Month: August 2025

August 28th, 2025

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

From Tammy and Karen

There’s nothing quite like the start of a new school year! Seeing students walk through the doors again brings so much joy—those big hugs, noticing how much they’ve grown, and realizing just how much we missed them. The hallways come alive with laughter and energy, and you can’t help but feel the excitement and hope that a new year always brings. Our administrators play such an important role in all of this, creating schools where kids and families feel welcome, safe, and ready to thrive from the very first day.

We have really enjoyed visiting your schools this week and having the chance to see you working with your staff to get ready for a great year! Congratulations on all your success so far and cheers to an exciting year to come

Important Links

Notes from our Team:

From Jennifer Hauth–Director of Student Wellness

BLS School Counseling Program Updates for 2025-26

As we start the 2025-26 school year, we want to share important updates regarding our Comprehensive School Counseling Program (CSCP) and how you, as administrators, can be a support to the implementation of CSCP at your school. On August 27, BLS School Counselors gathered for a productive day of planning and collaboration. You can view their slide deck here to see the impressive work being done.

We are pleased to introduce the BLS School Counseling Handbook, a comprehensive resource designed for school counselors, administrators, and educational leaders. Inside, you’ll find:

  • The mission, vision, and beliefs of our program
  • District priorities and goals
  • Roles of counselors and administrators
  • Program design, implementation, policy and aligned practices
  • Tools, templates, and practices for effective support

Here are the key expectations for this year:

  • Complete School-Level CSCP Planning Template – due May 2026, outlining:
    • Annual Calendar – due Oct. 2025
    • Administrator Yearly Planning Conference – held by Oct. 2025
    • Student Outcome Goals (Tier 1 & 2) – due Nov. 2025 (these can be used as SLGGs)
    • Use of Time Study – by Apr. 2026
    • Tiered Program Supports (by domain & tier) – by Apr. 2026
    • Annual Data Review – by May 2026
    • End of Year Results Presentation – May/June 2026

Additionally, counselors will now track student interactions using Synergy’s MTSS Activity Tracker Module, moving away from Student Conference, to enhance access to school counseling data as we continue to develop our MTSS dashboard.

For your reference: School Counselors Professional Learning Calendar with Shared SIW and END Dates.

Wayfinder Updates:

​​We are hopeful to have the Wayfinder admin dashboards have more accurate data but Synergy is currently sending too much data through Clever to Wayfinder. I have put in a help desk ticket but in the meantime, you can edit your teacher list using the following steps:

Here is the helpdesk overview on How to Edit User Data on Admin Dashboards. 

  • If you select “unclick content views” and only have “content completions,” then make sure to assign the workbooks or a collection as the featured content. 
  • For counselors and support staff, please mark them as “content views,” not “content completion.”
  • If there are people in the app that do NOT use Wayfinder, unclick both “content views” and “content collections.”

Other Resources:

Student Success Intervention Updates

Student Success Coordinators/Instructors(Not Clinicians) will now track student interactions using Synergy’s MTSS Activity Tracker Module, moving away from the Synergy Intervention tab to enhance access in all interventions that students are receiving in one place as we continue to develop our MTSS dashboard. Here are the training slides from their PD day on the 27th.

We are excited to be moving forward with our Student Success Clinicians embarking on the Medicaid Billing endeavor! They were all trained on the SEAS Medicaid billing platform and here are the slides from yesterday. As a result of documenting the important clinical work that they are doing, our district can be eligible to be reimbursed for most of the vital services that they are providing.  

In light of these changes, it is essential that our Student Success Coordinators and Clinicians are receiving their weekly prep andcase management time to ensure that they can engage in their documentation and provide care coordination for their students and families that they work with.  

For Full-time Elementary Student Success Certified Staff

  • Case Management Minutes:  An elementary specialist has a scheduled total of no fewer than 215 minutes per week for case management responsibilities. This time is set aside in blocks of no less than 30 minutes for these responsibilities.
  • Prep Time: An elementary Student Success Clinician is scheduled for a minimum of 385 minutes of preparation time per week. This time includes a period of at least 30 minutes per day, uninterrupted, within the student day for grades K-5.

For your reference: Student Success PD Calendars 25/26 with Shared SIW and END Dates.

From Julie Richards- Director of Elementary Curriculum

Here is the 1st draft of the Fall DIBELS schedule.  Note:  we are testing all of K-2 and only testing students in 3-5 who have not met benchmark in the last three benchmarking windows and new students. Please see email from Julie for a list of students in 3-5 who should be tested. ALL students K-5 will take ROAR (Rapid Online Assessment of Reading). Please reach out with any questions. 

ICCL Reminder from Human Resources

We still have several schools who have not completed their ICCL hires for 2025-26. 

  • Please take a look at the ICCL Master List and verify the employees listed for your site are correct. 
  • If you need to hire, please follow the ICCL posting and hiring process (check-out line 281 on the ICCL Master List with ICCL Instructions).
  • Any ICCL questions should be directed to Candy Gelatt in Human Resources: [email protected] or x1116.

From TLC Coaches

Welcome back to a new school year! The Elementary TLC Update is a short newsletter designed to share resources, announcements, materials, and news from our coaching and curriculum teams. You’ll see it in your inbox every other Wednesday.

We’re excited to kick things off and look forward to supporting you throughout the year!

August 27th Elementary TLC Update

This week’s update includes:

  • Beginning-of-year assessments update
  • Math housing documents and print-shop-ready files
  • DreamBox and Forefront information
  • Expeditionary Learning in Forefront
  • and lots more!

From Kayla Martin – Safety

Please let Kayla and Scott know who your safety cadre member is and please complete the survey  if you have not yet done so!

From Paul Dean – Chief Operations Officer

Animals on school grounds: We want to take a moment to remind school about our district practices with regards to animals on school grounds.  We do not have any district policy that prohibits dogs outside of school hours on our property.  ING-AR: Animal Visitors under Owner Responsibility reads:

  • Owners walking animals on school grounds must follow city or county ordinances regarding leashing and sanitation. 
  • Principals and their designees have the authority to exclude persons and their animals from play fields when he/she determines that there are associated health and/or safety concerns. 
  • Last year, we created and distributed signs to your school.

Building leaders have the authority to temporarily close school playgrounds in accordance with Facility, Playgrounds, Fields & Property Community Use Guidelines [here is a Spanish Version].   We have created this Community Use Violation Notice [and here is a Spanish Version] that you may copy, edit, print, laminate and zip tie to your gate(s) when you are restricting public access by locking your gates.  

If you would like to order additional signs ($65 each), please submit a work order request along with a budget code.  Maintenance will collaborate with you regarding where to place your additional signs.  Please reach out to Dan Dummitt for further assistance with signs. 

Action Items

  • Update student enrollment numbers daily
  • Drop main schedule — live document into this folder
  • Share Educators Night Out flier with staff
  • Review the BLS School Counseling Handbook
  • Please take a look at the ICCL Master List and verify the employees listed for your site are correct. 

Important Dates

  • September 2: Optional Teacher Work Day
  • September 3: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
  • September 9: Elementary Leadership Meeting, 3:00-4:30 at the Ensworth Media Center
  • September 16: PLCs 1 and 2, 3:00-4:30
  • September 23: PLCs 3 and 4, 3:00-4:30
  • September 22-24: Rosh Hashanah–no scheduling of evening events on these days.

And finally… Bear Creek shared this video from their 20 second spotlight! Enjoy it here! And, if you happen to have video from your spotlight, please send it our way!

August 21, 2025

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Need a fun idea for back to school with your staff? How about a grade level/department walk up song video! Thanks Heidi for sharing this fun idea!

From Tammy and Karen

We are excited for you all, as you are gearing up to welcome back your staffs and kick off the 25-26 school year. We feel your energy, ideas and enthusiasm! We are looking forward to getting out next week and spending some time at each of your schools during inservice. Our goal in coming is to be visible and present with your staffs, show our unwavering support of the work that you all do, and cheer you on as you engage the important work of setting the tone and leading with heart in all your schools.

For this coming week, we need you to be updating your staffing plan daily, with actual numbers and how many in each class, as we are having to make some hard decisions concerning moves and need updated information. Thank you so much!

Please drop your main schedule in this folder. The folder is in your Admin Resources Drive in the Schedules folder, 25-26. We would like access to your live document as viewers, as we need to stay up on any changes that you make in real time. A pdf does not do that. Thank you so much–we look forward to being out in the schools and seeing the magic of teaching and learning all year.

The High Desert Museum has shared the flier for Educator Night Out, on September 18! Please make sure you share this with your staff. Don’t forget, you can come too–it’s a fun night to be had by all!

Important Links

Notes from our Team:

From Lisa Birk, the Deputy Superintendent: Please be on the look out tomorrow (Friday) for the new BLAST leave tool (non-contract, sick, FMLA, etc. recording tool). It is almost ready! There will be directions on how to fill it out, but please don’t hesitate to reach out to your Level Leaders if you need help with it.

From Rachel Mavis, IT Project Manager: NEW Attendance Features!

L10 – New late (Tardy) code for Teachers and Office staff will use for students who arrive 10 minutes + after class start time.  In the past teachers have been required to use Absence Unverified. By using a super late code, the student will be marked in class – but super late.

ParentVUE Attendance – Parents will have the option to submit attendance through ParentVUE.  The attendance request will go into a queue, where the office staff will Accept or Deny. More details and information will be released soon.

From Eric Powell, Director of Student Services: 10-Day Inactivation Process to Attendance Staff

On August 27, your secretarial staff who input/track daily attendance will receive the following information regarding changes to our 10-Day Inactivation process. 

Here is a link to that information: 10-Day Inactivations

The key highlights for you to know about are:

*Synergy will auto-send attendance letters to families after a student has missed 6 consecutive school days (Unexcused or Unverified ONLY)

*Synergy will auto-send attendance letters to families after a student has been 10-day Inactivated

*Both of these letters request families to connect with the school to schedule a meeting focused on supporting the student return to school

*At days 3, 6, and 9, school teams are asked to designate a staff member to reach out to the family to check on the student

*If a student is 10-day inactivated, your school team can fill out a Request for Assistance to ask the District’s Tier 3 Attendance team for support with a Home Visit or family outreach

From Julie Richards and Jennifer Hauth–collaborating on Wayfinder

Grades 3-5 should administer the Waypoints Summative Assessment in Wayfinder during the window of September 18 to October 25. You could set a culture and climate goal based on this data.

Several of you have asked about using Waypoints at the K-2 level to set goals. We are not going to be using Waypoints K-2 as a summative assessment. Because it it educator observed, it is currently too time consuming. Instead, we will be building our own modified assessment that is much less time consuming and tied to the priority standards. So we would like you to push pause on goal setting K-2 until further notice.

From Robbie Faith, Instructional Tech Coach

AI Training Reminder. All materials for the Artificial Intelligence PD are available on the AI in BLS website, including the full slide deck for your staff session (approx. 90 minutes). Please note that the slides are view-only. Using the provided link ensures your staff has the most current version, as updates are made regularly. 

Following the training, you are encouraged to share the AI in BLS website with staff. The site contains the same content as the slides, along with the syllabus statement and acceptable use scale. For questions, please contact [email protected].

From Kerry Morton, Math Coach

There has been approximately 230 teachers who have participated in the Amplify Desmos Math professional learning! The teachers all seem very excited about Amplify Desmos Math and a new school year.

You can check the attendance here. There is one more chance for teachers to attend on August 27th! Here is the list of registrants, as of 8/18, for August 27th.  If someone needs to sign-up still, here are the directions. If you have a new hire that does not have access to UKG, please send me their name, grade level, and personal email. Thank you!

From Ryan Kelling, Exec Dire HR

Updated Requirement: Interviews for All Vacancies

In the past, Administrators and Supervisors were not required to conduct interviews when the number of applicants matched the number of vacancies. While this may have streamlined the hiring process, we have since identified it as a poor practice because it removes the opportunity to evaluate the applicant’s skills, knowledge, and ability to meet the demands of the role. This approach does not align with our commitment to selecting the most qualified candidates through a fair and thorough process.

Effective immediately, all candidates must participate in an interview before being considered for hire, regardless of the number of applicants or vacancies.

This ensures that:

  • Each candidate demonstrates proficiency and readiness for the role.
  • We maintain a consistent, equitable hiring process across the organization.
  • Hiring decisions are based on observable qualifications and competencies.

This shift strengthens the integrity of our selection process and supports our goal of bringing the most capable talent into every position. Please plan accordingly when scheduling your hiring process. If you have questions about this change, please call me. Thank you!

Action Items

  • Update staffing numbers daily
  • Drop main schedule — live document into this folder
  • Share Educators Night Out flier with staff
  • Share attendance and Inactivation process with office staff
  • Find out which staff did not take the Amplify Desmos training and make sure they are signed up for Wednesday the 27th
  • Want to hire someone? Please make sure you go through the complete interview process
  • How are you doing on your priority matrix? Got those important and urgent things done? Have you had to add more?

Important Dates

  • August 25 – 29: Inservice Week
  • August 26: Welcome Back Kick Off – Virtual 8:30 a.m – 10:00 a.m.
  • September 2: Optional Teacher Work Day
  • September 3: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
  • September 9: Elementary Leadership Meeting, 3:00-4:30 at the Ensworth Media Center
  • September 16: PLCs 1 and 2, 3:00-4:30
  • September 23: PLCs 3 and 4, 3:00-4:30
  • September 22-24: Rosh Hashanah–no scheduling of evening events on these days.

And finally…

August 14, 2025

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

From Tammy and Karen

What an incredible day we had at the High Desert Museum! Thank you all for bringing your attention, insight, and wonderful sense of fun to our meeting. From engaging presentations and a lively round of Jeopardy to delicious food, cool air conditioning, and the adventurous GooseChase, it was a day packed with energy and connection. We let our adventurous sides shine and made memories that will last—especially during the High Desert Hijinks! Click the photo above to watch the one-minute video reveal of our winning team. This was truly an event to remember, and it wouldn’t have been the same without each of you.

Next week will be very busy as you prepare to welcome staff and students! Please review the Priority Matrix to ensure that all of the Urgent and Important Items are complete! Please also update your staffing plans (with numbers, sections, and certified staff) on Friday (8/15), and Tuesday and Thursday next week.

IMPORTANT FOLLOW UP FROM MONDAY
Slides from Monday, 8/11: This link will take you to a copy of the slides from Monday with links to the trainings you will need to do during Inservice Week. We have also linked them below:

TIER 1 Slide Deck

  • The Tier 1 slide deck has been amended with most requests. (We changed the language to “appropriate staff” and we added a slide about the code of conduct and students with disabilities. We also added a slide saying elementary will skip slides 25-28–staff will not be loading discipline incidents into Synergy, so you can delete those slides when you make a copy. 
  • The Code of Conduct review team which met to review the code and update it for this year and included an elementary admin rep, worked on a definition for “respect”. The definition is in the glossary and the concept of respect has slightly expanded to include “kindness” to the concept of Respect.  So now it reads:
    • Respect:  Treating everyone with consideration, dignity and kindness, just as you would like to be treated. 
  • It is still something we want to teach and hope kids adhere to, but when narrowing our expectations to a few, was something that could get misused and the original team opted to eliminate it. 
  • It is important you read through the Tier 1 slides and read the presenter notes at the bottom before you present to your staff.  That is where the details are as far as what you need to do and when, what staff needs to access, like the actual Code of Conduct.
  • Tuesday, 8/19 at Highland in the library from 10-11, we will be meeting to go through the Synergy Student Support form for all of you interested in practicing with it in real time.  If you come, please make sure at least one class has been loaded into Synergy for your school so that you can access a class.  

Commitments to Learning 3.0 

Things That Come in Threes

ROAR Training

Area Change Requests:  Area Change Requests are closed for the start of the 25-26 school year.  If you get families calling you or your office staff, please let them know that they are closed.  Please, under no circumstances let a family know that you have or do not have room in a grade.  We get multiple families each year upset because they say the  called the school and were told there was room, when we may need to deny them for various reasons.  

Karen will be out on FMLA leave on Monday Aug. 18th through Wednesday Aug 20th. If you need any support, please start by contacting Tammy. I will be checking email but have many appointments scheduled so won’t be immediately available. Thank you all for your patience and kindness as I support my parents in Minnesota.

Important Links

Notes from our Team:

From Ryan Kelling – Human Resources

Our New Certified Employee Orientation will be held on Thursday, August 21 at North Star.

  • Breakfast: 7:00 AM – Bend Breakfast Burrito will be catering; enjoy a burrito, muffin, coffee, and connection time with our new hires.
  • Program Start: 8:00 AM

Any school or department that hired a new Certified employee is required to send a representative so that you can connect with that person/people, but all are welcome to attend, and we encourage you to join us in welcoming our new staff. If you’re unsure whether your school needs to send a representative, please email me directly.

From Kim Crabtree -Transportation

Reminder that all students that will ride the bus must register. If you have a newsletter from you school going out shortly, can you please push out this information to your families. You can copy and paste the message that was sent to you last Friday that Becca put together. We are still about 2500 students short from last years numbers.   Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

From Kinsey Martin – Policy, Advocacy, & Equity:

Policy Notes:

Updated Attendance policy (updated per conversations and feedback throughout last year).  Please be familiar with the changes to procedures and responsibilities, share with your office and MTSS staff, and bring any questions to the September horizontal admin meeting.  Related: Employee Attendance policy–good reminders for all of us!

Updated Grades and Credits policy final version.  Feel free to share this directly with your teachers and counselors (secondary in particular), if helpful.  

Here are the reference slides from the policy training last April.  Topics/Guidance includes:

  -Law enforcement, student searches, DHS,

  -ICE (here’s additional ICE guidance),

  -controversial subjects (share the policy with your teachers),

  -parent requests for teachers, etc.  

Please share those reference slides with applicable staff, print, and/or bookmark as needed–you don’t want to be looking for these in a time-sensitive situation. 

Updated transportation policy: We updated the series of policies related to transportation.  One important change for you (and ADs/coaches):

Either we provide the bus, or students/families need to coordinate their own rides—employees, including coaches, should not coordinate groups of students with drivers of private vehicles.  Parent volunteers or team parents are welcome to coordinate with other volunteers, but district employees are not involved in non-district transportation arrangements. 

Related: field trip permission forms have been updated (all languages available on the Portal): please share with teachers and office staff.  

Have a recommendation regarding a policy issue?  Please use this form to suggest updates, request changes, identify gaps in policy language, etc. 

Looking for the policy that covers a particular topic?  Need help interpreting a policy for a particular situation?  Contact me!  

From Kayla Martin, Safety

As mentioned in Leadership Launch, we are asking you to tell us what you need from Safety/how you feel about Safety concerns. Link here. The survey is condensed (only 6 questions)- please fill this out so we can tailor our PD to what you need. As soon as we get responses, we will send your safety designee(s) a calendar invite.  Thank you all for your partnership.

Please be sure to note these dates for trainings and designate your safety lead: October 22, 2025, December 3, 2025, March 11, 2026, and April 29, 2026

Elementary – 1:45 – 3:15 PM

From Education and Information Technology.

Our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for student device use was updated during the 24-25 school year.  The new version is what our families are receiving in their enrollment materials.  I have linked the updated AUP here.  Sections that you may want to be familiar with include:

  • Grade 6-12  Insurance Device Damage and Loss Guidelines
  •   Device Use
  •   The Student Pledge

AI training Everything you need for the Artificial Intelligence PD is on the new AI in BLS website, including the full slide deck for your upcoming staff training. The training takes about 90 minutes.  Just open the deck and guide your staff through it. The goal is to share accurate, useful, and timely information as we navigate the meaningful use of AI across the district. Questions? Reach out anytime: [email protected]

Clever Sub Badge Training: We want to make sure every teacher has the opportunity to participate in Clever Sub Badge training. This 25-minute session walks your staff through creating a dedicated resource page for substitutes in Clever and how to generate a badge that gives substitutes secure access to teaching resources.

We know time is limited at the start of the school year, but if you have not scheduled this training for your staff, please reach out to Robbie Faith as soon as possible to get your training on the calendar. 

From Sean Reinhart – Student Services

As we look ahead to the 2025–2026 school year, we want to share several important updates regarding staffing, program developments, and service delivery within the Student Services Department. These updates reflect both the evolving needs of our student population and our ongoing efforts to align resources strategically in support of schools and teams. The information below includes changes to our administrative and coaching structure, updates to special education staffing and allocation models, expansions of key programs such as The Nest and Occupational Therapy, and refinements to how we deliver speech-language and school psychology services. We encourage you to review the details carefully. Click the link below.

25-26 Student Services Overview and Update

We have also planned information sessions and Q and A for Aug. 15 from 10-11 – Teams meeting for Elementary Principals (calendar invite sent)

Action Items

  • Review your priority matrix and complete the important and urgent items now if they are not done already
  • Assign Featured Content in Wayfinder (check in with Jennifer Hauth with any questions)
  • Get rid of old OOPS/FYI system paperwork and processes
  • Update Staffing Plan sheets with numbers of students and staff assignments every other day (beginning Friday August 15). Please be sure to indicate students would be in each class on the first page.
  • If you have a new certified employee in any department, send a representative to orientation on 8/21
  • Encourage families to register so that their child can be added to a bus route.
  • Complete Safety Survey
  • OPTIONAL: Student Services Update Teams Meeting on 8/15 at 10:00 (calendar invite has link)
  • OPTIONAL: Student Synergy Form Practice on 8/19 at 10:00 at Highland Magnet School

Important Dates

  • August 15: Student Services Update (Teams Meeting) 10-11
  • August 18: Title 1 Kick Off for all Title Schools 8-10 @ Elk Meadow
  • August 19:: Optional Synergy Student Form practice 10:00- 11:00 @Highland
  • August 21: Optional Wayfinder Training for Admin, 2:30-3:30 at North Star
  • August 25 – 29: Inservice Week
  • August 26: Welcome Back Kick Off – Virtual 8:30 a.m – 10:00 a.m.
  • September 2: Optional Teacher Work Day
  • September 3: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
  • September 9: Elementary Leadership Meeting, 3:00-4:30 at the Ensworth Media Center
  • September 16: PLCs 1 and 2, 3:00-4:30 (you will learn about these on August 11)
  • September 23: PLCs 3 and 4, 3:00-4:30 (you will learn about these on August 11)
  • September 22-24: Rosh Hashanah–no scheduling of evening events on these days.

AND FINALLY! CONGRATULATE OUR WINNERS! PLC Team 4 looking ready for business in their Posse Portrait.

August 7, 2025

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Who is going to wake up everyday this year rooted in our purpose and ready to lead with dignity? We are! Who is going to be a steward, a learner, and a nurturing leader? We are! Who is going to see that students have effective teachers, a strong curriculum, and the time they need to learn? We are! Who is proud to be a part of Bend-La Pine schools? We are, of course!

Thank you all so much for a fantastic start to the year, as we spent the first two days, solidifying our why, learning the 10 elements of dignity, and committing to the belief that, with an effective teacher, a strong curriculum and enough time, all students can learn. We are looking forward to our time together on Monday, August 11 at the High Desert Museum, from 9:00-5:00, as we continue to collaborate, learn, and plan for a wonderful year. For those of you who are out healing or caring for ailing family, know that you were missed and we look forward to the day you can be with us again.

From Tammy and Karen

Here are links to the slides we had access to from our leadership launch these past two days. We know there are more, and as we get them (or you remind us what else you need) we’ll add them here.

Elementary Commitments to Learning, Day 1

Life and Career Readiness Presentation

Elementary Prioritizing and To-Dos, Day 2

Teaching Smarter: Science Driven Techniques. (Dave and Liza’s presentation)

Prioritizing Tools from Robi

We forgot to add one important tab to the bottom of our “teams” document, and that is for the admin who is the rep on the safety cadre. There will be more in the blog next week about the days and times, but for now, if you could please add your admin name to this list, that would be amazing! Thank you.

Important Links

Notes from our Team:

From Tami Pike, Director of Health Services

To ensure a safe and successful field trip experience, review the Field Trip Checklist in advance. It is essential to notify your school nurse at least two weeks prior to any field trip. If a student requires direct nursing support during the trip, please complete the updated Request for Direct Care Nursing Services form at least two weeks prior to any field trip. Thank you!

From Kim Crabtree, Director of Transportation Services

Your school principal may receive an invite from Commute Options to meet.  Commute Options partners with us to help deliver education regarding safe walking/rolling to school. Commute Options has a great bike safety program (they provide the bikes/helmets).  We work closely with them to create safe walking paths to schools for our non-bus riders. Our department has hired an Active Transportation Coordinator (Michelle Rhoads) through a 2 year grant. The grant is very specific on where Michelle’s work must be directed (5 Title 1 schools). 

We hope to build a robust program district wide to support those that do not ride a bus. If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me. If you are looking for education for your students- Commute Options is your go-to at this time (we are happy to coordinate that for you also through them).  Have a great safe start to the year!

From Tracy Howk, Instructional Technology. AI PD & Resources in One Place

Everything you need for the Artificial Intelligence PD is on the new AI in BLS website, including the full slide deck for your upcoming staff training.

The training takes about 90 minutes. We’ve scheduled it during August in-service so staff can explore AI early, with the hope that leveraging it can help lighten their workload as the year gets rolling. 

There’s no need to be an AI expert. Just open the deck and guide your staff through it. The goal is to share accurate, useful, and timely information as we navigate the meaningful use of AI across the district. Questions? Reach out anytime: [email protected]

Action Items

  • Review your priority matrix and complete the important and urgent items now if they are not done already
  • review field trip checklist with your office staff and be ready when field trips arise
  • Meet with Commute Options if/when they call
  • Check out the AI training link and email the IT help email for Robbie and Tracy if you have questions
  • Come ready to enjoy the day Monday (inside and out) at the High Desert Museum, 9-5.

Important Dates

  • August 11: Elementary Horizontal at High Desert Museum from 9:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m.
  • August 18: Title 1 Kick Off for all Title Schools 8-10 @ ELK Meadow
  • August 21: Optional Wayfinder Training for Admin, 2:30-3:30 at North Star
  • August 25 – 29: Inservice Week
  • August 26: Welcome Back Kick Off – Virtual 8:30 a.m – 10:00 a.m.
  • September 2: Optional Teacher Work Day
  • September 3: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
  • September 9: Elementary Leadership Meeting, 3:00-4:30 at the Ensworth Media Center
  • September 16: PLCs 1 and 2, 3:00-4:30 (you will learn about these on August 11)
  • September 23: PLCs 3 and 4, 3:00-4:30 (you will learn about these on August 11)
  • September 22-24: Rosh Hashanah–no scheduling of evening events on these days.

And finally….zoom in and check out how we are showing up this year, rooted in our purpose and steady in growth.