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
- Here is the google drive link of third-year probationary/temporary certified staff (some P2/T2 are also included by administrator request)
- Here is a draft template/sample Renewal Recommendation letter for your guidance (make as many copies of the letter as you need)
- Certified Professional Growth and Performance Manual (edition_5_-_evaluation_manual_-_certified_teacher.pdf)
- Rubrics for certified staff (link)
Reminders:
- 23-24 Abridged Certified Evaluation Rubric Reminder–This year we have modified the classroom teacher evaluation rubric. Here are the domain and standards we are using this year. If needed, you can also add in other domains if it is warranted and communicated.
- Planning for subs? Consult the admin calendar here and avoid scheduling your building PD days on the days colored mauve.
- Youth Truth: Here is a “Cheat sheet” to help schools with survey implementation
- 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:
- Monthly REQUIRED inclusion EA Trainings: Contact Krista Hought or Stephanie Smith for info
- Prevent, Teach, Respond information, PTR Facilitators Guide
- MTSS Tier 3 process
- Counseling: School Counseling Blog
- Wayfinder: This document shows how to mark a lesson/activity complete in Wayfinder.
- Safety: Updated SRO List as of 1/2/2024.
- DEI: DEI/ICCL member should present this month!
- Family Engagement: Here is a great one-pager on Family Engagement
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)
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.
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:
- Professional Development
- Instructional Coaching
- Evidence-Based Curricular Materials
- High Dosage Tutoring
- 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