Happy Friday Staff and congrats on finishing up our first three week session! From what I’ve observed, students are starting to open up a bit and despite our distancing measures, classes are beginning to feel more vibrant. I hope the transition to periods 4-7 goes as smoothly as possible. Please reach out to Mary and me for any help or support needed!

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CALENDAR ITEMS:

• Monday, 3/1
  • Start of Rotation B
• Wednesday, 3/3
  • SIW 2:30 (whole staff in Stancliff’s WebEx)
• Thursday, 3/4
  • Picture day (Students called down by alpha groups)
• Friday, 3/5
  • Picture day (Students called down by alpha groups)
• Monday, 3/8
  • Forecasting orientation for families (5:00 for English, 6:00 for Spanish in Stancliff’s WebEx)

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TO DO’s:

• Teachers please try to have summatives associated with these first three weeks entered into Synergy by Friday, 3/5. We will use that Synergy data to populate our spreadsheet for grade level meetings on 3/10.
• Teachers please take a moment to fill out the survey that Lyndsey sent in order to help us guide our efforts on re-centering ATLs in our curriculum

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ON THE RADAR:

Next week we get show our appreciation for all of our support staff. We have an amazing crew here, and would not be able to function without their hard work and talent.

Quick note on picture day . . . please know that we do not have a more straightforward way to get the right kids called down for pictures than to use the overhead announcement even though we know it will end up being a bit disruptive. The small window and timing of many schools trying to get this done did not leave us with a lot of options.

Quarantine recommendations do not apply to individuals arriving to Oregon from other states or countries or Oregon residents returning from other states or countries if they have received both doses of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine (or one dose of a single-dose vaccine if it becomes available), AND It has been at least 14 days since their final dose of COVID-19 vaccine, AND They have no COVID-19 symptoms. Individuals should still monitor themselves for COVID-19 symptoms during the 14 days after travel and, if symptoms develop, they should self-isolate and seek testing. Here is the full document from OHA.

As many of you have heard, US Department of Education has not lifted the requirement for states to carryout federally mandated testing. We do not know yet what this means for Oregon. Stand by for more information as the Department of Education did give several options to states related to format and schedule.

The district rescinded their offer to have us do forecasting during the week after break when we are back on an advisory schedule. That means that we will likely have slightly shorter periods during the week leading up to break in order to create some time in the morning to complete forecasting. More details to follow soon.

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SHOUT OUTS:

To our awesome staff for braving the cold and nailing a pretty efficient fire drill today.

Huge thank you’s to the work put in by Stacy, Rachel, Gavin, and Mary in getting advisory lessons pushed out these past three weeks! They now have a much deserved break.

Next time you see Richard Ferguson (aka Aracely’s awesome guest teacher) please tell him thank you for doing such a wonderful job with Aracely’s students! Lucky for us, he is assigned to PBMS!

. . . and a preemptive shout out and thank you to our awesome support staff! Enjoy your week!

Happy Friday to all! In a rare moment of administrative clarity, it occurred to me that just because I often receive information late on Fridays from folks downtown, that doesn’t mean I can’t have as most of it cued up and ready to go. I will work harder to make sure this update is ready by 4:00 pm on Fridays, but feel free to wait until Sunday night or Monday to read. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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CALENDAR ITEMS:

• 2/24
  • SIW (PLCs – Please confer with one another regarding a preference for in-person or WebEx format, and have someone from your PLC me know what your plan is. I will send some prompts for part of the PLC discussion, but I also want you to have plenty of time to plan and share ideas for rotation B.)
• 2/25
  • Stancliff (out)
  • Fire drill (advisory)
• 2/26
  • Fire drill (advisory)
• 3/1
  • Start of rotation B
• 3/4-3/5
  • Picture day. Details to follow

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TO DOs . . .

• Teachers, remember that as we wind down the first rotation next week, we need to have some summative evidence that we can log in the Synergy grade book (this does not apply to advisory classes.) Our hope is that whatever this is, it can be graded and loaded into Synergy by 3/5, so we can share with parents and inform the data dashboard for our grade level meetings.
• Teachers please be thinking about the ways that you were able to honor Black History Month over the course of the last few weeks, and be prepared to share with your PLC on Wednesday.
• Please remember that the new chime is not a release bell, rather a reminder that class will wrap up in a minute. Please wait for the actual release time to send students to their next class.
• Please check here to see when your next supervision duty is and consider adding it to your Outlook calendar. Please arrange to have it covered if something comes up.

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ON THE RADAR . . .

Here is a link to the teaching and learning department’s blog. In this week’s edition, there are some helpful tips about lessons and content delivery on Wednesdays.

If you are asked by a community member about “area change requests” processes, please refer them to the story on the district website, but a couple things you could share would be that they must be submitted by 3/1 and that everyone whose students are attending a school outside the from outside the attendance boundary, regardless of whether they already had filled one out for their current school, must fill one out this year.

The district is rolling out a series of PD opportunities associated with our recent shift on grading practices. This will not be revolutionary for us as we already have a criteria-referenced system, but there may still be some valuable opportunities for our staff. For example, there will be an opportunity for staff to receive credit for participating in an action research project associated with assessment. Standby for more information.

Scott McDonald recently loaded a blogpost regarding Apple Classroom, and we will be sharing a series of tech steps students should take in order to have this to be effective.

Here is a link to the updated and condensed version of the district inclement weather policy.

SHOUT OUTs . . .

Hopefully everyone got a chance to see the art work that Pat’s kids did, but if not here is a link just in case. Great work!

Huge thank you to Shelby and the Life Skills department for their collaboration on processing library books!

Big thanks to April and Matt for continuing to make the most of a robotics season that has been very challenging to pull off during COVID-19. Well done!

Good afternoon staff! I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend and the day today. My weekend was going really well with a mix of rest, family time, and some skiing and hiking, and then I pretty much fumbled the Valentine’s day situation in epic fashion. I’ll spare you most of the details, but Sunday began with Amy coming downstairs fairly early to find me simultaneously watching a soccer game and a rugby match at which point she said, “Happy Valentine’s Day!” And in a moment that I seem uniquely capable of screwing up, I wondered aloud, “Is that today?” I hope all of you faired better. On the bright side, we wound down the day as a family, playing a card game called “Skull King” which I highly recommend. With a short week ahead of us, I hope the following information helps you plan and hit the ground ready tomorrow!

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CALENDAR ITEMS:

• February 17
  • SIW (2:30-4:00, individual day)
• February 18
  • Fire Drill (11:30)
• February 19
  • Fire Drill (11:30)

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TO DO’s:

• Teachers, please remember to get your SLGGs dialed by the end of SIW this week. Please reach out if you need any guidance.
• In case you missed it in the email last week, I believe all would benefit from reviewing this guidance on inclement weather.

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ON THE RADAR:

• Report cards were mailed home this last week. It is certainly possible that we may have some surprised parents that would like more context. Please approach these conversations, if they happen, with patience and grace, and let us know if you need support.
• Please be prepared to be flexible with lunch locations this week. Even if temps are good, outside conditions on the ground may impact our decisions on whether to head out.
• The district has asked us to ensure that we have an anonymous way for folks to submit safety concerns. Here is a Google form that will only collect personal information if you choose to share it. We will also add this to our Hybrid site for families to use. It is also just as effective to email Mary or Heather your concerns, if you prefer, and they will be a part of our safety meeting records.
• For classified staff on evaluation cycle this year, we will be reaching out in the next couple of weeks with details on the timing of that process.
• With all of the information swirling about exposure at the high school level, you might be curious about our protocol for communicating with families. Here is a link to the protocol document that lives on our hybrid site.
• Reminder that Scott McDonald and crew curate a tech blog for the district with helpful hints and resources.
• The other middle school principals and I had a great WebEx conversation with our incoming superintendent, Dr. Cook. He is very excited to be a part of our community. He will be visiting schools the week after spring break.

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SHOUT-OUTs:

Big thanks to Mary and the lunch crew for flexibility in lunch distribution and supervision!

Birthday wishes this week go to Ron Varner! (2/18)