Thank you for an amazing welcome back week! We are so impressed by the number of teachers choosing to be early adopters! That is a testament to your leadership and hard work!
Thank you all for your attendance at the Standards Based Grading Mini Conference. Below is an electronic version of the 1-page handout. On page 2 is a link to the folder of all of the slides from the mini sessions. Handout from Mini Conference
To Do
MS and HS Principals: plan on sending out this SBGI letter: Family letter to your families by next week. Scroll down for the Spanish version and be sure to remove the MS/HS grade chart based on your level
HS Principals only: Please send this letter as well, regarding College Dual Credit: Family Letter – College Dual Credit (Spanish Translation should be ready within the week and will be added)
Feel free to add your school logo and your signature, but do not change the contents of the either letter.
MS/HS Principals: Teachers who are Early Adopters need to send this letter to the families for every class in which SBGI will be implemented. Scroll for the Spanish version.
Chris and I shared the SBGI district communication plan in our session Wednesday morning which includes letters, graphics and templates that may be helpful for schools and teachers. Here are the slides. We also included screenshots that may be helpful to share with families and students.
From Departments
Grades and Credit AR changes approved by School Board:
Changes to the Grades and Credit AR were approved at the last board meeting.
During a bargaining session with BEA, it was determined the amount of time a teacher must have feedback in the gradebook (SYNERGY) from the time in which an assignment was due.
Teachers are required to update their gradebook 3 weeks after an assignment was due to them. Thank you for reviewing this change with your teachers.
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From Sean Reinhart and Aimee Snyder:
$5,000 Budget Per School for Sources of Strength
Each school has the opportunity to receive $5,000 for operating Sources of Strength-Secondary for the 2025-2026 school year.
Work with your Healthy Schools Public Health Specialist to develop a plan and budget that will aim to meet Sources fidelity by the end of the school year. See the BLS Sources of Strength Budgets and Fidelity document with more details.
Once schools have a plan/budget that will meet Sources fidelity, remaining funds can be used for other evidence-based/-informed suicide prevention efforts, such as timesheeting for coordinating school-wide Wayfinder lessons or school health teams that coordinate multiple positive, inclusive school climate activities over a 4-8 week time period.
This is a two-year grant, specific to suicide prevention. Funds will not rollover. Unspent funds will be reallocated across Sources schools in the 2026-2027 school year and must be spent by the end of that school year.
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ICCL Reminder from Human Resources
We still have several schools who have not completed their ICCL hires for 2025-26.
- Please take a look at the ICCL Master List and verify the employees listed for your site are correct.
- If you need to hire, please follow the ICCL posting and hiring process (check-out line 281 on the ICCL Master List with ICCL Instructions).
- Any ICCL questions should be directed to Candy Gelatt in Human Resources: [email protected] or x1116.
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BLS School Counseling Program Updates for 2025-26
As we start the 2025-26 school year, we want to share important updates regarding our Comprehensive School Counseling Program (CSCP) and how you, as administrators, can be a support to the implementation of CSCP at your school. On August 27, BLS School Counselors gathered for a productive day of planning and collaboration. You can view their slide deck here to see the impressive work being done.
We are pleased to introduce the BLS School Counseling Handbook, a comprehensive resource designed for school counselors, administrators, and educational leaders. Inside, you’ll find:
- The mission, vision, and beliefs of our program
- District priorities and goals
- Roles of counselors and administrators
- Program design, implementation, policy and aligned practices
- Tools, templates, and practices for effective support
Here are the key expectations for this year:
- Complete School-Level CSCP Planning Template – due May 2026, outlining:
- Annual Calendar – due Oct. 2025
- Administrator Yearly Planning Conference – held by Oct. 2025
- Student Outcome Goals (Tier 1 & 2) – due Nov. 2025 (these can be used as SLGGs)
- Use of Time Study – by Apr. 2026
- Tiered Program Supports (by domain & tier) – by Apr. 2026
- Annual Data Review – by May 2026
- End of Year Results Presentation – May/June 2026
Additionally, counselors will now track student interactions using Synergy’s MTSS Activity Tracker Module, moving away from Student Conference, to enhance access to school counseling data as we continue to develop our MTSS dashboard.
For your reference: School Counselors Professional Learning Calendar with Shared SIW and END Dates.
Wayfinder Updates:
We are hopeful to have the Wayfinder admin dashboards have more accurate data but Synergy is currently sending too much data through Clever to Wayfinder. I have put in a help desk ticket but in the meantime, you can edit your teacher list using the following steps:
Here is the helpdesk overview on How to Edit User Data on Admin Dashboards.
- If you select “unclick content views” and only have “content completions,” then make sure to assign the workbooks or a collection as the featured content.
- For counselors and support staff, please mark them as “content views,” not “content completion.”
- If there are people in the app that do NOT use Wayfinder, unclick both “content views” and “content collections.”
Other Resources:
Student Success Intervention Updates
Student Success Coordinators/Instructors(Not Clinicians) will now track student interactions using Synergy’s MTSS Activity Tracker Module, moving away from the Synergy Intervention tab to enhance access in all interventions that students are receiving in one place as we continue to develop our MTSS dashboard. Here are the training slides from their PD day on the 27th.
We are excited to be moving forward with our Student Success Clinicians embarking on the Medicaid Billing endeavor! They were all trained on the SEAS Medicaid billing platform and here are the slides from yesterday. As a result of documenting the important clinical work that they are doing, our district can be eligible to be reimbursed for most of the vital services that they are providing.
In light of these changes, it is essential that our Student Success Coordinators and Clinicians are receiving their weekly prep and case management time to ensure that they can engage in their documentation and provide care coordination for their students and families that they work with.
For Full-time Elementary Student Success Certified Staff
- Case Management Minutes: An elementary specialist has a scheduled total of no fewer than 215 minutes per week for case management responsibilities. This time is set aside in blocks of no less than 30 minutes for these responsibilities.
- Prep Time: An elementary Student Success Clinician is scheduled for a minimum of 385 minutes of preparation time per week. This time includes a period of at least 30 minutes per day, uninterrupted, within the student day for grades K-5.
For Full-time Secondary Student Success Certified Staff:
- Case Management Minutes: A secondary specialist has a scheduled total of no fewer than 215 minutes per week for case management responsibilities. This time is set aside in blocks of no less than 30 minutes for these responsibilities.
- Prep Time: A secondary Student Success Clinician is scheduled for no fewer than 300 minutes of preparation time per week. Preparation time shall include at least one daily preparation period equal in length to a normal class period.
For your reference: Student Success PD Calendars 25/26 with Shared SIW and END Dates.
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From Paul Dean:
Animals on school grounds: We want to take a moment to remind school about our district practices with regards to animals on school grounds. 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.
Last year, we created and distributed one of the signs below to your school.
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.
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From Kayla in Safety:
SafeOregon has been updated and the entire admin team at each secondary school will receive emails and calls. Our new AD/APs at the comprehensive high schools have been added to callout list for SafeOregon. Additionally, now that all Deans are listed as APs they have been added to the callout list.
Linked here are the Safe Oregon Protocols. All new admin were briefed at the New Administrator orientation. Reach out to Kayla with questions.
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From Gabe Pagano Director of Activities and Athletics:
August 25th-29th, 2025 – Weekly SMORE
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From Jess Calbreath, Lead Counselor
Counselor updates for August 29, 2025
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From IT:
Parents will be able to view schedules in ParentVue on August 29.
HS Only
By tomorrow, August 29: link your SIW plan to HS Admin calendar/planner
Calendar
September 3: 6th/9th grade only days!
September 4: 6th-12th grade students back to school!
September 11: HS Tier 2 Academic Intervention Team meeting 2:30 @ SHS
September 16: HS Administrator WS 9-11@ LPHS
Where in the World
Congratulations to our winner from last week: Paul Hutter. The answer was La Forchette, Lake Geneva, Switzerland.
Each week there will be an image of a landmark from someplace in the world. Any admin who responds with the correct location (be specific!) by Monday morning will be entered in a drawing for coffee/tea or morning beverage of choice to be delivered by Katie or Stephen. Note: This contest will be limited to MS and HS admin.
Here is the image for this week:
