To Do
HS principals and VP’s who oversee social studies: Schedule time to meet with your social studies departments to review the timeline for adoption and the materials available for adoption. Monica and Dean can be available to be present if requested. Please coordinate with them directly.
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Facilitate an interactive discussion focused on your school’s YouthTruth data with your certified and classified staff (together or separately) and your students by the end of April. Here is the template for you to use with staff and students.
Plan to send out written communication (in English and Spanish) to your families about your two strongest and two lowest data points by the end of April.
HS Admin Only – please add your slides and parent communication to the HS Admin handbook under YouthTruth tab and the bottom.
From Departments
From Communications:
ParentSquare is coming! Thank you to the south county schools who agreed to pilot ParentSquare as their communication tool this spring. Additionally, district level communications will use ParentSquare this spring. Staff will be trained in ParentSquare this August and will be the required form of communication beginning with the 26-27 school year.
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Ongoing Communication about Standards Based Grading and Instruction:
Social Media:
You may have seen our recent social media posts on SBGI. We plan to send out a new post every Sunday between now and the end of the year featuring information as well as students, staff, and administrators talking about the change.
The first two weeks in February we highlighted the difference between Traditional and Standards Based Grading and Instruction. Donna and Cooper, one of the Student Voice Representatives from Summit, were featured in the video. Next up: SBGI Definitions highlighting CHS students!
Make sure you’re following Bend-La Pine on our social media platforms!
Supe’s On Podcast:
Kudos to Emily O’Neill, Language Arts Teacher, and Chris Boyd from Caldera who will be featured on the next Supe’s On Podcast focused on SBGI!
COTV feature:
Check out Stephen and Shauna Johnson, MVHS Social Studies Teacher as they talk about SBGI on COTV!
Thank you to Scott and Becca for their amazing partnership on these projects!
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From Scott in IT:
Never let an outage go to waste!
On Monday, Clever access was restricted for students and teachers due to an outage. We know that determining whether something is a “user error” or an actual outage can be frustrating.
You can reduce your frustration by visiting-https://bls.fyi/status
This handy dashboard lists all of our common tools and their current operational status. Our team will also update a custom message at the top of the site listing any known issues.
Go ahead and bookmark it now. That way, you can check it out the next time something gets wonky!
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From Gabe:
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From Kinsey – Office of Policy and Advocacy:
Guidance on Email Communications and Student Information:
Here is the guidance we reviewed at horizontals recently, and the quiz activity you can use when introducing this to staff. Please don’t only email this guidance out to staff—it’s not urgent, but take some time to review and discuss it together at some point between now and your August launch next year.
Policy Updates:
Here is the policy we reviewed and discussed together recently. This sets out specific expectations for administrators, certified educators, and all employees. As a reminder, it replaces and covers Staff Responsibilities, Assignment, Employee Dress Code, and more. Worth being very familiar with!
Here is our policy on showing movies/films in class. As discussed, it’s not necessarily intuitive in all cases—please share with your teachers.
Ramadan and Religious Practices:
This week marked the beginning of Ramadan, which continues through March 19. Please be mindful of both employee and student needs related to religious observances:
If an employee requests accommodations for fasting or prayer (or any other religious purpose throughout the year), contact me so we can ensure we meet our Civil Rights obligations and coordinate with Benefits.
Please also remind your staff that students may request accommodations related to religious observances. This could include adjustments connected to fasting, prayer, PE participation, or assessments. When these arise, loop me in so we can support the student’s civil rights appropriately and consistently.
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From Jenn:
🎉In honor of School Social Work Week and Classified Appreciation Week (March 2 -6th), we want to take a moment to specifically honor our Student Success Coordinators, Clinicians, Instructors, and Educational Assistants.
The ongoing need for specialized and compassionate support for students makes the Student Success team a central role in bridging the gap between home and school, ensuring that social, emotional, and mental health needs are met with expertise and empathy.
Whether they are providing intensive care coordination, fostering family engagement, or offering a steady hand during a mental health crisis, they work to bridge between a student “getting by” and truly thriving. The effort they put into building safe, trusting relationships that extend from the classroom to the home with students is essential.
Please take a moment at your school the first week of March to thank them for their service!
🌟 You’re Invited! Mark Your Calendars!
Join us for end-of-year presentations led by our dedicated Bend-La Pine Schools counselors. During these brief school updates, each team will share progress on their annual goals, highlight key programming initiatives, and reflect on the data gathered throughout the year. These presentations offer an opportunity to see how counseling programs are supporting students academically, socially-emotionally, and in their college and career readiness. Teams will share successes, lessons learned, and how this year’s work will inform future planning within our coordinated system of student support.
This reflection helps us continue strengthening a comprehensive, responsive support system for all students across Bend-La Pine Schools. Your presence matters as we celebrate growth, learn from one another, and look ahead to the next year of impact. I will send the lead counselor over counseling a calendar invite for each school. We hope you’ll join us!
📅 Presentation Schedule
Thursday, May 21, 2026
High School | 8:00–10:30 a.m.
Location: (Awaiting Confirmation) Perseverance Hall
Thursday, May 28, 2026
Middle School | 8:00–11:00 a.m.
Location: Education Center Boardroom
MS Only
A friendly reminder to please make sure anyone helping with school traffic or crossing guard duties is wearing a high-visibility vest and/or clothing.
Wearing a vest helps reinforce safe practices for our students and families. We appreciate your attention to this and your continued support in keeping our campus safe.
If your site needs a vest, please email Andrea Wilson.
HS Only
Graduation Ceremony Expectations: High Schools are required to follow these expectations. Please reach out to Katie if you have questions.
Calendar
February 13-April 10: Pre ACT testing
February 23-26: Katie out of the office – available by cell
March 10: HS WS 9-11 @ RHS
March 13: Principal Connection 7-9 @ MVHS
March 17: HS Learning Walk – Language Arts 9-12 @ RHS and BTA
March 19 and 20: Katie out of the office – available by cell
March 23-27 Spring Break
April 3: Principal Connection 8-10 @ SHS
Who in the World?
Congrats to Kelly Schmidt for correctly identifying Bessie Coleman as our who in the world this week. Coleman was the first licensed Black pilot in the world as well as the first Native American to hold a pilot license.
We continue our celebration of Black History! Who is this famous individual and what is he famous for?
