The Secondary Blog, September 10, 2026

Posted on September 10, 2026 by Stephen Duval

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

LINK

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.

Proctor Quick Start Guide

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.

The Secondary Blog, September 3, 2026

Posted on September 3, 2026 by Katie Legace

To Do

Finish your Vector Trainings ASAP. Please prioritize getting these done
Enroll in OEBB – Window is 8/15 to 9/15
HS ONLY: Open Periods populated to student schedules (HS only) by Tuesday

From Departments

From Lisa, The Deputy:

Friends of the Children is a wonderful mentoring organization that supports students with a mentor beginning in kindergarten that follows and supports through 12^th grade. This organization has been supporting students in our district and Central Oregon for years and now some of the students are getting to be high school aged. As you can imagine, mentorship at the HS level looks very different than the elementary level for a variety of social reasons. At the secondary level, it is less likely that mentors come into the schools often; however, the mentors are listed as emergency contacts for the students and often will connect with counselors when needed. If you have a student with a FOC mentor at your school, you will likely be contacted by Mandy Pearson or Carolyn Nesbitt who will be a good connection for this program if or when you have questions. Other than that, please let your counselors and support team know that these mentors are excellent resources to reach out to to support planning for success for these students.
Building Rep Meetings: Just a reminder that your BEA building reps (and maybe OSEA too) would like to set up a consistent time to meet together with you monthly (approximately) to check in. There is nothing to prepare for here, just know that getting this consistent meeting in place will help to support clear dialogue regarding workplace issues that may arise.
Planning for observations: Please remember that Pre and Post Observation meetings and feedback should only be done via e-mail when in person options have been exhausted. Plan on these conversations happening in person unless for some reason it truly is unable to happen this way. This is not an option for convenience; it is a last resort when illness or absence does not allow for it to happen in person.

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From Scott and Kayla in Safety:

We have finalized the work on updating our AQI/Smoke guidelines for the district.

The updated information is 3 documents, located in our BLS Safety Resources Google Drive > AQI Folder, located here.

Administrators and Office Managers have access to the Google Drive with the information.

The thee updated documents are:

BLS Air Quality Index Guidance SY 26/27 – An FAQ style document with answers to AQI questions we typically receive from staff and parents. The main takeaway here is that the OHA guidance for bringing children 18 and under indoors at a specific AQI reading has dropped from an AQI level of 200 down to 150 as of this summer. This document is for internal and public use. We will work with Scott & Becca to upload this information back onto our safety webpage on the district website.

School Administrator AQI Indoor Operations Decision Checklist SY 26/27 – A new document that provides guidance in a checklist format to help leaders at the school and district levels act when the AQI levels are high and cause a disruption to our normal school operations. This document is meant to be internal use and not shared publicly.

OHA Oregon Air Quality Activity Guide for Children & Youth (June 2026) – the updated guidelines/chart from the Oregon Health Authority on actions we should take when considering outdoor activities and when to bring students indoors when the air quality is unsafe.

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From Andrea in Risk Management:

AQI Guidance & Employee Working Conditions

This document provides an overview of supervisor responsibilities and guidance for helping protect employees from unhealthy exposure to wildfire smoke. As noted in the guidance, a NIOSH-approved mask should be available to employees when the AQI reaches 101 or higher and they are exposed to wildfire smoke.

Good news! Risk Management will be providing each site with a supply of approved masks. Please be on the lookout for them through inter-district mail.

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From Tracy in Ed Tech:

The new YouTube Buddy makes it easier for teachers to give students access to specific YouTube videos while keeping distractions to a minimum. Check out our EdTech blog post to see what’s new and how to use it. YouTube Buddy: Focused Video Access for Students. As always, please be in touch with anything Edtech.

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From Communications: Educators’ Night Out

High Desert Museum, Thursday, September 24, 6:00-8:00 pm

Head to the High Desert Museum for an evening dedicated to educators! Enjoy light refreshments and take home resources from dozens of organizations across Central Oregon for the upcoming school year. FREE to educators and administrators (public, private and homeschool) Register by September 17: highdesertmuseum.org/educatorsnight2026

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From Gabe in Activities and Athletics:

Here are the Activities and Athletics updates for this week.

HS Only

From Dean:

GED-to-Graduation Policy Change

Beginning this year, students participating in our GED-to-Graduation pathway must complete all other applicable graduation requirements before taking GED subject tests. This change is intended to ensure that students do not complete the GED and then leave school without earning a diploma. A GED alone is considered a non-completer and negatively impacts our graduation outcomes. With the increased focus on graduation and completion through SB 141, it is important that our GED-to-Graduation pathway results in students earning a diploma—not simply completing a GED.

Before beginning GED testing, students must therefore have completed requirements such as Health, PE, Government, and all other applicable graduation requirements. For example, a student using GED tests to earn their remaining Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies credits must have all other diploma requirements completed first.

We will continue awarding GED-to-Graduation credits as we have previously: 3 Language Arts, 2 Math, 2 Science, and 2 Social Studies credits upon successful completion of the respective GED tests.

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Conversion for College Dual Credit Teachers:

Please remind your College Dual Credit teachers about the requirement to use this conversion for our College Now teachers. If you have questions about this, please reach out to Katie.

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Please share this letter with your staffs from OSU-Cascades and COCC presidents regarding SBIG.

Calendar

September 9: First day for 6th grade and 9th grade

September 9: Open Periods populated to student schedules (HS only)

September 10: First day for 7th/8th and 10th-12th

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 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 31: Vector Trainings must be completed

Have you seen it?

Congrats to Sean Keating for correctly identifying the scene from the blog as from The Office. Did you know the version we got here in America was based off a British version? In fact, the pilot episode is nearly identical to its British counterpart.

Welcome to 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 an image from Darla’s favorite below! Recognize the movie or TV show? Let Stephen and Katie know.

The Secondary Blog August 27, 2026

Posted on August 27, 2026 by Stephen Duval

To Do

Review the SOP for Admin Absences. Prepare the items in the checklist linked at the bottom.
Finish your Vector Trainings ASAP. Please prioritize getting these done
Enroll in OEBB – Window is 8/15 to 9/15

Departments

From Katie and Stephen:

Admin – Please plan on attending both the morning conference and afternoon work times on Wednesday 9/2. We will be in touch with assignments for the afternoon.

From Dean in TLC:

The below message was shared with certified secondary staff.

I want to share a few details about our required secondary professional development day on Wednesday, September 2. (If you are a Counselor, SSI, SSC, Speech Path, Librarian, School Psych, or ELD teacher, please see communications from your department for your meeting location and details.)

Morning: SBIG Mini Conference

8:15–11:45 a.m.

Pacific Crest Middle School

We will begin together in the PCMS Main Gym at 8:15 a.m. and then move into three 45-minute sessions.

Staff who were not early adopters in 2025–26 will participate in sessions providing an overview and foundation in Standards-Based Instruction and Grading.
Early adopters will choose from a variety of sessions designed to deepen and extend their SBIG practice.

Parking: You may park at Miller Elementary (front or back lots) or Summit High School and walk over. Please do not park along NW Crosby Drive (north of PCMS) out of consideration for our neighbors. Carpooling is encouraged.

Afternoon: Backwards Design & Course Collaboration

1:00-4:00 p.m.

Locations Vary

In the afternoon, staff will work in content-area groups on backwards design and course clarity. The goal is to create a clear connection between standards, instruction, assignments, and assessments so students know what standards they are learning, how they will demonstrate their learning, and where opportunities for reassessment exist.

Teams will work toward developing a clear assignment and assessment map for each course, making the learning path more transparent for students and parents.

Content-Area Locations/Groups:
Link to collaboration locations

Thank you for your engagement in this work and for all you do for our students. We are looking forward to seeing everyone and kicking off the year together!

Have a great start to the school year!

From Scott in IT:

IT would like to remind schools that iPad insurance is available to all middle school and high school families. All insurance information is up to date on the BLS iPad Insurance webpage. Additionally, Tier One/media staff at every school have access to printable flyers in both English and Spanish that can be sent home to families.

It is important to note that the cost of iPad insurance remains $30, even though device replacement costs have increased significantly. A student who loses a device is now responsible for a $429 replacement cost.

Middle school families may assume that because devices are not coming home this year, insurance is unnecessary. However, iPads are often lost or damaged during the school day.

Please help us make sure families are aware of this option and have access to the information they need to enroll.

From Julie with BLPO:

HS Internal Guide and Community Guide: HS BLPO Enrollment Rev. 8/26

MS Enrollment Guide and Community Guide: MS BLPO Enrollment Rev. 8/26

Updates include:

ACR/Choice Option – 100% BLPO students forfeit ACR. High School Only – Hybrid students on an ACR must attend 3 in-person classes per semester and 2 in-person classes per trimester to keep ACR. This will need to be tracked by building counselors/registrars. Board policy updates are coming. For students who are not meeting the in-person requirement during 1st term during the 2026-27 school year, please give grace period and help build a schedule for them to meet the requirement 2nd term.

Cost of Online –

K12 Semester /Trimester 1-3 Courses: $325 per course
K12 Semester/Trimester 4-6 Courses: $300 for 4 – 6 courses + $250 per course for K12 teacher
BLPO Teachers (Alg 1, Alg 2, and CR Math): $75 per course
Re-opened/Re-instated courses: Full course cost charged again.

From Transportation:

Show the Bus Evacuation Video and complete the documentation form by Friday, October 16, 2026.
Bus Evacuation Video
Google Form

From Dave Van Loo:

Here is a link to a testing and assessment calendar for the 2026-27 school year. Note that this is a living document and will be updated as needed, which is especially likely in the coming weeks. Each school level has their own tab of required tests. There also is a tab spanning K-12 that lists optionally available tests.

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!

Please email Noelle Bell Copley if you’d like your school to take part!

From Robi Cole:

From Andrea Wilson in Risk:

🌟 Designated Licensed Administrator (DLA) Information Needed 🌟

Oregon Law requires reports of suspected sexual conduct and/or child abuse to be made to a Designated Licensed Administrator (DLA). Each school site must designate a DLA and an Alternate DLA, and their names and contact information must be posted at the school. DLAs must be a TSPC licensed administrator.

Action: Please add your site’s DLA and Alternate DLA hereby September 4.

Once I have your information, I will send a set of posters to post at your campus.

From Gabe in Athletics:

Week #2 – Athletics and Activities – SMORE

MS Only:

MAP info from Dean:

October 6 | ICCL & Administrator Training | 4:00–6:00 p.m.

Please communicate this date with your ICCL staff

The October 6 ICCL/Admin training will be a virtual session led by NWEA staff. You will remain in your buildings, and High School will meet separately on a different topic.

4:00–5:00 p.m. – NWEA Training (Link to Follow)
NWEA staff will provide administrators and ICCL teams with the resources and knowledge needed to understand school-level MAP reports. The goal is to prepare teams to lead Tier 1 conversations about the current needs of students in reading and mathematics.

5:00–6:00 p.m. – School Team Planning
School teams will work together to review their data and develop a plan for sharing MAP results with the rest of their staff through their ICCL team.

October 8 | Teacher Training | Education Center Board Room

NWEA staff will be onsite to work directly with Bend-La Pine teachers to analyze their MAP results, with a focus on class-level and student-level reports.

8:00–11:00 a.m. – Middle School Language Arts Teachers
1:00–4:00 p.m. – Middle School Math Teachers

These sessions are required for all middle school Language Arts and Math teachers. Teachers will receive training on how to read and interpret MAP reports, have time to dig into their own student results, and begin planning instructional responses based on what the data shows.

Substitute Coverage

Buildings should secure substitutes for the full day. When Language Arts teachers return from the morning session, substitutes can transition to cover Math teachers attending the afternoon session.

Please communicate the with your Language Arts and Math teachers that this is a required training. I will send communications, with follow up from Torie and Linda about the training.

Substitute costs will be covered by TLC. In Red Rover, please write “Per Stephanie” when entering the absence.

Administrators assigned to support Language Arts and Math departments are strongly encouraged to attend the corresponding morning or afternoon session.

Thank you for helping us make sure our teams are prepared to use MAP data meaningfully to support students and strengthen Tier 1 instruction.

HS Only:

School Design Plans:

The links to your School Design Plans, with each school’s goals and baseline data, have been added to the HS Admin Handbook. Please use these templates for your plans.

As we wrap up the first session of the Assistant Principal Strategy Studio and begin preparing for the second session on Sept 29/Oct 1, think about:

How will your leadership team collect input from your staff, students and families on your goals for your school design plan?
What is the role of your ICCL team?

Upcoming sharing and connection opportunities:

October 6 HS ICCL/Admin session. 4-6pm: HS leaders will use this time to share progress/get feedback on the SDP with their ICCL teachers.

October 13 HS Admin WS 9-11 am @ CHS: VP’s will share SDP progress from sessions #1 and #2

Open Periods:

IT has created a course called Open Period to notify families when a student has an open period on their schedule. It is a district expectation that this place holder course be added to every open period on a student’s schedule before the first day of school. For example, if a student has open periods during periods 3, 5 and 6, this course will show up on the student’s schedule three times, during those periods.

Please work with your curriculum secretary to determine when best to populate student schedules with this place holder before the first day of school.

Contact Katie or Kindra if you have any questions.

Calendar:

August 31: Certified staff report back – Tier 1 covered

September 1: Welcome back – Virtual – 8:30 am

September 1: Parent Square training – Virtual – 10:00 am

September 2: Certified staff PD Day – Pacific Crest (for most) – 8:00 am (ELD @ Library, Counselors @ HDMS)

September 9: First day for 6th grade and 9th grade

September 9: Open Periods populated to student schedules (HS only)

September 10: First day for 7th/8th and 10th-12th

October 16: Due: Bus Evacuation video shown and documentation submission

Congrats to Jessica Gambee who correctly guessed the movie from last week! The Princess Bride came out in 1987 and was created by Rob Reiner. “As you wish!”

Because she won, we’ll pick Jessica’s favorite this week. It also happens to be the favorite of Heather Bailey at HDMS. Recognize the movie or TV show? Let Stephen and Katie know!

August 20, 2026

Posted on August 20, 2026 by Katie Legace

To Do

Fill out your teams and leads for various departments in the spreadsheet Stephen or Katie shared.
HS – Link your Training week/SIW plan and slides in the HS Admin Handbook
Add the APs to the appropriate section of Robi’s document for the Strategy Studio.
Middle School – Complete your inservice week planner document.
Resolve any remaining 25-26 evaluation to dos. Contract Jessica and Triz in HR with questions
Work on School Design Plans – Action plans and Data Indicators due October 19

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From Kinsey – Office of Policy & Advocacy:

Training: Change in Plans! – Action needed –

In last week’s blog, I asked you to review guidance this fall with your staff regarding email communications and confidential student information. I’m sure you carefully studied every detail and built your entire inservice schedule around it 🙂—so apologies for the change in plans! But, please pause on that training for now.

At Leadership Launch, I shared that new state laws require school districts to provide one hour of training for all employees on immigration enforcement, ICE activity at school activities, and related policies. Because much of the state’s guidance also addresses confidential student information, we’re going to combine these topics into one required training. This will allow us to cover FERPA and confidentiality in communications and records alongside the new immigration protocols in a more integrated way.

We’ll provide the training materials soon, along with a few options for delivery. The one-hour training will include 30 minutes of asynchronous learning and 30 minutes during a staff meeting.

Action needed now: Please reserve 30 minutes at a staff meeting between Sept. 1–30. More details and materials are coming soon.

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From Kayla in Safety:

Please update your school’s Safety Cadre designee here. Invites to follow once the roster is updated!

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Share this information about Inventerprise 2027 with your teachers

Departments

From Triz in Human Resources:

25-26 Evaluation clean up Reminder

Please remember to update any outstanding documentation required in your google drives from the lists that were shared with you last week at launch. We will be closing those google folders soon to prep for the new year. We appreciate all the great work you did with utilizing this system and we look forward to providing an even better tool for the coming year. Everything must be uploaded by end of day Friday, August 21, 2026.

BENFITS:

OEBB Open Enrollment Happening Now! August 15 – September 15.

This applies to all insurance-eligible employees and affects coverage from October 1, 2026 – September 30, 2027.

LEARNING & HELP OPPORTUNITIES

One-on-One Support: The Benefits Team offers phone, in-person or virtual meetings – book your appointment here
August 19 from 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM: OEBB & Plan Providers Virtual Meeting – register here
- Can’t attend the virtual meeting? Recordings can be found here.
August 20 from 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM: On-Site Help Session at Summit
August 24 from 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM: On-Site Help Session at Mountain View
August 25 from 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM: On-Site Help Session at Ed Center
August 26 from 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM: On-Site Help Session at La Pine High School Library

Where to Enroll: Enrollment must be completed online at www.OEBBenroll.com by midnight, September 15.

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From Eric in Student Services:

If you would like designate a secretary/data entry staff member to have discipline data entry access (to help input student discipline incidents on your behalf), please ask them to sign up for a training with Melissa Mitsch in IT: LINK HERE

The training they will sign up for is: September 3, from 1:00-2:30pm in the Wall St. Lab (the above link takes them to a calendar of available trainings).

At this training they will learn to input information you give them using this form (LINK HERE). This is the Office Discipline Referral Form (ODR). Staff being trained will be instructed to only enter discipline information entered on this form (so, if you go this route, I’d recommend printing and reviewing so you have them ready to go on day 1).

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From Kinsey – Office of Policy & Advocacy:

1. Family Liaisons and FAN Advocates: – For your awareness –

At this time, I anticipate no changes to your school’s assigned Latino Family Liaison or FAN Advocate. You can find caseloads here (Liaisons) and here (FAN).

Remember that we also have colleagues serving districtwide as our Black/African American Liaison (Rita Bacho), Asian American Pacific Islander Liaison (Lin Hong), and Youth Partnerships Liaison (Suz Coffman). These positions are very part-time and provide support across the district on an on-call basis.

All Liaisons and FAN Advocates officially return Sept. 1, but they will do their best to attend family events in the next couple weeks. Feel free to email them directly with invitations and inservice week plans.

2. Community Partnerships: – For your awareness –

We work with many wonderful local service providers, nonprofits, and agencies, with different levels of formal partnership. Some relationships are covered by formal agreements that allow ongoing collaboration; others have limited agreements for specific projects; and some do not currently have partnership status with us, which limits the ways we can collaborate.

These different arrangements are designed to support and protect your school’s work and help prevent complications later. For example, a community organization may contact you about providing staff training or requesting that you share information with students, or you may want to invite an organization to participate in an event such as Open House.

If you’re considering working with a community partner and aren’t sure what’s already in place, please reach out to me. I’m happy to clarify whether we have an agreement/MOU, explain its scope, or discuss whether developing an agreement would help meet your needs.

One upcoming opportunity: Welcoming Week is Sept. 10–19! If you’re interested in supporting this national effort to make communities more welcoming for immigrants, consider attending one of these sessions here in Bend.

For this opportunity, you’re welcome to share the information with staff and/or make flyers available to students and families on your Community Bulletin Board/Resource space.

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From Lisa:

We will continue to use the PD feedback form until it gets changed later this fall. Please give staff time to complete an evaluation include after each PD session!

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Request for school leader subs:

Building leaders are required to notify your level leader when you are out of the building for a day or more. Approval for school leader subs are requested through your level leader and requests will be prioritized for approval accordingly: there is one administrator in the school, there are two administrators in the school and they are both out, the school leader will be out for an extended period of time.

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From our new BLPO Administrator, Julie Stoinski:

BLPO Update

We are getting K12 Log-ins for all Admin Leads and Counselors so that you have access to look up your students. Please look for an email from K12-confirmation. It is not spam. If you run into issues setting up your login, contact Tanya Everts.

Summer:

Below is the grading timeline for students who finished their summer course(s):

8/21: Summer classes end
8/28: K12 teachers finalize grades
9/2: Outstanding grades post to the final report
9/11: All grades fully transcribed

Lori Craft is the point of contact for high school teams, and Tanya Everts is the point of contact for middle school teams.

Fall:

HS Enrollment Guide: HS BLPO Enrollment Rev. 8/26

MS Enrollment Guide: MS BLPO Enrollment Rev. 8/26

Please note these are internal documents only. We are finalizing the family facing documents and will provide them next week. We will provide the enrollment guide and training to secondary counselors.

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From Sean in Student Services:

New To The District (NTTD) Inclusion EAs – CPR training:

This is a heads up that all NTTD Inclusion EAs will be participating in a CPR training on Thursday, September 3^rd from 8-12. The training will be held in person at the Education Center. Our department will notify each of these new employees via email. HERE is a copy of what we are sending the NTTD Inclusion EAs, which includes the scheduled for the entire welcome back week.

Thank you for your understanding. This will go a long way toward our need to have every new Inclusion EA being prepared to work with students on day 1. CPR training is essential to allow EAs to support students with feeding needs.

Further, we will also host CPR refresher trainings for current employees through-out the school year. More to come on that!

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From Jenn:

Student Well-being Blog Updates

On September 2nd, BLS School Counselors and Student Success Staff will gather for a productive day of training, planning, and collaboration at HDMS from 8 am to 4 pm. We will also have a full day training for school counselors and student success staff on providing Tier 2 and 3 interventions. The training will be on October 8th from 8 am to 4 pm at Aspen Hall. More information to come.

Please see our updated BLS School Counseling Handbook, a comprehensive resource designed for school counselors, administrators, and educational leaders with important procedures and forms.

Counselors and Student Success staff will track all student interactions using Synergy’s MTSS Activity Tracker Module to enhance access to intervention data as we continue to develop our MTSS dashboard. Our Medicaid Billing Analyst will use this data to submit for Medicaid reimbursement but the interface for staff will be similar to last year. We will train staff on all things documentation at our district directed PD Day on September 2^nd at HDMS.

Wayfinder/TSEL:

Please see image below for TSEL commitments by level as well as the Core Skills Screener student survey window (formerly known as the Summative Assessment) for 3-12. The K-2 teacher observed window will be out shortly. All new staff to the district will be trained on how to login and use Wayfinder on August 27th at the new staff orientation.

Outside Behavioral Health Providers:

Outside Behavioral Health Providers requesting to see students during the school day. Please share with your front office staff.

Memo of approved providers for this school year

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From Scott in IT:

YouTubeBuddy Pro Is Here!

As many of you know, students will no longer have direct access to YouTube on their district devices. At the same time, YouTube content can be a valuable instructional resource. Many of our teachers create and share video content through YouTube, and some of our adopted curriculum resources include embedded YouTube videos.

YouTubeBuddy Pro is a custom web application designed specifically to give students access to educational YouTube content that is needed for instruction, without providing students unrestricted access to YouTube.

Even better, the process of managing video content requires no additional work for teachers! Staff can make YouTube videos available to students in two ways:

Add the YouTube video link to your Canvas course. YouTubeBuddy Pro will take it from there. Note- videos in active or archived courses have already been added to the library.
Add the video directly to your YouTubeBuddy Pro playlist.

That’s it!

Want to Learn More?

There are a number of features to explore in YouTubeBuddy Pro, and we’d love to share more with you.

Please reach out to the IT Help Desk or to me directly if you would like Vince Valenti, YouTubeBuddy’s developer, to provide a tour for your staff. These sessions are also a great opportunity for us to hear directly from teachers about what works, what doesn’t, and how we can continue improving the experience.

Ready to get started?

There are already 32,000 videos in the library! Go check it out!
Log in to your YouTubeBuddy Pro account at:

bls.fyi/youtubebuddy

We’re excited to get this tool into the hands of teachers and students, and we appreciate everyone’s partnership as we work to make it the best it can be.

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From Gabe in Activities and Athletics:

Week #1 – August 17th-21st, 2026 – SMORE

HS Only

Reminder of Topics to Cover During Inservice

Tier 1 Climate and Culture (Includes code of conduct and behavior entry and code of conduct review)
Tier 1 Instruction – 5D
SBIG Guarantees and Resources
Ed Tech changes
MTSS (if pilot school)

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Regarding the administrator responsibilities on the teams and leads document, the administrator who oversees the counseling department will also be the lead for BLPO.

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Please add your Open House and Parent Conference Dates HERE

Calendar

August 25: MS Advisory Planning – Central Library 9:30 – 4:00

August 25: AP Strategy Studio – Central Library 1:00 – 4:00 (principals join 1-2)

August 26: SIRC training for new administrators 8-4, Ed Center room 203

August 27: New certified employee orientation – Silver Rail – All day

August 31: certified staff report back – Tier 1 covered

September 1: Welcome back – Virtual – 8:30 am

September 1: Parent Square training – Virtual – 10:00 am

September 2: Certified staff PD Day – Pacific Crest (for most) – 8:00 am (ELD @ Library, Counselors @ HDMS)

Have you seen it?

Each week 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 now office managers!)

Principals/APs/Office Managers, please fill out this SHORT form to let us know which movie or show you love. We’ll pull one each week for the blog.

Congrats to Kristy Knoll, Summit HS VP, for correctly identifying the movie this week as Jaws! Commonly referred to as the first summer blockbuster, Jaws debuted in 1975 and made Steven Spielberg a household name. The iconic ” You’re gonna need a bigger boat” line was ad-libbed and not in the original script.

This week we are highlighting one of Dean Richard’s favorite movies! Have you seen it? Let Stephen and Katie know!

The Secondary Blog August 13, 2026

Posted on August 13, 2026 by Katie Legace

Welcome to the 26-27 school year! If you know of people needing to receive this blog who aren’t on the email list, please let Katie and Stephen know.

To Do

Fill out your teams and leads for various departments in the spreadsheet Stephen or Katie shared.
Add the APs to the appropriate section of Robi’s document for the Strategy Studio.
Middle School – Complete your inservice week planner document. High School – Link your plan in the handbook
Resolve any remaining 25-26 evaluation to dos. Contract Jessica and Triz in HR with questions.

Departments

From Kinsey – Office of Policy and Advocacy:

Email Communication Guidance: – Action needed –

We reviewed this guidance with admin teams last spring, and used this quiz as the activity to do that. Please cover this information with staff at some point this fall.

Based on conversations with union leadership last year, I don’t recommend you just email out the guidance document. Instead, please offer some conversation at a staff meeting, or with your ICCL team at least. The topic fits nicely with the roll-out of ParentSquare, or with start-of-year conversations about staff-wide norms and agreements (resolving problems, attending meetings, dignity and belonging between colleagues, etc). Let me know what questions you have.

From Scott Maben, Communications:

ParentSquare 101: Basic training for school administrators and office staff

We will offer two opportunities to learn basic functions of ParentSquare on Thursday, August 20, at the Education Center. Both sessions will be in the Board Room and will be recorded for later viewing.

The first session is from 9 to 10 a.m. The second session is from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Please look for your calendar invites and share them with other office staff you’d like to received this training.

Both sessions will cover:

Launching ParentSquare and setting preferences
How to share a Post (standard message)
Direct Message
Smart Alerts
Custom Groups

This is an optional training opportunity for school admins and office staff. We will record this session and share a video link afterward.

Launching ParentSquare:

Please use the following URL to sign in to ParentSquare:
https://bls.fyi/parentsquare

You should be automatically signed in, but if you are prompted for authentication use your BLS email address and password.

The URL above is what you should always use to access ParentSquare.

Questions? Scott Maben, ext. 1006

Changes to Leave Sheet submissions:

With the transition of some duties within the Teaching and Learning Department, all principal and assistant principal leave sheets will now need to be sent to Kristan Shobe for processing. Timesheets will still be submitted to Stephanie Bent.

School supplies:

As you know, state law prohibits us from requiring families to provide school supplies for their children’s education. Even suggesting contributions in a way that creates undue pressure or expectation for family donations is inappropriate and doesn’t align with our organizational values. Please be sure your staff clearly understand this expectation and the reasons for it.

That said, some families would really like to contribute, and I know we’re all interested in maximizing community support to take the edge off our budgets. To balance these competing interests, here are some recommended practices:

Make it very clear to families that there is no obligation for any family to contribute any school supplies.
Avoid publishing classroom- or grade-specific “lists” that can create a sense of obligation.
Let families know that, for those who have extra supplies at home or who simply enjoy purchasing and contributing supplies to prepare for school each fall, the school will accept voluntary donations of general, unused supplies during your fall Welcome Back/Curriculum Night events.
Have school-wide “Optional School Supply Donations” buckets/tubs available in the school front lobby during fall events, rather than having families take supplies to a particular teacher or classroom (where donations are more attributable to individual students, which increases pressure).

From Lillah in Safety:

STAS/SIRC Training August 26

For all administrators or other staff that will be a part of your Level 1 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 August 26 from 8:00-4:00. Lunch will be provided. Please fill out this survey so we can get an accurate count for food. Note that there will be another training on Sept. 23, 2026. Come for a free lunch, stay for the training!

From Heather with Deschutes County:

As we begin the year, we are asking building admin teams to identify the staff members best suited to serve in this year’s UpShift roles. This will help us track returning team members and identify who may need training in the coming weeks. Please review and update the BLS UpShift Roles & Responsibilities document with anticipated staff assignments by end of day Wednesday, September 24. UpShift is now included in the District’s Substance Use Prevention and Intervention Plan. Please continue to use the UpShift FAQ document for ongoing updates and answers to common questions.

MS Only:

Reminder of Topics to Cover During Inservice

Tier 1 Climate and Culture (Includes code of conduct and behavior entry)
Tier 1 Instruction – 5D
SBIG Guarantees and Resources
iPads and Homework
Jamf training and expectations
MAP training
MTSS (if pilot school)

Calendar:

August 17: MTSS pilot schools training

August 25: MS Advisory Planning – Central Library 9:30 – 4:00

August 25: AP Strategy Studio – Central Library 1:00 – 4:00

August 27: New certified employee orientation – Silver Rail – All day

August 31: certified staff report back – Tier 1 covered

September 1: Welcome back – Virtual – 8:30 am

September 1: Parent Square training – Virtual – 10:00 am

September 2: Certified staff PD Day – Pacific Crest (for most) – 8:00 am (ELD @ Library, Counselors @ HDMS)

Have you seen it?

For the last two years, this section was called Where in the World? and was first an opportunity to learn about a person on our team and then became a quiz about your knowledge. We’d like to combine those themes into one with a new direction.

To start, we’d like to collect your favorite movie or TV show so we have a bank to work from for the year. Principals/APs/Office Managers, please fill out this SHORT form to let us know which movie or show you love. We’ll pull one each week for the blog.

For this week, we’ll start with our fearless leader. Dr. Cook’s favorite flick is shown below. The screen shots may get progressively harder as we go on! Recognize the movie? Let Stephen and Katie know!!

The Secondary Blog, June 11, 2026

Posted on June 11, 2026 by Stephen Duval

Congratulations on another successful school year. We hope you take some time to relax and enjoy our beautiful summer weather!

To Do:

From Kinsey:

From Kinsey – Office of Policy & Advocacy:

Formal Complaints: -Action required-

Please go into your Dashboard and ensure you have completed your investigations and communication about each complaint or bias incident in your Dashboard. Be sure to mark it as “Resolved By School” when you have included notes, links/attachments, and other documentation. Reach out if you need support.

Community Engagement Bingo: -Action requested-

Time for prizes! Want to win a gift card ($25-$49.99) to places like El Sancho, Spork, downtown shops like Almadorada Coffee, and more?

If you attended any of the community visits and/or did a home visit this year, please note that here so we can celebrate your leadership and enter you into the raffle. For each Bingo square you completed, your chances of winning will go up! We’ll draw names at our June 15 admin lunch.

HR Evaluation Update:

Finalizing your Summative Evaluations? Please remember the following steps to assist HR.

To allow HR to have access to all of the required pieces of the evaluative process, files must be dropped into the HR provided Google folders, in addition to being linked into the workbook.

What happens if you don’t? Files are not accessible to HR and we have the potential of losing data.

If they are only shared in the spreadsheet without residing in the folders it is possible the files may get lost.

Correct:

Incorrect:

If you need technical assistance in accessing any of the documents or folders/workbook shared again, please reach out to Jessica Lamay.

Thank you all so much, for your continued help in making staff evaluations successful!

From Departments:

TLC:

Here is the sign about office hours over the summer.

From Rodger Moore in Facilities:

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Here is the Standard Operating Procedure for classroom relocations, as well as instructions for submitting a classroom relocation work order in Hero HQ.

From Eric Powell (Student Services):

As you continue to review your end-of-the-year discipline audits (based on previous guidance from IT), please do not hesitate to call or Email me with any Incidents that are being flagged as having errors. I plan to spend time next week reviewing audits district-wide and I can help correct any ‘issues’ to help you finish the year. I know you all have so many things going on right now, so please do not hesitate to reach out!!

From Kinsey:

CFEE:

We have a last-minute opening for the week-long CFEE (racial equity workshop that all of Cabinet and many of our leaders have attended). June 22-26 in Salem, expenses covered. If you’re interested or know someone who is, reach out asap—first come first served.

From Jennifer Hauth:

Here is information on the HDESD Summer Institute flyer, and a direct link to the registration form for easier sharing. Please distribute to your networks! Registration closes 7/31.

From Sara Young:

Welcome to the VERY LAST Special EDge of the year! In this very short blog, you’ll find information about:

End of Year Equipment Reminder
End of Year Check-out Process
HDESD Summer Institute

Happy Summer! ☀️

From Gabe:

Here is the weekly. Not much of a change from last week.

June 8th-12th, 2026 – Weekly SMORE

MS Only:

From Educational Technology

For Middle School: The EdTech team will provide Jamf Teacher training with other EdTech topics at each middle school during in-service week. Administrators will sign up for a session when they meet on June 16.

To request a professional learning opportunity or have a conversation about the ways our EdTech team can help at your school, please contact [email protected].

HS Only:

From Educational Technology

For High School: Our team is available to provide professional learning for high school staff on any EdTech topic that may benefit your school. Based on teacher feedback, areas of interest include AI literacy and classroom implementation, device-based behavior management strategies, and purposeful technology use.

To request a professional learning opportunity or have a conversation about the ways our EdTech team can help at your school, please contact [email protected].

Calendar:

June 12: Self Assessment due to Katie or Stephen

June 15: School Design Plan Showcase 9:00 – 11:00 p.m. @ CHS

June 15: End of Year Administrator Celebration (and lunch!) @ HDMS 11:30-1:00

June 16: HS Administrator Retreat 8-4 @ CHS – breakfast and lunch provided

June 16: MS Horizontal on MAPS – 8:30 – 10:13 @ Ed Center

June 19: Juneteenth Holiday!

June 22: MS Principal Retreat – 9-1 @ Deschutes Central Library

Where in the World:

Congratulations to Leslie Reif, who correctly guessed the image from last week! The image was of the Lodge at Lake Quinault located in the Olympic National Forest in Washington. It was built in 1926.

Below is the image for this week. No contest as this is the last blog for the year. Thanks to all for playing and we’ll come up with something new for next year!

The Secondary Blog, June 4, 2026

Posted on June 4, 2026 by Katie Legace

To Do:

Celebrate our Seniors beginning tonight!

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Reminder:

Be sure to identify and assign those seniors close to graduating to work with a teacher of seniors next week!

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Send your Self Assessment to Katie or Stephen by Friday, June 12

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Triz in HR:

Important Deadlines for the Evaluation Process:

Please remember to upload all your documents into your google sheet.

From Departments:

From Andrea in Human Resources:

Safety Committee Meeting Minutes

Please upload all Safety Committee Meeting minutes to your site’s shared Google folder no later than June 30.

Questions? Please reach out to Andrea Wilson.

BLAST Leave Records

BLAST members: If you have not already done so, please submit your leave records documenting all leave taken, including non-contract time, during 2025-26 school year. If using the digital leave record, please remember to print, sign, and submit the completed record to our payroll office. Paper leave records may also be used to document your time. Thanks for helping us close out the school year accurately!

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From Kinsey – Office of Policy & Advocacy:

Dr. Karen Mapp’s Family Engagement and Attendance Workshop:

Thanks to all who attended—such great energy to get us through the end of the year!

Next steps: 1) As you work on SIWs, school design plans, and family events for next year, pull up her slides and your notes so you can build on that learning. 2) Be on the look-out for more opportunities with her team in the fall, and a copy of her book heading to your school soon.

Community Engagement Bingo:

Time for prizes! Want to win a gift card ($25-$49.99) to places like El Sancho, Spork, downtown shops like Almadorada Coffee, and more?

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From IT and Ed Tech:

MS / HS YouTube Access: Please share this with teachers

IT would like to update instructional staff who have essential content in their coursework that is only available via YouTube. Over the past few weeks, the primary focus in IT has been simplifying the teacher experience for allowing instructional videos while continuing to block all other YouTube content. Our current solution has roughly 7,000 videos that have been submitted by teachers. When our high school students move into this environment, we are predicting around 30,000 videos will be submitted during the first year! With that volume in mind, we have made several improvements over our current allow-list process that will be explained further here.

Currently, our method for submitting YouTube videos is a bit cumbersome. It requires at least three actions by the teacher and could take up to a week before the video becomes available to students.

Planned Improvements

Teaching staff can submit YouTube videos directly to the allow list.
Any video submitted by teaching staff will be assumed to be essential for instruction and will not require Ed Tech or administrative review.
Submitted videos will be available within 30 minutes of submission.
Students will use the same link submitted by the teacher, eliminating the need for teachers to copy and paste embed links.
This improved method requires only one action by the teacher and could allow the video to be available to the students in as few as thirty minutes.

Potential Enhancements

We are currently researching the ability to automatically scan all Bend-La Pine Schools Canvas courses for YouTube video links and automatically add them to the allow list.
This enhancement would significantly reduce the workload for staff who need students to access YouTube content on their iPads.

What can you do?

When staff return in the fall, IT will have a mechanism to collect YouTube links that folks need for instruction. Until then, you might consider keeping a running list of the YouTube “must have” videos for submission when the tool is ready. Or, do nothing and enjoy a beautiful summer! Just know that we are taking this matter seriously, and plan to deliver you the most effective and efficient solution possible before your students return to the classroom.

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From Gabe:

June 1st-5th, 2026 – Weekly SMORE

MS Only:

From Stephen and Jess Scott:

Here are some relevant documents regarding TAG. Please familiarize yourself with them.

The TAG ID process flow-chart

A NEW editable PDF of the TAG ID Case Study Form

Remember, we don’t automatically ID students based on screening from a test. However, we do flag students in the 97th percentile or above for a case study conversation that could lead to an identification. Additionally, the 97th percentile is a starting point we CAN identify students with other high percentiles if we look at need and other factors impacting a student. Please reach out to Jess Scott or Stephen DuVal with any questions.

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From Aimee Snyder:

Please remember to identify the admin and 1-2 staff to attend the workgroup session on August 25. Please have the people attending for your school register through this link.

The workgroup will review and revise the middle school Wayfinder/Advisory scope and sequence to make sure it’s meeting the needs of schools and aligns with best practices for bullying and substance use prevention.

Bend-La Pine Schools received a grant to be able to timesheet up to 14 school staff (~2 per school) for this workgroup. Please register yourself and your staff, or let me know if you will not have staff attending (so that another school may be able to bring more staff).

HS Only:

From Jenn:

Please make sure all seniors complete the Senior Year End Activity, as we need their personal emails and where to send their final transcripts.

Schoolinks is also where they will access their transcripts in the future so they need their alumni accounts😊

Calendar:

June 11: Last day of school!

June 12: Self Assessment due to Katie or Stephen

June 15: School Design Plan Showcase 9:00 – 11:00 p.m. @ CHS

June 15: End of Year Administrator Celebration (and lunch!) @ HDMS 11:30-1:00

June 16: HS Administrator Retreat 8-4 @ CHS – breakfast and lunch provided

June 16: MS Horizontal on MAPS – 8:30 – 10:13 @ Ed Center

June 19: Juneteenth Holiday!

June 22: MS Principal Retreat – 9-1 @ Deschutes Central Library

Where in the World:

Congrats to Kelly Beaudry for correctly identifying the image from the blog as Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park. It is the largest hot spring in the US and a must see!

Below is the image for this week. Send us your guess for this location by Monday, win the drawing, and Stephen or Katie will bring you your school appropriate beverage of choice:

The Secondary Blog, May 27, 2026

Posted on May 28, 2026 by Stephen Duval

To Do

Principals: Update your staffing plans.

From Departments

From TLC:

From Scott Maben, Communications

Update on ParentSquare rollout and training plan

On Wednesday of this week, we trained office managers on use of ParentSquare. Our family liaison team also attended this training. We learned more about how schools currently use School Messenger, including to message secondary students. This is helpful as we prepare for School Messenger to end on June 30 and we transition to use of ParentSquare as our primary family messaging and engagement tool.

Next week we will invite all district staff to activate their ParentSquare accounts. We are not ready for you (outside of our 5 South County pilot schools) to begin using ParentSquare to communicate with your families, but you will see some content we plan to share from the District level now through summer. Schools may begin using ParentSquare in August, and teachers will be able to use it once trained in early September.

Bringing families into the ParentSquare fold will take time, and we’d like to begin around the end of the school year. Parents will receive an invite to verify their accounts, set preferences, and download the ParentSquare app. We will schedule reminders to those who don’t respond to the initial invite. It’s important to know that even if a parent never responds to these invites, they will still receive our ParentSquare communications — as emails — but they won’t benefit from the full features of ParentSquare, such as setting their message preferences or using the handy mobile app.

We’re looking at dates when we can offer school administrators basic training on using ParentSquare and will communicate those details soon.

Our training opportunity for all teachers and any other staff who need to be ready to communicate with families will be the second day of in-service week:

PARENTSQUARE BASIC TRAINING

Tuesday, Sept. 1, 10-11 a.m.
Teams meeting (link to be shared later) with a trainer from ParentSquare
Note that this will begin shortly after the Superintendent’s Welcome Back program at 8:30 a.m. You may want your team to remain together in the same space.

On Wednesday, Sept. 2, we will provide follow-up ParentSquare support opportunities at the District-led PD (elementary at Caldera, secondary at Pacific Crest).

After school starts, we would like to visit every school for drop-in sessions for staff who’d like to ask questions or get help using ParentSquare.

Please reach out if you have questions on any of this. Thanks!

From Rodger Moore, Director of Facility Operations

To help schools manage classroom relocations smoothly and minimize disruption to instruction, the district is developing a standardized process for both same-school and inter-school moves. The procedure is intended to outline clear responsibilities for administrators, teachers, custodial teams, maintenance, and IT staff to help ensure moves are coordinated efficiently. The district is currently testing our work order platform Hero HQ for submitting move requests and coordinating details such as scheduling, technology needs, furniture, and specialty equipment. Additional procedures, expectations, and implementation guidance will be communicated in an upcoming Level Leaders’ Blog once the workflow and support processes are finalized.

Large-scale moves, such as the Realms transition, will be exempt from this process.

From Gabe:

The weekly SMORE is light.

May 26th-May 29th, 2026

From Sara in Student Services:

Please read this week’s Special EDge to get more information about:

Review End of Year Check-out Process
Complete High Cost
Paperwork Deadline – June 5!
ESY Case Managers – Reach out to Sara Young with new students who qualify and continue to reach out to families you haven’t heard from
Utilize the Student Services Launchpad
Save the Date for upcoming events

MS Only

Ed Tech Training

Be on the look out for communication from the Ed Tech team about in-service training on tech tools including Jamf. Please coordinate a time for your staff in the fall.

Calendar

June 4: Graduation week begins!

June 11: Last day of school!

June 15: School Design Plan Showcase 9:00 – 11:00 p.m. @ CHS

June 15: End of Year Administrator Celebration (and lunch!) @ HDMS 11:30-1:00

June 16: HS Administrator Retreat 8-4 TBD

June 16: MS Horizontal on MAPS – 8:30 – 10:13 @ Ed Center

June 19: Juneteenth Holiday!

June 22: MS Principal Retreat – 9-1 @ Deschutes Central Library

Who in the world?

Congratulations to an Curfew who won the drawing this week!

He correctly identified the image as Dr. Karen Mapp, who led an outstanding session on family engagement last Thursday!

Dr. Mapp, a Senior Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is a leading family and community engagement expert whose research and practice focus on cultivating partnerships among schools, families, and communities for enhancing student achievement and school performance.

Below is the image for this week. Send us your guess for this location by Monday, win the drawing, and Stephen or Katie will bring you your school appropriate beverage of choice:

The Secondary Blog, May 20, 2026

Posted on May 22, 2026 by Katie Legace

To Do

Principals: Update your staffing plans.

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From Jason in IT:

Please review ALL your audits on this dashboard including the new Discipline & Attendance Mismatched audit. These audits need to be resolved prior to the end of the school year.

Additional updates for discipline audits have been added to the School Discipline Audits analytics report dashboard. Specifically, an updated version of the “Discipline & Attendance Mismatch” report is at the bottom of the dashboard (you will need to scroll down to see it).

Jason Westmoreland [[email protected]] would like additional feedback on this audit specifically. Are there changes that would be helpful, are there any false positive or incorrect entries shown, or is there any confusion surrounding how to resolve the audits?

To access the discipline audits (until we are able to publish this to a PAD Tree location), you will need to use the Quick Launch, by typing ‘Synergy Analytics Home Page’ and selecting the entry.

Once you are on the Synergy Analytics Home Page, click the ‘hamburger’ under the label, and expand the navigation links. Find the Discipline option and select it.

You may be presented with a number of options to choose from (I recommend exploring when you have time), however, to review discipline audits, you will need to select the ‘School Discipline Audits’ dashboard from the Audits group.

Once you have selected the appropriate dashboard, there will be multiple audits available on the page. The new ‘Discipline & Attendance Mismatched’ audit is at the bottom of the page (you will need to scroll down using the far-right scroll bar – multiple scrolls may be nested).

The audit is intended to show you where ISS/OSS discipline and attendance are not matched on a given day. Based on what actually happened with a specific student / disposition, you should correct either the disposition Dates & Days, or the Attendance codes for those days (and appropriate periods).

Remember that you can expand individual reports in the dashboard to expand the entire display window by using the four arrows pointing to the corners. This will expand the report to use the whole screen for easier navigation.

NOTE: If you have questions regarding how to resolve these audits (or any audits on this dashboard) please connect with Jason Westmoreland (x1222)

From Departments

From Lisa, Deputy Superintendent

Check out this Spring Update regarding Technology and Assessments for the 26-27 school year.

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From Dean:

We are currently processing curriculum requests for next year. Approximately 75% of teachers have submitted requests so far. The form will remain open, but please note that May 31 is the deadline for receiving feedback on submissions. Requests submitted in June may not receive feedback, which is especially important if a request is denied.

Please remind colleagues to complete the curriculum request form. They can find related messages from BLS Instructional Technology ([email protected] (opens in new tab)

Updates to curriculum requests are posted on the same page.

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From Kinsey – Office of Policy and Advocacy:

School Supplies:

As you know, state law prohibits us from requiring families to provide school supplies for their children’s education. Even suggesting contributions in a way that creates undue pressure or expectation for family donations is inappropriate and doesn’t align with our equity values. Please be sure your staff clearly understand this expectation and the reasons for it.

Make it very clear to families that there is no obligation for any family to contribute any school supplies.
Avoid publishing classroom- or grade-specific “lists” that can create a sense of obligation.
Let families know that, for those who have extra supplies at home or who simply enjoy purchasing and contributing supplies to prepare for school each fall, the school will accept voluntary donations of general, unused supplies during your fall Welcome Back/Curriculum Night events.
Have school-wide “Optional School Supply Donations” buckets/tubs available in the front lobby during fall events, rather than having families take supplies to a particular teacher or classroom (where donations are more attributable to individual students, which increases pressure).

Pride Month:

June is Pride Month! Bend-La Pine Schools will have our regular booth at the summer Pride festival on June 6th–drop by and visit!

Encourage your teachers to cover LGBTQIA2S+ history (supported by Oregon required standards) by implementing some of the lessons, read-alouds, and activities available on our district Equity Resources page (click on Cultural Calendar, then scroll to June). Here are some teacher prep tips, and/or contact the Advocacy Coaches for instructional support.

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From Jenn:

Waypoints closes next Friday for 6-12. If you all want to look at completion rates by school see instructions below:

For 3-12, go to the Waypoints tab; the overview shows the percent completed (make sure you are filtered to student-reported and summative).

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From Tami Pike:

Please review the Bend-La Pine Schools Protocol and Procedures for Management of Concussions ~ May 2026 update. More information about concussions can be found on our BLS website under Health and Wellness.

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From Student Services:

As we prepare for the end of the year, we wanted to share a new check-out process with you all!

Please schedule a bookings appointment or phone call with the records clerks.
- You may book now but these meetings will not take place until the beginning of June.
During this meeting, the Records Clerks will be checking:
- Learning Specialists:
  - All IEPs are completed and finalized
  - All progress notes are completed and finalized
  - All equipment lists are updated
  - High cost and staffing needs are submitted
  - Restraint and Seclusion paperwork have been turned in
  - If required for your role: All Senior Paperwork
- Psychologists:
  - Evaluations finished and uploaded
  - Location of test kits have been verified
  - For PILOT participants: Medicaid logs are completed in SEAS until last day served
- Speech and Language Pathologist:
  - All IEPs are completed and finalized
  - All progress notes are completed and finalized
  - Medicaid logs are completed in SEAS until last day served
  - Evaluations finished and uploaded
  - Audiometers have been turned in
  - If required for your role: All Senior Paperwork
- Occupational Therapists:
  - Feeding protocols have been updated, completed, and sent to records
  - Evaluations finished and uploaded
  - Medicaid logs are completed in SEAS until last day served
  - All equipment lists are updated

When you have completed this meeting and have all of your paperwork complete, the admin who supports your site (Josh, Colleen, or Sara) will let your building administrator know that you have the GREEN LIGHT from Student Services to check-out for the year! 🙂

If you have any questions, please reach out to the coach who supports your site!

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From Scott and Karen:

Dear Middle School and High School Teachers,

We are currently investigating the option to discontinue Adobe Creative Cloud licenses for all students in grades K–8. Instead, we are exploring a targeted approach by providing licenses specifically for CTE classes and other courses where Adobe tools are required for instruction.

Our usage data shows that student use of Adobe Creative Cloud applications outside of CTE and journalism classes is limited. As a result, we are hoping to reduce costs by focusing licensing on programs and classes where the tools are actively used and instructionally necessary.

If you currently use Adobe Creative Cloud with students in your class, please add your request to the Instructional Tools Request document so we are aware of your instructional need. Requests and approvals will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Thank you for your understanding and partnership as we work to balance instructional needs with responsible stewardship of district resources.

This change will not impact staff Adobe Creative Cloud Accounts.

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From Rodger Moore, Director of Facility Operations
To help schools manage classroom relocations smoothly and minimize disruption to instruction, the district is developing a standardized process for both same-school and inter-school moves. The procedure is intended to outline clear responsibilities for administrators, teachers, custodial teams, maintenance, and IT staff to help ensure moves are coordinated efficiently. The district is currently testing our work order platform Hero HQ for submitting move requests and coordinating details such as scheduling, technology needs, furniture, and specialty equipment. Additional procedures, expectations, and implementation guidance will be communicated in an upcoming Level Leaders’ Blog once the workflow and support processes are finalized.

Large-scale moves, such as the Realms transition, will be exempt from this process.

TOSA Updates:

Admin Blog- SS Updates

Post week of 5/18

Social Studies Speaking CDA all grades. Pilot.

Work during END’s to make adjustments and get feedback.

Teacher leadership on this is present and forward moving.

Post week of 4/20/26

Slides from 4/23 Horizontal

Slide 6 scope and sequence link
Slide 7-9 scope and sequence graphics
From slide 11 Canvas/Syllabus statements for supplemental materials

In response to students’ learning needs, current events, or newly available sources, I will periodically supplement our major text with other materials.

If you do not want your student to read/view any supplemental materials, please let me know. Your student can wait to read/view the material until after they have shared it with you.

Social Science shared drive (updated access)

BLP Middle level Social Studies Guide

Upcoming PD

5/29 TCI-Curriculum Full Day Training @ Ed Center

Post week of 5/18

Social Science Speaking CDA for all students in a USH class including AP/IB classes.

State requirement: One year at the high school level. MS every year.
26-27 pilot year, no Synergy entry required.
26-27 END’s will be used to adjust, review, etc. for USH teachers.
The task is adaptable to a current task in your classroom. And similar enough (3-part task) to meet the state requirements.
Rubric language was created from ELA Speaking Rubrics/State Speaking Rubrics
Rubric language utilizes our standard: Communication and Argumentation with emphasis on speaking.
No requirements at this time to upload tasks, samples etc. to a common portal.

HS Only

From Jenn and Jess:

Reminder that all seniors need to complete the Senior Year-End Activity and Alumni Access setup in SchooLinks prior to graduation. This should be included as part of each school’s senior checkout process.

This is especially important because students need to have their alumni access set up before their SchooLinks account transitions to alumni status. Their alumni account will become their primary way to access transcripts after graduation.

I know some schools are completing this with seniors next week, but I wanted to send a quick reminder and share the current completion numbers below. Reach out to Jess with questions.

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Calendar

May 25: Memorial Day Holiday, no School

May 28: Waypoints Core Skills assessment window closes for secondary

June 4: Graduation week begins!

June 15: School Design Plan Showcase 9:00 – 11:00 p.m. @ CHS

June 15: End of Year Administrator Celebration (and lunch!) @ HDMS 11:30-1:00

June 16: HS Administrator Retreat 8-4 TBD

June 19: Juneteenth Holiday!

Who in the world?

Congratulations to former history teacher Colin Bado with correctly identifying Bikini Atoll in the blog. Bikini Atoll was the site of massive nuclear testing for the US in the 1940s and 1950s. The impact on the native cultures to that area was long lasting and significant. If you are a bit of a history buff, National Geographic did a documentary that covered these tests and their impact along with the physical impacts on the ocean floor. Side brag: my brother is featured in the documentary as his team was the one to map the ocean floor.

Below is the image for this week. Send us your guess for this location by Monday, win the drawing, and Stephen or Katie will bring you your school appropriate beverage of choice:

The Secondary Blog May 14, 2026

Posted on May 14, 2026 by Stephen Duval

To Do

From Triz in HR:

Important Deadlines for the Evaluation Process:

Please remember to upload all your documents into your google Sheet.

From Departments

From Kinsey – Office of Policy & Advocacy:

Student Voice Council: – Action requested –

We are beginning recruitment for 26-27 Student Voice Council representatives. As you’re aware, this group has an impactful seat at the district leadership table, so ensuring great representation for your school (and feeder schools) is important!

Good news: we have a very stable group who will continue next year, so we are only filling a few spots, primarily of graduating seniors. We need to fill the following seats: 1 for BSHS, 1-2 for DRHS, 2-3 for CHS, 2 for LPHS, 4 for MVHS, 3 for SHS.

What makes a good candidate? A student who is consistent, collaborative, and creative, and has something to say about school. As always, we are looking for diversity of identities, academic profiles (i.e. we don’t only need 4.0 students), and experiences in or out of school.

Current SVC members will help recruit, but we need staff engagement also! Current 8^th – 11^th graders are welcome to apply, and we’d love middle and high school administrators, counselors, specialists, club advisors, campus monitors, and others with student connections to help recommend students and encourage them to apply. Thanks for sharing this with your staff and school community.

From Aimee Snyder with Deschutes County Health:

Follow-up to the April 9 Blog Post: Optional Resources to Prevent “Look-alike” Substance Use Policy Violations

In addition to the optional high school lesson shared in the April 9 blog post, we’ve now added these additional optional resources for both middle and high schools:

For Families – English and Spanish Family Newsletter PSA about Look-alikes as a Policy Violation
For Middle School Students – Slides and adaptation notes for a “whole school” administrator’s announcement about look-alikes
For School Admin and Staff – Top 10 Best Practices for Substance Use Prevention in Schools
For Anyone – List of Cessation / Quitting Resources for Youth and Adults

All these resources can be found here: Resources for Preventing Look-alike Substance Use Policy Violations document

Please reach out to your Public Health Specialist for help coordinating the rollout of any of these resources.

These resources would be most effective if delivered as part of a coordinated sequence of activities that surround students with consistent substance use prevention messages from various trusted “messengers” (admin, Health teacher, peer leaders, parent/family).

From Rodger in Operations:

Large-scale moves, such as the Realms transition, will be exempt from this process.

From Gabe:

Here is the weekly. May 11th-15th, 2026

Please read this week’s Special EDge for information about:

Complete High Cost
Note the Paperwork Deadline – June 5!
ESY Case Managers – Reach out to Sara Young with new students who qualify and continue to reach out to families you haven’t heard from

TOSA Updates

From Colleen Behrens, Science TOSA

Science Materials and Scheduling

As you build next year’s schedule, please consider how many teachers are assigned to teach the same course during the same period, as they may need to share science kits and equipment. While we are working to support teachers’ needs, the number of kits at each site is limited, so thoughtful scheduling can help ensure reliable access for all teachers.

Science Trainings

Teachers should attend the training that aligns with the course they will be teaching next year.

High school

May 19^th – MVHS- all day PEER Physics

May 21^st – MVHS- all day Savvas Chemistry

Middle School

May 28^th– Bend Science Station – All day 6^th grade science teachers**

May 28^th– PCMS – All day 7^th and 8^th grade science teachers

**Teachers who will be teaching both 6th grade and either 7th or 8th grade next year will need to choose which session to attend.

MS ONLY

Dean and Linda will be proctoring the iReady Bypass Test at middle schools between May 22^nd and May 29th. Please be sure to communicate with families about this opportunity.

Here is the link to the communication.

Calendar

May 13: All Admin Training 3-4:30 @ MVHS

May 13: Excellence in Ed Awards 4:30-6:30 @ MVHS

May 14th: MS Only – TAG Admin/ICCL Meeting @ Ed Center 3:30 – 5:00

May 14: Latino Family Night 5:30 @ MVHS

May 15: HS Principal Connection 8-10 @ RHS

May 19: Secondary Administrator work session @ CHS 9-11 – focus on SBIG

May 25: Memorial Day Holiday, no School

May 28: Waypoints Core Skills assessment window closes for secondary

June 15: School Design Plan Showcase 9:00 – 11:00 p.m. @ CHS

June 15: End of Year Administrator Celebration (and lunch!) @ HDMS 11:30-1:00

Where in the World

Congratulations to Becky Aylor for correctly guessing the image from last week!

The image was of the The Cinque Terre, Italy: The Italian candy land of colour, the five villages that make up the Cinque Terre provide the perfect oasis for escaping the Italian summer heat and the perfect test for colour blindness.

Below is the image for this week. (Hint: It’s famous for its role in US atomic testing). Send us your guess for this location by Monday, win the drawing, and Stephen or Katie will bring you your school appropriate beverage of choice: