Month: September 2023

and finally….

In keeping with our theme last week of supporting our little people who get dysregulated, we wanted to share a couple of graphics that show the impact a regulated adult can have on helping a dysregulated child recover more quickly. There is also a graphic that shows how a dysregulated adult can contribute to the problem. It’s a good reminder for us all, that adults can also become dysregulated. What are some tools, skills, ideas you have to share with your adults when they feel this way? Need some ideas? Please reach out!

Transportation Message: Elementary schools are releasing students early, making drivers nervous to pull into their spots. In turn, drivers want to leave earlier to get situated before students are on the sidewalk which costs $. No one needs to be released before 2:15. Kinders can be at 2:15, and the rest of the school at 2:15:30 🙂 We are not scheduled to leave before 2:23 and 8 minutes is plenty of time for the school to load. 

Conferences:   After consultation with BEA last year, we have landed on the following information regarding length of a conference.  If a teacher has 25 or less students, their conferences need to be between 25-30 minutes to accommodate for transition times as needed (25 min  gives time for a quick restroom break, time in case one goes longer, etc.).  If a teacher has 26 or more students, their conferences can be 20 minutes, giving the teacher the ability to have a few longer ones as well as building in transition times if needed.  

Reminder about personal leave – Just a reminder that personal days need prior approval and buildings cannot have more than 5% of their staff out on personal leave – that is about 2 teachers for most schools. You do the initial approvals, so please keep an eye out on this.

Info re: Wayfinder from Jennifer: Thank you all for your continued support of Wayfinder. I have drafted newsletter content for your families. You can find that here. Please remember that we are not using the terms “Social Emotional Learning” when speaking or promoting Wayfinder- please use “life and career readiness”. Here is the training deck from in-service week: K-5 Core Training

If you have implementation or wonderings about Wayfinder, please reach out to myself and/or our Program Manager- Diana Curtaz: [email protected]. 916.206.9784

Don’t Delay! Have your teachers apply for an Education Foundation Grant today!

From Skip and Dave: Principals – Leadership teams from each school are being asked to complete this survey so we can better understand how schools use and access student data.  You are encouraged to discuss these questions as a leadership team and complete the survey as a group.  

Survey questions are organized into groups with a number and a letter (e.g., 1a, 1b, 2a, etc.). Each number and letter combination (e.g., 1a) really is a multi-part question. If you answer the first question about the type of data, be sure to answer all follow up questions specific to those data. Please be as specific and descriptive as possible when answering these questions.  

Please complete the survey by Wednesday, October 4.  Contact Dave VanLoo with any questions about the survey.

Sustainability Advisor Position – SustainBLS There are still a few schools that do not have a staff Sustainability Advisor in place for the school year. The SustainBLS program is one of the ways ALL schools can make sustainability, stewardship and conservation the norm across our district. Through SustainBLS, a certified staff member takes on the role of the school Sustainability Advisor and works with a school green team. This team can be a class, a select group of students or an environmental club. Our first training of the year is next Wednesday from 4:30-6:00 in the Facility Development Office behind admin.

Walk and Roll Prizes Walk and Roll to school day is on October 4^th this year. If your school wants to have some give aways stickers, please apply by September 27^th to  Street trust. Teachers should be encouraged to gather information about student transportation to assist BLS. There are tallys here that can be sent to sustainability coordinator, Jackie Wilson Admin via inner district mail.

Get There Challenge with Commute Options The Get There Challenge is an annual competition to encourage people who live or work in Oregon to drive alone less and use transportation options more. Running for two-weeks, October 1-15,  the Challenge helps promote commuting by teams will competing for recognition and prizes by logging trips taken by bike, foot, carpool, vanpool, and transit and remote workdays. Your school can create a team and sign up here. Any member of your team can be the team captain, but there needs to be one for each team. Check out the great prizes, including a $1000 gift card for the winning team. There will be a special district prize for the team with the most trips logged.

Recycling 101 in Deschutes County Solid Waste With school in session, this is a perfect time to share with staff and review what can and cannot go in the blue co-mingle recycling carts in Deschutes County. Please note that plastic produce clamshells, coffee cups and copy paper reams are NOT Recyclable.

Total Building Energy Useage Remember to keep building energy use in mind at the end of the day and on weekends. The building automation system sets schools to unoccupied modes over the weekend. If you have any questions or concerns about your school facility, please contact [email protected]

Human Resources Update:

Classified Daily Break Requirements. This is a reminder to all administrators/supervisors regarding mandatory classified breaks/meals from Article 16.5 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Per the CBA, classified staff who are scheduled for more than six hours receive:

• a 15-minute paid morning break as close to the middle of the morning workday as possible (between the start of the workday and the 30-minute meal period)
• a 30-minute duty free (no students) meal period as close to the middle of the workday as possible, and 
• a 15-minute paid afternoon break as close to the middle of their afternoon workday as possible

(You may view Article for 16.5 for breaks/meals for employees working less than 6 hours)

We understand current staffing challenges, but these breaks and meal periods must be arranged and scheduled per the contract.   We ask that you double-check with your classified staff in the next week to confirm that they have written schedules and that those schedules include the appropriate break/meal times.  

OSEA leadership is committed to supporting their members and will reach out to building/level leaders if they are notified that someone is not receiving their regularly scheduled breaks.

UKG Data. We anticipate checking in with school administrators next week to confirm the accuracy of staffing data within UKG.  We’ll provide a google form for you to log incorrect staff in your My Teams view.  We appreciate your patience as we continue to work through PAs and system updates.

Performance Evaluation Module. The district (Lora) and BEA are in discussions to modify the number of mini-observations and reduce the number of standards to be evaluated for all certified contract staff (probationary/temporary staff requirements won’t change as we must conform to ORS rules).   We will likely have the same amount of mini’s for both on & off cycle staff.  Stay tuned for more information on this.  

In the meantime, please continue your normal classroom visits while we get ready to roll out the Performance Evaluation module in UKG.  You’ll have the opportunity to enter prior mini’s once the new module is launched.

We are currently testing and making tweaks to the Performance module in preparation for an October rollout.  We have to create a different profile for each certified group that has a unique evaluation rubric.  We are prioritizing the classroom teacher rubric first as that is our largest group of certified staff.  We’ll then move to Learning Specialists, Counselors, Student Success Clinicians, School Psychologists, TOSAs and Speech Pathologists. 

Greetings from IT:

The following applies to personal devices only and not school issued student iPads.

Students have always been able to access Bend La Pine Schools digital applications from a personal device (such as a cell phone or desktop computer )while at home. This year, access from a personal device is still encouraged, but in the interest of security and data privacy, just a bit more challenging. 

Students will need to complete multifactor authentication prior to accessing BLS applications on their personal device.  Multifactor authentication adds a critical second layer of security before any student information is visible on a device that is not known by our organization.    The steps to complete multi-factor authentication can be found on this link.

Printed as well as Spanish versions of these instructions are available from the Tier One Technology representative at each school. 

It is important to note that the most efficient way to complete the steps for multi-factor authentication is by using a student iPad.  We in IT would strongly encourage sending iPads home to complete the MFA process (especially for elementary age students). 

The following BLS applications are commonly accessed by students from personal devices.  Lexia, Dreambox, Clever, Canvas, Really Great Reading, Google Drive

New in Sharezies: Elk Meadow has also developed a PBIS handbook for the year. Take a peek steal some great ideas!

Important Dates!

• Sept 26, 8-11 Seesaw Training in the Board Room
• Sept 26, 3:00-5:00 Horizontal Meeting at Three Rivers School, 56900 Enterprise Dr in Sunriver. Notice the time change to 2 hours!
• Sept 27 Dreambox Launchpad Assessment due
• Sept 27 School-wide and Classroom Expectation in place
• Oct. 3, 3:00-5:00 ICCL/Admin Training–Location is still TBA–we are having a hard time finding a space to fit all schools—it may end up being virtual.
• Oct. 11, 1:45-3:15 Ed Network Training
• Oct 25-27. Tammy and Lisa out at a PBIS Leaders Conference

and finally….

here is our very own Marc Zollinger from Bear Creek on KBND! Get to know Marc and Bear Creek right here. It’s fantastic!

As we begin to settle into routines, you may start to see that little people (or big ones) begin to feel stress and demonstrate it in different ways than last week. Remember, your tone and tenor sets the stage for your students, staff, and site. The words you use, things you celebrate, and what you spend your time on send messages to everyone about what is most important. There is SOOOO much good out there! Don’t forget to see it and celebrate it!

Change in Meeting Time and also a location:

• 9/20 at 2:00 instead of 2:30. Lora is going to go over important information for TAG during that time for elementary only. The meeting and the All Admin meetings during this year will be at Bend High in Perseverance Hall.
• 9/26 from 3:00-5:00. All Horizontals will be 2 hours this year and if we end early, that will be a happy surprise. We will be meeting for the first one at Three Rivers. Three Rivers and Pine Ridge will be sharing a bit that day too.

Tier I Expectations and Task Force Work: As we have been in classrooms, it is clear that Tier I expectations in schools are on everyone’s minds. Tammy created THIS IMAGE to make sure that we are clear with all of you about our expectations related to the roll-out of the work from the Task Force. Remember, this is such a focus that within every class, these should be visible, obvious, and referred to frequently. Thanks for your diligence to make our practices consistent and common regardless of the school.

New in Sharezies: Buckingham has been working hard on their new handbook and Pine Ridge is sharing a mini-observation tracker and formal observation forms. Thank you for sharing!

TLC Update: September 13^th Elementary TLC Update. Reach out to your elementary support staff for any needs or supports. The update for this week includes:

• Early Literacy Success Initiative update
• Dreambox Launchpad baseline assessment begins September 18^th
• Digital tools access update and timelines
• Support documents for the first 4 weeks of Community Connection
• And much, much more!

HR Update:

• Staff Data in UKG: Human Resources/Payroll are aware that data in UKG regarding staff assignments is not currently up to date.  Please refrain from contacting either of our offices about this until a future blog entry in which we will be soliciting feedback from you on anything that is not correct.   Payroll is also working on updating accruals that are incorrect (like accumulated personal time).
• Processing of PA in UKG: HR/Payroll are diligently processing PAs and prioritizing changes that impact an employee’s base compensation.  Other compensation like extra duty and ICCL stipends in which hiring was completed prior to September 1st, will appear on an employee’s September paycheck.  Other non-compensation related PA’s (positions, budget codes) will be processed in the order that they are received and be updated in UKG by mid-October at the latest.  Anything that administrators completed after that date will likely not appear until October’s paycheck.
• Certified Evaluation Update: Lora, Paul and Sarah Barclay are meeting this week to discuss certified evals for 2023/24.  This doesn’t mean that admin can’t begin mini-ops now and tracking them on your own before we share how we plan to do this for the 2023/24 school year.  By all means, feel free to start those. We will have the following information to share with admin at the beginning of October:
  • Certified goal setting process
  • Mini-formal observation tracking
  • On year summative evaluation list
  • Summative Evaluation process and timeline
• Important link to the Certified Teacher Performance Evaluation Manual. Recommended that all admin review – especially new admin
• IMPORTANT Reminder: It is critical that administrators/supervisors login to UKG at least once a day to read/process To Do Items.  If, for example, there is a HR Action that has compensation implications (i.e. changing FTE, adding an extra duty stipend) and it is not approved by all of people in the workflow before payroll cutoff (which was last Friday, September 8), then the employee will not receive the correct wages on their September paycheck and will be very unhappy.  Processing your UKG To Do’s at least once a day will prevent these types of issues.

Culture of Care Info: Culture of Care Fall Update

Camp Tamarack Classroom Connection: HERE is a link that outlines a training for teachers who support students at Camp Tamarack. It is designed by OSU and intended to maximize the links between the classroom and the Camp Tamarack experience. Please share with staff!

Technology Resources for Parents: Your IT team would like to encourage you to share the following links with your office staff and directly with families. 

• Technology Resources for Parents (English)

• Technology Resources for Parents (Spanish)

The links include step by step guides for parents who wish to sign up for:

• Parent Vue
• Canvas Observer Accounts
• School Meals
• Bus Information

Updated PE/Music PLC SIW Calendar–The PE/Music PLC calendar has been updated with a few SIW changes. The changes were made to match all the other groups (speech and language, psychs, counselors, SSCs, etc.) who will be meeting during 1 building SIW a month as well. This way you will always have 1 SIW a month with everyone. Please honor these days for the groups and don’t plan things you need them to attend.

For School STAS Team Members: Please make sure members of your School STAS Level 1 team sign up for the SIRC training.

What is SIRC: The Sexual Incident Response Committee sets of assessment protocols and safety planning procedures overseen and administered by a unique collaborative team. The SIRC process is much like the STAS process, but is used when the event is sexual in nature (harassment, assault, etc..).

All Level 1 Team members must register for a full day of SIRC training if they have not previously attended. It is only necessary to attend one day (not both). There is a maximum of 50 participants for each day. Training dates have been separated by elementary and secondary levels.  Additional dates will be determined as needed.  Registration links for SIRC trainings are attached.  

SIRC Training Dates:

• October 16, 2023 8:00 – 4:30 @ High Desert ESD (Middle & High School). Registration 

• October 17, 2023 8:00 – 4:30 @ Bend-La Pine School District (Elementary). Registration

From Kinsey:

• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): We are working to improve the workplace experiences and sense of belonging of our employees.  One of the many ways we are doing this is through co-designed systems of support and networking called Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).  Details here—page 2 has FAQ, in case you get questions.  
  • In 22-23 a few different ERGs met regularly throughout the year, with awesome facilitators and lots of fun activities!  Thanks to those of you who participated or encouraged your staff to participate.  We are re-launching groups for 23-24, and need your help.
  • Can you please ensure all staff are aware of this opportunity?  Here is a pre-written message you can send your staff—thanks for sharing in the next week or so. 
• CAFE program: If you haven’t shared last week’s CAFE Program info with your staff yet–or if you’d like to send a reminder–here is that staff message again as well.
• Bias Lessons: HERE ARE the Bias Incident Lesson Series materials. Admin, please connect with your ICCL DEI reps to include teacher leadership in preparing the lesson roll-out for successful implementation across your building. Reach out to our district Equity Coaches to schedule support for your staff, and let me know if you have questions or concerns I can support!

From Julie (Curriculum, Instruction and Systems):

• Important Information regarding Dreambox: Dreambox has a new baseline assessment called Launchpad. ALL students will need to take this assessment as it will provide teachers and schools with valuable information regarding student’s strengths and areas for growth. We will be launching the assessment on September 18th.  When student’s login they will need to complete the assessment which will take 15-45 minutes depending on grade level.  The assessment can be paused and started again-it does not need to be finished in one sitting.  Students will need to complete Launchpad by September 27th.  Here is a link to a quick video and one-pager explaining Launchpad.  Students will have normal access to Dreambox until September 18th.
• Language Arts and Math Curriculum Review Update: Please plan for 15-60 minutes 4-5 times this year during a staff meeting or SIW for both the Language Arts and the Math Curriculum Review team members to share updates.

Important Dates!

• September 18-29, first round of partnered site visits will happen these two weeks. Scheduling will come later, but you can expect they will be sometime between 8:00-11:30.
• Sept 20, 2:00 All Admin Meeting at Perseverance Hall @ BSHS.
• Sept 26, 3:00-5:00 Horizontal Meeting at Three Rivers School, 56900 Enterprise Dr in Sunriver.

and finally….

“I know I am only in kindergarten, but I am doing amazing!!” —-one very excited and confident kindergarten student talking to Mr. Brocker this week about his first day of school.

As we traveled around the district these last two days to stop in and say hi, it was clearly evident across elementary schools, that this year is off to a great start. We saw that Tier 1 systems and belonging is a priority, and that the people in our schools love what they do and know why they do it. May the year continue with the same boost of confidence and belonging that that kindergarten teacher at Jewell instilled in one of the class of 2036 this week!

From Jennifer Hauth: Thank you all for participating in the Wayfinder trainings last week. We trained 33 schools in one tool – a huge success and lots of great feedback. Many of you have been so excited about Wayfinder and you are ready to share information with your families.  I am working with Scott Maben on content that can be shared, we want to be mindful to use Life and Career readiness when speaking about our new tool so please wait to share with families until we get some agreed upon text.

Our focus has been teachers and students for this first wave of training. Later this month, we will prioritize Student Success, Learning Specialists, School Psychs and Speech and Language for logins and training. Many secondary people in this position have received training with their school site and are waiting on a login. We are working on it 😊

For ongoing tech assistance, please use the process outlined in the blog last week for Austin’s team. Thank you!

From Tami Pike re: Communication to the School Nurse After School Hours

Non-Urgent Student Matters For any non-urgent student health matters, please email your school nurse and they will get back to you on the next school day. Please do not phone or text after school hours.

Urgent/Emergent Student Matters For any urgent/emergent student health matters that need to be addressed immediately, please contact Tami Pike for assistance. (please text first 541-350-8387)

Employee Health Related Questions. For any employee health-related questions/concerns, please reach out to Human Resources at 541-355-1100.

WHEN TO STAY HOME REMINDER

Illness Symptoms and When to Stay Home. Bend-La Pine Schools follows the Oregon Health Authority/Oregon Department of Education’s Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools. This guidance includes when an individual should be excluded from attending school on site (including any school-related activities such as clubs and sports). 

For information on symptom-based exclusion guidelines, see page 8 of the Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools. 

• Fever – An individual must be fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications.
• Diarrhea/vomiting – Must be 48 hours since last episode.

COVID-19 is no longer an excludable disease (unless symptoms of fever, vomiting, and/or diarrhea are present). 

Parents/guardians/staff are no longer required to report positive cases of COVID-19 to the schools. COVID-19 test kits and medical grade face masks are available to students and staff upon request. Check with your school nurse about how to obtain a supply for your school.

You may also refer staff to the Health and Wellness section on our Bend-La Pine Schools website for more information about when to stay home.

From Kinsey:  CAFE Program Please read and share applicable portions with your staff:

A key tool we offer for translation/interpretation support is the Bend-La Pine Schools’ CAFE Program for staff.  Full details here.  Note: School and dept administrators should be familiar with items 5 and 6 on page 2.  

We are lauching the sign-up process to add new members to the CAFE Program.  Please help us ensure all staff have access to this information and opportunity: Here is a pre-written message you can copy and send to your whole staff (all certified, classified, administrative, and confidential staff are welcome to participate).  

Thank you for sending that message within the next week!  Additional information about CAFE, including the most up-to-date list of members, can always be found on the Portal’s Equity page.

Rock Chucks, and Mice, and Squirrels—Oh My! Hopefully that got your attention, as we do not want to draw attention to these critters in our schools. Here is a quick word from Walt Norris and Wes Martin in Custodial regarding these.

As you all know Central Oregon is home to many critters who like to set up camp in and around our school buildings.  Each year the Custodial and Maintenance Dept fields many phone calls and receives multiple work orders regarding various pests.  Here is the newsletter created by Oregon State University Extension Service regarding Intergrated Pest Management and what you can do to avoid these critters in your schools. (cliff notes: ALL food should be stored in plastic tubs with tight fitting lids!) Wes and Walt appreciate the seriousness in which you take these guidelines, as it truly does help keep the pests at bay.

Curriculum, Instruction, and Systems Updates from Julie: Curriculum- If you have staff members who still need additional curriculum please have them fill out this form.

Access to Digital Tools Updates:  Please share with staff

Teaching and Learning and Instructional Technology are working hard to make sure each and every teacher and student has access to the digital tools they need for a successful start to the school year.   The team has hit a few barriers along the way and is working hard to resolve those issues as quickly as possible. 

Here is an update on timelines:

1. Wonders- a few rostering issues are happening currently. These should be resolved by next week . K-1 will only have access to the Teacher’s Edition. 2-5 will have access to both the Teacher’s Edition and the Student Edition

2. Really Great Reading-Classroom teachers should have access to their online teaching tool and reading playgrounds by the end of this week.  Blend classrooms are loaded and should be visible for teachers and students.  Interventionists, Learning Specialists and Educational Assistants should have access by the middle of next week

3. Lexia and Dreambox-a few rostering issues were happening earlier in the week and should now be resolved.  Both programs should be visible for teachers and students

4. Acadience– will be available early next week. If you don’t have what you need. Please let us know by following the link below:

Instructional Tech and Information Technology partnered to build an application where teachers can see what tools have been deployed to each of their classes. At the top of this page there is a feature where they can request a new tool. This can be requests to add, change, or remove tools

.

5. DIBELS testing starts next week.  Here are a few reminders of building responsibilities for setting up for a successful testing day. 

• The DIBELS team tests all students K-5.  The only exception to this is students who need to be tested by a familiar tester. 
• Set up the testing space with at least 12 testing spaces
• Have school staff (interventionists, educational assistants) available to support testing
• Arrange to have a runner available to pick up classes at testing time and to help manage classes when waiting to be tested
• Send a schedule of when classes will be tested out to staff
• Optional but very appreciated:  a few snacks for the team

6. Instructional Coaches– Next week a few of our instructional coaches are completing a two-year LETRS (Language Essentials for Teaching Reading and Spelling) training and will officially become LETRS facilitators.  This will allow us as a district to train district staff in LETRS.  This is a note to let you know that Sara Swedlund, Dyan Sultzer and Kaelynn Adams will not be in buildings next week.

Seesaw Training – a reminder to sign up 2 teachers…. On Sept 26^th we will be having a half day Seesaw training for teachers from each school.  On this spreadsheet please indicate the two teachers you will be sending to the Seesaw training on 9/26. Ideally you will send one primary and one intermediate teacher. These teachers don’t have to be a current super user of Seesaw but should be enthusiastic to learn more about the program and be willing to train others back at your site. The training will focus mainly on parent engagement and will take place in the board room at the Ed Center. The actual training will run from 8-11 to allow teachers time to return to their building. 

From Sean in Student Services: Please make sure you review this and present the information to staff at some point this fall.

Building Level Process for Suicide Risk Intervention

Oregon requires each school district to have a comprehensive suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention plan, otherwise known as Adi’s Act. Our plan requires staff training in suicide prevention (QPR, ASIST), a plan for intervention when suicide risk is recognized, and postvention response procedures to support students, staff, and families. 

Each administrator will work with their school based mental health staff to ensure a building level process for referring students who demonstrate concern and be able to answer the following questions to inform all staff: 

• What is your school’s process for staff to refer a student to help?
  • Do your staff know where and how to refer?
  • Do they know what to do after hours?
• In the event of risk for suicide, is there a back up plan in case trained staff are unavailable? 

The BLS Schools Intervention Flyer outlines the process for referring a student for help while in school as well as the process for all staff if they receive information on risk after school hours or on break. All staff are responsible for reporting risk. 

Please ensure that all building staff have access to this handout and are comfortable with how to refer students both during the school day and after hours. 

Questions?  Please contact:

Sean Reinhart, Executive Director of Student Services, [email protected]

Jamie Gunter, Suicide Prevention Coordinator, j[email protected]

Will the next “Kid Governor” in Oregon come from a 5th grade class in Bend-La Pine? We hope so! Please share the information at this link for the 5th grade Kid Governor program with your staff and students. Don’t delay, the program is now open!

Next Week’s Site Visits: We are trying something new this year with site visits. We’ll be around more often but for shorter visits with a foucs on getting into classrooms to observe belonging and high quality instruction. A visit will be 60 minutes, with at least 30 minutes in classrooms, time to debrief what we all notice, and a few minutes left for any topics you may need to talk about. Our schedules are tight with short travel windows between schools. Please know this is an attempt at a new format and we will be getting your input after a couple rounds to make sure it is working for all of us. Thanks for letting us try something new!

Important Dates!

• September 11-15, first round of Director site visits will happen. By now you should have received an invite to a visit. If not, reach out to Lisa or Tammy to let them know.
• September 13, First School Improvement Wednesday (SIW). Early release at 12:45.
• September 18-29, first round of partnered site visits will happen these two weeks. Scheduling will come later, but you can expect they will be sometime between 8:00-11:30.

and finally….