“Therefore send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee (me) . . .” Having worked with nurses, families, and staff on the process of verifying whether or not one is fit to return to a public school setting after experiencing symptoms, I now have the opportunity to go through the process myself. I’ve had one negative rapid test, and will verify again Monday morning, and hopefully be back in action. Is there ever a convenient time to miss work? Probably not. Coming down the final stretch of the COVID-19 year certainly would not qualify.
I would have preferred to explain some of what follows in our meeting this morning, but I can circle up with anyone who needs it to clarify.
_________________________________________________________________________________
CALENDAR ITEMS
- Monday, 5/24
- Rotation A
- 8th grade state testing (science) during advisory
- Make-up night for families that missed the 5th grade move-up orientation back in March (5:30 in English; 6:00 in Spanish)
- Tuesday, 5/25
- Principal hiring process (staff/community forum at 5:00 PM here: https://bls.fyi/pbmsforum)
- Wednesday, 5/26
- Fire Drill at 8:30 AM.
- 2:00 PM grade level deliberations on student recognition awards (This will be hard to do on Webex. Let’s have 6th grade meet in Ruth’s room, 7th grade in Kale’s room, and 8th grade in Nicole’s room.) Spread sheet to follow.
- Thursday, 5/27
- 8th grade state testing (science) during advisory
- Friday, 5/28
- 8th grade state testing (science) during advisory
_________________________________________________________________________________
To Do’s
Teachers, please use this template to send out our 3rd advisory outreach email (or phone call if you prefer or feel it is needed) to your advisory students next week. Wednesday seems like a great day to do this unless you are inundated with calls from quarantined students. Please reach out to the admin you normally work with when this is complete. (No later than Friday 5/28)
_________________________________________________________________________________
On the radar . . .
Everyone should have received guidance from Lora today regarding the updates to RSSL and mask requirements. Here it is, if you missed it.
For teachers, this is the time of year when we use Wednesdays to collaborate with our PLCs on assessment calibration/reflections and also updates to our course descriptions. Please consider using some of the unstructured Wednesday time to work with your peers on these topics. I will work with Lyndsey to let you know what the best format would be if you want to make updates. If you do not have an old copy you can start by viewing them here on our site.
Some staff have wondered why students that have had a C19 designation in attendance resolve quickly. Here is a link to the document that staff (including me 😉 get from district nursing crew when they have have to be out. You can see on the second page how symptoms are designated. In some cases where there is quick turnaround, students may have had a symptom that resolved right away and were able to quickly get a test with their doc’s signature.
The last week of school will obviously look a bit different this year. The student recognition slide show will be sent to families, and also viewed during school. Monday through Wednesday will be regular days and Thursday will be 10:35-3:00, and we will follow this schedule (that may be subject to minor changes). As you will see, we will do short versions of all classes. 8th grade students will stay down on the lower field for activities from lunch until the end of the day.
Middle School staff will be asked to set up Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on Monday, May 31st. This communication will come from Chad in IT. Chad will also be reaching out to identify 1 or 2 people in our building to set up MFA and be a support resource for others in your building. The deadline for setting up MFA will be Monday, July 26th.
From HR: Starting next week, and for the remainder of the year, we will not be approving any more personal days unless a substitute can be found. If we have already approved a personal day, then we will honor that decision. Moving forward, however, if an employee, either classified or certified, asks for a personal day, we need to know that positions will be covered before okaying the request. As a reminder, there are special agreements with both associations that employees will be paid for unused personal days.
Here is a free summer learning opportunity. The topic is Trauma-Informed Engagement Practices through the process of continuous improvement.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Shout out’s . . .
. . . to our awesome Web leaders who have been persistent in pushing for creative ways to keep school fun and positive. I get three to five email proposals a week! Please pass along the love!
Birthday wishes got o Mark Fierro (5/25). Enjoy your day!