October 2, 2025

From Tammy and Karen

Optimism is important in our work because it helps us see challenges as opportunities rather than roadblocks. When we approach problems with a hopeful mindset, we stay open to creative solutions, build resilience in the face of setbacks, and inspire confidence in those around us. Optimism doesn’t mean ignoring difficulties—it means choosing to focus on possibilities and progress, which creates the energy and motivation needed to move forward together. We encourage you to print the October Optimism Challenge and use it as a simple way to inject some optimism into every day!

Conference Information:

With conferences quickly approaching, we have several topics to go over concerning this time of the year.  

Conference Length Expectations:  In past partnership with the BEA, we landed on the following information.  If a teacher has 25 or less students, their conferences need to be between 25-30 minutes to accommodate for transition times as needed (25 min gives time for a quick restroom break, time in case one goes longer, etc.).  If a teacher has 26 or more students, their conferences can be 20 minutes, giving the teacher the ability to have a few longer ones as well as including transition times if needed.  

How we conference:  The following link to staff is a mutually developed message from Bend-La Pine and BEA that needs to be copied and pasted into your staff newsletter regarding the parameters around “how” we conference.  Following the letter to staff is a link for a family letter you can use to send to your families explaining what may happen if they choose to go on a vacation during conference times. 

Link to message for teaching staff

Letter to Families re: leaving during conferences.  Using this letter is at your discretion.  

Interpreters: Principals, work with your office team to submit your requests for interpreters ASAP via Linguist Link (do not rely on CAFE members at this point–they should be used for back-up only).  Language Specialists and Family Liaisons can help coordinate languages and appointments.  On conference nights, a front-office staff member needs to be available to support interpreters (direct them to their assignment location, clarify scheduling or meeting access info, etc).  

School supply message to share at conferences: We’ll discuss this further at some point, but for now: Ahead of conferences, feel free to share this message with your families via your upcoming school communications and/or with your PTO/PTA.  

Reminder: Teachers have been registering for the October 8th Educator Network Day.  You can see where your teachers are signing up for here. Please ask your teachers to register if they haven’t yet even if they plan to stay at their school site. Please review last week’s blog for information about locations and tasks for your school. If you have any questions please let us know!

Important Links

• September 24th Elementary TLC Update.
• SPECIAL EDGE LINK OCTOBER 2, 2025
• 1-Page Student Management guide
• Topics of Interest/Problem of Practice *New space for the 25-26 school year
• FAQs for Special Education Inclusion Topics—Keep checking in here! BEA and BLS supported
• Dates to recognize groups

Notes from our Team:

From Lisa Birk, Deputy Superintendent

• Yearly Evaluation Notification: All staff members should be notified annually as to what evaluation cycle they are on and what they can expect to experience regarding eval process. We believe most of you, as site administrators, already have this practice in place but if you don’t and you need some templates, please feel free to use the e-mail templates listed below. This is also a good time to notify the member if you plan to address any standard that is not part of the abbreviated list in their End-of-Year evaluation. Questions on your list of staff? Reach out to Triz and Jessica Lamay- they have been coming to sites to walk admin through the tools as needed. Annual Evaluation Notification Templates
• Admin ALL PD: Take a moment and complete the feedback form for our Admin PD yesterday. Go ahead and list me ([email protected]) as the facilitator and call it Admin ALL PD 10/1.

From Kinsey in the Office of Policy and Advocacy:

Dignity and Belonging: Community Engagement 

Here is the Bingo card from our leadership meeting.  Please keep a copy throughout the year that you cross out as you go.  This spring: 

• completed copies will go into our raffle for some great prizes!  
• we will share the number of leaders from each school/dept who completed the full Bingo, and celebrate the creative ways your team engaged with the community in this process.  

Community Visit #1: The Giving Plate sign-up.  The dates for this tour/visit are coming up, so sign up soon!

Here is our home visit guidance.  Feel free to share with staff as applicable, and ask your Liaison or FAN Advocate if you can join their next visit.  

From Human Resources

We are excited to announce the first iteration of mid-year orientation and onboarding for new hires, beginning Thursday, October 23 and continuing every other Thursday for the remainder of the year.

These sessions are designed to ensure our new employees enter their roles feeling confident, connected, and supported. Each orientation will include:

• Payroll, Human Resources, and Policy: An overview of organizational practices and role-specific information.
• IT Support: Small group time to set up single sign-on and other key systems.
• Union Introductions: Opportunities to hear from OSEA or BEA, if their position is represented.
• Role-Specific Training: A half-day dedicated to job-specific skills and expectations.
  • For school-based staff, Level Leaders will take the lead on this portion.
  • For non-school-based staff, HR has collaborated with Directors, Assistant Directors, and Supervisors to develop tailored plans.

Important Note: All candidates who accept a position after Friday, October 10 will not be permitted to start work until they have attended one of these orientations.

This new process reflects our shared goal of ensuring that every employee starts their journey with Bend-La Pine Schools on strong footing, well-prepared to contribute and thrive. Thank you for supporting this important step in welcoming our newest colleagues. Please connect with Ryan with any questions.

Evaluation Rosters

As we keep cruising through staffing updates, your Evaluation Rosters might not be perfectly up to date yet. If you spot anyone who shouldn’t be on your site list—or someone who’s missing—please email Jessica Lamay with the names to remove/add. Thank you!

What “ON-cycle” means

Contract staff marked ON-cycle were flagged because either:

• we do NOT have a finalized summative in UKG from last year (24-25), or
• they’re returning to the regular schedule from the 2023–24 cycle.

If something looks off, it’s often because last year’s steps weren’t fully finalized and the item is still pending in the system.

Quick checklist (2 minutes!)

1. Open UKG → To Do and complete/submit any evaluation steps sitting at your stage.
2. If an assignment still looks incorrect, reach out to Jessica Lamay and Triz so we can verify and update as appropriate. We appreciate you helping us keep everything clean and current—your attention here makes the whole process smoother for staff and students. 🙌

Linking Files:

Once you’ve dropped your files into the shared site folders  

Please be sure to link them into the correct column of your workbook. 

See steps in the samples below:

2. Click to select the file you are attaching in the workbook.
3. Click the ‘chain link’ icon to copy the link to that file -OR- Ctrl/Command+C.

2. Click on the ‘File Chip’ in the corresponding row and column for that employee/eval piece. Ctrl/Command+V -OR- Right mouse click, then click Paste, to attach the file.
3. Tab -OR- click on the file name pop-up (as above) to complete the attachment.
4. File is attached.

.

From Julie Richards, Curriculum and Instruction

This year the decision has been made to adjust progress monitoring requirements.  Please review 25-26 Progress Monitoring Guidelines and share with staff members. You will receive an email with a spreadsheet that lists who/what to progress monitor.  Click on your school tab.  Students who score 0-10th percentile are monitored 2x per month and 11-20th are monitored 1x per month using acadience progress monitoring materials.  If the spreadsheet indicates “NONE” that means you do not have any students in that grade level below the 20th percentile.  A school can choose to monitor additional students. ROAR is given as a benchmark: September, January and June.  It can be given as a progress monitor in November and March.  More information on when that window will open as we get closer to the date.  

You will also receive a the spreadsheet that indicates students who will need an SB1003 (aka Dyslexia screener) parent letter to be given at conferences.  Please share this with the classroom teachers and anyone that supports making the copies and filling out the letters.

From Educational Technology

Upcoming Change: Grade-Level Data Access in Core Applications

Next week, teachers will begin seeing new grade-level “all students” classes in Clever and our core instructional applications. These classes were created with input from instructional coaches to give teachers quick access to grade-level data for collaboration and planning.

For administrators, the key impact is that this update also unlocks student-level data in Amplify – something not yet available within the platform itself. This provides a short-term solution until Amplify rolls out their own data-access features later this year.

This change will go live on Wednesday, October 8th, so that teachers have access to this new class and data in time for Educator Network Day that afternoon. The message below will be shared with teachers in the TLC blog that morning.

---

Teacher Message – shared October 8^th in TLC Update

Starting October 8, you’ll have access to grade-level data for all students in your grade,not just your homeroom. This change was developed with input from instructional coaches and in response to teacher requests, making it easier to review scores and plan during grade-level meetings.

In addition to your homeroom, a new class will appear in Clever and other core applications that includes all students at your grade level across the school. For example, if you teach 4th grade at Juniper, you’ll see a class titled Juniper – All 4th Grade Students.

Both your homeroom and grade-level classes will appear in each application, including Acadience, RGR, DreamBox, Amplify, Lexia, and ILC — with Forefront to follow. When creating assignments or assigning other digital content, be sure to select your homeroom class so materials go only to your students. Each application makes it easy to switch between classes when needed.

From Facility Operations

Annual school fire inspections start next week. Bend Fire & Rescue will begin its annual fire inspections October 9 for all schools in the city’s coverage area – everything but our Sunriver and La Pine schools. The Bend city fire inspections are scheduled to run through November 7. Jim Scott, Building Services Manager for Bend-La Pine Schools, will notify each school’s principal and office manager of its inspection date the week prior.

There is also an Open House on October that you may want to share with families! Click HERE for the flyer!

From Eric Powell, Student Support

If an Administrator at your site does not have Synergy discipline access (to enter Minor or Major incidents into the discipline module), would you please Email Eric Powell to let them know who needs access to the discipline module in Synergy? 

We are working with IT to schedule a discipline module training for any administrator who needs this access and want to determine whom to invite to this potential training.

If you don’t know what the “discipline module” in Synergy is, then you probably need this!

From Informational Technology: It is Cyber October once again!

Beginning next week look for tech info, tips and tricks both in the blog and in your email as we recognize Cyber October.

We will also be bringing back the “Phishing Derby” with some even bigger prizes for reporting suspicious emails.  

Action Items

• Review and share information about conferences with teachers and families
• Remind your teachers to sign up for their Educator Network Day class!
• Check your evaluation roster for accuracy and follow the steps from Triz to complete last year!
• Send information about Evaluation Cycles to teachers
• Take a moment and complete the feedback form for our Admin PD yesterday.
• Let Eric Powell know if an admin at your site needs access to the discipline module in Synergy.

Important Dates

• October 1-2: Yom Kippur–no evening activities
• October 7: Elementary Leadership Meeting, 3:00 – 4:30 at Education Center Board Room
• October 8: First Educator Network Day: See the information above on 9/25 Blog
• October 14: PLCs 1 and 2, 3:00-4:30 at (1 @ Rosland and Phly Like Canadians @ Lava Ridge)
• October 15: SLGGs are due by today
• October 16: TAG Admin ICCL 3:30 – 5:30 Education Center Board Room
• October 21: PLCs 3 and 4, 3:00 – 4:30. (PL C3PO @ Silver Rail and We Are the Winners @ La Pine)
• October 22: Elementary Safety Cadre 1:15 – 3:45 at Silver Rail Elementary
• October 29: Teacher work day (8 hrs)   Conf. (4 hrs.) Admin will have a ½ day Amplify training on this date. (Half in the morning and half in afternoon–check your calendar invite)
• October 30: Parent Teacher Conferences
• October 31: No School and School Improvement Plans are due today.

And finally… Congratulations to our Next Duck Drawing winner, Laci Fisher!

Laci is the Assistant Principal at Lava Ridge. Laci always has a smile on her face and brings a lot of joy and energy to any space she enters! She is a busy mom of active kids and is going all the time! We wonder how she does it all– caffeine maybe? Laci, let us know your drink of choice and we will deliver this next week!