From Lisa in the Superintendent’s Office (repeat):
Consider applying to be on the district’s administrator advisory team. See this week’s Staff Spotlight for more specific information. The deadline is October 16.
From Jennifer in Student Services: Jennifer has created goal setting documents for School Counselors and Student Success Certified staff to be used as part of the evaluation process. These documents have been shared with staff and district coaches will use PLC time this month to support certified staff in the usage of these goal setting documents. Staff can save this document as a PDF and uploaded it directly to UKG. We will set aside time at our next PLC to review and begin work on these documents.
From Sean in Student Services: Please look at our practice guidance for those staff that teach suicide prevention standards. This document has been reviewed and shared with health teachers and school counselors. Thanks
Please ensure you coordinate and submit requests for interpreters ASAP. Your Language Specialist and Family Liaison can help advise and coordinate this with your office team.
Policy training resources:
Thanks for attending the policy training this week! Here is follow-up–please share with your staff and PTA/Booster Club leaders:
As you wrap up the teaching of those lessons across all classrooms in the upcoming days, can you please share a celebration with Kinsey about something that your building did well with these lessons? Did you have a teacher successfully incorporate student voice? A team who was creative with implementation? Presence from the equity coaches that was helpful? Please let me know what your school did well!
To ensure the safety, quality, and compatibility of our technology, ALL tech-related purchases must be approved and processed through our IT department.
If the answer is “yes” to any of these questions, the purchase must go through IT:
Is it a computer, tablet, or related device?
• Does it connect to or charge one of our devices?
Does it connect to our networks or get installed on a device?
Why is this important?
While it may be tempting to purchase cheaper options from websites like Amazon, our district maintains strict standards to ensure all devices are safe, reliable, and compatible with our systems. Unsafe or substandard devices can:
Pose risks such as electrical shock or fire
Introduce security threats like malware
Fail to work properly within our network environment
Bookmark our Staff Portal for quick access to updates and staff resources
A great way to keep up on employee news, announcements, resources and tools is to check our STAFF PORTAL regularly. We are posting updates to the Portal almost every day.
We encourage all staff to bookmark the Portal on your browser. Better yet, you can designate it as one of your browser startup pages so it’s always right there. Here’s how to do that using Google Chrome:
1. In your Chrome browser window, click on the three vertical dots (for “More”) in the top right corner
2. Go down the list to “Settings” and click that
3. On the left, click “On startup”
4. Select “Open a specific page or set of pages” then “Add a new page”
5. Paste the site URL into the window and hit “Add” The URL for our Staff Portal is this: https://bendlapine.sharepoint.com/
You can add other startup pages as well, such as our District website (https://www.bend.k12.or.us/district) and your school website.
The “Quick Links” on the Staff Portal is a go-to resource for many of us. And keep an eye on the featured news items, which provides a mix of local news headlines and timely information we are sharing with you and our community.
Middle School Only
Quarter Classes: Be sure you are providing an extra half day of grading time to your teachers who have quarter classes.
High School Only
Financial Aid Night: Our BLS Financial Aid Information Night is coming up! We will have one event in Bend at MVHS and one in La Pine the following week at LPHS.
****Once again, there there will be a separate Spanish Speaking Financial Aid night later this fall that is planned in conjunction with Kinsey and her team. This is noted in the communication linked above****
Calendar
October 14: TAG Admin/ICCL Meeting – 3:45 – 5:45 – Board Room
October 22: HS Principal work session – 8:00-10:00 @ Summit HS
October 24: MS Horizontal – 3:00 @ Pacific Crest
October 29-31: Middle School Conferences
November 5: MS and HS Administrator work session – 8:00-10:00 @ Cascade MS
November 7: New Course Proposals Due
Where in the World
This week we are highlighting Dave McKae, Dean at High Desert and his Happy Place! Dave shared: Ever since we took our boys on their first vacation, we were itching to go back and visit our family roots in Scotland. We spent a year planning and part of the trip included driving to the Cairngorms to go on a hike with reindeer! Fun fact: that’s less than one year of growth on its head as they lose and regrow new antlers each year. Planning big trips and taking our kids on new adventures is something that brings us great joy.
Our first Educator Network Day of the year is this Wednesday, October 9. Administrators are required to attend and support two of the four sessions. Please ensure attendance is taken at the session. Here is the LINK for information. Here is the LINK to taking attendance.
Consider applying to be on the district’s administrator advisory team. See this week’s Staff Spotlight for more specific information. The deadline is October 16.
Reminders/Action items:
From Jessica Houser in the Business Office:
This is a reminder that the deadline for submitting information regarding employees who missed work due to being in a level two or three evacuation zone between September 9th and 17th is tomorrow, Friday, October 4th at 12pm.
If you have not filled out the Google From, please do so at your earliest convenance to ensure we have all the necessary information. Your input is important for us to determine the next steps for those affected. There is no need for your employees to submit additional forms at this time.
Reminder: All staff will receive a link to our annual cybersecurity training and are required to complete this mandatory training by November 30. It will take approximately 30 minutes to complete and is crucial in helping to protect both personal and district data from cyberattacks. Principals, plan to provide one staff meeting between now and November for staff to complete this training.
Lesson Design Cycle (LDC): (LDC sites only) As a reminder, we’ve flushed out the LDC calendar for first and second semester. Dates can also be found here. The sites that have opted into this practice need to work to identify staff for participation. Here is the interest form. We are limited to 8 folks per session so it will come down to one or two teachers from participating sites. Please reach out to Dean, Katie, or Stephen with questions.
Many of you have been asking about dates for the “Full” CPI trainings and refresher options for this fall. A few things to note:
These trainings are for those that need to be trained to implement holds in a restraint/seclusion scenario. You should have a team of folks at you building with this level of training.
These trainings are different than the “De-escalation only” trainings that are being offered for secondary staff and in-house for elementary staff. All CPI trainings will count toward you buildings 1:50 ratio required by SB 283
You can still use this CPI trained spreadsheet to see who has the “full” training in your building. Note: at this time, any person listed on the spreadsheet has the full training w/holds
Folks can sign up for the “full” courses in UKG. They are titled “CPI initial” and “CPI refresher”
Remember to pick a date between 11/4 and 11/22 to administer the survey to all of your 8th and 11th graders. Then, plan to send parent notifications out a couple of weeks before that date. Here is a folder containing all the information and resources schools need to administer the SHS, including survey links, parent notification/opt-out forms, survey previews, and instructions for teachers proctoring the survey. Let me know what questions you have or what support you may need. Thanks.
From Jenn in Student Services: School Counselors, Student Success, and Principals
I hope the school year is going well! On October 9th, we will be adding an additional Student Safe training before Educator Network Day (END) at 2:45 pm. For the week of October 7th, please work with your building admin to adjust your prep and case management time accordingly over the course of next week to allow for you to leave the building early, including travel time. Caldera will have dismissal at 2:15 so please plan to arrive by 2:10 pm.
2:15 – 2:45 Student Safe Training in Caldera Auditorium
2:45 – 4:00 SIW/END Caldera Auditorium
Timesheets are available for elementary SSCs and counselors from 3:15 to 4 pm and it is optional for you to stay past your contract hours. SSIs, Jen Goodman has communicated a separate plan with you about your training for the day. Please reach out with any questions.
Digital Citizenship week is October 14-18, an annual campaign to promote healthy, balanced, and positive approach to media and tech use among young people. Here are some handy resources.
Our BLS Financial Aid Information Night is coming up in two weeks! We will have one event in Bend at MVHS and one in La Pine the following week at LPHS.
****Once again, there there will be a separate Spanish Speaking Financial Aid night later this fall that is planned in conjunction with Kinsey and her team. This is noted in the communication linked above****
We are excited to introduce Canopy, Bend-La Pine Schools new Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provider!
Canopy EAP services include mental health support, counseling, behavioral coaching, digital tools, and resources to help navigate life and work – from financial coaching to gym and pet insurance discounts – Canopy’s mission is to create happier and healthier lives for employees.
Canopy services are free, confidential, and available to ALL district employees and their family members.
Learn more about Canopy and how to access their services on our district’s Benefits website.
Middle School Only
Conferences: As a reminder, the schedule for conferences this fall is: Wednesday 10/23 – Teacher Work SIW (planning for Tuesday 10/29 conferences), Tuesday 10/29 – School day & evening conferences after school (4 hours), Wednesday 10/30 – Teacher work day (8 hours) and conferences in the evening (4 hours), Thursday 10/31 – all day conferences (8 hours), no evening conferences, Friday 11/1 – Non-work day.
Please let Stephen know if you have any questions.
Calendar
October 8: HS admin and counseling work session- 8:00-10:00 @ Ed Center in boardroom
October 9: Educator Network SIW Here is the LINK for information.
October 10: MS Horizontal – 3:00 – 4:30 – High Desert MS
October 14: TAG Admin/ICCL Meeting – 3:45 – 5:45 – Board Room
October 22: HS Principal work session – 8:00-10:00 @ Summit HS
November 5: MS and HS Administrator work session – 8:00-10:00 @ Cascade MS
November 7: New Course Proposals Due
Where in the World
This week we are highlighting Jessica Gambee and her Happy Place! Jessica shared: My happy place would be any summer adventure, particularly near or on the water. I love camping and exploring new places with my family. This is a picture of my kids paddle boarding on Elk Lake, in a rare moment of getting along.
1. Lesson Design Cycle (LDC): (LDC sites only) As a reminder, we’ve flushed out the LDC calendar for first and second semester. Dates can also be found here. The sites that have opted into this practice need to work to identify staff for participation. Here is the interest form. We are limited to 8 folks per session so it will come down to one or two teachers from participating sites. Please reach out to Dean, Katie, or Stephen with questions.
2. Admin/ICCL: Remind your ICCL team we are meeting from 4:15 to 6:15 at Caldera High School next Tuesday October 1st. Dean sent out a calendar invite for you to forward to your team. He also shared invites for our three other sessions. TAG ICCLs (MS only) do not need to attend this one.
3. Plan 30 minutes for staff to complete Cybersecurity training (from Scott):
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and we’re excited to announce Cyber October! Throughout the month, our IT department will be sharing valuable resources to help improve your cyber hygiene and protect our school district from cyber threats.
Here’s what you can expect:
Weekly Tips and Tricks: Easy-to-follow advice to help safeguard your digital life.
Scam of the Week Announcements: Stay informed about the latest online threats.
Cybersecurity Best Practices: Strategies to keep your data and devices safe.
In addition, all staff will receive a link to our annual cybersecurity training. This mandatory training will take approximately 30 minutes to complete and is crucial in helping to protect both personal and district data from cyberattacks. The window to complete the training is October 1st through November 30th.
Look for these updates in your inbox each week. Together, we can strengthen our defenses against cyberattacks!
Thank you for your continued vigilance and support.
5. From Kinsey: Bias Incident student lessons (repeat):
The Bias Incident student lessons are ready ahead of schedule, and a handful of schools want them to review with teachers this week, so I’m sending now instead of in Friday blogs:
One hallmark of a thriving culture is that everyone knows how to identify, address, and repair harm when it happens in the community. This lesson provides the chance to have that conversation openly as a school community. Thank you for your active leadership in ensuring this is taught consistently across your building prior to Oct 25.
Consider forwarding this email to your ICCL team to support implementation. If you have questions or would like additional support, please reach out to me or any of the Equity Coaches (copied in this message). Thanks!
—————————————————————–
24-25 Bias Incident Lessons:
Family Letter. Please hyperlink in the letter the lesson that corresponds to your grade level and send to families several days in advance of teaching the lesson.
Equity Coaches. This team is available to help your staff prepare or rehearse (they can attend your SIW or provide drop-in support before/after school), or co-teach with particular teachers open to partnership.
Required Lessons. This folder has the grade-specific required lesson for 24-25, as well as printable teacher notes for each lesson. This lesson takes about 60 minutes, or two 30-minute advisory periods.
Suggested Wayfinder Sequence. This sheet suggests Wayfinder lessons to create context and dialogue skills on which to anchor the Bias Incident Lesson.
Information from Departments
From Dave VanLoo:
2024-25 District Assessment, Testing, & Surveys
Here are two updated support documents summarizing common standardized tests and surveys for the current school year. One is a schedule showing when different assessment activities occur. The other is a general overview of the purpose and logistics of these assessments. Both documents will continue to be updated throughout the year as is beneficial. Please reach out with any questions.
Starting in 2024, Oregon’s plan is for schools to administer the Student Health Survey (SHS) annually to all 6th, 8th, and 11th graders. Schools should pick a date between 11/4 and 11/22 to administer the survey, and plan to send parent notifications out a couple of weeks before that date. Here is a folder containing all the information and resources schools need to administer the SHS, including survey links, parent notification/opt-out forms, survey previews, and instructions for teachers proctoring the survey. Let me know what questions you have or what support you may need. Thanks.
New this year schools will have access to data within Synergy’s MTSS module. Over the past few months staff have been hard at work building the infrastructure to make these tools available. Within the next few weeks, we expect to make the Early Warning System (EWS) available to schools. EWS is a tool for identifying students who may need additional support in the areas of attendance, behavior/discipline, and academics. Later this year additional tools will become available. While this development is occurring, vast amounts of student data remain available in DART and in the OSAS portal (state testing data). Reach out to Dave if you have questions about accessing or interpreting these data.
From Nurse Michelle: OHA / ODE has changed the Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools guidelines this year for students and staff returning after having vomiting or diarrhea. They may now return to school after 24hrs of no vomiting or no diarrhea (this replaces the previous 48hr guideline)
Attached is a copy of the When to Keep Your Student Home. This information has been sent out to office managers
Here is the link to the full Communicable Disease Guidance packet
Several admin are hoping to use data from the Waypoint student assessment to design an SEL goal for their schools or to use with SLGG goals. Therefore, the new assessment window is open until November 15th.
Waypoints, the initial summative assessment for students will be live in Wayfinder from September 15th through Novermber15th. Summative Waypoints allow educators to measure student growth of Wayfinder’s six Core Skills across the school year. By administering the summative Waypoints assessments, educators can understand areas of strength and growth for individual students and the class to make informed, data-driven decisions about instruction. Here is the info on Waypoints, including the new Waypoints Implementation Guides to help teachers set up the reason we are assessing students as well as instructions. The final summative assessment for students will be open May 12th through June 13th for students.
Message from Jason & Ted (IT) and Eric (Student Services) about Synergy & Discipline Entry
We have learned that all incidents being inputted into Synergy as “Admin-Managed” are being labeled as “Major” in Synergy. Not every incident administrators input are going to be Major, so we needed to create a solution to this problem.
IT has generated a solution to this issue that is now LIVE in Synergy. Moving forward, you will notice the following options for you to select when entering incidents:
Staff-Managed
Minor Admin-Managed
Major Admin-Managed
Using these three options we can now correctly input incidents in alignment with our Student Code of Conduct:
Staff-Managed = Code of Conduct Response Level 1 (by Staff) [NOTE: Not all schools are utilizing Staff-Managed this year]
Minor Admin-Managed = Code of Conduct Response Level 2 (by Administrators)
Major Admin-Managed = Code of Conduct Response Level 3 or 4 (by Administrators)
Last call for SIOP+ Fall 2024! FLIER Sign-ups close on Friday, September 27th. Applicants will be notified on Monday September 30th if they are a part of the 20 teacher spaces available. Once notified, you will be instructed on how to set up your first sub request for this training.
See last week’s email blast (below) and the attached flyer. Thank you!!
SIOP+ Fall 2024 . . .
Are you interested in spending quality time with colleagues, increasing your strategies for equity, inclusion and student engagement, and the option to earn 3 graduate credits from OSU Cascades?
If so . . . then you will love SIOP+!
SIOP is a research-based instructional model that has been shown to boost content area learning for students who are acquiring English.
Did you know…that sheltered instruction is effective with ALL students, not just English language learners, and especially for students coming from high poverty backgrounds.
If interested . . download the attached flyer for dates and times. Teachers, TOSAS and Administrators are encouraged and welcome!
Many of you have been asking about dates for the “Full” CPI trainings and refresher options for this fall. A few things to note:
These trainings are for those that need to be trained to implement holds in a restraint/seclusion scenario. You should have a team of folks at you building with this level of training.
These trainings are different than the “De-escalation only” trainings that are being offered for secondary staff and in-house for elementary staff. All CPI trainings will count toward you buildings 1:50 ratio required by SB 283
You can still use this CPI trained spreadsheet to see who has the “full” training in your building. Note: at this time, any person listed on the spreadsheet has the full training w/holds
Folks can sign up for the “full” courses in UKG. They are titled “CPI initial” and “CPI refresher”
We are excited to bring together K-12 educators from Central Oregon to continue our learning, planning, and sharing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its emerging role in our schools and districts.
Please save the date and plan to join us at:
Event: AI for Teaching and Leading
Date: Friday, October 11, 2024
Time: 8:30 a.m – 3:30 p.m.
Location: Ridgeview High School
This summit will feature sessions, keynote addresses, and team collaboration time on topics such as understanding the AI landscape, tools, and language; AI for teaching and learning; AI in STEM, CTE, and math; and more.
This free event is open to Central Oregon educators at all stages of their AI learning journey, with particular interest for district curriculum leaders, principals, teachers, and instructional coaches.
October Meetings: Time to sign up for October visits. Please choose two dates over the course of the month. Here is my Calendly link or you can use Outlook directly.
Staff Service Awards: If you have not already done so, please schedule a time with Stephen to have staff service awards presented.
Shout Out from Safety Team: The Safety Team has spent the first few weeks of school observing lockdown drills across the district. Shoutout to High Desert Middle School for doing an excellent job in their first lockdown drill of the school year! All staff participated in the drill and understood the importance of talking to students about making decisions in an emergency. Staff explained to students why they needed to remain quiet and found creative ways to get their class out of sight. The HDMS admin team invited the District Safety team, members of their school safety team, SROs, and other members of the Bend Police Department to participate and provide feedback.
October 8: HS admin and counseling work session- 8:00-10:00 @ Ed Center in boardroom
October 9: Educator Network SIW
October 10: MS Horizontal – 3:00 – 4:30 – High Desert MS
October 14: TAG Admin/ICCL Meeting – 3:45 – 5:45 – Board Room
Where in the World
This week we are highlighting Leslie Reif and her Happy Place! Leslie shared: “Our happy place is the Oregon Coast and visit there frequently. We have been watching our favorite 80’s & 90’s movies as a family. Goonies is one of our favs and we went on a Goonies Adventure last Spring Break. My kids were 7 & 9 and loved every minute of it! This is Cannon Beach from Ecola State Park.”
Share YOUR happy place next week! Email a picture and brief description to Katie or Stephen!
We are offering two options for dates to attend a workshop related to approving and accepting funds for advertisements. (This includes ‘donations’ that come in exchange for any form of publicity for the donor.) This training will help you feel clear and supported in determining whether and how to accept money from local companies or individuals, and is a chance to align across schools in accordance with the updated advertising policy and a few other related policies.
Principals/Office Teams: Please invite relevant staff (sample message here)–note the sign-up sheet there, for each of your team members to confirm attendance.
Each school should ensure the following roles in your building are trained: Administrator, athletic director, activities director, yearbook advisor, music/drama teachers, any additional or support staff who are involved in receiving or approving advertisement requests and funds.
Holidays and dates:
You received a reminder again this year about protecting some significant religious observance fall dates from any special events. Please check your school calendar now and ensure there are no special/one-time student/family meetings or events scheduled on these days:
Rosh Hashanah: Evening of Wed Oct 2 to evening of Fri Oct 4
Yom Kippur: Sat Oct 12
Within the next few weeks, you will receive a calendar with key dates like these over the next few years, so you can plan further ahead—stay tuned.
If your school is allowing any costumes for around Halloween, here are some lessons to discuss with students: K-5, 6-12, Poster. Equity Coaches can support these conversations if needed.
Please share this with your teachers, and students: Judy Campbell with Discovery West has arranged for Dr. Ellen Ochoa, first Hispanic Female Astronaut to go into space, to speak. Please contact Judy to include your students and staff in this presentation. Judy’s contact information is 541-410-9113.
Dr. Ellen Ochoa, is a former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, an American engineer, astronaut, and the first Hispanic woman to go to space and has logged close to 1000 hours in space after four space flights.
Every student and staff member in Bend-La Pine Schools has a Managed Apple ID.
Your Apple ID sign in is your Bend-La Pine Schools email address.
To enhance the security of our digital environment and protect sensitive information, we strongly encourage all staff to use their Managed Apple IDs on their school-issued devices instead of personal Apple IDs.
Why Use Your Managed Apple ID?
Enhanced Security: Managed Apple IDs are specifically designed for educational environments, providing an extra layer of security and management capabilities.
Data Protection: Using your Managed Apple ID helps prevent sensitive school data from being inadvertently stored in personal accounts, reducing the risk of data breaches or leaks.
Seamless Access: Managed Apple IDs provide streamlined access to school resources, apps, and services, ensuring you have everything you need for your role.
200Gb of storage! All users can take advantage of 200GB of iCloud storage and access it from any of their school issued devices.
If you need assistance in making this change, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our IT Client Services team or our help desk.
Note: Nearly 300 Bend-La Pine Schools computers are currently using personal Apple ID’s. Beginning October, users on these devices will periodically receive a message discouraging this practice.
Thank you for your cooperation and for helping us keep our school’s information safe and secure.
Action Areas/Reminders
From Dave in TLC:
The Oregon Student Heath Survey (SHS) will take place again this fall. SHS is given to all 6th, 8th, and 11th grade students. While we have yet to settle on an exact window for administration, we likely will aim for a roughly 2-week period sometime between late October and November. The survey should take students about 30 minutes to complete, and parents and students can opt-out. For those who have done this before, the process is basically the same as previous years. Schools and districts will receive reports in the spring.
Going forward, SHS will become an annual requirement as is specified in House Bill 2656.
Be on the lookout for more detailed information in the coming weeks and let us know if there are weeks that may be problematic for scheduling the SHS.
The Bias Incident student lessons are ready ahead of schedule, and a handful of schools want them to review with teachers this week, so I’m sending now instead of in Friday blogs:
One hallmark of a thriving culture is that everyone knows how to identify, address, and repair harm when it happens in the community. This lesson provides the chance to have that conversation openly as a school community. Thank you for your active leadership in ensuring this is taught consistently across your building prior to Oct 25.
Consider forwarding this email to your ICCL team to support implementation. If you have questions or would like additional support, please reach out to me or any of the Equity Coaches (copied in this message). Thanks!
—————————————————————–
24-25 Bias Incident Lessons:
Family Letter. Please hyperlink in the letter the lesson that corresponds to your grade level and send to families several days in advance of teaching the lesson.
Equity Coaches. This team is available to help your staff prepare or rehearse (they can attend your SIW or provide drop-in support before/after school), or co-teach with particular teachers open to partnership.
Required Lessons. This folder has the grade-specific required lesson for 24-25, as well as printable teacher notes for each lesson. This lesson takes about 60 minutes, or two 30-minute advisory periods.
Suggested Wayfinder Sequence. This sheet suggests Wayfinder lessons to create context and dialogue skills on which to anchor the Bias Incident Lesson.
Information from Departments
New Course Descriptions for 25-26 are DUE by November 7. Use this LINK to make your request.
Here is an updated version of the certified evaluation plan for 24-25. This includes Teacher Librarians. Just a reminder that your Deans should be assigned mini observations and evaluations to complete. Please call if you have questions.
We have cancelled the CPI de-escalation training for Sept. 24th due to very low enrollment. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. Further, in addition to the other 4 available dates, we have added an additional training date for December 3rd, which is now viewable in UKG.
For admin, please review the CPI spreadsheet to see how many folks need to be trained at your site to meet the SB 283 standard. Currently, we have 29 people (out of 129 total needed) enrolled for all available trainings. Thanks
In the next few days, you will be receiving a personalized notice (see below) inviting you to Hungerford Online. The Hungerford law firm has been a state leader in supporting districts with SPED/504 legal issues. When you receive the email, set you password and take a peek! These are IEP/504 training videos that you can use for your own learning or with your staff. Your SPED team members will be receiving this access as well, and we will discuss the use at their upcoming general supervision training. Further, we will be offering some facilitated training opportunities for you this year and will be utilizing this resource.
High School Only
From Jess: We are thrilled to be hosting our district-wide School Counseling Family Night, taking place next week! This event, hosted by BLS School Counseling, will focus on college application support and resources.
High Schools: Please ensure that communication regarding this important event has been shared with your families. Example communication is listed here. Your support in promoting this initiative is greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Middle School Only
TAG ICCL: Just a reminder that we are hoping to move forward quickly with the hiring of our TAG ICCL members. These folks will attend four district trainings and then integrate with your ICCL team to meet their time obligations. The four meeting dates are 10/14, 1/13, 3/10, and 5/19 from 3:45 to 5:45 in the board room. We would also like to have your administrator in charge of TAG attend these meetings. If you have any questions, please contact Stephen DuVal.
October Meetings: Time to sign up for October visits. Please choose two dates over the course of the month. Here is my Calendly link or you can use Outlook directly.
Calendar
September 18: Teacher Work SIW – NO ADMIN MEETING
September 24: High School Principal Horizontal – 8:00-10:00 @ Realms
September 26: Middle School Horizontal – 3:00 @ Cascade
Nice job working through your first five day week. You have done such a wonderful job creating a safe predictable routine for students. We have really enjoyed getting into the schools to start the year.
Remember to prioritize thriving as a theme this year. Take time to think about what this means for students, staff, families, and your leadership team.
To Do:
1. Begin planning for Bias Incident student lessons: (From Kinsey)
The Bias Incident student lessons are ready ahead of schedule, and a handful of schools want them to review with teachers this week, so I’m sending now instead of in Friday blogs:
One hallmark of a thriving culture is that everyone knows how to identify, address, and repair harm when it happens in the community. This lesson provides the chance to have that conversation openly as a school community. Thank you for your active leadership in ensuring this is taught consistently across your building prior to Oct 25.
Consider forwarding this email to your ICCL team to support implementation. If you have questions or would like additional support, please reach out to me or any of the Equity Coaches (copied in this message). Thanks!
—————————————————————–
24-25 Bias Incident Lessons:
Family Letter. Please hyperlink in the letter the lesson that corresponds to your grade level and send to families several days in advance of teaching the lesson.
Equity Coaches. This team is available to help your staff prepare or rehearse (they can attend your SIW or provide drop-in support before/after school), or co-teach with particular teachers open to partnership.
Required Lessons. This folder has the grade-specific required lesson for 24-25, as well as printable teacher notes for each lesson. This lesson takes about 60 minutes, or two 30-minute advisory periods.
Suggested Wayfinder Sequence. This sheet suggests Wayfinder lessons to create context and dialogue skills on which to anchor the Bias Incident Lesson.
2. Check your staffing when it comes to lunch extra duty: (From Ryan)
State law prohibits Certified employees from relinquishing their duty-free lunch period to take on directed duties in exchange for pay. In other words, employees cannot take on a duty that can only be performed during their lunch period even where voluntary and paid.
As a result, any Certified staff member currently employed as a Lunch Detention Supervisor cannot continue in that role. We understand this may impact your current lunch supervision schedules. Katie and Stephen have already worked with some buildings to construct supervision schedules that do not violate this statute, so please reach out to them for support in adjusting current supervision plans as needed.
Certified staff may elect to perform duties during their lunch hour so long as those duties could be performed at another time. For example, lunch clubs are still permitted to continue, including those with Advisors compensated through an Extra Duty stipend. Any such club meetings, though, cannot be mandated to take place during lunch.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need further clarification.
3. Refer to the CPI Email from Sean: Make sure you have the proper number of staff attending training to ensure we meet the required ratio. Please reach out to him with questions.
4. Remind your ICCLs of 10/1: We will be having our first Admin/ICCL Priority Standards and Grading PD on October 1st. We are working on a location but we will be meeting from 4:15 to 6:15. Note: The new MS TAG ICCLs do NOT need to attend this session.
5. Fill out this survey from the safety team: We are asking all school administrators to complete our safety survey by Monday, September 30th. Please provide as much feedback as possible, so we can provide high quality professional development to your site safety designees and campus monitors. Link here.
FYI
September 18: There will be no Admin PD on the teacher work day SIW 9/18. Please use this time to plan professional development in your building.
Attendance Awareness Month: Governor Tina Kotek signed a proclamation declaring the month of September 2024 as Attendance Awareness Month. She was joined by Oregon Department of Education (ODE) Director Charlene Williams, Senator Suzanne Weber, education advocates, and school district representatives.
ODE has released a Social Media Toolkit, a resource designed to help education leaders, advocates, and community members increase school attendance awareness.
Information from the Departments
From Dave in TLC:
The Oregon Student Heath Survey (SHS) will take place again this fall. SHS is given to all 6th, 8th, and 11th grade students. While we have yet to settle on an exact window for administration, we likely will aim for a roughly 2-week period sometime between late October and November. The survey should take students about 30 minutes to complete, and parents and students can opt-out. For those who have done this before, the process is basically the same as previous years. Schools and districts will receive reports in the spring.
Going forward, SHS will become an annual requirement as is specified in House Bill 2656.
Be on the lookout for more detailed information in the coming weeks and let us know if there are weeks that may be problematic for scheduling the SHS.
THIS DOCUMENT, known as the Culture of Safety contact list, is available for our admin teams to know who to access for a variety of things that come up in our district.
Please see the link to view the Student Services Professional Learning Schedule 24-25. This is the PD calendar for all learning specialists, school psychologists, speech pathologists, school counselors, and Student Success staff.
Last Call: Staff Registration for the Sept 24 Sources of Strength Adult Advisor Training
This is the only Sources of Strength Adult Advisor training planned for BLS this year. Make sure any staff who need to be trained this year get registered now for the Sept 24 training. This is a full-day, in-person training located in downtown Bend.
Registration is free, but any sub costs would need to come from your school’s $5,500 Sources of Strength budget. Ask your Public Health Specialist if you have questions about your Sources budget or plans.
This training is required for any adults who will be supporting Sources of Strength Peer Leaders, but it is not limited to just those advising Sources Peer Leaders. This training is also useful for GSA club advisors, or other affinity group advisors, and advisors/teachers supporting student-led advocacy projects related to student health or an inclusive school culture.
Sources of Strength is effective at increasing student belonging, engagement in school, connection to supportive adults in school, likelihood to refer a friend to an adult for help, and acceptance of help from adults.
It has come to our attention that some of you have experienced issues with completing your required courses on the SafeSchools platform. Specifically, some users have successfully completed modules and received a certificate of completion, but these completions are not being recognized in the Schoox system, which informs UKG of your status.
While the exact cause of this issue is still being investigated, we wanted to share some tips that may help you avoid or mitigate these problems:
Use a Computer: Please avoid completing courses on your phone. Using a desktop or laptop computer can help ensure the platform functions correctly.
Browser Choice: We recommend using Chrome as a browser when accessing SafeSchools. Other browsers may not be fully compatible with the platform.
Course Interaction: Avoid pausing or skipping forward in videos. Engage fully with each module and ensure you answer any questions that appear promptly.
Save Completion Certificates: After finishing a course, please save or screenshot your completion certificate. This will serve as proof of completion if the system does not update automatically.
If your trainings do not register as completed: complete all of your safe school trainings and email all of the certificates in one email to [email protected] letting us know that they didn’t complete. We will credit your courses on our end.
We understand the inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience as we work to resolve the issue. If you encounter any problems, please contact [email protected] for further assistance.
Thank you for your attention to this matter and for your continued commitment to completing your required training on time.
From Paul in Operations: (Repeat) Over the summer, we updated our community use guidelines. Walt Norris met with all of the custodians to review the expectations regarding access to ES school playgrounds and MS tracks (we are not opening HS tracks at this time). Custodians have been instructed to leave one gate upon for community access in the summer, on weekends and before/after school hours and were encouraged to engage with building leaders about which gate that should be.
Here is an updated version of the certified evaluation plan for 24-25. This includes Teacher Librarians. Just a reminder that your Deans should be assigned mini observations and evaluations to complete. Please call if you have questions.
High School Only
Nothing This Week
Middle School Only
TAG Info – Please take a second to fill out this document regarding your TAG support this year.
UpShift – Principals, we will be using our second visit this month to talk UpShift. Please invite all relevant people to our scheduled time.
Calendar
September 18: Teacher Work SIW – NO ADMIN MEETING
September 24: High School Admin Horizontal – 8:00 at Realms
September 26: Middle School Horizontal – 3:00 at Cascade
This week we are highlighting Katie Legace and her Happy Place! The Metolius River is a place of joy and peace for Katie. She has been visiting this area since for over 25 years and loves to camp and hike here, especially in the spring and the fall.
Please email a picture and brief description of you Happy Place to Katie or Stephen!
Congratulations on a successful first week of the school year!
We hope these first few days of the 2024-25 school year have been filled with joy at having students in our schools once again! Let’s ensure that every student and staff member thrives this year!
Here is the OSEA CBA. This is currently an internal document. Please do not distribute.
To Do:
Tracking attendance and enrollment (reminder): Your office staff has been asked to track student attendance during the first week of school. Please support your staff to ensure these tasks get completed as this allows us to have a clearer picture of our enrollment. Please contact Rachel Mavis with questions.
By Monday, 9/9/2024, if a student has not shown up to school, the student will be No Showed, unless a parent called in to excuse the student.
For excused absences, students will remain enrolled up to the 11th day of absence, then they will be No Showed.
For all students who miss the first days of school, then show up, office staff will be required to change enrollment and class start dates to reflect the date the student arrived. OAR581-023-0006
Action items/reminders
New Synergy Gradebook – (a reminder): As you may remember, we have transitioned to the newest version of the Synergy Gradebook this year. Consider it like a software update for your phone. The functionality remains mostly the same but there are some new bells and whistles and they may have moved where you find something. Laura Clark has put together a slideshow for staff that shouldn’t take too long. Please find a way to go over this with teachers. Leaning on a staff member who gets tech may be a good approach. Laura has already shared the slideshow, “Synergy New Gradebook Highlights,” with last year’s Canvas Support Team.
Bias Incident Student Lessons (From Kinsey – a reminder): Early this fall, please reserve time at a staff meeting, PLC, or SIW for your staff to review the Bias Incident student lessons and prepare to teach them. In response to ongoing feedback and engagement with staff and students, Equity Coaches are refining prior years’ lessons. We’ll push out the 24-25 lessons to you within two weeks. I’d sugget aiming to have those completed across your building by October 25 latest. More to come—for now, just a note so you can plug this into your staff collaboration calendar.
Information from the Departments
From Kinsey – complaint process follow up:
Here are some follow-up resources from our recent Complaint Management conversation. Note a few actions items for you below—thank you!
Also, I recommend you bookmark key links or save this email somewhere accessible. Please share this message with relevant leaders in your building (office staff, counseling, athletics, etc).
Reach out if I can support with any complaints, bias incidents, or related policy issues.
Flowchart for navigating complaints, policies, and timelines.
I have more hard copies, too.
Form for reporting a complaint or a bias incident.
Note: this form is new! Please be sure all staff in your building replace old bookmarked versions with the link above. The link on student and staff iPads has been updated to this new form.
The poster leads to this webpage with details on complaints and a link to the reporting form.
Please replace old versions of this poster that are displayed at your site. At a minimum, display the new poster in your lobby, staff lounge, and gym areas.
Reminders:
If something moves from a concern to a complaint, be sure it is promptly recorded via the reporting form linked above.
When a complaint is submitted via the form, I’ll connect with you. You’ll receive a link to your School Dashboard of all complaints and bias incidents, including the new submission.
In the Dashboard, click on the new complaint to see details, record outcomes, add your team notes, and/or to request additional support.
We have identified an unexpected change to typical discipline data entry which has occurred because there is no mechanism to separate those piloting Teacher Referrals from those who are not when it comes to “Accepting” (or “Denying”) discipline incidents.
Previously, there was no concept of an “Incident Approval Queue”, you simply entered a discipline incident using either Student Incident or the Incidents screen in Synergy and the data was immediately ‘live’ in the system.
However, this year some schools are piloting Teacher Referrals, which introduces the concept of (and a Synergy screen called) “Incident Approval Queue”, allowing administrators to determine what discipline data should be accepted (or declined) from entering the system.
The side effect of adding this has been that ALL schools are affected by the change and will need to use the approval queue to finalize data entry by accepting ALL incidents regardless of how they are generated. This is required for the data to be state/federal reported, as well as being displayed in ParentVUE.
What you need to do:
As a principal or VP/Dean, using the Synergy quick launch, type “Incident Approval Queue” and wait for the search to complete, then click on the resulting link to enter the Incident Approval Queue screen.
Once you have entered the screen, you can review any incident in question. You can click the Student ID to review the Student Incident screen, and the ID (Incident ID) to go directly to the incident in question if you want to review beyond the description displayed in the grid.
NOTE: For those participating in the Teacher Referral pilot, you may want to edit the Incident description to include your initials at the end of the description if you are working on an incident to indicate to the rest of your team you are handling that incident. Therefore, any incidents entered by a teacher via the Teacher Referral process without a set of initials has NOT yet been reviewed by anyone. This may be a quick way to identify who is working on what until we can get a better solution in place for you to manage who is handling which incidents / students.
To accept the incident, look to the far-right Action button, and select “Accept” if the incident has had all the data entry done for the incident and is ready for parents to view, etc.
NOTE: Most users will only have Accept / Deny – don’t worry about the other options if you don’t have them.
This will remove the incident from the Queue and make if available to view in ParentVUE and to be included in State/Federal reporting. THIS IS REQUIRED FOR ALL INCIDENTS.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact any/all of the following via email:
From Dean: Please check in with teachers teaching Math 1 (either in MS or HS) or Algebraic Problem Solving to confirm that they have signed up for the required Math Medic training on 9/17. Full day subs are covered by TLC.
Welcome back to a new school year! I hope you all had a restful summer and are ready for another successful year ahead.
I’m pleased to inform you that we have updated all of our 504 forms to better support our students’ needs. In addition, we will be introducing a new process for annual 504s that I believe will be a significant time saver for you.
To ensure everyone is familiar with these updates, we will be holding a mandatory training session. You can choose from one of three times on September 11, 2024: 8:15 AM, 10:30 AM, or 2:00 PM in the Board Room at the Education Center. NO SIGN UP NECESSARY.
Thank you for your continued dedication to our students. I look forward to seeing you at the training and to another year of great work together.
New Incident Report Form now available in the Staff Portal
As a follow up to the investigations trainings in August, the revised Incident Report Form is now available in the Staff Portal. The form now has a second page for the post-incident/accident investigation. BLS Incident Report Form – staff 9.2024.pdf
As a reminder, a site administrator or supervisor must complete a post-incident/accident investigation after every incident that results in employee injury. The investigation must be completed within 5-10 business days following the injury. Please reach out to Andrea Wilson if you have any questions, need assistance with an investigation, or have form feedback. Thank you again for your partnership and help as we navigate this new process!
We have a new coaching model this year and many of the coaching assignments have changed as we onboard 10 new SSCs. Going forward, schools with the Student Success Intervention will have a Student Success team that will have two coaches – one team member will have a mental health/clinical/care coordination focus (Darlene and Megan) and one will have a system, SPED, PBSP/Data focus (Jen and Amanda) but they will work very closely together and will take the lead based on the situation or students need. We will be moving forward with building out a Medicaid billing model for our clinicians over this school year to launch for next school year. This information has not been shared with SSCs yet but more information to come as we learn more about what is possible in Oregon with Medicaid and schools. This became a possible opportunity for us going forward as of September 1st. The team has already been working closely with teams onboarding new SSCs so please reach out to your coaches if you have any questions. More to come as we navigate this new transition….
Wayfinder:
We continue to have integration issues with Clever and Wayfinder for some staff. If you have a staff member that does not have the correct access or correct school listed, please use the instructional tool process to request what is needed. All elementary and middle schools that ordered workbooks should be receiving them this week if they have not already.
Waypoints, the intial summative assessment for students will be live in Wayfinder from September 15th through October 18th and the final summative assessment for students will be open May 12th through June 13th for students. Summative Waypoints allow educators to measure student growth of Wayfinder’s six Core Skills across the school year. By administering this optional summative Waypoints assessments, educators can understand areas of strength and growth for individual students and the class to make informed, data-driven decisions about SEL instruction. Here is the info on Waypoints, including the new Waypoints Implementation Guides to help teachers set up the reason we are assessing students as well as instructions.
Here is an updated version of the certified evaluation plan for 24-25. This includes Teacher Librarians. Just a reminder that your Deans should be assigned mini observations and evaluations to complete. Please call if you have questions.
We know this is a busy and exciting time with many staffing changes happening across your sites. Please be aware that the cutoff for processing Personnel Actions (PAs) to ensure accurate payment and proper system setup for employees is Tuesday, September 10th. Any PA actions for September should be initiated in UKG by Monday, September 9th, using the appropriate HR action under the ‘team’ tab.
After this date, payroll processing begins, and any delays in submitting PA actions may affect employee pay or cause system issues. We appreciate your continued support when employees have questions, such as “Why hasn’t my location been updated in UKG yet?” Once a request leaves your hands, please understand that it can take some time for the system to reflect the changes. Your patience during this process is greatly appreciated.
Reminders:
Classified Staff: PA actions should be completed for location changes (Nutrition, Custodial, and Transportation only), budget code changes, and FTE adjustments.
Certified Staff: PA actions should be completed for budget code changes, FTE adjustments, and position changes within your school.
For questions, please reach out to:
Classified Specialists: Cara Gienger and Kelly Marty at [email protected]
Licensed Specialists: Trish Uhart and Candy Gelatt at [email protected]
Payroll Specialists: Jenny Ostrom, Kate Pardo, Lisa Brinlee, and Jenny Helvie at [email protected]
Thank you and we hope it’s been an incredible week with students!
This is an important FYI that requires no action by building leaders.
ODE has signed a contract with Bureau Veritas (BV) to assess all school facilities. For partnering with them we (Bend La Pine Schools) will receive a comprehensive report detailing photos of system and component level deferred maintenance, assessor recommendations, cost to repair/replace system or component, cost to replace entire buildings, facility condition index, total gross square footage, observed Remaining Useful Life (RUL), ADA assessment findings and life safety deficiencies.
Please click on this Schedule of Visits beginning September 9th and continuing through November 1st to see when people will be visiting your school. Please note that BLS was assigned this schedule and was not offered input as to its timing. BV contractors will work with the BLS Maintenance and Custodial Departments to be on site visually inspecting facilities. School administrators are not required to attend the walk-through.
The information gathered by BV/ODE will be integral to Bend-LaPine Schools next Site/Facilities process in determining your schools’ facility’s needs.
There are two applications available to assist with classroom device management, Apple Classroom and JAMF Teacher.
Apple Classroom
Apple Classroom is familiar to Bend-La Pine teachers, as it has been available for some time. The guide linked here provides all the information you need to get started with Apple Classroom. Common uses include:
Monitoring all student devices at once, displayed on a single screen
Locking iPads to a blank screen while giving instructions
Locking an entire class or individual students into a specific app
Managing small (ad hoc) groups of student devices
Apple Classroom is ideal for elementary classrooms or any classroom that doesn’t frequently require internet access.
JAMF Teacher
JAMF Teacher is a newer application for Bend-La Pine teachers and offers more restrictive controls than Apple Classroom. With JAMF Teacher, you can create a pre-determined digital lesson that allows access to specific websites and applications while blocking all others.
Use the instructions linked here to create your first JAMF Teacher lesson plan. JAMF Teacher is particularly well-suited for secondary classrooms that use online curricula.
For best results, we encourage both applications to be accessed from your iPad, rather than your computer.
“We are excited to have our School Resource Officers and Deputies back working back in your schools with you this week. Please review the district’s SRO/SRD point of contact information and phone roster located in the Safety Resource share drive and reach out to us with any questions regarding the SRO program.”
Safety Training:
Based on feedback our team has received, we are excited to provide opportunities for safety related professional development in the new school year. We are working on a survey that we will send out in a couple of weeks that we would like your feedback on the things you as administrators need to support the safety programs in your schools.
We will be asking you to identify one administrator on your team that will be the “go to” person for safety in your school. We will then be selecting 4 days that work for those identified individuals to meet with us, your campus monitors, and the SROs to work together on those identified training areas.
More to follow in a couple of weeks, but we wanted to get this on your radar so that when we send the survey out, it doesn’t blindside you to the request to select that individual. Please take time to think about areas of training you’re interested in receiving (i.e. reunification process, incident command for emergencies, standardizing campus monitor roles and responsibilities, etc.)- the more information we get from you, the better we can serve your needs!
Thank you for all you continue to do to keep our schools safe, and we look forward to working with you as the school year begins.
Moving into the new school year the sustainability position is changing. Jackie Mueller-Wilson has taken a job with Deschutes County Solid Waste as a Community Outreach Coordinator. She will have some connection with the schools because of her position, mainly for support of the Green Team.
The sustainability position has been refined, going forward we will be concentrating on three main objectives:
Waste reduction across the district.
A lunch waste/composting/recycling system for elementary schools
A recycling program for secondary schools
The main focus this year is put our efforts into what we do as a district for sustainability. If we thrive on sustainability as staff, this will carry over to make the students thrive. The sustainability position will also support the Green team initiative and also the SEM’s (Strategic Energy Managment) program. Please continue with the Green Leadership Coalition through your schools and once the position is hired, we will work on the best way to support the Coalition. Best guess will be October to see the position filled.
Please reach out with any questions, I will do my best to answer or find someone that can, thanks
As a reminder, each inclusion EA in your building is issued a device (iPad or laptop) and needs to have read only access to Synergy SE, so they can review student IEPs. Please check with your inclusion EAs and have them confirm that their Synergy SE access is working. If not, please submit a help desk ticket to ensure they have access. Thank you!
Special Education Staffing Update:
Each year, learning specialists provide our administrative team needs assessment, which help us staff your buildings. We believe we have a good staffing plan given the available resources. At this point, we have used all our staffing allocation to hire learning specialists, inclusion EAs, and other specialists. This includes already using 50% of the discretionary budget to hire inclusion EAs for the year. Before we look at any other staffing, we will need to wait until after we can verify all student enrollments, which should be within the first 5-10 days of school. After that, we will create a plan to support the sites with unexpected needs. Please remember that you can utilize your 70 hours (the “high needs” line item in your school budget) worth of funds to get a substitute. If you do end up using this option, it would be important to communicate with our team.
Thank you and I hope you have a great start of the year.
High School Only
From Jackie: Please share this with your Activities Directors, the advisors who oversee your environmental clubs, green team leaders and your CTE and science teachers. HS students are interested in increasing renewables and learning more.
Power Your Future: Inspire your students to lead clean energy solutions
The U.S. Department of Education has launched the Power Your Future Challenge — the second challenge in its annual CTE Momentum series to prepare high school students for rewarding careers and increase access to career and technical education. The Department invites teams to submit action plans that will advance the use of clean energy in local schools and communities.
To get started on the challenge, teachers and community partners can explore the available resources to learn more about clean energy and how teams can develop action plans to impact their communities. Potential entrants can also preview the submission form. Submissions are due by November 19, 2024. Up to 10 winning teams will receive an equal share of the $50,000 prize pool.
TAG ICCL at MS: Contact Stephen if you are having any issues finding an ICCL to take on TAG in your building.
Calendar
September 9: Students who have not yet showed up to school should be no-showed
September 10: MS and HS Principal meeting @ MVHS 8:00-9:30
Where in the World
Last week we highlighted Julie Stroinski, Principal at Sky View Middle School, who selected Green Bay, Wisconsin as her happy place. (Editor’s note: Go Chiefs!)
This week we are highlighting Donna Servignat, Principal at Summit High School, who selected her kitchen in her new home! “…this is my happy place. I love cooking, gathering around the dinner table, hosting gatherings. Loving my new place and settling into a new happy kitchen!!!”
Thanks for sharing your Happy Place with us Donna!
Please email a picture and brief description of you Happy Place to Katie or Stephen!
Hello and welcome to the first joint Middle School/High School communication, The Secondary Blog! Katie and Stephen have teamed up to create one central place for all things related to secondary education. From now on, you can find all your middle and high school news here.
If you read multiple level leader blogs, you may have noticed that much of the information is similar. We’ve decided to capitalize on that and consolidate everything into one convenient source. When information pertains to only one level, it will be clearly marked with either a High School or Middle School header.
Here is the OSEA CBA. This is currently an internal document. Please do not distribute.
To Do:
1.Tracking attendance and enrollment: Your office staff has been asked to track student attendance during the first week of school. Please support your staff to ensure these tasks get completed as this allows us to have a clearer picture of our enrollment. Please contact Rachel Mavis with questions.
By Monday, 9/9/2024, if a student has not shown up to school, the student will be No Showed, unless a parent called in to excuse the student.
For excused absences, students will remain enrolled up to the 11th day of absence, then they will be No Showed.
For all students who miss the first days of school, then show up, office staff will be required to change enrollment and class start dates to reflect the date the student arrived. OAR581-023-0006
2. Flex Time: If you are a school using Flex Time this year, please schedule a time with Rachel Mavis for your leads to get trained.
3. New Synergy Gradebook: (REPEAT) As you may remember, we have transitioned to the newest version of the Synergy Gradebook this year. Consider it like a software update for your phone. The functionality remains mostly the same but there are some new bells and whistles and they may have moved where you find something. Laura Clark has put together a slideshow for staff that shouldn’t take too long. Please find a way to go over this with teachers. Leaning on a staff member who gets tech may be a good approach. Laura has already shared the slideshow, “Synergy New Gradebook Highlights,” with last year’s Canvas Support Team.
4. Please share with your teachers (From Instructional Technology): Exciting news! This fall, BLS is providing full featured MagicSchool AI accounts to all staff and students. Generative AI platforms were the most requested items during the instructional tools request process last spring. Please spread the word!
MagicSchool is an AI platform designed for educators, with a large suite of tools that help with building lesson plans, writing IEPs, differentiation, ideating more engaging lessons, communicating with families, and more! MagicStudent, the student facing side of the platform, accompanies teacher accounts.
BLS is currently piloting MagicSchool but funds have been earmarked to purchase for any staff who would like to continue with their full featured ‘Enterprise’ account after October, which offers much more than the free version. Getting setup is simple using MagicSchool login instructions. Please contact Tracy Howk and Robbie Faith for AI support, staff training, and anything else related to instructional technology.
5. Bias Incident Student Lessons (From Kinsey): Early this fall, please reserve time at a staff meeting, PLC, or SIW for your staff to review the Bias Incident student lessons and prepare to teach them. In response to ongoing feedback and engagement with staff and students, Equity Coaches are refining prior years’ lessons. We’ll push out the 24-25 lessons to you within two weeks. I’d sugget aiming to have those completed across your building by October 25 latest. More to come—for now, just a note so you can plug this into your staff collaboration calendar.
FYI
8/28 Resources: Below are links to the two sets of presentation slides from the classroom teacher district professional development on 8/28. Additionally, here is a video taken from the MS session in the morning. The content was the same for both MS and HS so it will work for any teacher who missed this training.
PD Evaluation (please only fill out if you attended)
Logistics of the new blog: If you still need to access information from the High School Rock Stars! blog, it will be available at the previous webpage. The previous two Middle School posts can be found on this site. Please bookmark this webpage moving forward.
Tabs at the top: Katie and Stephen will be working to get information important to you linked on the pages at the top of our blog. You will notice the tabs align with our strategic initiatives document. This is a work in progress and we will be adding links weekly. If there is something you’d like to see in these, let Stephen or Katie know.
FYI from the Departments
From Jenn and Jess: Here are the slides and documents from training this week.
Wayfinder:
Thank you to all the admin that came to our training on Monday. Here is a flyer that highlights all that is new since last year.
School Counselors:
Here are the agenda and slides from their full day training on August 28th. Jess also created this awesome resource sheet for all things school counseling to help them easily access program updates/reminders as they begin the school year.
Student Success:
Here are the agenda and slides from their full day training on August 28th. The coaches will be focusing their support on our 8 new Student Success Coordinator/Clinicians in the next week.
From Eric Powell, Ted Helton, and Jason Westmoreland, your Code of Conduct and Synergy Team!
The Office Discipline Referral (ODR) form has been redesigned to simplify the form and align with the new reporting system. Typically, this form is used by staff who do the discipline data entry for administrators (an administrator may fill out this form and then give it to a staff member to put into Synergy).
Here is a link to the Live Google Doc we’ll use moving forward for this document (BLS ODR: 24-25). Please get rid of all your old ones you may have laying around. It will also be linked via the Student Management Resource Guide under the Investigations document (within that tab): Investigations (Student Management Resource Guide).
Many of you have reached out to get copies of our district Equity Stance (the brochure you received at our admin launch) and the Equity Lens sticker. I’m having more printed so you can distribute, but in the meantime please remember: these materials are always available to you on the Portal under the Equity Tab (along with other resources like the current CAFE Program members list, etc). You’ll see the electronic version of the Equity Stance there, and at the end of that document is a link to the triangle Equity Lens tool that you can print for staff. Let me know if you can’t find something!
Here are the expectations for certified evaluations that Lisa shared this week. Just a reminder that your Deans should be assigned mini observations and evaluations to complete. Please call if you have questions.
This is an important FYI that requires no action by building leaders.
ODE has signed a contract with Bureau Veritas (BV) to assess all school facilities. For partnering with them we (Bend La Pine Schools) will receive a comprehensive report detailing photos of system and component level deferred maintenance, assessor recommendations, cost to repair/replace system or component, cost to replace entire buildings, facility condition index, total gross square footage, observed Remaining Useful Life (RUL), ADA assessment findings and life safety deficiencies.
Please click on this Schedule of Visits beginning September 9th and continuing through November 1st to see when people will be visiting your school. Please note that BLS was assigned this schedule and was not offered input as to its timing. BV contractors will work with the BLS Maintenance and Custodial Departments to be on site visually inspecting facilities. School administrators are not required to attend the walk-through.
The information gathered by BV/ODE will be integral to Bend-LaPine Schools next Site/Facilities process in determining your schools’ facility’s needs.
Based on feedback our team has received, we are excited to provide opportunities for safety related professional development in the new school year. We are working on a survey that we will send out in a couple of weeks that we would like your feedback on the things you as administrators need to support the safety programs in your schools.
We will be asking you to identify one administrator on your team that will be the “go to” person for safety in your school. We will then be selecting 4 days that work for those identified individuals to meet with us, your campus monitors, and the SROs to work together on those identified training areas.
More to follow in a couple of weeks, but we wanted to get this on your radar so that when we send the survey out, it doesn’t blindside you to the request to select that individual. Please take time to think about areas of training you’re interested in receiving (i.e. reunification process, incident command for emergencies, standardizing campus monitor roles and responsibilities, etc.)- the more information we get from you, the better we can serve your needs!
Thank you for all you continue to do to keep our schools safe, and we look forward to working with you as the school year begins.
High School Only
From Jackie: Please share this with your Activities Directors, the advisors who oversee your environmental clubs, green team leaders and your CTE and science teachers. HS students are interested in increasing renewables and learning more.
Power Your Future: Inspire your students to lead clean energy solutions
The U.S. Department of Education has launched the Power Your Future Challenge — the second challenge in its annual CTE Momentum series to prepare high school students for rewarding careers and increase access to career and technical education. The Department invites teams to submit action plans that will advance the use of clean energy in local schools and communities.
To get started on the challenge, teachers and community partners can explore the available resources to learn more about clean energy and how teams can develop action plans to impact their communities. Potential entrants can also preview the submission form. Submissions are due by November 19, 2024. Up to 10 winning teams will receive an equal share of the $50,000 prize pool.
Sign up for visits in September: Stephen would like to have each school sign up for TWO one-hour time slots for visits in September. It would be great to have them spaced into the first half of the month and the back half. Here is my Calendly link or you can use Outlook directly.
TAG ICCL at MS: The ICCL (TAG) role will be integral in enhancing our support for TAG students and ensuring that our practices are in line with our district’s high standards.
Please request to post this job in UKG.
The responsibilities of this new position will mirror the existing ICCL efforts, but with a targeted emphasis on TAG professional development and systems. This means that the individual in this role will be dedicated to fostering growth and improvement in our approach to identifying and servicing TAG students.
Key responsibilities include:
Attending monthly meetings with district TAG leadership to strengthen existing systems and stay informed on best practices.
Gaining deeper insights into identifying and servicing TAG students.
Developing strategies for differentiation in the classroom to better cater to the needs of gifted learners.
Additionally, the person in this role will serve as a crucial conduit for TAG processes and services, ensuring that all staff within our building are well-informed and equipped to support TAG students effectively.
We believe this new position will significantly enhance our ability to provide exceptional educational experiences for all students by adding enrichment to our classrooms.
Reach out to Stephen DuVal for more information about the specifics of the role.
Calendar
September 3: First day for 6th and 9th graders
September 4: First day for all students!
September 9: Students who have not yet showed up to school should be no-showed
September 10: MS and HS Principal meeting @ MVHS 8:00-9:30
Where in the World
Stephen started this with the MS blog a couple weeks back and we’d love to keep it going. Each week, we’d like to highlight a place that is important to one of you. Past highlights included La Quinta, CA for Stephen and Phil’s Trail for Sean Keating. Please send Stephen or Katie a picture of a place important to you and why it’s important. We’ll have a spotlight each week!
This week we are highlighting Julie Stroinski, Principal at Sky View Middle School, who selected Green Bay, Wisconsin as her happy place. (Editor’s note: Go Pack Go!) Julie said,”My place that brings me (mostly) joy is Green Bay, Wisconsin. Despite never living there, it feels like home and reminds me of family. I have fond memories of my extended family summers there. Football is a big part of my family culture, and there is always something magical for me about this spot. ‘How can you not be romantic about football!?'”
It was so great to get into your sites these past couple of weeks. I am very excited to see all the planning you are doing come to fruition in the coming weeks and months. There is a clear vibe (as the kids say) out there regarding the coming year. I hope you can continue to lean into that positive energy as we welcome staff and students back in the next two weeks.
As a reminder, I will be out of the office Friday and Monday. Please reach out via cell for any emergencies.
To Dos
1. Sign up for visits in September: I would like to have each school sign up for TWO one-hour time slots for visits in September. It would be great to have them spaced into the first half of the month and the back half. Here is my Calendly link or you can use Outlook directly.
2. Flex Time: If you are a school using Flex Time this year, please schedule a time with Rachel Mavis for your leads to get trained.
3. YouTube and Curriculum: Please forward this to staff from Scott in IT.
We are beginning to hear from staff who are concerned about students’ losing access to certain resources previously available on YouTube.
Please be aware that this change impacts only K-8 students. High School students’ access to YouTube content remains unaffected, and staff access across all grade levels is also unchanged.
Our goal with this email is to collect a list of YouTube resources that are linked to approved curriculum in grades K-8. In other words, a resource that is embedded in curriculum that no longer opens when a student clicks on the link. Supplemental videos linked from Canvas or teacher-maintained sources should not be included on this list as they may be shared by the teacher.
Please use the form linked here to alert us of broken links in your curriculum. We will use this information to influence our decisions as we research alternatives.
We realize that this change impacts some teachers more than others, specifically those who teach subjects where resources are limited. We have included an opportunity for anyone to share thoughts, opinions, and possible solutions. Impacted staff are also welcome to respond to Scott directly.
4. Safety Info: The District Safety Team has put together a “need to know” safety refresher presentation for you to share with your staff. It includes all key expectations for staff accessing the building, in their classrooms, etc. We hopes this helps support communication with safety expectations for all!
5. TAG at MS: Please look at the message below in the FYI from Ryan in HR and prioritize adding this new TAG ICCL position to your building. It will be essential to have a person in this role for this school year.
6.Upshift Roles: (REPEAT) Please take time to fill out this document listing your building’s Upshift roles. This needs to be complete by 8/31. Let Heather Tang or myself know if you have any questions.
7. Part Time Schedules: (REPEAT) Ensure you have written schedules down to the minute for your part time staff and share them with me. You can reference the document from Paul Dean if you need some formatting ideas. The key is you need to use YOUR actual schedule, not the example when it comes to what we share. In Pauls example, for instance, he uses 32 minute periods on Wednesdays and I know many of you have 37 minute classes. Here is an example of this communication from Julie at Sky View. If you have any questions about what this should look like, please let me know.
8. New Synergy Gradebook: (REPEAT) As you may remember, we have transitioned to the newest version of the Synergy Gradebook this year. Consider it like a software update for your phone. The functionality remains mostly the same but there are some new bells and whistles and they may have moved where you find something. Laura Clark has put together a slideshow for staff that shouldn’t take too long. Please find a way to go over this with teachers. Leaning on a staff member who gets tech may be a good approach. Laura has already shared the slideshow, “Synergy New Gradebook Highlights,” with last year’s Canvas Support Team.
FYI
Questions about the new CBA?: Please direct all questions about the new CBA including scheduling and supervision questions directly to me or to HR. We want to ensure uniform messaging and practice.
Lunch Coverage: (UPDATE) HR is currently reviewing options for lunch supervision relating to our extra duty positions. This includes shifting lunch to a nearby prep so a certified employee could use their extra duty time at lunch. This is still an unknown and there could be a situation where these extra duty positions will not meet that State statute. I will update you as soon as we hear. In the meantime, know that classified folks can take on these positions if there is interest.
Lunch Coverage(part II): I received word on how we compensate counselors for supervision if we assign them over the 50 minutes a week. As a reminder, this is allowed for up to one hour a day this year. In talking with Dan Emerson (our new CFO), we can allow for each MS counselor to supervise up to TWO additional hours a WEEK. Anything over this would need to be covered by your budget. There is an existing drop down in UKG for this. Please let me know if you have any questions.
District Org Chart: The team down here has updated the district organization chart you received at the launch.
Resources on The Balcony: Adding new links daily, still a few pages to go. Please let me know if there is anything specific you would like to see posted on the blog.
FYI From Other Departments
From Scott/Communications
Here is a link to a folder with visuals for our cell phone policy
From Ryan/Human Resources
We are excited to announce the creation of two new extra duty positions, a new ICCL position within our elementary and middle school buildings, specifically focused on Talent and Gifted (TAG) efforts and a Green Team Advisor for all sites.
Please request to post both jobs in UKG.
The ICCL (TAG) role will be integral in enhancing our support for TAG students and ensuring that our practices are in line with our district’s high standards.
The responsibilities of this new position will mirror the existing ICCL efforts, but with a targeted emphasis on TAG professional development and systems. This means that the individual in this role will be dedicated to fostering growth and improvement in our approach to identifying and servicing TAG students.
Key responsibilities include:
Attending monthly meetings with district TAG leadership to strengthen existing systems and stay informed on best practices.
Gaining deeper insights into identifying and servicing TAG students.
Developing strategies for differentiation in the classroom to better cater to the needs of gifted learners.
Additionally, the person in this role will serve as a crucial conduit for TAG processes and services, ensuring that all staff within our building are well-informed and equipped to support TAG students effectively.
We believe this new position will significantly enhance our ability to provide exceptional educational experiences for all students by adding enrichment to our classrooms.
Reach out to Stephen DuVal for more information about the specifics of the role.
24/25 Green Team Advisor – New position
The Green Team Advisor has been added to the extra duty schedule. Each high school and middle school will find this added to their list of year round extra duty positions on the Extra Duty Google Doc. Each elementary school will be added to the Extra Duty Google Doc as they complete their hire.
The Green Team Advisor will serve at each school to educate and engage the school community with the knowledge and influence to be leaders in a sustainable society, use resources wisely and support the district’s efforts to make the school’s operations and activities more environmentally sustainable. Additionally, this position will support compost efforts at schools where programs are in place.
This new position will be paid on level F of the extra duty salary schedule.
There will be 1 FTE at each school site.
This new position should be posted and hired through UKG.
This position will be for one year only and if funds allow can be hired again the following year.
If you currently have someone who has filled this role in the past, they will need to apply for the position for this year.
From Nutrition Services
Did you hear the good news? ALL Bend-La Pine Schools qualify for the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program. That means every student is eligible to receive one free breakfast and one free lunch each school day. No application needed!
From Sean/Student Services
Here is the agenda for our student services folks on 8/28.
From Anne/Facilities
The Maintenance Department is transitioning the work order software to HeroHQ. This will go live tomorrow (August 22nd). Please see the letter from Dan Dummitt in regard to this change along with a Power Point presentation that shows how to create a work order in the new system. The link to the new software is included in Dan’s letter.
This new software gives all staff the opportunity to submit a work order, however, all work orders will first be routed to the site’s head custodian for review. If it is something that can be resolved at the site level it will be completed by the custodial staff if appropriate. If not, the custodian will approve the work order to be routed to Maintenance. We feel this is a very user-friendly software and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (x4700) or Becky Taylor-Negus (x4701).
We are working closely with the Custodial department on this change to make it as smooth as possible.
August 26: New Teacher training–all admin attend! Time/place TBD (it will be first thing in the morning)
August 27: District Welcome Back! An interactive whole school event. 8:30-10:00
August 28: District Training Day – Pacific Crest from 8:00 to 11:30. There will be an opening from Lisa and then PD from Katie Lyons and Chris Burghardt from Synergy. The topics will center around backwards design with priority standards and equitable grading. Afternoon can be used for Tier 1 climate and culture or that PD time can be shifted to another time in the week.
September 4th: First day with 6th grades
September 5th: First day with 7th/8th graders
September 10th: MS/HS Principal horizontal – Mountain View 8:00 – 9:30
Where in the World
This week’s “Where in the World” photo comes from Sean Keating over at PCMS. Sean states, “My special place is being outside with people I care about. Here’s a mountain bike ride I took with some teachers.”
Trivia for you Bendites. What’s the name of that landmark behind Sean?
Please send me a photo of some place important to you with a short description of why and I’ll highlight it in an upcoming blog.
Hello all. I am very excited to step in this space and get to work along side all of you this year. I mentioned to some of you that Katie and I were talking about combining our blogs into one secondary blog, but it may take a few weeks to get there. In the mean time, the middle school blog will be titled “The Balcony” in reference to Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Change by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky. In the book, Heifetz and Linsky talk about a leaders need to regularly step away from the workplace day to day and head up to “the balcony” to observe the greater system. Only then can we implement lasting change. This reminder to take a birds-eye view of our buildings/systems has stuck with me throughout my leadership experience. I hope you can find a moment each day to get off “the dance floor” and take in the view from the balcony. If this idea resonates with you, Forbes has a brief synopsis of the chapter you can read here.
To Dos
1.Strategic Initiatives: Please use our strategic initiatives visual during your inservice week and throughout the year to ground our work with staff.
2. PD Structure and Feedback: Also, please remember to use the theme of thriving throughout the year. A big piece of this is how we conduct our professional development. An ask of you is to make sure you use the three signature practices for adults when leading our staff. Additionally, we are asking you to collect feedback from staff after you conduct professional development. Here is the beta form we will use until there is a better collection tool.
3. Admin PD: We are looking to provide small bites of PD opportunities for our leaders in Bend-La Pine in an ongoing way throughout the year. We would like your feedback on topics and format. Here is a short survey we would like administrators to complete. Lisa will close feedback on Tuesday evening (act quickly!) so she can begin to build a calendar and connect with presenters.
4.Upshift Roles: Please take time to fill out this document listing your building’s Upshift roles. This needs to be complete by 8/31. Let Heather Tang or myself know if you have any questions.
5. Part Time Schedules: Ensure you have written schedules down to the minute for your part time staff and share them with me. You can reference the document from Paul Dean if you need some formatting ideas. The key is you need to use YOUR actual schedule, not the example when it comes to what we share. In Pauls example, for instance, he uses 32 minute periods on Wednesdays and I know many of you have 37 minute classes. Here is an example of this communication from Julie at Sky View. If you have any questions about what this should look like, please let me know.
6. New Synergy Gradebook: As you may remember, we have transitioned to the newest version of the Synergy Gradebook this year. Consider it like a software update for your phone. The functionality remains mostly the same but there are some new bells and whistles and they may have moved where you find something. Laura Clark has put together a slideshow for staff that shouldn’t take too long. Please find a way to go over this with teachers. Leaning on a staff member who gets tech may be a good approach.
7. BEA Meetings: Please consider scheduling monthly meetings with your BEA reps this year if you do not already do so. With a new contract, there will likely be more questions and issues that come up on a regular basis. Having a scheduled time to talk with building reps can go a long way to finding collaborative solutions.
8. Phone Coverage: As you know we are entering the really busy time where families are reaching out for the school year. Please make sure that you have your phones covered during work hours and that you are getting back to families that leave messages.
FYI
Change to Horizontal Schedule: As you know, we just rolled over the existing calendar Juan created before he left. However, in talking with Katie and in the spirit of collaboration with our high school partners, we are going to make some tweaks. I am going to remove a few of our existing meetings and replace them with four joint MS/HS meetings. Removed: 9/12, 1/16, 4/6. New joint secondary meetings (all will be from 8-9:30 on Tuesdays): 9/10 (Principals only), 11/5, 1/14, 4/8. I understand this is an adjustment in times and you may have existing meetings scheduled these mornings. We will be flexible with who attends these joint sessions, but we would like at least one rep from each site.
School Facilities: As you heard from Scott Maben, we are looking to open our grounds to the public again. Here is some language around this that was shared back in the spring.
Here is the OSEA CBA. This is currently an internal document. Please do not distribute.
Lunch Coverage: Circling back on this ask from you. I’ve double checked and certified staff CANNOT be paid to give up their duty-free 30 minute lunch (even if they want to). You must say no to this. It is not in the CBA because it actually comes from the State. However, we can compensate classified employees if we come to an agreement with them around this time. Also note, that for THIS YEAR, counselors CAN be assigned up to one hour of duty a day. However, we must compensate them for anything over the 50 minutes a week that is already in the CBA. Other specialists can also agree to this same time, but it cannot be assigned. It has also been brought up that there was a fund to support this last spring. However, I have not been able to confirm this fund exists again this year so stay tuned.
Conferences: Conferences this year occur on Halloween, which could lead to some tricky scheduling. I’ve met with Sarah and there is agreement that conferencing on the night of 10/31 isn’t a preferred option. Therefore, we are going to match the elementary plan for this year. Wednesday 10/23 – Teacher work SIW, Tuesday 10/29 – Conferences after school (4 hours). Wednesday 10/30 – teacher work day followed by evening conferences, Thursday 10/31 – conferences all day (no evening conferences), Friday 11/1 – Non work day.
Resources on The Balcony (or in our joint blog): We plan to build out a number of tabs in the coming days/weeks to ensure you have a spot to find all the relevant information you need.
FYI From Other Departments
From Kinsey/Policy, Advocacy, and Equity
Upcoming dates to note:
Rosh Hashanah is coming up (evening of Wed Oct 2 to evening of Fri Oct 4—learn more here). Please check your school calendar and do not schedule Curriculum Night or other special student/family events during those evenings.
More dates to come, just wanted to get you this one now since it’s coming up fast. Thank you for your commitment to the dignity and belonging of all our families!
2024 Elections:
I would encourage you to plug this topic into an SIW or staff meeting early in the fall:
Here is our policy around staff engaging in political activities. Teachers should know they may not “promote or oppose the nomination or election of a candidate,” and if they engage in discussion on an election topic they must “consider all candidates for a particular office or any side of a particular political or civil issue.”
Conversations about the election will come up this fall, whether through planned lessons or unplanned student dialogue. Teachers should prepare for either situation. Here are 10 steps for teachers to prepare, navigate, and respond to sensitive discourse.
Additionally, here and here are two great resources for teaching about the election and online news sources. Our district Equity Coaches can support teachers with these conversations—just reach out.
From Dean/Secondary Curriculum, Instructions, and Systems
Teaching and Learning has been hard at work all summer purchasing and deploying curriculum. This spring we received over 2300 individual requests for instructional tools from staff. Our explicit goal is to have all of the tools deployed by the first day that teachers have returned. I also want to have a plan for any instructional tools that do not meet that timeline.
One of the difficulties of some many digital curricular tools is that TLC does not know when an instructional tool is not fully deployed. There are also instances when a tool is deployed, but the teacher is unaware of how to access it. I want to share a few ways to help us understand when a staff member does not have what they need to complete their work.
One way to check to see if a tool has been deployed is the Instructional Tools Website. This site displays which tools have been explicitly deployed for the section. This site may not show all of instructional tools available to a teacher. Many of our digital instructional tools are deployed by section, rather than by teacher.
The other tool I want to share is new this year. This spreadsheet (which may be shared with other staff including office managers or other people appropriate at your building) is a place that TLC an monitor tools that teachers do not yet have access to for their class. We created this system so that we will not miss individual emails that come in from Teacher/Librarians, Administrators, teachers, or other staff members. We will be closely monitoring this spreadsheet beginning August 27th.
August 19: Training: Managing Performance–Investigations, 12:30-4:30
August 19:BLS SIRC & STAS Administrator Refresher Training 8:30-12:30 @ Ed Center: Board Room – this is for administrators who have already had the full training. Administrators who have not yet been trained should register for a training with Misty Groom
August 26: New Teacher training–all admin attend! Time/place TBD (it will be first thing in the morning)
August 27: District Welcome Back! An interactive whole school event. 8:30-10:00
August 28: District Training Day – Building led in am; District led in pm. Your Counselors, Student Success Coordinators and Instructors and Special Education Teachers will be in trainings at Caldera HS. You will mostly have classroom teachers in your building.
Where in the World
I plan to add a photo at the end of each blog. I would love for you all to send me a scenic photo of a place important to you with a short description on why you love that spot. I’ll start us off. This photo was taken in La Quinta, CA (Palm Springs area) and it’s where we go most spring breaks to recharge and get out of the cold Central Oregon winters. For me, the sun, the desert and palm trees allow me to fully relax.
