January 8, 2026 – Thriving Together

From Tammy and Karen

Who doesn’t want a new year filled with endless opportunities for growth and success? May you embrace each opportunity with reckless abandon and joy!

The blogs prior to break were leaner than most, so please read this one carefully, as it has more content and there are many important things for you to share with your staffs that are timely. You play a very important role in communication with the staff and there are several things you will need to communicate.

By the end of the day tomorrow (Friday), Karen and I will be reaching out to about 4-6 of you, who we will task to lead the January 28, All Admin PD at Perseverance Hall, just like the last meeting that was facilitated by our Middle School colleagues. When we reach out, we will let you know the chapters of the book, and the date/time of an initial planning session with us. What an opportunity to grow and share !

There are also several other leadership opportunities we want to highlight and call out from the notes below:

the opportunity to strengthen our belonging and dignity work by participating in an upcoming visit to Bethlehem Inn
the privilege of getting ready to celebrate black history month
the importance of calling 8888 for any kind of help (safety, maintenance, etc.)

Important Links

January 7th Elementary TLC Update
Special EDge (January 8)
1-Page Student Management guide
Dates to recognize groups
NEW! CPI Trained Staff List (let Sara Young know if you see staff who are not at your school)

Notes from our Team:

From Julie: Curriculum and Instruction

Please communicate this information with your staff as soon as possible.

Progress Reports – IT is finishing them this week and they will be sent to translation. They are not live yet. Do not enter any data until January 15th or you might lose your data. The deadline for having all progress reports finished is at the latest 2/6.

Progress Report Updates and Changes

Characteristics of a Learner has switched from M=Met, SM=Somewhat Met etc…TO 1-4 scale like the rest of the progress report
Characteristics of Learner is now based on priority standards for your grade which are directly linked to Wayfinder and ODE standards. Here are the priorities and rubrics.
Slight changes to wording in mathematics in K-2, 3-5 remains the same as previous years
Amplify-Forefront-Synergy Data Flow
- Only End of Unit assessments will automatically transfer from Amplify to Forefront to Synergy- all other assessments will need to be entered into Forefront manually
- Data will be migrated from Amplify-Forefront-Synergy 1x per week until January 12th
- 1/13-1/20 Kerry Morton (YOU ARE THE BEST) will upload the data each day. Please not there is a 1-2 day delay as the data migrates from Forefront to Synergy
EL-Forefront-Synergy- This project is delayed but should be available by End of Year progress reports
- If you have data in Forefront for EL, and you teach 3rd-5th, you can print handouts to see final calculations of scores. Here are the directions: Using Forefront Handouts Sample below:

Remember Forefront is available for entering EL assessments.
Here is the folder for Progress Report Guidelines
- 3-5 has updated information regarding reading fluency
Asset-Based Language Resource to use for progress report comments

IMPORTANT:

ROAR is experiencing some issues in K/1. The wrong assessments are showing up. Stanford is working on it. Please wait until next week to start this assessment.

K-letter, phoneme

1-phoneme, word, sentence

From Kinsey – Office of Policy and Advocacy

Community Engagement: Don’t forget about the chance to win a gift card ($25-$49.99) to places like El Sancho, Spork, downtown shops, and more! Just a little motivation and token of appreciation for getting outside your building/office and into the community we serve. (Bingo card here.)

Thanks to all of you who visited The Giving Plate this fall! (If you missed that round, it’s not too late–reach out to me.) Our next community partner visit is in January, to the Bethlehem Inn. Sign up here to participate.

Black History Month: In the next few days, your Advocacy ICCL representative will share with your staff some opportunities for recognizing Black History Month and honoring our Black students, colleagues, and community members–including our fourth annual Inspiring Displays Contest. Last year, over 18 community agencies and partners voted on the amazing contest submissions—more info here.

When that message comes through, please reiterate it with your staff. This will A) honor the leadership of your Advocacy ICCL rep, and B) show your staff that you care about this topic as a leader and want your school engaged. Here’s a draft communication you can edit or copy/paste into your staff blog, or you can simply reference the message your Advocacy ICCL rep will have recently sent.

From Colleen in Student Services

As we continue to strengthen inclusive, student-centered practices across our schools, we encourage you to become more familiar with the role of school-based Occupational Therapists (OTs). OTs are key partners in supporting student access, regulation, and participation in learning and daily school routines. Reviewing the attached document will provide helpful context on how OTs support students, staff, and school-wide systems.

For full details on OT roles and responsibilities, please refer to the Bend-La Pine Schools Occupational Therapist Essential Roles and Responsibilities document. Not sure who your building’s Occupational Therapist is? Click [HERE] to find your assigned OT.

From Scott and Kayla in Safety

We have updated our 8888-emergency phone document for schools to show which district level leaders receive the phone calls. I’ve linked the updated document, and it can also be found in our Safety Google Drive – here.

As we are coming back off winter break, would you please send this document and link out in your weekly blogs as a reminder on when and how to use the 8888 phone number for any safety/emergency related issues at schools.

Safety Cadre: We are working with Kids Center to provide a training for our fourth Safety Cadre meeting. Kids Center has graciously offered to facilitate tours of their site for our admin who are interested. If you are interested in a brief pre-training tour (multiple times will be available), please reach out to Kayla Martin so we can get an estimate on attendance.

From our Central Oregon STEM HUB Partners

I hope that your new year is off to a good start. If you have not already, we would appreciate your help in sharing these survey links directly with relevant educators and others in your network.

As a reminder, the survey is designed for elementary school teachers, principals, and district superintendents. It only takes about 15 minutes to complete, and participants will receive a free coding workshop and be entered to win a $30 Amazon gift card.

The survey links are included here:

Every response provides us with a better understanding of the current CS opportunities in elementary schools across the state. Thank you for your support!

From Sara in Student Services:

As we begin to establish a consistent MTSS process for Bend-La Pine Schools, we want to hear from you about what’s working and what the challenges are currently. We would love to set up a 30 minute meeting with you and relevant members of your team to learn more about what you do.

Some things we’d like to find out more about when we visit with you are:

What MTSS meetings you currently have and what are their purposes?
What data do you routinely look at during each of these meetings?
Who attends each of these meetings?
What are things that are working really well? From your lens, what MUST stay as part of an MTSS process (for example, certain components of meetings, essential questions or connections, etc)
Are there any stuck points or gaps in the current system? (You don’t have to have a solution to this!)
Are there any forms or collection tools that are working especially well that you could share?
Any other feedback you have

We are hoping to have gathered input from all schools by the middle of February. Could you please take a look at this attached spreadsheet and sign up for a time that works for you.

Action Items

Communicate the information from Julie to your staff
Sign up for a Bethlehem Inn visit
Meet with your Advocacy Coach to plan for Black History Month
Get to know you OT
Review the 8888 document
Let Kayla know if you want to tour the Kids Center
Share STEM HUB survey with staff
Sign up for a time to meet with Student Services about MTSS needs

Important Dates

January 13: Horizontal Meeting 3:00 – 4:30 at Highland Elementary
January 19: Martin Luther King Jr Day – No School
January 20: PLCs 1 and 2 from 3:00 – 4:30
January 21: Educator Network Day
January 27: PLCs 3 and 4 from 3:00 – 4:30
January 28: All Admin PD 3:00 – 4:30
January 30: Progress Reports – No school for students

And finally… Congratulations to our Next Duck Drawing winner Brian Raber!

Brian Raber is in his first year as Assistant Principal at Elk Meadow and is in his third year with Bend-La Pine Schools. He hails from the great state of California, where prior to stepping into building leadership, he was a Special Education teacher. Brian prides himself in supporting caring classroom communities through the use of community circles, to strengthen the community as well as a tool for repair when harm has been caused. Have nothing to do on a Friday night? You should catch one of our local Central Oregon high school basketball games! You just might catch Referee Raber on the courts trying to help maintain peace and order on the hardwoods as well. Need a pickleball partner–he’s your guy! Congratulations Brian! Let us know your beverage of choice and we will deliver!