety Plan is what we attach to the incident in Synergy, so this document and the accompanying safety planning is vital to the process. 

Here is the link to our SIRC/STAS Threat Assessment Guide for specifics: LINK HERE

Thank you!

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From TLC – Canvas Expectations Reminder:

Heading into the second semester is a good time to remind staff of Canvas expectations. Again, these expectations are at a much lower bar than when we were in the pandemic and there is no requirement to use Canvas for grading. However, we still need to keep our families and students informed of what we are doing in our classrooms.

Here is the document that was shared in the fall.

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From Kinsey – Policy, Advocacy, and Office of DEI:

MAC Survey:

The next MAC Survey will occur the week of Feb 3rd–specific date coming soon.  If you are in the cost pool you will be notified, and it will be important you complete your training asap.  Even if you don’t claim any activities on the survey day, just being a trained administrator in the cost pool helps our funding.  If you can attend any meetings that day where claimable activities might be discussed, that would be a huge help.  Remember, this survey process brings in critical funding for FAN Advocate services.  Thank you for your partnership!

Immigration Guidance: 

Principals, be sure relevant staff have access to the district immigration guidance shared with you last week.  You may share with any/all staff, but at a minimum, it is expected that your entire front-office team be very familiar with the full guidance.  

Please print the ICE Protocol (the document linked in the first section) and post for staff reference at the station where your check-in person sits and greets visitors.  Reach out if you have questions or concerns.

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From Becca in Communications:

Help celebrate our SROs! SRO Appreciation Day is Saturday, February 15 but we want to celebrate them all week long. Beginning Monday, February 11, do something special for your SRO. Please pick the day of the week that works best for your school.

Need some ideas?

Ask students and staff to make them thank you cards

Bring them donuts or other tasty morning treats

Serve them lunch

Decorate their office

Help us share the love on social media. Send your imagery to Becca Burda, Assistant Director of Communications, and we’ll keep the gratitude flowing online. 

Middle School Only

CTE Fly Up: As a reminder, you will need to set aside two advisory times in February for your 8th grade students to plan for CTE fly up day. One will need to be the week of the 17th and the second will need to be the week of the 24th.

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February Meetings: Time to sign up for a February visit. Please choose a date this month for a 60 minute check in. Here is my Calendly link or you can use Outlook directly.

Calendar

• January 6-31: Schools implement YouthTruth survey!
• January 24: Probationary Letters due to HR
• January 28: HS Administrator work session 8-10 @ Mountain View HS
• January 28: HS Principal meeting on careers class 10:00 -10:30 @ Mountain View HS
• January 29: All Admin PD 3:00-4:30 @ Bend HS in Perseverance Hall
• January 30: MS Horizontal – Pacific Crest – 3:00 – 5:00
• January 31: Grading day for semester schools
• February 11: HS Administrator work session 8:00-10:00 @ Summit HS
• February 11: ICCL/Secondary Administrator 4:15-6:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall
• February 19: All Admin PD 3:00-4:30 @ Bend HS in Perseverance Hall
• February 25: HS Principal work session 8:00-10:00 @ Caldera HS
• February 27: MS Horizontal 3:00-5:00 @ Sky View MS

March 18: AP Requests DUE on this sheet

Where in the World

Keep the entries coming!

This week we are highlighting Tim Broadbent, principal at Three Rivers, and his happy place! Any Buffalo Bills game with family!

Editors note: Sorry Dr. Cook, but go Bills!

To Do

YouthTruth Survey window: The survey window is open until the end of January! The goal of each school is to get the highest participation from staff, students and families! Reach out to Dave if you have questions

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From Kinsey – Policy, Advocacy, & Equity:

Immigration Guidance: 

Please read this information carefully, and reach out with any questions.

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Presidential Inauguration:

Reminder: Post-inauguration, some students will be walking into your building with big feelings.  The incoming administration has openly communicated upcoming changes intended to directly impact particular populations (immigrants, trans people, etc).  

Please ask your counselors to make themselves as available as possible for drop-ins if students need extra support next week.  If your team knows a particular student or colleague struggled after the election in November, make time on Tuesday to have a trusted adult or friend intentionally check in with them.  Thank you for your increased presence, vigilance, empathy, and grace next week. 

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Thank you to those principals who have submitted your SLGSS to your level leader. Please do so if you haven’t already.

From Departments

Mark your calendars! Our District Leadership Launch is scheduled for August 6 and 7. All administrators are expected to attend. Principals, please work with your deans to adjust their calendars accordingly.

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From Kinsey – Policy, Advocacy, & Equity:

FAN Food Resource: 

The Giving Plate provides our families in need with weekend food through their Snack Bag program.  Recently, they let us know that their donations and volunteer resources are down, while the number of families they’re serving has been up: from 130 to 700 families weekly.  They are unable to meet demand and need to prioritize their core services, so the Snack Bag program is discontinued.  

While this is disappointing news, there are still many ways families can access food resources.  Please see the links at the bottom of this letter, with bilingual handouts listing current food resources in Bend and South County.  FAN Advocates have shared this letter with impacted families.  Feel free to print copies of the handouts linked there, to have available in your main office.

Want to help out?  One of the best ways you can support our families is to volunteer or donate to awesome programs like The Giving Plate or directly to FAN, so they can maintain their services and programs that benefit our families.  🙂

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From Ryan in Human Resources:

Remote work:

Per Article 15.8 of the CBA, Certified Employees are not required to report to their work site on end-of-term work days but must remain available by phone. Supervisors may require in-person attendance if there are articulable concerns about the timely completion of professional responsibilities.

To ensure clarity, we are setting the following expectations that will take effect for the second semester of 24-25 SY:

1. Progress Reports Submission Deadline:
   • Special Education Progress reports must be submitted by 4:00 PM on 1/31 this semester.
   • Middle/High School progress reports must be finalized in Synergy by 4:00 PM on 1/31.
   • Elementary progress reports must be finalized by 4:00 PM on 2/3.
2. Work Location for End-of-Term Days:
   • Employees who have met the deadlines in regards to grading and/or progress reports in previous semesters, and who have met other expectations surrounding the timely completion of professional responsibilities, will be permitted to work from an off-site location on end-of-term work days.
   • Employees who have not met these deadlines, and/or for whom their supervisor has further articulable concerns about the timely completion of professional responsibilities, will be required to work from their assigned school site.

Next Steps for Administrators:

• Notify employees with past concerns about timely completion of responsibilities – with detail regarding those concerns – as soon as possible (no later than 2 weeks before any potential end-of-term workday) if they will be required to work onsite on end-of-term work days. This communication will be followed up in writing with specific articulable concerns shared.

This practice encourages timely completion of professional responsibilities while maintaining flexibility for those employees meeting expectations.

Thank you for your attention to this process. 

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We are providing the following information from Article 14.1 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to ensure you are aware of the reimbursement policy for certified employees who use their personal vehicles for school or professionally related activities, including those staff who travel between sites in the course of a day due to split assignments:

• Certified employees approved to use their own automobiles for school or professionally related activities will be reimbursed at the current IRS mileage rate.
• Employees required to drive their own personal automobiles in the course of their work will also be reimbursed at the IRS mileage rate for the distance traveled between regular district work assignments.
• Certified employees who reside in La Pine and are required to attend meetings in Bend are eligible for mileage reimbursement.

The reimbursement process is consistent with IRS guidelines, which set the standard mileage rate and helps ensure that employees are not financially disadvantaged for using personal vehicles in the course of their work.

Reimbursement requests should be submitted using the AP-106 form and will be charged to your building’s discretionary funds. For staff who work at multiple sites, a good way to balance the budgetary implications across schools may be for the involved schools to rotate responsibility for these payments on a monthly or quarterly basis.

This information is shared so you can address any questions or reimbursement requests that may arise from employees. While there’s no need to proactively disseminate this information, we encourage you to refer to this information if you have questions or require clarification as to our practice.

Thank you for your attention to this and for your support in ensuring consistent understanding of contract provisions.

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From Andrea in Human Resources:

A reminder that employees and students should not bring pets with them to work or school. ING-AR: Animals in the Classroom or on School Property reviews the conditions and process for by which animals can visit classrooms or be on school property. If you have any questions regarding staff who identify a need for service animals, please reach out to the Human Resources Benefits team at hr-benefits@bend.k12.or.us

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From Culture of Care Team:

Happy 2025 from HDESD’s Culture of Care Team!

We still have space available for our upcoming Restorative Conferencing training on 1/30/25 (8:30am-12:30pm at COCC Redmond). This is the tier 3 formal, scripted circle used to repair specific and significant harm between individuals. This session is free and open to educators and our partners.

Register for all RP Opportunities here!

Culture of Care has also been updating our Restorative Practices resources:

·  New and improved RP Overview

·  Comparison of the different Types of Circles

·  Fair Process Guide

·  Consultation/facilitation Request Form

These resources can also be found on our website: cultureofcareoregon.org 

From Communications:

Grammy MUSIC teacher nominations! Nominate a teacher by March 15, 2025 for this prestigious award. Teachers do not need to be nominated to apply – they simply need to complete our application form by March 31, 2025. 

If you have any questions or need any additional information, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Thank you for helping us recognize the contributions of our outstanding music educators!

Calendar

• January 6-31: Schools implement YouthTruth survey!
• January 23: BLPS Family Academic Night @ Summit HS
• January 24: Probationary Letters due to HR
• January 28: HS Administrator work session 8-10 @ Mountain View HS
• January 28: HS Principal meeting on careers class 10:00 -10:30 @ Mountain View HS
• January 29: All Admin PD 3:00-4:30 @ Bend HS in Perseverance Hall
• January 30: MS Horizontal – Pacific Crest – 3:00 – 5:00
• February 11: HS Administrator work session 8:00-10:00 @ Summit HS
• February 11: ICCL/Secondary Administrator 4:15-6:30 @ BSHS Perseverance Hall
• February 19: All Admin PD 3:00-4:30 @ Bend HS in Perseverance Hall
• February 25: HS Principal work session 8:00-10:00 @ Caldera HS

March 18: AP Requests DUE on this sheet

Where in the World

Keep the entries coming!

This week we are highlighting Reno Holler’s happy place! “47 years ago (that’s right folks… I’m talking the 1970’s) I spent my high school Summer’s with my then girlfriend/now wife (the lovely Cindy) and my band playing music in the bars of Canada. Back then you could be under the age of 18 and play music in the pubs.  We played primarily in Alberta and British Columbia. I still recall very vividly the first time we explored Banff & Jasper.  The color of the water, the glaciers and the 18,000,000 ravenous mosquitoes are what impressed me the most.  I have told many people that, in my opinion, the Canadian Rockies are the most beautiful spot in North America. A few years back Cindy and I returned and took our two sons (Logan & Devon) to see their first glaciers, eat their first helping of Poutine, and experience Canada’s two seasons (Winter &  Almost Winter). These pictures are from the restaurant on top of the Jasper Skyline Tram,  A must see for those that do not suffer from a fear of heights.  I would show you a picture of Cindy and I in our rock n’ roll regalia, but it involves me with a Mullet and the firewall is blocking that image at the moment. (it really is for the best. Once you’ve seen a Mullet, you can’t unsee it).

To Do:

From HR: (Probationary Letters Due 1/24)

Please refer to your email from Triz De La Rosa regarding your probationary/temporary 3 staff. The deadline to write letters of support is 1/24. It is essential you complete this task by that date.

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From Katie and Stephen: (Due 1/17)

As you know, UKG is not yet ready to receive your SLGGs for this school year. We have had some conversations with building leaders about holding on to these documents in order to upload them when you have the green light from UKG. As we wait, Katie and Stephen are requesting building principals send their SLGGs to their respective level leader by next Friday (1/17).

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From Lisa (Due tomorrow 1/10): (repeat)

Reminders to complete professional development feedback form AND have ALL staff to complete COREN survey by January 10.

Remember to continue to use the PD tool for PD feedback during your SIWs. The information gathered from this tool will be reviewed in January in a joint Admin/BEA meeting regarding professional development based on the latest agreement. 

From Lisa’s email this week: In our efforts to continue to improve, please take a moment to give feedback on our December Admin PD time. In case you need a memory jog, we spent our time together with the goals of learning, reflecting, and connecting. We reflected on our leadership journeys, team needs, personal strengths and strengths of your colleagues, and the variety or roles you play as a leader. We also gave some awards to very deserving folks! Thank you in advance for giving your perspective. 

Secondly, another survey I would like you to share with your team is from one of our partners, COREN. This will give an opportunity for all staff to describe professional development interests. COREN supports many learning opportunities within BLP, and this information benefits both their organization and ours in the sense that it gives us access to supports for our current needs. Right now, participation has been limited so any encouragement you can do to give feedback is helpful. This survey ends on January 10th.

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From Stephen: Grade Guardian (Send by 1/15)

Our move to Synergy EWS for student grade data has required all grades to be posted and up to date within Synergy beginning this year. While grades within Canvas can still be used, a question has arisen regarding our purchase and use of Grade Guardian. Is there still value to our schools that would justify the cost of this program?

To get a better sense of how our sites are interacting with Grade Guardian, please pass along this survey by next week to those in your building who may use the feature. If it is helpful, here is a spreadsheet with email addresses of folks we have listed as Grade Guardian advisors.

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From Stephen: TAG (Due by 1/10)

Please remind your TAG administrator and TAG ICCL that we will have our second mandatory meeting on this Monday the 13th in the board room from 3:45 to 5:30.

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From the Superintendent’s office (on behalf of Mid Oregon and KTVZ):

Please send out to your staff. We would love a lot of BLS representation!

Just checking in at the end of the year to ask your assistance in nominations for our KTVZ One Class at a Time awards. Selected nominations will be chosen monthly during the school year for innovative classroom education, projects and learning that represent positive student experiences and highlighted with a KTVZ news story and a $1000 award to support the program.

Please have your principals, teachers, advisors, staff send the requests to me for our selection process.

Kyle Frick

Vice President, Marketing & Community Relations
Post Office Box 6749
Bend, Oregon 97708
541.585-1802
541.389.0103 Fax
[email protected]

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From Scott in Safety: (For your admin who oversees safety)

Reminder: The second of our four safety cadre trainings will be taking place on Wednesday, January 15^th at the PBMS library from 1:30 – 3:30 PM. Snacks will be provided. 

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From TLC:

Save the Date – Our August launch dates for next school year are set to be 8/6 and 8/7.

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From TLC:

Please work to ensure time and leave sheets are correctly filled out before submitting them on. Office managers received an email earlier with clear information on what is required if there are any questions. If an employee has omitted information (the most common mistake) or has another error, please have your office manager work with them to correct the form before submission. Thank you.

From Departments:

From Stephen and Katie: Master Schedule Training Change

The master schedule training originally planned for both 2/11 and 2/12 has be condensed into just one day on February 11th. High School will attend in the morning and Middle School will attend in the afternoon. More info to come.

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From Kinsey – Policy, Advocacy, and Office of DEI:

Classroom placement policy:

Here is a draft of a new policy going out for public feedback, with a tentative adoption date of mid-February.  This establishes that principals are the final decision-makers with regard to classroom placements.  This should help navigate student, staff, or parent requests or refusals to have a particular teacher or student in a class, or where there is disagreement on a student’s schedule.  The “principal or designee” language allows you to delegate this authority to counselors or coordinators, at least for initial placements or non-controversial requests for changes. 

Upcoming events:

Please share this communication in your next weekly staff memo, and participate in any/all of these as you are available.  In particular, encourage your building to be well-represented in our 3^rd annual Door-Decorating Contest (adult teams can participate too, if you have enthusiastic or artistic front-office, counseling, or other non-classroom staff).  Thank you!

CAFE Program training:

Do you have a newly-hired staff member who speaks another language?  Would they like a $1,000 annual stipend for using their multilingual skills to support family communication?  Due to multiple requests, we are adding one more round of CAFE Program testing and training for this school year.  This extra round will take place in late January—further opportunities will not be available until next fall, so please help ensure relevant bilingual employees are aware and signed up in UKG’s Learning platform.  (Once a staff member has been tested and trained, they do not need to repeat those steps.)

Do Not Schedule dates:

As your team begins to schedule important dates for spring, summer, and fall events, please be sure they are aware of our Do Not Schedule dates.  Thank you for re-sharing this with your office managers, activities directors, athletics staff, counselors, and PTA/Booster Club leaders.

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From Paul in Operations:

A big shout-out to La Pine and Mountain View high schools (especially CTE teacher Cameron Salvitelli) for submitting the first Facility/Site Modification proposals.  Their proposals were approved by the Executive Leadership Team this past week.  

If you would like to view their proposals as exemplars on how to complete Part I and also view the department feedback that they received in Part II, they are linked here (LPHS and MVHS).  We’d also like to recognize Three Rivers for their recent proposal for a mural on their wall ball court.  

Please remember that filling out this form is a requirement before schools may proceed with any project that impacts your facilities or grounds.  When in doubt, contact your level leader and/or Paul Dean and we’ll advise you.

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From Nick in the Business Office:

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday and winter break!  When you get settled after the new year, please note that the IRS has announced a 3 cent/mile increase to the mileage rate for 2025.  The new rate is 70 cents/mile, and applies to all mileage driven after January 1, 2025.  Below is a link to the Portal page with the electronic mileage forms for in-District travel with both the 2024 and 2025 rates.  There is also an AP-106 for other travel.  Please note that the mileage reimbursement rate is determined by the date of travel, not the date the reimbursement is submitted or paid.

https://bendlapine.sharepoint.com/SitePages/Business-Office.aspx

Please contact Nick Shein at [email protected] if you have any questions.

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From Dave V.:

This is a quick reminder that YouthTruth is now open through January 31. Here is a link to a document to help you get started. More information and resources are available once you log in to YouthTruth. 

Let me know if you have any questions. 

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From Heather Tang at Deschutes County: UpShift Update

Happy New Year! Here’s a quick reminder about the Tobacco Quit Kits introduced last year. These kits are a valuable resource to support students in their journey to quit smoking, vaping, or using chewing tobacco.

The kits include: 

• Distraction tools to help resist the urge to use tobacco.
• Resource information to support students through the quitting process.

How to Distribute Quit Kits

• Quit Kits are intended to be distributed during the second nicotine module of the Teen Intervene program by UpShift Specialists.
• In special cases, they may be distributed outside of Teen Intervene, but only if a student demonstrates a strong commitment to quitting.

Schools and staff can request kits using our Google Form:

• Order up to 5-10 kits at a time.
• Delivery will be confirmed within 5-7 business days.
• To streamline the process, we recommend designating one UpShift team member to handle all kit requests for your school.

Ready to request your kits? Please complete this form.

If you have any questions or need additional support, please reach out. We’re here to help!

Additional Resource: 

The CDC has a quick, one-page guide to help school staff understand youth vaping and tobacco use.It includes tips for how you can support young people and key health facts. Download it in English or Spanish. Please feel free to pass along to staff. 

ENG PDF

ESP PDF

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From Janet Bojanowski in the Superintendent’s Office:

The following was shared with Office Managers. Please support their attendance on 1/22.

During the January 22^nd Office Manager meeting, we will have a discussion on de-escalation led by Eric Powell, Scott Bojanowski, and Kayla Martin. This will include sample scenarios to work through and time for you to bring forth any scenarios you would like to share/discuss. We would like to remind you that your full office staff is invited and encouraged to attend these trainings. Building administrators have been asked to support the front office, if needed, to provide the opportunity for everyone to attend.

Schedule is as follows; however, you are welcome to join either session if the time works better for you.

• Elementary Team: 1:15-2:15pm
• Secondary Team: 2:30-3:30pm 

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 From Sean in Student Services:

Child Count 2024

Each year on December 1, we report the number of students on IEPs, as well as other demographic information to ODE.  This “count” is what determine our level of funding for the next year.  You can find a table with 2024 data, as well as historical trends HERE.  

Here are a few highlights:

• Total students on IEPs is 2027 (up from 1931 in 23/24)
• Total IEPs district percentage is 12.1% (slightly up from last year and up 3% since 20/21)
• No remarkable trends up or down in disability type last year

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From Jenn in Student Services:

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From Sean and Sarah Barclay: Updated Q & A (repeat)

Sean and Sarah recently sent out the following to all certified staff. Please read and make sure you are familiar with this information.

Greetings Dedicated Educators,

You may recall that back in October we released a BLS Special Education Inclusion Question and Answer document to better ensure a common set of information regarding our Special Education Programming within Bend-La Pine Schools.  Since that time additional questions have been raised thus, we are reaching out today with added and updated information. Thank you for continuing to engage in this conversation with us and bringing to our attention topics that need additional clarification within our system. We believe that we all do our best work when we have a common set of knowledge to build and create upon. Please find the updated Q& A in the link below:

(Updated) BLS Special Education Inclusion Questions and Answers

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From Jen: “BLS Academic Information Night” January 23rd (repeat)

Please share this information with your families and students beginning the second week in January

BLS School Counselors will be hosting our “BLS Academic Information Night” on Thursday January 23rd at Summit High School. This event is essential to our CSCP and district goals, as we aim to provide families with valuable resources for academic planning. Forecasting and the SchooLinks Course Planner are integral parts of our CSCP programming, aligning with our responsibility to support students with their Educational Plan and Profile, which we update annually. While forecasting might differ slightly across schools, the information and resources leading up to class selections and course planner are quite similar.  

We will have a general presentation followed by breakout opportunities for families to ask questions about their specific school site curriculum pathways and forecasting processes. You can utilize ASPIRE funds to compensate for your time, as this aligns perfectly with future planning efforts. We hope to have at least 1-2 representatives from each high school. Please refer to the sign-up sheet for various needs for the night.

We will promote this event at the district level and would love for each school to share the information through their communications as well. More details will follow!    

Middle School Only

January Meetings: Time to sign up for a January visit. Please choose a date this month for a 60 minute check in. Here is my Calendly link or you can use Outlook directly.

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Master Schedule Training:

There has been a slight change to the schedule for the master schedule training originally planned for February 11th and 12th. We will now have our middle school folks attend on the 11th only from 12-4. Please fill out the MS tab on this document to let us know who will be attending from your site. Each site does need to participate.

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Round one of Walkthroughs:

Round one of our instructional walkthroughs will be hosted by CMS on January 23rd from 9:30 to 11:00. Up in this round will be Gabe Pagan, D Foster, Nick Smith, and MacKenzie Grossing. Please clear your calendar in order to attend. Thanks for hosting Gabe!

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From Scott in IT:

Greetings,

As you know we currently block student access to YouTube for students in grades K-8.   For the most part, this change has been well received by both staff and families.  That said, we know that many teachers (especially middle school elective, math, etc) have been adversely impacted by the loss of YouTube for students. Fortunately, our IT team has been able to create an inhouse solution (YouTubeBuddy) that will allow teachers to request specific YouTube videos to become viewable on student devices.  Since these videos will be open to all Bend-La Pine students, we are requiring that administrators be notified on the request in the case there are any unforeseen issues.

How to request student access to a YouTube video:

1. Copy and paste the URL of your Youtube video into an email.  Lists of mulitiple YouTube videos are welcome. These should be listed in a google sheet or Microsoft Excel document.
2. Send your list of videos to [email protected] and also to your administrator, or administration team.
3. You will receive a reply when the videos have been made accessible for student use.  Detailed instructions linked here.

Both our IT and Instructional Tech team hope that YouTubeBuddy will help your students access the materials that have been missing from your curriculum this past few months.

Calendar

• January 6-31: Schools implement YouthTruth survey!
• January 10: COREN survey deadline
• January 13: TAG Admin/ICCL meeting – 3:45-5:30 @ Educator Center boardroom
• January 13: Spanish-language FAFSA Night 5:30-7:30 @ Education Center boardroom
• January 14: MS and HS Administrator work session 8-10 @Caldera HS
• January 15: Safety Cadre Meeting 1:30 @ PBMS (Safety admin leads should attend)
• January 15: SIW Educator Network Day
• January 23: BLPS Family Academic Night @ Summit HS
• January 28: HS Administrator work session 8-10 @ Mountain View HS
• January 29: All Admin PD 3:00-4:30 @ Bend HS in Perseverance Hall
• January 30: MS Horizontal – Pacific Crest – 3:00 – 5:00

Where in the World

Thank you for all the entries! Keep ’em coming.

This week we are highlighting our Language Arts TOSA Torie Withers’ happy place! “My happy place is skiing snowy slopes with my family, a tradition spanning three generations. Starting at age three at Mt. Bachelor, I learned alongside my sister with my parents leading the way. Although my dad always finds a way to push the limits—getting our family hopelessly lost while skiing in out-of-bounds terrain in Canada when I was a kid, or cutting it way too close to closing time to ski the get-back from the backside of Bachelor—his adventurous spirit taught us more than skiing; he instilled a profound love for the outdoors. Now, watching my own children discover these same slopes, I’m grateful to live where nature continues to strengthen our family’s connections to each other and the beautiful place we live.”