Month: January 2024

January 25, 2024

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Click on the picture above to learn more, get free games, and add a bit of joy to your Monday!

Do Now:

Please complete your letters by Friday for your third year employees and put them in this google drive.

We only have a couple days left of Youth Truth! The district has a goal of 100% staff participation and 75% families participating and the last day is February 2nd. Here is a “Cheat sheet” to help with implementation. We should have reports on February 16th.

Please make a plan with your staff around teaching to meet Erin’s Law between February and May. Here the resources for both the family letter and instruction. Principals, please document and ensure lessons were taught via this form.  Return to April Jorgenson in Teaching and Learning when complete. You can refer to last week’s blog for other resources as well.


Here is the flyer invitation for our Black History Month kick-off. Please work with your ICCL-DEI rep or other relevant staff to make sure that any Black/African American students, families, and staff at your school are personally invited to this event, and that your staff are aware of the event (they’re welcome to share with students/families as they see fit). 

Finally, we are looking for teachers to share their practice and ideas with other teachers at our Feb 28th Educator Network Day.  Please have them sign up here if they have an idea for a session and are willing to facilitate that session.

Reminders:

New Notes:

From Stuart Schmidt at The Center: If you are new to our district you may not know about our third grade Train Your Brain program. This is a partnership with The Center to support our students with helmet use and helmet fitting. It is now the time of year when we begin planning for this program. Here is the link to the sign-up sheet. Principals, please sign up on this sheet for your spring session by February 16th at the latest. This allows the team enough time to coordinate with volunteers who help with the helmet fitting and make a presentation schedule for staff. Alex Walker will be taking the lead on communicating with schools and following up regarding the schedule.

From Kayla in Safety: School Resource Officer Appreciation Day is February 15th. The Safety Team is requesting your help to collect cards, notes, pictures, etc. to present to our SRO team. The goal is to highlight the positive relationship between our SROs and their schools. If you are willing, please offer your students the opportunity to share their appreciation for their respective SRO, and send any items to the Safety Team at the Ed Center no later than Friday, February 9th. We are also happy to stop by and pick them up! 

From Sean in Student Services: A reminder of upcoming regional Culture of Care professional development sessions that still have space available for Central Oregon educators and school partners. Register for all opportunities here!

  • Using Restorative Questions & Circles Effectively (Tier II): Builds on the intro course, diving deeper into using the RP questions and facilitating proactive and responsive circles.
    • Tuesday, February 13th, 8:30am-12:30pm in Boardroom at Bend Education Center
  • Restorative Conferencing (Tier III): A responsive process to engage with those who cause and experience harm, along with related community to bring about healing, facilitate reentry and repair relationships. Introduction and Circles training recommended as prerequisites.
    • Tuesday, April 23rd, 8:30am-12:30pm at Trinity Episcopal, Bend
  • Community of Practice sessions also available following each training for further exploration and practice.

From Jennifer in Student Services: National School Counseling Week 2024 (#NSCW24) is Feb. 5-9, 2024, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within U.S. school systems. National School Counseling Week, sponsored by ASCA, highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career. National School Counseling Week is always celebrated the first full week in February. 

Here is a “Certificate of Appreciation” that you can use for your counselors as well as a sign for them to hang on their door if you choose. Click on slide below for some resources to help your school celebrate this week with your counselor(s)😊

From Kinsey in DEI:

  1. Racial Equity Professional Learning: Our school district is committed to sending all administrators and supervisors to CFEE. CFEE stands for Coaching for Educational Equity.  This is a four-day intensive workshop focused on racial equity and the impact of Oregon’s unique history on our current education systems. Sending all leaders to this workshop aligns our shared understandings, common language, and core values as a cohesive leadership team.  This alignment supports our strategic priorities, equity stance, and decision-making across the district.

A large portion of our team has already attended!  If you aren’t yet a graduate of this workshop, please register for one of the upcoming sessions, or reach out to Kinsey if you have further questions.   Level leaders and department supervisors will share additional level-specific guidance with their teams, and Kinsey will be in touch with your registration confirmation or wait-list status.

  1. Emerging Student Needs: The Office of DEI is closely tracking some actively-shifting trends we know you are experiencing regarding populations of extremely vulnerable students in your schools: unhoused, immigrant, unaccompanied, and other vulnerable youth.  While these students often do not manifest externalizing behavior challenges, we recognize they have highly specialized needs impacting your school.  We recognize, too, that these students require and deserve immediate care and resources that may be unfamiliar or less accessible to your teams.  

We will be dedicating time at an upcoming Admin PD to address this topic together.  In the meantime, please remember (and remind staff) to feel free to slow down, learn about each student individually, and build relationships.  A great leadership move you could do right now would be to shadow a student for a couple periods or ask a few content teachers how they’re feeling with supporting these vulnerable students in their classes.  As always, if you have an overwhelming need or unique case that needs immediate support, please reach out to relevant support staff (family liaisons, language specialists, FAN, McKinney-Vento coordinator, counselors, equity coaches, etc).  

From Dave in Assessment: Here is an opportunity for LA or math teachers to make some extra money and learn a bit more about testing and their content areas.

From Kimberly re: Belonging Book Study: HERE is the flyer regarding a workshop on February 6th that is not intended to be an introduction to Belonging work. It is a level 2 workshop and will help you decide what comes next after initial work with the book. I have heard from some of you that my initial email for our Instructional Belonging Workshop disappeared. I apologize for the technical difficulties, and am attaching the flyer one more time so you have the opportunity to sign up and share with your colleagues who have read and worked with Belonging through a Culture of Dignity. 

As a reminder, this workshop is not intended to be an introduction to Belonging work. It is a level 2 workshop and will help you decide what comes next after initial work with the book.

From Paul in HR:

​***Probationary/Temporary Certified Staff*****

Reminder: Due by Friday, January 26th

  • Meet with third-year staff member of concern that they are being moved on Support Strategies (contact Lora regarding what this improvement plan needs to look like)
  • Completed and uploaded all of your Renewal Recommendation letters into the appropriate school folder with this google drive
  • The School Board will begin reviewing your letters in early Feburary.

Resource Links

  1. Here is the google drive link of third-year probationary/temporary certified staff (some P2/T2 are also included by administrator request) 
  2. Here is a draft template/sample Renewal Recommendation letter for your guidance (make as many copies of the letter as you need)
  3. Certified Professional Growth and Performance Manual (edition_5_-_evaluation_manual_-_certified_teacher.pdf)
  4. Rubrics for certified staff (link)

From TLC: January 24th Elementary TLC Update which includes Trauma-Informed Report Card Comments, Wayfinder Collection Feature: Self Care for Students, Movement Moments, and more.

From Tammy and Lisa:

Thanks for your time and attention on Tuesday for us to come back to center regarding our literacy expectations and practices. Your work to ensure the baseline practices in all classrooms is the most important step that you can take to put all students on the path toward reading by grade 2. If you’d like a thought partner about what your next steps might be with staff after you take an audit of classroom time, please reach out. We know this work is challenging and we are happy to support in whatever way we can!

Quick reminder: Please remember to give KIDS Inc a 2 week notice prior to asking that they move spaces within the building. We know that things come up and space is at a premium. Just a reminder that our current contract is outlined with the expectation above. Thanks!

Important Dates

  • Jan 31, All Admin PD at Perseverance Hall, 3:00-4:30
  • Jan 31: Black history month kick-off celebration
  • Feb. 8: Lunar New Year celebration/AAPI Family Night
  • Feb. 15: School Resource Officer Appreciation Day
  • Feb 19: President’s Day—This is not a paid holiday, so use non-contract if you don’t work
  • Feb 27: 3:00-5:00. Elementary Leadership, at North Star Elementary
  • Mar. 1: Education Foundation Grants are due: www.blpedfoundation.org

And finally…

I’ve been in three conversations on this topic this week. Hang in there! February is just around the corner🤩!

January 18, 2024

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Do Now:

NEW and Important! Please let teachers know that report cards must be in and completed by the end of the work day on February 2. The sooner you let them know the better. In an effort to help this happen, elementary report cards are now open. When this doesn’t happen on time, the turnover in the Synergy system to the second semester doesn’t happen, attendance can’t be taken accurately, and it causes unnecessary work to fix the systems. Please make a plan for how you can assure all report cards are done and in before you leave on February 2nd. Also, here is a link to support documents that you and your staff may or may not know about for filling out report cards.

Ed Network–Again: Because we were unable to complete the training during Ed Network Day again, and all teachers need to know this information, we are asking that building leaders plan to do this during the next SIW on January 24th. If you hit any other snags along the way and need ideas to problem solve, please reach out to Tammy, Lisa, or Julie. Please use this link for the slides from Kerry for the training. Third time’s a charm!

Follow Your Youth Truth Completion Percentage Here: Need some inspiration on hooking your families into taking the survey? Check out this creative (and darn right funny) way Silver Rail showcased their musical talent and encouraged families to respond.

    You and UKG—Best practice—enter requests for non-contract, sick days, etc. in UKG as soon as you know about it.

    TAG Night Reschedule–Again: We are rescheduling our TAG night for next Wednesday night, January 24, from 6-7:30pm. Same time, same location, just a week later. See Kristy Knoll’s e-mail for a blurb you can share with your families.

Reminders:

New Notes:

Education Foundation Grants–Round 2! The Education Foundation is doing a second round of classroom grants. This time, the grants will be awarded in the following three areas: STEM, PE, and Art/Music. If the number of grant requests exceeds the available funding, they will fund 1 grant per school based on date received and requirements met. Teachers who did not receive funding in Fall 2023 will receive first priority. A grant report will be due by Jun 1, 2024. The grant application opens on February 5th, closes on March 1, and will be announced March 6-15th. It’s not too early to start thinking of what you may need!

Curriculum, Instruction and Systems (Julie Walker) 4 important items to share out with your staff:

  1. Teaching Erin’s Law

Child abuse is a sensitive topic and is delivered most effectively by a student’s trusted adult which is traditionally a classroom teacher. It is recommended to teach one lesson per month in February-May. The next option is to teach one lesson per week during the month of April. In either case, please DO NOT teach a lesson in the week prior to Spring Break as there are often disclosures that occur following taught lessons. Two adults (Teacher/Counselor/SSC/Admin/School Psych & teacher) could be present during these lessons in order to support students and each other. If you have a teacher who has experienced abuse and feels distressed with the idea of teaching this topic, please provide alternate options for their students to be instructed. If you know of a student that has already experienced abuse, please work with the student and family to create an alternative plan for the student during instruction if they feel it is necessary.

Teachers will need to send out a family letter two weeks before teaching a lesson. 

Here the resources for both the family letter and instruction.

Principals:  Please document and ensure lessons were taught via this form.  Return to April Jorgenson in Teaching and Learning when complete

2. Check out this one-pager on marking lessons as complete in Wayfinder.

3. It is time to give the Middle Of Program (MOP) in Reading Playgrounds. Here is a how-to video. Please reach out to instructional coaches with any questions.

These are detailed fact sheets around MOP for each program 

Countdown

Blast

HD Word/Plus

The timeline we recommend for each grade level is on these curriculum maps.  Below are the CLIFF notes of the time frames:

Kindergarten: After Unit 16 in January. Consider a pause and review after MOP

1st grade: after unit 14 in January, MOP

2nd grade:  after unit 14 in January, MOP

3-5th: after unit 14 in January, MOP

4. Last but not least, we are looking for teachers to share their practice and ideas with other teachers at our Feb 28th Educator Network Day.  Please have them sign up here if they have an idea for a session and are willing to facilitate that session.  

From Jenny White (SEL). Wayfinder activity for a staff meeting or opener for SIW:

This activity in Wayfinder could be a fun activity to build community among staff and reinforce the need to fill our own buckets.  It is Refill Your Bucket Resource Board Share these directions on how to find the lesson in Wayfinder with your staff.

From Paul in HR. Reminder: The following is due by Friday, January 26th for your Probationary and Temporary Staff:

  • Meet with third-year staff member of concern that they are being moved on Support Strategies (contact Lora regarding what this improvement plan needs to look like)
  • Completed and uploaded all of your Renewal Recommendation letters into the appropriate school folder with this google drive

Resource Links

  1. Here is the google drive link of third-year probationary/temporary certified staff (some P2/T2 are also included by administrator request) 
  2. Here is a draft template/sample Renewal Recommendation letter for your guidance (make as many copies of the letter as you need)
  3. Certified Professional Growth and Performance Manual (edition_5_-_evaluation_manual_-_certified_teacher.pdf)
  4. Rubrics for certified staff (link)

Performance Evaluations

New charts have been added to Performance & Evaluation Hub within UKG to assist you in tracking your task progress

From Tammy and Lisa:

We know at times it is hard to think of going into school when there is a closure for weather related circumstances. Staff safety is important to us all. When you get the call, and know that you still need to report as close to start time as safely possible, know that we understand you may need to take some extra time to get there and may miss what would typically be the start of the day. If you could please work with your custodians (who are there much earlier) to have a system where they put a sign out front (sandwich board, easle, etc.) where student drop off is located, you won’t need to worry about that one kiddo who’s parent dropped them off, not seeing that they didn’t make it inside, leaving the child standing at a locked school door in freezing conditions for who knows how long. Most of you make it to work by then, but on days like this week, when it may take longer to get there safely, having a back up like this is peace of mind. It is also a good back up if you choose to not come in and take a non-contract day instead.

Thank you for all your patience and kindness this week with canceled school days, frozen pipes, school crisis, and the illness going around. You have all stepped up and taken good care of each other and your staffs. We appreciate the extra that we know you give in times like this.

Important Dates

  • Jan 19 and 22. Tammy in all day bargaining both days
  • Jan. 23, 3:00-5:00 Elementary Leadership, at Buckingham Elementary
  • Jan 24, New Date: Educator Network Day
  • Jan 30, 2:30-3:00 Title Schools meeting on Teams (check calendar for link)
  • Jan 31, All Admin PD at Perseverance Hall, 3:00-4:30
  • Jan 31: Black history month kick-off celebration @ PCMS
  • Feb. 8: Lunar New Year celebration/AAPI Family Night @ PBMS
  • Feb 19: President’s Day—This is not a paid holiday, so use non-contract if you don’t work
  • Feb 27: 3:00-5:00. Elementary Leadership, at North Star Elementary

And finally…

If ever there was a reason to hunker down and be cozy this weekend, this is it!

January 11, 2024

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Do Now:

  • Ed Network: Because we were unable to complete the training during Ed Network Day and all teachers need to know this information, we are asking that building leaders plan to do this during the next SIW on January 17th. If you already have something scheduled that can’t shift for that day, you can complete this with your staff on the 24th instead. If you hit any other snags along the way and need ideas to problem solve, please reach out to Tammy or Lisa. Please use this link for the slides from Kerry for the training.
  • Follow Your Youth Truth Completion Percentage Here: The district has a goal of 100% staff participation and 75% families participating and there’s only a couple weeks left. You can make a positive impact in your return rates, by communicating with your families often and in different modes (newsletters, Seesaw, phone call reminder). Here is a “Cheat sheet” to help schools with survey implementation.
  • Safe Schools Check In: Here is a video that you can use to track who in their building still needs to complete Safe Schools Trainings so these are completed by January 19th (remember- they were due on October 31).
  • From the Business Office: If you used any Non-contract time over the holidays, those requests need submitted asap, the closing day for this pay period is January 14. Instructions for submitting requests can be found on the portal Employee-How to Use UKG__Requesting Time-off.pdf .
  • TAG Night Reschedule: We are rescheduling our TAG night for next Wednesday night, January 17, from 6-7:30pm. Same time, same location, just a week later. See Kristy Knoll’s e-mail for a blurb you can share with your families.

Reminders:

  • Office Staff training: Office staff (all of them) will train from 1-2:30 on January 17, March 6, April 17, and May 22. Please make a plan for coverage.
  • Documenting in Synergy–Majors/Minors/Suspensions–Inputting discipline information into Synergy needs to be done within 24 hours of an incident and/or suspension.
  • UKG refresher input: Please take this super brief survey to help us identify the greatest need for our training on the 31st.
  • TAG Testing Timeline: Please make sure these dates are on your radar and you have a plan for testing at your school.
  • Planning for subs? Consult the admin calendar here and avoid scheduling your building PD days on the days colored mauve.
  • Title: Title School To Do List
    • Also, for Title, please don’t forget to get pre-approval before making your purchases and purchases should be aligned with your goals.
    • For your school design templates, please start working on the family engagement sections as well.
  • Student Services:
  • Counseling: School Counseling Blog
  • Safety: Updated SRO List as of 1/2/2024.

New Notes:

Scheduling meetings from Erich: I came across this cool tool within Outlook because I was getting really tired of all the adds on Doodle. Hopefully this comes in handy. THIS DOC will show you how to create a poll with multiple dates and times. You can email to folks outside of BLP as well. 

From Curriculum, Instruction and Systems (Julie Walker):

  • Please share with your staff:
    • Eastern Oregon is offering a science of reading course. It is advertised as a ‘lighter’ version of the LETRS training. Read here to learn more about this opportunity. If you are interested in signing up please fill out this survey by the end of the school day on Tuesday, January 16th. There are limited seats. Please reach out to Lindsley Gehrig with any questions.  The cost of this training will be covered by Bend La Pine. 
    • During the February 28th Educator Network Day is about sharing our practice with other educators- a powerful form of professional learning. If you have a topic and ideas to share, please sign up to be a facilitator.  You will be paid 4 hours at curriculum rate for your planning and preparation.  More information and sign up here.
  • Please share in your next family newsletter: Community feedback opportunity for Language Arts curriculum materials. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K3rRBQjzf24AXR-d1z-fwi1dL9kEO95GBQq-5ih-SL0/edit?usp=sharing
  • From Jenny White (SEL): Here is a Wayfinder activity on courage that you can share with your staff. Click on this link to get the directions on how to access the resources in Wayfinder’s Activity Library. The direct links are on the last slide or found below. 

High Needs Student(s) Discretionary Fund Reminder:

All building discretionary budgets contain a line item titled “High Needs”. These dollars come directly from the Student Services discretionary account for buildings to use. The purpose of these funds is to support building administrators to quickly staff for students with high needs.  The funds are available to use at your discretion for supplemental subs and equates to 70 hours of a substitute classified educational assistant. This is an annual allocation and the typical carryover (10%) rules will apply as with all other discretionary monies. These funds are only to support high-need students that you believe require additional staffing. Some other considerations when utilizing the high-needs students’ discretionary funds:

  • The high-needs student discretionary funds are not exclusively tied to students on an IEP or 504 and can be used with any student
  • Supplementary substitutes should never work directly with a high-needs student.  Rather, the substitute should fill in for our trained staff who can work with high-needs students

Additional Student Services Staffing Requests: Any requests for additional Student Services staff (including unfilled positions) need to come directly from building administrators and not from teachers. Each request will be reviewed by a team of Student Services administrators and level leaders for consideration. Some considerations when requesting additional student services staff:

  • All high-needs student discretionary funds (see above) must be spent first
  • Prior to requesting additional staff, develop a plan for how the person will be utilized, the duration of the request, the plan to fade support, and the name of the staff member facilitating the sub and plan implementation
  • Any additional student Services staff requested via this process would need to directly serve students under the umbrella of special education (unlike the 70 hours above).

TLC Link Update: January 11th Elementary TLC Update The Elementary Curriculum and Instruction website has been updated to provide more relevant information and resources to you. If you are interested in learning more about these changes, check out this video!

From HR: Now is a good time for building leaders to do a refresher on the UKG Performance module as you progress through your formal and mini-observations.  Below is a list of resources (this list can be found on the Performance & Evaluation Hub tab when you scroll down to the bottom of the page).

FAN Update from Dana Pedersen: FAN staffing has been a challenge this year due to resignations and leaves. Thank you all for your patience as I have adjusted staffing and most recently, made some changes in staffing assignments. I am committed to staffing our Dual Immersion schools with Spanish speaking Advocates. This has caused some shifts in assignments, as the last round of hiring yielded some great candidates, but none of them speak Spanish. Here is the current list of Advocates and their assigned schools. Two new Advocates are in the process of being hired now. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.  

From Jennifer Hauth: HERE are some upcoming training opportunities for supporting LGTBQ+ students and families, from the Oregon Family Acceptance Project that may be of interest.

From Tammy and Lisa:

Data Literacy: As you probably can tell, we are focusing on becoming more consistent using the data we collect this year. THIS DOCUMENT has an interesting graphic in the center that highlights a drastic decrease from expectations around data to actual data use. As we continue baseline training on our data tools, it makes sense to think about how training on the same topics will look in your school. We can’t expect use without modeling, training, and monitoring data fluency.

Lexia Update: One instructional/data tool we have in Lexia. Early this week, we were able to meet with our Lexia consultant to get updates about our school usage as well as tools to support implementation. We will talk more about our measurement tools in ELA during our Jan. 23 Horizontal. Remember, all students who are not at benchmark should be engaging in some level of Lexia in addition to teacher instruction. Here are a couple of documents to consider regarding implementation:

Important Dates

  • Jan. 15 No School in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Jan. 17: Office staff meeting 1:15-2:15 (plan for them to be away from 1-2:30)
  • Jan 17: New Educator Network Day
  • Jan. 23, 3:00-5:00 Elementary Leadership, at Buckingham Elementary
  • Jan 31, All Admin PD at Perseverance Hall, 3:00-4:30
  • Jan 31: Black history month kick-off celebration
  • Feb. 8: Lunar New Year celebration/AAPI Family Night

And finally…

CLICK HERE to learn about another spin-off game that you could alter for some easy staff fun this month!

January 4, 2024 (AKA first Blog of 2024)

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Do Now:

  • Ed Network Day–share this plan so all staff know where to go and use this link for the slides from Kerry for the training.
  • Plan for your office staff (all of them) to be away from 1-2:30 on January 17, March 6, April 17, and May 22. Please make a plan for your office to be covered in some way then which may include EA coverage.


From Paul in HR: This email marks the time for us to pivot in earnest to our renewal/non-renewal and extension/non-extension process. BLS aspires to place the best teachers possible in front of students, and as such we want to be very deliberate in renewing third-year Probationary/Temporary status teachers. 

The primary means for removing underperforming Probationary/Temporary staff member before they reach Contract status is non-renewal of their contracts prior to the end of their third year of probation; once a teacher attains Contract status, separation of a deficient performer from the District becomes a much more labor-intensive process. 

******Please note a change in practice for Temporary 3 certified staff.  We are now required to follow all Probationary 3 practices for Temporary 3 certified staff. When you write a letter of support for a Temporary 3 staff member, then you are obligating your school to employ this person for the 2024/25 school year and beyond*********

If you have a third-year Probationary/Temporary certified staff of concern, I trust that you have been in conversation with HR/Your Level Leader regarding the remediation measures that must be extended and completed before the School Board’s meeting in March, where the renewal/non-renewal process culminates. If you have not yet undertaken the requisite measures with a third-year Probationary/Temporary staff member that you don’t believe should be granted Contract status, we are fast approaching the point beyond which you will not be able to meet deadlines to non-renew that teacher.

As you may also recall from experience or new administrator training, those of you with third-year Probationary/Temporary certified staff being recommended for Contract status need to generate letters of support for each one. The School Board wants each of us to be able to articulate the specific reasons any third-year Probationary/Temporary teacher should move to Contract status, and they take time to read every letter you prepare. 

Timeline

No later than Friday, January 5th: 

  • You should have emailed[email protected] regarding any third-year Probationary/Temporary certified staff about whom you have concerns with
  • Met with and notified those staff member that they are being placed on Focused Performance Review (contact Lora regarding what this improvement plan needs to look like)
  • Begun writing your letters of support for third-year probationary/temporary certified staff with whom you are recommending for Contract status

No later than Friday, January 26th

  • Met with and notified third-year staff member of concern that they are being placed on Support Strategies (contact Lora regarding what this improvement plan needs to look like)
  • Completed and uploaded all of your Renewal Recommendation letters into the appropriate school folder with this google drive

Resource Links

  1. Here is the google drive link of third-year probationary/temporary certified staff (some P2/T2 are also included by administrator request) 
  2. Here is a draft template/sample Renewal Recommendation letter for your guidance (make as many copies of the letter as you need)
  3. Certified Professional Growth and Performance Manual (edition_5_-_evaluation_manual_-_certified_teacher.pdf)
  4. Rubrics for certified staff (link)

Reminders:

New Notes:

5th grade poster contest: Oregon State Police needs your help getting the word out about the 2024 Missing Children’s Poster Contest.  The National Missing Children’s Day Poster Contest is a nationwide contest for 5th grade students and is designed to promote awareness among teachers, parents/guardians and children and engage them in discussions about safety. You can find out all about it here at this link.

From Leah Bibeau in the Business Department

In the past, much of the BLAST time off was collected in a google doc. Since we now have UKG, leave must be requested and recorded in UKG. Please be sure to get those requests in before or during the time period that you are gone. Submissions after the timesheet has closed require an additional submitted form from you and are extremely labor intensive for the payroll staff. If you used any Non-contract time over the holidays, those requests need submitted asap, the closing day for this pay period is January 14. Instructions for submitting requests can be found on the portal Employee-How to Use UKG__Requesting Time-off.pdf . Please feel free to reach out to payroll with any additional questions. 541-355-1123 or [email protected]. Thank you from your payroll department!

From Jenny White, SEL TOSA–Wayfinder activity for a staff meeting or opener in a SIW: This activity in Wayfinder highlights empathy and compassion.  A great activity for staff and then they can bring it to their classrooms.  Teachers will be giving compliments in a round robin format on index cards or a piece of paper anonymously. 

Compliments Round Robin from Wayfinder

Compliments directions (PDF)

Slide Deck

Directions on how to get to Wayfinder’s lesson directly

From Curriculum, Instruction and Systems (Julie Walker)

  • January 10th is Educator Network Day-Teachers will stay in the building and the focus is math standards work.  Time:  1:45-3:15.
  • Use these slides for the Educator Network Day and please share them with your ICCL team.  These slides have the embedded videos and such you will need. 
  • The Instructional Coach for your building will drop off the needed paper materials.

Early Literacy Success Initiative- HB 3198

FYI….Early Literacy Success Initiative Grant submitted and will be presented to school board for approval on January 9th. 

A team of teachers, administrators, specialists and coaches met a few times this fall to plan for the use of the grant funds over the 23-25 biennium.  The team relied on two documents to guide the vision and direction of how Bend La Pine will use the funds. 

  1. Oregon Literacy Framework
  2. Essential Practices in Early Literacy

The team identified areas of strength in our early literacy programs and areas for potential growth.  The allowable uses for grant funding are in the following areas:

  1. Professional Development
  2. Instructional Coaching
  3. Evidence-Based Curricular Materials
  4. High Dosage Tutoring
  5. Extended Learning Programs

Here is the plan that will be presented to the school board on January 9th.  If you have questions, please reach out to Julie Walker

The timeline for submitting this grant was extremely short.  My hope is that we can cover this topic in more depth at an upcoming horizontal meeting. 

Language Arts Adoption Update

The Language Arts Review Team (made up of 30 teachers, specialists, coaches and administrators) will update the school board on January 9th with a report on the adoption process and the recommendation of EL Education as our K-5 Language Arts Curriculum.  After that,  the board will take feedback for a month and then will take action at the February 13th board meeting.  Currently,  we have 30 teachers field testing materials and giving feedback on recommended professional learning.  Please reach out with any feedback or questions.  

From Policy, Advocacy and Equity (Kinsey Martin)

ASL Interpreters: Wondering how to request an interpreter for American Sign Language (ASL)?   In your Linguist Link account, when you enter the “new project” page to make a new request, you’ll see instructions for accessing ASL support.  Please share this update with applicable staff.

CAFE Program: Need an interpreter or translator in a pinch?  An updated list of CAFE Program members is available here (it also lives on the Portal’s Equity page, under ‘Employee Resources’).  You are welcome to contact anyone on the list, not just those at your site!  Please continue to use Linguist Link for the majority of your requests—CAFE members are bilingual staff who can support as linguists if you have a time-sensitive matter, but should not be relied on for these services regularly.  

Please mark your calendar for two upcoming District Family events:

     –Wed, Jan 31st: Black History Month kick-off celebration

     –Thurs, Feb 8th: Lunar New Year celebration/AAPI Family Night

Both will be evening events with dinner included.  It would be great to have our leaders support our families by attending either or both of these events.  More info to follow—for now, save the dates!

From Tammy and Lisa:

Synergy MTSS Input. Please add your name to this document if you’d like to be part of the Elementary MTSS Work Group as we create our tools in Synergy!

Give your UKG refresher input. A part of our district admin PD time together on January 31 will be devoted to Q & A and refreshers related to UKG. We’d love to know from you the area in which you’d most like support. Please take this super brief survey to help us identify the greatest need.

SIW Planning Doc. In case you want a clean copy of the SIW planning doc from horizontal this week, here is a clean copy for you.

Safe Schools Check In Here is a video that you can use to track who in their building still needs to complete Safe Schools Trainings. If you still have staff out of compliance, please nudge them to get ‘er done.

Documenting in Synergy–Majors/Minors/Suspensions–Inputting discipline information into Synergy needs to be done within 24 hours of an incident. Sending a student home is considered a suspension and absolutely needs to be documented in Synergy. Synergy is the place to document that. If you have any questions about whether or not to document something, reach out to us and we’ll help you process.

Follow Your Youth Truth Completion Percentage Here: The district has a goal of 100% staff participation and 75% families participating. You can make a positive impact in your return rates, by communicating with your families often and in different modes (newsletters, Seesaw, phone call reminder). Let families know their input is valuable and what your school plans to do with the information you get from the survey. For staff, set aside 30 minutes at a staff meeting or SIW to have all staff take the survey. Also let them know why the data is important to your school and what you plan to do with the information.

Important Dates

  • Jan 3-18. Site Visits are scheduled. Don’t know your day? Check your invite.
  • Jan. 10. Educator Network Day, in your buildings from 1:45-3:15
  • Jan. 15 No School in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Jan. 17: Office staff meeting 1:15-2:15 (plan for them to be away from 1-2:30)
  • Jan. 23, 3:00-5:00 Elementary Leadership, at Buckingham Elementary
  • Jan 31, All Admin PD at Perseverance Hall, 3:00-4:30

And finally…write one good thing.

How the 2023 National Teacher of the Year Brings Joy to Her Classroom