New Notes:
Admin/ICCL Follow Up: A couple of follow ups from our training on Tuesday. First, we want you to know that we shared the wrong ICCL job description. It was an older version and was not up to date with a few things (hours of work for the year for example should be 60). Here is the current job description. Also, here is the main presentation link, which has links to everything and the link to Julie’s presentation that your team will present on 10/11 SIW. In addition, here is the link to the google drive where you will find your school folder with your school design template.
Speaking of your school design template, we are giving you until Wednesday, November 15 to have your design plans completed. In the meantime, we will be checking in with you at site visits about the work you and your ICCL team are doing, and how we may be of help.
WAYFINDER HELP. Please connect with Lisa and Tammy about any classrooms/grade levels you feel are using Wayfinder regularly and interested in being a showcase classroom. The Wayfinder team will be in Bend on the 24th of October and would like to see this work in action and we need 8-10 classrooms to visit.
From Scott B and Kayla in Safety: Schools are off to a great start with their safety training to staff and students and completing their first fire drill and lockdown drill of the school year.
A reminder, please ensure that once your school has completed your drill(s) for the month, to update the drill tracker with the date you completed your drill, and the drill evaluation form and save the form in your schools google safety resources folder. Please reach out to Scott or Kayla with any questions. Thanks for keeping our schools safe!
From Student Services (Colleen, Josh, and Sean) We are very excited to share that we are partnering with The National Resource Center for Paraeducators, NRCP, to provide monthly professional development opportunities for all Inclusion Educational Assistants. These trainings are designed to help deepen the understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Please read more about these trainings HERE. Your learning specialists and inclusion EAs were provided this information earlier this week in our Special EDge. For additional questions please contact Krista Hought and Stephanie Smith.
We are offering additional CPI training. An initial CPI training is scheduled for Thursday, October 26. This is a non-workday for elementary and middle school inclusion EAs due to conferences. If your inclusion EA has not been trained and chooses to attend, the student services department will pay for the timesheet. This training should be in UKG soon! Upcoming CPI refresher and initial training will be scheduled on February 2, 2024.
Our team of eight Student Services Coaches is incredible and we are fortunate to have so much expertise and specialized skill sets. Because they are so amazing, they are often requested to support in ways that are not aligned with their roles and responsibilities. They have three domains of focus: Staff Development, Leadership/Contribution to Learning, and Working with Teams. Please familiarize yourself HERE to read more about expectations and how they can support you and your special education teams. If you have any additional questions about how your student services coach can support your school and teams, please contact Colleen or Josh. Additionally, if you need a quick reference for who is assigned to support your site, check out our ‘2023/2034-Who is Where Quick Guide’.
From Paul in HR: Performance Evaluation Module: After some internal discussion with administrative staff who oversee the UKG Suite of Products, we’ve decided to pause the launch of the Performance module for two reasons: (1) we have some people/supervisors mismatched and want to avoid workflows of goal setting and observations forms from landing in an incorrect To Do mailbox, and (2) we’ll be meeting with district leadership on Wednesday, October 25th and will be providing a more extensive overview of the module functionality and answer your questions at that time.
Please continue your mini/formal observations as you’ve been doing and we’ll provide you with information on the 25th about how to enter that data into the Performance module. For those administrators who are preparing to work with their staff on creating student learning growth goals (SLGGs) during the month of October, you may have staff use this google form. Staff can either make a digital copy to complete or they can print and fill out a hard copy. On the 25th, we’ll review the method that certified staff will use to upload the goal setting form into the Performance module.
For those creating school wide or team SLGGs for non academic areas, I came across SLG Goals for Social Emotional Learning & Engagement that I think is a great resource. Here are two more resources that I think will be particularly helpful:
- State SLGG Guidance
- Teacher and Administrator Evaluation & Support Systems: Frequently Asked Questions
UKG Data Check – Reminder. We are asking building leaders to confirm that their staff assignments in UKG are correct. You may navigate to your My Team tab, then go to My Saved Reports and Staff Assignments to view your people and positions. If you see something that isn’t accurate, please use this google form to identify the corrections needed at your site.
DHS Training Video: Please watch this 6 minute video as it is important learning for you regarding the state’s process in investigating child abuse in schools (that is when there is a question about something that has happened at school or on our buses). There were several of these investigations last year in our elementary schools. This will help you better understand the process should it happen at your school.
Bargaining: Some of you are being asked questions about bargaining from staff or families. Please know that any discussion/update on the bargaining process in this context could be considered an unfair labor practice. Instead of trying to respond with information, here’s an example of what you could say (to staff): “I am not involved in this process. Your building rep/association leaders would be good people to check with if you have questions”; (to parents) “I am not involved in this process. If the district has new information to share about the process, it will be part of our family newsletter.” Thanks for navigating these conversations with care. In the meantime, Steve Cook or Steve Herron will continue to provide updates for administrators only at our monthly meetings.
Recommendations for students for private schools: We recently received a question from one of our local K-12 private schools about policies prohibiting teachers from writing recommendations for students to attend private schools. BLS does not have such a policy. On the other hand, staff should feel NO PRESSURE to complete these types of recommendations. Our only suggestion is that in order to avoid bias, staff do not “pick and choose” who they write recommendations for…either they are willing to complete a recommendation whenever asked or as a matter of practice they politely decline.
Elementary TAG Coordinators–from Lora: Our meeting Tuesday, October 9th, will begin at 4:00 instead of 3:30, so that it doesn’t interfere with 504 training some of you may be attending. I will send out a link to all elementary admin as soon as I figure out Teams ☹ , but only TAG coordinators need to “attend.”
Fire Inspection FYI from Dan Dummit: Dan has been making the rounds with the new fire inspector recently. He wanted to be sure that you all have this document, (created by Portland Fire and Rescue) which outlines the expectations for our classrooms when it comes to fire safety. To highlight a few things that we want to draw your attention to because they are common problems, please refer to #4, #8, #9. Also, while you notice there are some things on this sheet that, if done correctly can be used, they go against our sustainability practices and should be avoided, #10 and #18 for example.
Curriculum, Instruction, and Systems Updates from Julie: Seesaw: Representatives from most schools attended a Seesaw training last week and learned about some of the fantastic features this platform provides for family engagement. Please invite your representative(s) to share at an upcoming staff meeting.
Upcoming Professional Learning: You may have a few teachers out next week because they will be participating in some important professional learning. Instructional coaches may not be in your buildings during these trainings because they are supporting teachers from each of your schools.
- Monday, 10/9. Blends Support-some of our Blends teachers will be working with our instructional coaches on the morning of the 9th.
- Monday, 10/9 Experienced New Hire-Literacy Focus-12:15-3:15-Boardroom- This is a professional learning session for educators that are new to Bend La Pine but not in their first 2 years in the profession. This is an opportunity to learn about Bend La Pine’s focus on literacy, connect with your instructional coach and collaborate with teachers across the district.
- Tuesday, 10/10 Math Curriculum Review Team-8:00-3:00- Educators from across the district will be participating in a math best practices professional learning session.
New to Sharezies: If you want to communicate expectations about personal electronic devices (phones and watches) to families, check out this communication from Erich at Jewell.
Reminders:
- Conferences- Less than 25 students= 25-30 minutes. More students = 20 minutes.
- Personal Leave- Maximum of 5% of staff can be out on personal leave.
- EA emergency EA funds- you have 70 hours to use when needs arise.
- ASIST training will be coming up Nov. 2 & 3- reach out to Jamie Gunter with questions
- Classified schedules- Are these complete for each employee, including breaks and lunch?
- Prevent, Teach, Respond information, PTR Facilitators Guide
- MTSS Tier 3 process
- most recent TLC Update
- Please share your school schedule here
Title School To-Dos
Please put in the folder called “All Documents Here” :
- Notification of Annual Meeting (flyer, social media post, etc) that advertises the Title meeting
- Sign in sheet from the annual meeting
- Powerpoint/slide deck, handout from the Annual Meeting
- Family Engagement events—flyers/advertising
- Sign-in sheets from any family engagement event you have had
- Ensure EAs are under the direct supervision of a certified teacher and add schedules of Title staff to the folder as well
- Budget completes and Meryll notified by 10/13
Coming soon: A sample Title 1 compact needs to be uploaded to the folder after conferences. You need to retain a copy of each compact at the school (can be paper or electronic) Compacts will be out to you early next week.
Important Dates:
- Oct. 6 Complete this google form with your corrections by Friday, October 6th for UKG
- Oct. 11, 1:45-3:15 Ed Network Training–on your site for classroom teachers
- Oct. 13 Title 1 Budgets due to Meryll
- Oct 24, 3:00-5:00. Elementary Admin meeting 3:00-5:00, at Jewell, with Jewell and Silver Rail hosting
- Oct. 25, 3:00-4:30 Monthly Administrator PD at Perseverance Hall at Bend High (UKG!)
- Oct 25-27. Tammy and Lisa out at a PBIS Leaders Conference
And finally…
A little something similar to what we did as a quick connection at cabinet this week. You really get to know someone when you get to know their preferences!
