A big thank you to 17 staff members from many of your schools, who have signed up to meet with incoming kindergarten students and their families this coming Saturday. We are excited to welcome the class of 2037 to the 24-25 school year! Out and about on Saturday? Swing by one of the parks at the time above to check it out!
Do Now:
- Change!!! From Julie. April 24 locations for all staff for Ed Network Day—share with staff Now! Lava Ridge and Highland, please note your location changes, so if you have already shared the location, please share this version and location change instead. This link also has locations for Co-Curricular teachers, Specialists, and more. Thank you!!
- Initiate Self-Reflections (SRs) for your staff this week if you haven’t already. Directions are in the reminder section.
- Please let your staff members know that they can indicate their interest in having their child attend KIDS Inc by filling out the KIDS Inc Interest Form specific to BLP employees for the 2024-2025 school year. As a reminder, they also MUST submit an application to the program that can be found on the KIDS Inc website in order to be considered. Indicating interest does not guarantee a spot in the program but BLP employees will be prioritized. The application period is May 6- May 17.
Reminders:
- Youth Truth. Reminder: Please share the data presentations with your staff by May 8. By May 29, meet with your ICCL teams to synthesize the information you get from the posters at the data walks, and decide what you want to focus on. Write the 2 areas of focus and link them in your School Design Plans under the Annual Plan Review Tab in the mid-year location.
- Roger White support: Want to help? Click this link.
- Performance Evaluation Reminders: All goals, formal observations and most mini’s should be finalized in UKG by the end of April. We are asking Level Leaders to review your progress during their next one-on-one site visit.
- In addition, please initiate Self-Reflections (SRs) for your staff this week. You may ‘skip’ instead of ‘initiate’ SRs those who are not on a full evaluation cycle this year. Staff are instructed to complete their SRs by May 1.
- Here is an instruction video to share with your staff on how to complete self-reflections
- Here is an instructional video for admin on how to review, submit and finalize self-reflections
- Erin’s Law: When you finish with these, let April Jorgenson know!
- Transfer Interviews: Update, they have now been moved to April 30
- TLC Update: April 18, Elementary TLC Update
- Tentative BEA Agreement can be found HERE
- Inservice Week Certified work calendar for 24-25
- April: Naglieri testing & SBAC for ELA
- May: SBAC for Math and Science
New Notes:
From Scott Maben: Levy Communications
LEVY MATERIALS FOR PUBLIC – Please be sure to have your interior levy sign displayed in your entryway, and the larger exterior sign displayed outside, as soon as possible. Also, please be sure to have your levy rack cards (informational handouts) displayed in a prominent spot near your office window. If you need more cards, let Scott Maben know. Spanish-language versions of these cards are being printed and should be ready for delivery by Monday. Additional rack card holders are coming as well.
From Robbie Faith: Instructional Technology:
With conferences in the rearview mirror, many families may be asking about Lexia, Dreambox, or Sora access at home for additional learning. Here are a few frequently asked questions to help with this and to prepare for the upcoming summer as well.
Are students allowed to bring iPads home during the school year? Yes, students can bring the iPad home if the family and school agree, a specific learning goal is provided, and the family knows in advance that the iPad is coming home.
How do students access Clever programs such as Lexia and Dreambox from a personal device? The directions for accessing Clever from home on a personal device can be found here. Please note that this requires students to set-up multi-factor authentication. Your media manager or tier 1 support should have the Student MFA set-up directions.
Can students bring the iPad home for the summer? In most cases, we would recommend that the iPad remains at school for the summer. If a student does not have access to a personal device and the family is requesting access to our district learning programs, then they can check out the iPad for the summer. The student and guardian will need to complete the Acceptable Use of Technology Agreement Student/Parent Summer Form. You can get this form from your site tech or instructional technology.
How long will students be able to access Clever programs (Lexia, Dreambox, Sora, etc.) this summer? Student access to Clever will end in early August in preparation for the 2024-2025 school year.
From Jenny White: Life and Career Readiness
Flexible Thinking and Growth Mindset Collections
Develop students’ ability to think flexibly and adapt to new situations with this collection of activities and lessons. Through problem-solving activities, perspective-taking exercises, and cognitive flexibility tasks, students will learn to approach challenges with an open mind and consider multiple viewpoints. These resources foster resilience, creativity, and the ability to navigate change.
Directions on how to find the collection on Wayfinder
Direct Links. Kindergarten. 1st – 2nd. 3rd – 5th
From Jennifer Hauth: Social, Emotional, and Mental Well Being
BRYT Focus Groups on May 1st for SIW: We wanted to share an exciting opportunity for our Student Success staff coming up on Wednesday, May 1st. Our BRYT partners from Boston are coming out to visit Bend-La Pine that week, and we have a chance to meet with them Wednesday afternoon in elementary and secondary focus groups. We understand this is a building-discretion SIW. If you are able to release your SSC/SSI and SSEA to join us, we’d be so appreciative. The coaches sent a separate to communication directly to your student success staff as well. Thank you!
From Jessica Scott: TAG flyer with corrections
From Tammy and Lisa:
Self Reflection Due Date Change: The self reflections in UKG are set with a due date of May 1. In talking with Paul, this is a “soft date”. You choose the date you want the staff to have the self-reflections due and communicate that to them (You can’t change it in UKG right now–just tell staff to ignore May 1). Note that the reflections now ask for their ending SLGG information. With the reading SLGG goal, many of them use Dibels as their indicator, so make sure your due date is after your building Dibles day.
4 Hour Subs and Pay. Earlier last month, you received information about a legislative change that said if we hired 4 hour subs, we were required to pay them for 8 hours. At that time, the information your Office Staff received said to code subs moving forward 3.99 or less to not have to pay a full 8 hours. This change is retroactive to July 1, 2023, so every sub coded between July 1, 2023 and the date of March 4,2024, will be covered by the district. It will not impact your budgets between those dates. After March 4, anyone who was coded 4 hours needed to be paid for 8 and that will be paid by you. The legislature fixed the bill and as of April 5, it is back to what it originally was prior to July 1—if you put in for a 4 hour sub they will be paid for only 4 hours. Whew!
Thank you and a reminder: Thank you for unexpectedly digging into the Youth Truth work on Tuesday afternoon and preparing your staff presentations. We know it wasn’t what you thought you may be doing that day. The reports of people who have done the presentations and data walks so far, have been very positive and admin report a feeling of success. Staff are appreciative of the data and chance to talk about it. Let us know how your presentations go and if you need any support–we are happy to help!
Also, a quick reminder that both Lisa and I will be out this next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The Thursday blog next week will be coming to you from the windy city, as we attend a conference on authentic family engagement. We will still be available by text/phone (could be iffy on Wednesday as we will by in the air). If you need support and can’t get us, you can call Lora, Julie, Batman, Obi-Wan…
Important Dates
- April 19: Staffing plans due
- April 23: Horizontal 3:00-5:00–mandatory EL training– at Highland. We need the full 2 hours, so please be on time. No school share outs this time–we’ll catch you up later!
- April 24-26. Tammy and Lisa out of town at a conference
- April 30: All goals, formal observations, and most mini observations finalized in UKG
- April 30: Transfer interviews: High Lakes Elementary, 3:15-5:15
- May 4: Queer Prom 7 pm at BTA (Star Wars theme)
- May 15: Monthly Admin PD at Perseverance Hall, 3:00-4:30
- May 18: Kinder Fiesta 10-1 at Ed Center (newly enrolling Spanish-speaking kindergarten families)
- May 28: Horizontal Meeting @ Rosland 3:00-5:00 (Please add in travel time, as we will be starting on time)
- May 30: School Counselor Celebration in board room 8-9:30
- June 1: Pride @ Drake Park (BLS Family Advisory hosting a booth)
- June 6: GSA in the Park: 10-1 at Troy Field/Ed Center
- June 6: TAG Night at Juniper 5-6 pm
- June 15-16: Juneteenth Community Celebration in Drake Park
- June 18: Last Horizontal meeting of the year @ Hollinshead Barn, 3:00-5:00.