A Highlight
A shout out to Pilot Butte for how they tackled welcome back to school. With an eye on increasing family engagement, PBMS revamped this opportunity to interact with families. Check out a summary from their team.
PBMS Family Engagement Event
In a continual effort to engage and maintain positive relationships with the caregivers of our students, we crafted a deliberate plan to welcome and generate a fun atmosphere for families. We rolled out the green carpet, had balloons on every classroom door and main entrance, music as they walked in, Kona Ice (free to attendees with a grant), and all families started with a “scavenger hunt” to visit different stations around campus.
As families picked up schedules in the cafeteria, our school and community partners including PTO, FAN, PBMS Athletics, and our Healthy Schools liaison were there to answer questions and promote involvement. Additionally, we wanted to ensure we had at least two interpreters and intentional plans in place for our students requiring higher support.
Our goals of opening and promoting communication was the impetus for the parental input survey and to have an incentive for that, we designed a parent passport system to encourage visits throughout the year. As families engage and attend events this year, they get stamps in their parent passport and are entered into a drawing for a raffle basket. We plan to raffle the baskets following our big events (Giant Day, Conferences, Incoming Family Night, etc), take a picture of the winning family’s student with the basket, and promote it through our newsletters and parent square. Related to outreach, we wanted to reinforce the values that we communicate regularly to our students at school in the same fashion for their homes.
Our goal is to align and reinforce expectations in both settings, which led to the family STRONG magnets that were given out with parent passports. Giant STRONG means more than simply what happens in our classrooms, we encourage family STRONG to stress a unified approach for the development of our students. We want to establish that Pilot Butte is so much more than a school, but we are a hub in this community seeking to meet the needs that are not only academic, but helpful for family members as a whole, and the resource fair was born out of that concept.
To Do
- Finish your Vector Trainings ASAP. Please prioritize getting these done
- Enroll in OEBB – Window is 8/15 to 9/15
- Ensure your students take the waypoints skill screener between 9/19 and 10/30
From Kinsey – Office of Policy & Advocacy:
Bias Incident Lessons: -Action needed-
Family Letter. Please make a copy, modify as needed, and send to families several days before teaching the lesson.
Advocacy Coaches. This team is available to help staff prepare or rehearse, including attending an SIW or providing drop-in support before/after school. They can also co-teach with individual teachers who would benefit from the partnership. Please invite them to your campus!
Required Lessons. Lesson 3 (updated for 26-27) is required and takes approximately 45 minutes. The document also includes a suggested sequence of activities to build meaningful context and community for the anti-bias lesson this fall and throughout the year. Those additional activities are recommended, but optional.
As a reminder, every K-12 student must receive the required lesson by the end of October.
FAN Services: -Action needed-
Our FAN Advocates provide an amazing service to our students, families, and community! If you’re not familiar with FAN, this short video is a great starting point.
A few reminders about FAN services in your buildings—please share this information with staff:
Their office should be a private, welcoming space for confidential services. We are working to ensure FAN offices are inviting and that clothing and other resources are well-organized.
The clothing and resources in their offices are designated for students with financial need. They are not intended for addressing routine dress code violations or accidents. If a student experiencing financial hardship has an immediate need for clothing, shoes, a belt, or another resource and the FAN Advocate is unavailable, another staff member may help the student access the needed item. Please report the transaction to the FAN Advocate afterward so it can be documented. If a student does not have a financial need and simply needs a change of clothes because of a dress code issue, accident, etc., please contact their family instead of using FAN resources.
We welcome donations from staff! Before bringing in clothing or other items, staff should check with the FAN Advocate to see what would be useful at your school or another FAN site. Please don’t leave bags of donated items without coordinating with the Advocate first.
From Departments
From Karen Rush in Educational Technology:
The parent information flyers for Elementary, Middle and High School are now available in English and Spanish. These will be sent to families, by level, on Monday 9/14 through ParentSquare. Please feel free to make copies for your school and share with teachers so that they are aware of what has been communicated to families!
Please use this link to get to the folder with PDF versions of the flyers for all levels.
These are set to be viewed by anyone with a copy of the link. If you have any difficulty viewing them, please let me know!
From Triz in HR:
Hey Team! You should have received your BEA/OSEA Google evaluation folders for 26/27.
*Save this link, bookmark, favorite, or shortcut this folder in your Google Drive so you can find it again easily.
Please make sure all evaluation portions are saved in these folders with the required naming conventions, so that HR can access and compile these files. This step is very important.
In October, when the 26/27 workbooks are ready, they will be placed in your folders.
Instructions/guidelines will be coming out shortly.
From Dean in TLC:
A big thank you to all our presenters who shared their time and expertise at our second annual Standards Based Instruction and Grading Mini Conference. All of the resources from the speakers at last week’s conference can be found here.
Also from Dean:
The following was sent to Yearbook teachers:
I wanted to provide you with the attached updated memorialization policies that affect yearbooks/publications in our classrooms, as well as provide some context and resourcing.
Why do we have memorialization in our policies?
- Schools should strive to treat all deaths in the same way. Having one approach for memorializing a student who died of cancer or in a car accident and a different approach for a student who died by suicide reinforces prejudice associated with suicide and may be deeply painful to the student’s family and friends.
- Because adolescents are especially vulnerable to the risk of suicide contagion, it is equally important to memorialize the student in a way that does not inadvertently glamorize or romanticize either the student or the death. Focus on how the student lived, rather than how he or she died.
- There is a state law (Adi’s Act; Senate Bill 52) that requires districts to include best practice postvention elements in their plan. Postvention elements involve specific plans for communication, supporting staff/students, managing media, and coordinated memorialization, often with local health partners, to reduce risk after a death.
Policies (attached):
IGDB-AR Student Publications
This AR covers all guidelines and responsibilities around student publications. Go to the “Obituaries” header to see guidelines around memorialization.
In addition, our suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention plan (Adi’s Act), which is required by state law and governed by Policy JHH-AP, includes a section on yearbooks and newspapers that gives specific examples of best practice ideas to incorporate.
FFA-AR Memorials
This AR covers guidelines around all memorial Activities. Both newspapers and yearbooks can be seen as a kind of memorial; go to the “Memorial Activities” header to see relevant content.
Resources:
BLS Best Practices and Information
From Kinsey – Office of Policy & Advocacy:
Translation/Interpretation:
As a reminder, federal law, district policy, and our organizational values require us to use trained, professional linguists for translation and interpretation services to ensure accurate, high-quality multilingual communication with families. AI translation tools, including ParentSquare’s auto-translate feature, do not meet this requirement and should not be relied upon for translation. We have already seen some significant errors in AI-generated translations this school year.
For reminders about the regular, urgent, and emergency translation resources available to you, please review this information and share it with your staff.
From Stephen, Katie, and Dean:
If you get some time, here is a link to podcasts that focus on implementing grading changes in schools. Some examples include:
- What is the Principal’s Role in Making Standards-Based Grading Successful?
- How Does SBG Work in AP and Dual Enrollment Courses?
- Does SBG Work for Students with IEPs?
From Lillah in Safety:
STAS/SIRC Training September 23, 8-4
For all administrators and other staff that will be a part of your Level 1 threat assessment team who have never been trained in STAS/SIRC or who were last trained over 5 years ago, please come to Conference Room 203 in the admin building on September 23 from 8:00-4:00. Lunch will be provided. Please fill out this link so we can get an accurate count for food. This is the last planned STAS/SIRC training for the year.
From Torie Withers – LA TOSA:
We’re excited to get the year underway in Secondary Language Arts! Teachers have several updated resources and learning opportunities available as they begin the 2026–27 school year.
Our updated Common District Assessments (CDAs) for grades 6–12 are now ready and reflect teacher feedback, revised priority standards, and updated rubrics. The assessments, administration information, and grade-level resources are all available in the Secondary Language Arts Handbook.
We also have two upcoming professional learning opportunities:
- Book Club Training — Monday, September 28
- Writer’s Workshop Training — Tuesday, September 29
These sessions are required for new secondary LA teachers, but returning teachers are also encouraged to attend if they would like a refresher, collaborative planning time, or an opportunity to strengthen their workshop practice.
Please reach out if you have any questions or if there are specific ways I can support your Language Arts department this year. I’m looking forward to working with you and your teachers!
From Jennifer in Student Services:
Please see this LINK for TSEL commitments by level as well as the Core Skills Screener student survey window (formerly known as the Summative Assessment) for 3-12.
From Becca Burda in Communications and Noelle Bell Copley in Sustainability:
Drop-off and pick-up traffic is coming. Thanks to Commute Options and ODOT, there’s a tool to help!
SchoolPool is a free school-focused carpool matching program run through the Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) “Get There Oregon” platform. It helps families at the same school connect to share rides, reducing congestion in the drop-off area, saving time and gas money, building school community, and reducing emissions. Families opt in through a unique link sent out by the school, and can see other participating families near them on a secure map. Families then coordinate carpools themselves via email.
If you would like your school to participate, it’s easy. Commute Options will send you a unique link along with messaging. Add that to your family newsletters, social media, and website. Then set it and forget it. The website connects families.
Please email Noelle Bell Copley if you’d like your school to take part!
From Gabe in Activities and Athletics:
Week#4-September7th-12th,2026
From Sara in Student Services:
Welcome back and welcome to the very first Special EDge of the year! This is a packed Special with information about:
- The NEW Student Services Resource Site
- The New Training Corner 📣
- Year-Long Professional Learning Plan
- CPR information
- Funds from Student Services
- Gift Card Policy
- Upcoming Dates
- Transition Resources
- AND MORE!
MS Only
To Do:
Circle up with your leadership team and determine the best way to share Canvas pairing codes with your community now that iPads stay at school. Will these be messaged out through parent square? Will you have a request system? etc.
26-27 Middle School Advisory Scope and Sequence
The middle school 2026-2027 Advisory Scope and Sequence is ready to roll!
The scope and sequence lives in the Middle School Advisory Google Folder. Make a copy to adapt it for your school.
Expect additional edits or improvements to be made to the district scope and sequence. Two known edits still to be made are:
- Adding the Reminder Mini-Lessons for bias incidents following breaks
- Adding the “Coming Up In Wayfinder” parent/family letters from Healthy Schools
The scope and sequence was revised by a workgroup to better meet the needs of schools. The changes as proposed by school counselors and teachers from each school, include:
- Space for Tier 1 Expectations
- Clearer connection / purpose related to Life and Career Readiness
- Space and alignment for Bias Incident Lesson and reminders (boosters) following breaks
- Choice for Activities from an activity bank
- Alignment and ideas for school-wide themes
A more detailed list of the revisions is here.
Thank you to the admin, counselors, and teachers who attended and informed the changes.
From Dean:
This MAP Proctor Quick Start has lots of information that teachers will need to know about proctoring. Please share this document with your staff prior to the testing day.
Calendar
September 15: Secondary Sped Admin training 12:30-3:30 @ Ed Center Boardroom
September 16: HS Only: COCC College Articulations meetings @ COCC 3:00
September 24: MS Horizontal – 3:00-5:00 @ High Desert
September 29: AP Strategy Studio – Instruction 9-12 @ CHS
October 1: AP Strategy Studio – Attendance 9-12 @ CHS
October 16: Due: Bus Evacuation video shown and documentation submission
October 30: Waypoints screener closes
October 31: Vector Trainings must be completed
Have you seen it?
Congrats to Monica Hanson who won the contest last week. The image is from Harry Potter. In the books and movies, the giant, half-blind Ukrainian Ironbelly is used to guard the deepest, high-security vaults of Gringotts Wizarding Bank.
Ready for another round of Have you seen it?, where we will show a screen shot from one of our team member’s favorite movie or TV show. If you recognize the screen shot, reply to Katie and Stephen with the name of the movie or show (NO AI help), and you will be entered into a drawing for a beverage to be delivered to your place of work. (Anyone can participate but the drawing will be limited to MS/HS admin and office managers!)
Check out the image below from PCMS Office Manager Charity Dollar’s favorite below! Recognize the movie or TV show? Let Stephen and Katie know.
