Month: October 2023

October 26, 2023

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Do Now:

  • If you are a title school, please finalize your compacts and put in your folder.
  • Make a plan for working with staff so they can complete SLGGs in the next few weeks. Due 12/1.
  • Please let us know if you have a “Chess Club” at your school. We have a retired teacher in search of a chess club to support (Bend area only please).

Reminders:

New Notes:

From Lisa and Tammy: Lots of great stuff at the PBIS conference this week. One nugget stands out: “…effective educators implement the following “top ten” intervention strategies to support and respond to student behaviors in their classroom.” -Center for PBIS

Although the title of the above link says “students with disabilities”, ALL of the practices are great foundations for our classrooms. Remember, it is nearly impossible to intervene for students with intense needs if Tier I practices are not in place in the school/classroom. This list is helpful, practical, and clear in supporting all of our classrooms to be created for all students.

HR Performance Module: We recognize that we released a firehose of information during Wednesday’s Leadership meeting on the Performance module. Feel free to access the following resources:

Student Teachers: Recently, there have been a number of aspiring student teachers who have reached out directly to our schools to inquire about securing a placement at that particular site, so I’d like to take a moment to explain the process we follow for placing student teachers.

Currently, we have established agreements in place with George Fox, OSU-Cascades, and Lewis & Clark that allow us to readily accept student teachers when we can match them with a supervising teacher who suits their needs. For requests from other institutions, we require that they be directed to our Human Resources department so that we can engage the institution in the process of developing an MOA that meets both parties’ needs.

Each request beyond our established agreements is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Typically, we only consider such requests when they offer opportunities for our existing employees, such as Educational Assistants seeking licensure, or when they present a chance for us to develop relationships with individuals pursuing hard-to-fill positions like Special Education or Advanced Mathematics.

If you’re approached with any inquiries, please direct them to Ryan Kelling to continue the conversation. And if you ever have questions or need further clarification, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Ryan.

TLC Update: October 25th Elementary TLC Update– including LA curriculum feedback, Seesaw change, Wayfinder resources, and movement moments.

From Student Services: Specialist Evaluations

  • Evaluations School Psychologist: Administrators you should have received an email from Colleen Funderburg and Josh Marks outlining your responsibilities for evaluations of School Psychologists. If you need additional clarification please reach out.
  • Evaluations Speech Pathologist: All observations and summative evaluations for Speech and Language Pathologist are completed by the assigned sites. In the event that your SLP is shared with another site, you would work together with the other site to complete the observations and summative evaluation. 
  • School Counselors: Site administrators are responsible for all observations and summative evaluations. In the event your school counselor is shared with another site, you would work together with the other site to complete the observations and summative evaluations. Job Description. Evaluation Rubric.
  • Student Success Coordinator/Clinician: Site administrators are responsible for all observations and summative evaluations. Job Description. Evaluation Rubric
  • Student Success Educational Assistant: Site administrators are responsible for all observations and summative evaluations. Job Description. Evaluation Rubric 

Youth Truth is coming up: YouthTruth surveys will be happening in January. This is our fourth year working with the organization. Here is a simple timeline of how the process should unfold over the next few months. More general information about YouthTruth is available on their website https://youthtruthsurvey.org/ 

  • Nov. 14 – We will receive a brief 10-20 minute pre-recorded Kick-Off Webinar for principals to watch by Nov. 24.
  • Nov. 27 – YouthTruth will send principals (and any site survey coordinators listed on the submitted School Information Form) instructions on how to access their school’s unique Survey Implementation Guide. This is the first email that school-level teams will receive directly from YouthTruth.
  • Nov. 27 – Dec. 22 – School teams use the instructions in the Survey Implementation Guide to prepare for surveying. This should take a few hours total. 
  • Jan. 2 – Jan. 26 – This is the survey window for all student, staff, and family surveys.
  • Feb. 9 – Results will be available to schools.

Updated Background Checks: We have now switched over to our new Background Check Provider and are using the new links to background check for our Volunteers and Independent Contractors, as applicable. Each applicant should use the link appropriate for their group type. Please visit our Volunteer Page for the new link where potential Volunteers will complete their background check application. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the red “Register” tab.

Student medical leaves: Occasionally a student will experience a significant medical situation that requires an extended absence.  While our attendance policy addresses basic options for this, we have developed additional guidance to support teams in navigating these infrequent situations.  Here is the current draft of this guidance.  We are sharing this now for your awareness. 

New to Sharezies: Check out the PBIS area for a link to the Problem Solving Circle Outline from Silver Rail. You can find the CARE referral form and the CARE meeting summary form in the MTSS area shared from Jewell.

Important Dates

  • Nov. 2-3: ASIST training. Reach out to Jamie Gunter with questions
  • Nov. 10: Veterans Day
  • Nov. 15: School Design Plan Template due
  • Nov. 15 (3-4:30): Monthly Administrator PD at Perseverance Hall at Bend High
  • Nov. 16: District wide Latino Family Night at Pilot Butte Middle School–dinner starts at 5:30
  • Nov. 20-24: Thanksgiving Break
  • Nov. 28 (3:00-5:00): Elementary Horizontal Meeting at Juniper Elementary

And finally… I don’t know about you but

Hang in there everyone! You’ve got this!

October 19, 2023

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“the greatest indicator of life span wasn’t genetics, diet, or the amount of daily exercise, as many had suspected. It was lung capacity.”
― James Nestor, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

In other words…..

42589493 – take a deep breath

Do Now:

  • Make sure you have the space for your Language Arts preview materials for conferences identified.
  • At Fall conferences we are required by Senate Bill 1003 to provide a parent notification for any Kindergarten student who was “well below benchmark” as measured by Acadience (DIBELS) in the area of early literacy skills. Here is a link to the process and the letters. Refer to Julie’s e-mail regarding student names.
  • Self Check! Are you following this policy (INB-AR) when it comes to Parents and Guardians receiving Notice and Alternative Options when it comes to controversial issues being discussed in the classroom? Familiarize yourself with the policy and see that teachers are doing it too.

Reminders:

New Notes:

From Lisa and Tammy:

  • Conference Greeters: It is an expectation that during conferences, there is ALWAYS a greeter at the area where families enter the building. They don’t need to sign in, but someone must be near the door at all times. This may mean that you need to adjust your office staff calendars or share some of these roles with those that are less tied to the classroom.
  • Vector Trainings (Safe Schools): If your days aren’t packed, Conferences are a great time to get these done. Due 10/31
  • Upcoming horizontal: At our next horizontal, you can plan on digging into personnel scenarios as well as behavioral scenarios together with colleagues. As we share more, we learn more! Jewell and Silver Rail will also be sharing.
  • Out: We will be out next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, which means we will miss the District Admin PD and conferences. If you need support during that time, you can reach out to us by text/phone call. If you need on-site support, please reach out to Lora.

From HR:

Certified Evaluation Process

BLS and BEA have reached an agreement to modify the certified evaluation process for 2023/24.  Please share this document with your staff.  The document will be automatically sent out to all certified staff in early November through UKG/BLS email when we go-live with the Performance module.

New administrators are learning about the BLS certified performance review process during a meeting on Thursday, 10/19. We recommend that all administrators re-familiarize themselves with the Certified Growth & Performance Manual. 

Performance Module Training

On Wednesday, August 25, at 3 pm, we’ll be presenting to BLS Leadership the Performance Review module.  If you want to get a preview of the 10/25 presentation, you can access the following resources:

Conferences and Seesaw:

  • Have teachers review their list of connected families and be prepared to help those who still have not connected
  • Have teachers print copies of the instructions on how to connect and help parents sign up on the spot
  • Follow up with teachers afterward about families still needing to connect. Work together to reach out again
  • Want more information or Seesaw how-tos? Check out this document

New to Sharezies: Are you looking for a fun way to check on your Tier 1 and classroom culture implementation? Check out this scavenger hunt that Lava Ridge made for their staff to implement expectations and ask questions about their Tier 1 systems. Also, are you looking for a great visual way to represent all the implementation data you collected from staff at the last Educator Network Day? If so, check out the Phases of Implementation and Goal setting data tracker that Buckingham is using. At a glance, they can see trends among the school and grade levels.

Important Dates

  • Oct 24, 3:00-5:00. Elementary Admin meeting 3:00-5:00, at Jewell, with Jewell and Silver Rail hosting
  • Oct. 25, 3:00-4:30 Monthly Administrator PD at Perseverance Hall at Bend High (UKG!)
  • Oct. 25 & 26: School Conferences
  • Oct 25-27. Tammy and Lisa out at a PBIS Leaders Conference
  • Oct. 26: Additional CPI Training (paid by SPED for Inclusion or SPED teams)
  • Nov 2-3 ASIST training. Reach out to Jamie Gunter with questions
  • Nov. 15 School Design Plan Template due
  • Nov 16 District wide Latino Family Night at Pilot Butte Middle School–dinner starts at 5:30

And finally…

Are you looking for a unique and mindful way to start the day at your school? Why not Mindful Morning Music? Check out this interview that Deborah at Rosland did with KBND this week about this fun program that the Sunriver Music Festival has brought to their school. (p.s. Heads up If you are an NPR fan like me, the radio host may dis on that program—is it because he is not a fan or is it because it is their morning competition? You decide!). Great job Deborah!

October 12, 2023

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Conferences are on the horizon and every teacher feels some level of anxiety over this event. Here’s an easy checklist to help teachers keep the main thing the main thing. If our schools can say, “Yes!” to the bullets below, we’ve done a great job during conferences.

Did the parent feel that the teachers:

  • have their child’s best interest at heart
  • get their child
  • don’t judge them
  • have empathy for any difficult situations
  • are approachable and won’t get defensive. 
  • are flexible in creating solutions that meet the needs of their child.
  • include them in helping their child succeed. (But they don’t feel like it’s all falling on their shoulders.)
  • will help their child succeed

Do Now:

Title Budget Due 10/13: Please let Meryll know when it is complete!

UKG: Confirm Staff assignments in UKG by going to My Team>Employee Assignments. Use this google form to identify the corrections needed at your site. Due by Monday 10/16.

School Schedule: Share it HERE. Make sure that these have clearly defined PE minutes and that your classified supports have breaks and lunches. Due by Wednesday 10/18.

New Notes:

From Lisa and Tammy:

  • Common learning topics: We are noticing that several people have similar needs and there may not be enough time during our scheduled meetings to get the learning to you. In order to get info to those who may have specific needs, we will be having hour-log sessions periodically on specific topics like budgeting, long-term siw planning, SLGGs, data access and use, etc. Look for these dates coming up in the future and if you have specific ideas, please let us know.
  • School visitations: We are altering our schedules slightly to have a week with individual visits, a buffer week, two weeks of joint visits, and then a buffer week. We have noticed that as things get rolling we have had to make adjustments along the way. We will still notify you of when we are coming your way but have a bit more flexibility with times.
  • Upcoming horizontal: At our next horizontal, you can plan on digging into personnel scenarios as well as behavioral scenarios together with colleagues. As we share more, we learn more! Jewell and Silver Rail will also be sharing.

From TLC: October 11th Elementary TLC Update

From Curriculum, Instruction and Systems-Julie:

Important:  Please put the following in your family newsletters before conferences

Would you like to learn more about EL Education-the finalist for K-5 Language Arts Curriculum?

Access materials digitally here

Provide feedback digitally here

A sample of physical materials will be on display at each Elementary school during conferences (in the front entry) the evening of October 25th and all day on October 26th.

This information is currently being translated into Spanish.  I will share as soon as I receive from Linguistic Links.

  • The Math Curriculum Review Team members will be reaching out to you to share new learning with your staff.  Please allow them at least 15 minutes, or more if you are able to present to staff before January 12th. They will do another between January 25-April 9 and one between April 22-May 31. If you do not have a representative, an Instruction Coach will be reaching out to you.
  • At Fall conferences we are required by Senate Bill 1003 to provide a parent notification for any Kindergarten student who was “well below benchmark” as measured by Acadience (DIBELS) in the area of early literacy skills. Here is a link to the process and the letters. Refer to Julie’s e-mail regarding student names.

From the Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion:

  • Halloween costumes: A reminder to be thoughtful as you prepare for any staff or team costume themes: avoid cultural appropriation or offensive caricatures or stereotypes.  Some examples here.  LEAD/Equity Coaches have shared with your school’s DEI-ICCL rep some resources for talking with students about this issue as well.
  • International events and increased awareness: Please keep extra eyes and ears out for anti-Semitic comments or incidents right now.  Our Jewish community is deeply impacted by recent international incidents and have indicated concern for increased bias incidents in this regard.  Thank you for swiftly interrupting and reporting anything of this nature.  
  • Upcoming Office of DEI events: Thurs, Nov 16th: Our annual district-wide Latino Family Night will be November 16th at Pilot Butte Middle School.  Dinner 5:30pm, Opening 6:00pm, Sessions 6:30-7:45pm.  Please join us to welcome and connect with your Latino families!  Feel free to invite your staff and families directly.

UKG Information:

  • What to do in UKG when staff is out for training: Staff MUST submit a Time-off Request for ‘School Business’ Leave. This will not affect their accruals in any way, but it does help the district track employees who are not in their regular position. This Time-Off Request should NOT be overridden in the timesheet with a Secondary Job if it is in their regular work day.
  • IF the employee works later than their regularly scheduled time, only then must they add an additional line to their timesheet in UKG, on the date of training, and add those hours, selecting the appropriate Secondary Job and include a GL code if necessary.  Staff should not modify any existing lines on their timesheet.
  • Instructions on how to properly record this time in UKG see the following document:    https://docs.google.com/document/d/18HfaYzpt_IseySx-FE5fpl3XFUwQwMoyP4-KoVN-ABk/edit?usp=sharing
  • Admin UKG To Do List
  • Additional Note:   When subs are needed to cover a staff members job, while they are away for training, notations of where that sub needs to be charged must be noted in Red Rover, not UKG.  Red Rover is a separate system which needs this information to ensure costs of subs are accurately tracked.  Red Rover does not talk to UKG.

Conferences and Seesaw:

  • Have teachers review their list of connected families and be prepared to help those who still have not connected
  • Have teachers print copies of the instructions on how to connect and help parents sign up on the spot
  • Follow up with teachers afterward about families still needing to connect. Work together to reach out again
  • Want more information or Seesaw how-tos? Check out this document

New to Sharezies: If you want to check out pre-formal observation tools, take a look at some additions from Juniper and Pine Ridge. Elk Meadow created a tool to house the goals that were written during SIW this week. The new TAG folder is shared as well.

Reminders:

Important Dates:

  • Oct. 13 Title 1 Budgets due to Meryll
  • Oct 24, 3:00-5:00. Elementary Admin meeting 3:00-5:00, at Jewell, with Jewell and Silver Rail hosting
  • Oct. 25, 3:00-4:30 Monthly Administrator PD at Perseverance Hall at Bend High (UKG!)
  • Oct. 25 & 26: School Conferences
  • Oct 25-27. Tammy and Lisa out at a PBIS Leaders Conference
  • Oct. 26: Additional CPI Training (paid by SPED for Inclusion or SPED teams)
  • Nov 2-3 ASIST training. Reach out to Jamie Gunter with questions
  • Nov. 15 School Design Plan Template due

And finally…

A reminder that you can’t have rainbows (2!) without a little rain! Thanks for sharing Elk Meadow!

October 5, 2023

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New Notes:

Admin/ICCL Follow Up: A couple of follow ups from our training on Tuesday. First, we want you to know that we shared the wrong ICCL job description. It was an older version and was not up to date with a few things (hours of work for the year for example should be 60). Here is the current job description. Also, here is the main presentation link, which has links to everything and the link to Julie’s presentation that your team will present on 10/11 SIW. In addition, here is the link to the google drive where you will find your school folder with your school design template.

Speaking of your school design template, we are giving you until Wednesday, November 15 to have your design plans completed. In the meantime, we will be checking in with you at site visits about the work you and your ICCL team are doing, and how we may be of help.

WAYFINDER HELP. Please connect with Lisa and Tammy about any classrooms/grade levels you feel are using Wayfinder regularly and interested in being a showcase classroom. The Wayfinder team will be in Bend on the 24th of October and would like to see this work in action and we need 8-10 classrooms to visit.

From Scott B and Kayla in Safety: Schools are off to a great start with their safety training to staff and students and completing their first fire drill and lockdown drill of the school year.

A reminder, please ensure that once your school has completed your drill(s) for the month, to update the drill tracker with the date you completed your drill, and the drill evaluation form and save the form in your schools google safety resources folder. Please reach out to Scott or Kayla with any questions. Thanks for keeping our schools safe!

From Student Services (Colleen, Josh, and Sean) We are very excited to share that we are partnering with The National Resource Center for Paraeducators, NRCP, to provide monthly professional development opportunities for all Inclusion Educational Assistants. These trainings are designed to help deepen the understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Please read more about these trainings HERE. Your learning specialists and inclusion EAs were provided this information earlier this week in our Special EDge.  For additional questions please contact Krista Hought and Stephanie Smith. 

We are offering additional CPI training.  An initial CPI training is scheduled for Thursday, October 26.  This is a non-workday for elementary and middle school inclusion EAs due to conferences.  If your inclusion EA has not been trained and chooses to attend, the student services department will pay for the timesheet.  This training should be in UKG soon!  Upcoming CPI refresher and initial training will be scheduled on February 2, 2024. 

Our team of eight Student Services Coaches is incredible and we are fortunate to have so much expertise and specialized skill sets.  Because they are so amazing, they are often requested to support in ways that are not aligned with their roles and responsibilities. They have three domains of focus: Staff Development, Leadership/Contribution to Learning, and Working with Teams. Please familiarize yourself HERE to read more about expectations and how they can support you and your special education teams. If you have any additional questions about how your student services coach can support your school and teams, please contact Colleen or Josh.  Additionally, if you need a quick reference for who is assigned to support your site, check out our ‘2023/2034-Who is Where Quick Guide’.

From Paul in HR: Performance Evaluation Module: After some internal discussion with administrative staff who oversee the UKG Suite of Products, we’ve decided to pause the launch of the Performance module for two reasons: (1) we have some people/supervisors mismatched and want to avoid workflows of goal setting and observations forms from landing in an incorrect To Do mailbox, and (2) we’ll be meeting with district leadership on Wednesday, October 25th and will be providing a more extensive overview of the module functionality and answer your questions at that time.

Please continue your mini/formal observations as you’ve been doing and we’ll provide you with information on the 25th about how to enter that data into the Performance module.  For those administrators who are preparing to work with their staff on creating student learning growth goals (SLGGs) during the month of October, you may have staff use this google form. Staff can either make a digital copy to complete or they can print and fill out a hard copy.  On the 25th, we’ll review the method that certified staff will use to upload the goal setting form into the Performance module.  

For those creating school wide or team SLGGs for non academic areas, I came across SLG Goals for Social Emotional Learning & Engagement that I think is a great resource.  Here are two more resources that I think will be particularly helpful:

  1. State SLGG Guidance
  2. Teacher and Administrator Evaluation & Support Systems: Frequently Asked Questions

UKG Data Check – Reminder. We are asking building leaders to confirm that their staff assignments in UKG are correct.  You may navigate to your My Team tab, then go to My Saved Reports and Staff Assignments to view your people and positions.  If you see something that isn’t accurate, please use this google form to identify the corrections needed at your site.

DHS Training Video: Please watch this 6 minute video as it is important learning for you regarding the state’s process in investigating child abuse in schools (that is when there is a question about something that has happened at school or on our buses). There were several of these investigations last year in our elementary schools. This will help you better understand the process should it happen at your school.

Bargaining: Some of you are being asked questions about bargaining from staff or families. Please know that any discussion/update on the bargaining process in this context could be considered an unfair labor practice. Instead of trying to respond with information, here’s an example of what you could say (to staff): “I am not involved in this process. Your building rep/association leaders would be good people to check with if you have questions”; (to parents) “I am not involved in this process. If the district has new information to share about the process, it will be part of our family newsletter.” Thanks for navigating these conversations with care. In the meantime, Steve Cook or Steve Herron will continue to provide updates for administrators only at our monthly meetings.

Recommendations for students for private schools: We recently received a question from one of our local K-12 private schools about policies prohibiting teachers from writing recommendations for students to attend private schools. BLS does not have such a policy. On the other hand, staff should feel NO PRESSURE to complete these types of recommendations. Our only suggestion is that in order to avoid bias, staff do not “pick and choose” who they write recommendations for…either they are willing to complete a recommendation whenever asked or as a matter of practice they politely decline.

Elementary TAG Coordinators–from Lora: Our meeting Tuesday, October 9th, will begin at 4:00 instead of 3:30, so that it doesn’t interfere with 504 training some of you may be attending. I will send out a link to all elementary admin as soon as I figure out Teams ☹ , but only TAG coordinators need to “attend.”

Fire Inspection FYI from Dan Dummit: Dan has been making the rounds with the new fire inspector recently. He wanted to be sure that you all have this document, (created by Portland Fire and Rescue) which outlines the expectations for our classrooms when it comes to fire safety. To highlight a few things that we want to draw your attention to because they are common problems, please refer to #4, #8, #9. Also, while you notice there are some things on this sheet that, if done correctly can be used, they go against our sustainability practices and should be avoided, #10 and #18 for example.

Curriculum, Instruction, and Systems Updates from Julie: Seesaw: Representatives from most schools attended a Seesaw training last week and learned about some of the fantastic features this platform provides for family engagement.  Please invite your representative(s) to share at an upcoming staff meeting. 

Upcoming Professional Learning: You may have a few teachers out next week because they will be participating in some important professional learning.  Instructional coaches may not be in your buildings during these trainings because they are supporting teachers from each of your schools. 

  • Monday, 10/9. Blends Support-some of our Blends teachers will be working with our instructional coaches on the morning of the 9th.  
  • Monday, 10/9 Experienced New Hire-Literacy Focus-12:15-3:15-Boardroom- This is a professional learning session for educators that are new to Bend La Pine but not in their first 2 years in the profession.  This is an opportunity to learn about Bend La Pine’s focus on literacy, connect with your instructional coach and collaborate with teachers across the district.
  • Tuesday, 10/10 Math Curriculum Review Team-8:00-3:00- Educators from across the district will be participating in a math best practices professional learning session. 

New to Sharezies: If you want to communicate expectations about personal electronic devices (phones and watches) to families, check out this communication from Erich at Jewell.

Reminders:

  • Conferences- Less than 25 students= 25-30 minutes. More students = 20 minutes.
  • Personal Leave- Maximum of 5% of staff can be out on personal leave.
  • EA emergency EA funds- you have 70 hours to use when needs arise.
  • ASIST training will be coming up Nov. 2 & 3- reach out to Jamie Gunter with questions
  • Classified schedules- Are these complete for each employee, including breaks and lunch?
  • Prevent, Teach, Respond information, PTR Facilitators Guide
  • MTSS Tier 3 process
  • most recent TLC Update
  • Please share your school schedule here

Title School To-Dos

Please put in the folder called “All Documents Here” :

  • Notification of Annual Meeting (flyer, social media post, etc) that advertises the Title meeting
  • Sign in sheet from the annual meeting
  • Powerpoint/slide deck, handout from the Annual Meeting
  • Family Engagement events—flyers/advertising
  • Sign-in sheets from any family engagement event you have had
  • Ensure EAs are under the direct supervision of a certified teacher and add schedules of Title staff to the folder as well
  • Budget completes and Meryll notified by 10/13

Coming soon: A sample Title 1 compact needs to be uploaded to the folder after conferences. You need to retain a copy of each compact at the school (can be paper or electronic) Compacts will be out to you early next week.

Important Dates:

  • Oct. 6 Complete this google form with your corrections by Friday, October 6th for UKG
  • Oct. 11, 1:45-3:15 Ed Network Training–on your site for classroom teachers
  • Oct. 13 Title 1 Budgets due to Meryll
  • Oct 24, 3:00-5:00. Elementary Admin meeting 3:00-5:00, at Jewell, with Jewell and Silver Rail hosting
  • Oct. 25, 3:00-4:30 Monthly Administrator PD at Perseverance Hall at Bend High (UKG!)
  • Oct 25-27. Tammy and Lisa out at a PBIS Leaders Conference

And finally…

A little something similar to what we did as a quick connection at cabinet this week. You really get to know someone when you get to know their preferences!