Happy First Day of Winter this Weekend! I do love the Solstice!
From Tammy and Karen
As we wrap up the final blog of the year and head into winter break, I’m feeling grateful and hopeful. This season has been full of hard work, laughter, collaboration, and countless moments of care and connection that make a difference every day.
Winter break is a chance to pause, rest, and enjoy the simple things. We hope it brings you warmth, joy, and time to recharge. Thank you for all you do, and wishing you a peaceful break and a bright start to the new year ahead.
Over the Break, Tammy and Karen will be working the first part of next week. From Christmas Day through January 2, Tammy will be out of the country, so please reach out to Karen with any urgent concerns. Enjoy any travel or fun plans you might have and we look forward to sharing stories in January!
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.
All you have to do: Join your colleagues for quick tours of local service providers, tag along with your family liaison or FAN advocate on a home visit to check on a student, and continue the school-specific efforts you’re already doing. (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.
From Dave VanLoo–School Improvement
Here is a brief resource to help administrators with YouthTruth implementation. YouthTruth goes live on January 5. Contact Dave VanLoo with any questions about YouthTruth surveys.
Get ready for Youth Truth! How will you get more staff and families to take it this year?
Enjoy your last day with students and have fun on your break!
Important Dates
December 22 – Jan 2: Winter Break
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 Lybe Hawkins!
Lybe Hawkins brings both deep experience and joyful curiosity to her role as principal of Silver Rail Elementary. She has spent 22 years serving Bend-La Pine Schools, teaching at LaPine Elementary and Ensworth, supporting students and administrators at Lava Ridge, and now leading Silver Rail for the past four years. Lybe is known for her fun, adventurous spirit and her genuine love of the world around her. When she’s not at school, you’ll likely find her in the garden, out with her two fuzzy and adorable dogs, Clyde and Charlie, or binoculars in hand embracing her self-described role as a “Bird Nerd,” always on the lookout for her next feathered friend. Congratulations Lybe, we look forward to bringing you a hot drink in January – hopefully on a snowy day!
This week (which has been especially “interesting”) I’ve been reminded that the greatest gift we have in our work is each other. Every day, we lean on the collective wisdom, creativity, support, and generosity of our colleagues, and it is this spirit of collaboration that turns challenges into possibilities. When we share ideas, step in for one another, ask thoughtful questions, or simply listen with care, we create a community where everyone can thrive. Our individual strengths are powerful on their own, but together they become something extraordinary—something that lifts our schools, our students, and our shared purpose. Thank you for the many ways you show up for one another; your collaborative spirit is the heartbeat of our success.
From Julie Richards, Director of Elementary Curriculum
Please share with staff:
Subject: Maintaining Strong Instructional Routines as We Approach Winter Break
As we move into the final three weeks before winter break, we want to thank you for your continued dedication to high-quality instruction and for the warmth, creativity, and care you bring into your classrooms during this season.
These last weeks before break are a critical window for student learning, particularly in reading and mathematics, where consistent, uninterrupted instructional time has a meaningful impact on student growth. Strong routines, clear expectations, and protected instructional minutes help ensure that students continue to make progress right up to the final day.
We fully support engaging, fun, and meaningful seasonal activities and projects that are inclusive of all students and reflect the diverse traditions, backgrounds, and experiences in our school community. At the same time, we ask that core daily routines for reading and math remain intact and that instructional minutes in these areas are not reduced or replaced. When possible, consider ways to integrate literacy, math, and content standards into projects and celebrations, allowing students to learn while engaging in seasonal fun.
Your ability to balance joy with purpose is one of your greatest strengths. By maintaining consistent instructional routines alongside engaging and inclusive activities, we ensure our students continue to thrive academically while feeling valued and connected during this time of year.
Thank you for your professionalism, intentional planning, and commitment to maximizing every learning minute for our students.
From Kayla Martin, Safety
Thank you all for your attendance and participation at our second cadre meeting! Here is the link to the Cadre and Student Services slides.
A few pieces of information that were discussed:
Here is the Health & Safety POC Roster- The best place to start when fielding your safety concerns.
Policy Training: Here is the slide with links to the policies we discussed via scenarios at your recent horizontal meetings. Let me know if you have an issue related to one of these scenarios or policies that you’d like to discuss.
Bias/Complaint Response Template: As a reminder, most of our complaint policies require that you communicate your investigation findings in writing. This can often be an informal email format (for a bias incident between students, or a straightforward complaint where you’ve been communicating frequently with the parent or employee already), and other times a more formal findings document.
In either case, there are certain points you need to include in that written conclusion of the investigation (ex: your conclusion, how to appeal, etc). Here is a template you can download and use. It’s geared toward bias incidents and a formal format, but you can adapt and use pieces as desired. If this is overwhelming or unhelpful, disregard. I’m always happy to review a draft email or findings document to check it against policy considerations before you send it, if helpful for you!
From Dave VanLoo – Director of School Improvement
Here are links to use for documenting OSAS testing opt-outs and exemptions in 2025-26. These forms are like what we have used in the past and are needed for cleaning up data at the end of the school year. Opt-outs apply only to ELA and Math testing; anything else follows ODE’s exemption process.
In addition, principals and VPs can view students added to the opt-out and exemption forms at these links. These links contain data for all schools, but schools can filter their own students to help plan and manage testing.
Let Dave VanLoo or Stephanie Bent know if you have any questions or need other staff added to the response spreadsheets.
From Tami Pike – Director of Health Services
Health Services Support During School-Sponsored Activities
Please ensure that parents/guardians of students who require specialized health services (e.g., diabetes management, seizure support, adrenal insufficiency care) are informed that the school nurse must receive at least two weeks’ notice before any school-sponsored activity that occurs outside of regular school hours (such as dances, movie nights, or Robotics events). This advance notice is necessary to arrange appropriate health supports.
For overnight trips, a request should be submitted by the parent/guardian at least four weeks’ in advance of the event to allow sufficient time for planning and coordination.
Parents/guardians can submit a request for health services support here (English/Spanish).
This guideline does not apply to athletic events or classroom field trips, as those requests must be submitted by the coach or teacher using the Request for Direct Care Nursing Services form.
PPE Our post-COVID PPE supply is running low, and we are currently out of medium-disposable gloves. Prior to COVID, schools were responsible for purchasing their own gloves for general use, and we will be returning to that practice. The remaining PPE items listed below will not be replenished once they are gone.
Current inventory available through Distribution:
Small disposable gloves
Large disposable gloves
Hand sanitizer
Disposable masks
Well Child Exams. Please share in your school newsletters. English/Spanish
Action Items
Prepare for our PLC meetings in the next two weeks by revisiting the notes, thinking about your problem of practice, collecting any data or helpful resources, and be ready to set goals for outcomes and for your individual and collective learning. You can access notes and slides for the next meeting here.
Share information with staff regarding teaching expectations for the month of December
Share Well Child Exam info in school newsletters: English/Spanish
Use the forms provided by Dave VanLoo to document opt outs from testing
Important Dates
December 9: PLCs 3 and 4, from 3:00-4:30
December 16: PLCs 1 and 2, from 3:00-4:30
December 17: All Admin PD 3:00 – 4:30 pm at Aspen Hall
December 22 – Jan 2: Winter Break
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 Lynne Tat!
Lynne Tat is in her second year as Assistant Principal at North Star. Prior to that, she was a counselor at High Desert Middle School for many years and a District Equity Coach. Her roots in elementary school go way back though, as she started out her career as an elementary teacher in Pendleton. She is the proud mother of Hannah, a member of the Wolfpack at Caldera and Brady, who is a High Desert Diamondback. Throughout the year, you can find Lynne cheering on her kids in sports, or husband Ban, as the coach. Lynne brings a passion for creating school environments in which all students, families, and staff are seen, welcomed, and appreciated as valuable members of a community. Thanks for all you do Lynne! Let us know what your beverage of choice is and we will bring it your way!
Tim Broadbent pauses for a photo during our Gratitude Tour!
From Tammy and Karen
This week, we wrapped up our “Gratitude Tours” at your schools, and what a gift it was to spend time with you listening, learning, and witnessing the bright spots that make our community so special. Everywhere we visited, one theme rose to the top: you show up for one another. Amid the busyness of the season, it was powerful to pause and hear you name the moments where colleagues stepped in, encouraged, supported, or simply noticed each other. The appreciation you expressed wasn’t superficial; it was heartfelt, specific, and rooted in the relationships that make our schools thrive.
Thank you for living out the values that keep our district strong. Thank you for lifting one another up, sharing kindness so freely, and choosing collaboration over isolation. Gratitude isn’t just something we talk about here, it’s something we practice, and you modeled that so clearly this month. We hope you feel as proud of your work, your teams, and each other as we do! Wishing you a restful and gratitude-filled Fall Break filled with rest and moments of joy.
.From Sean Reinhart, Jennifer Hauth, and Jamie Gunter: Student Support
The Student Services Team is reaching out with yearly reminders of our protocols and procedures around suicide risk and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), as required byAdi’s Act (Senate Bill 52). We will be providing a series of updates to ensure that administrators have information on updated protocols.
Reminder: Safe Oregon
Safe Oregon tips involving suicidal ideation or non-suicidal self-injury require follow up with your school based mental health staff (follow up screening and entry into Student Safe each time).Refer to the student services slide deck or reach out to Sean, Jamie, Scott, or Kayla.
Reminder: Screening Staff
As per our Adi’s Act plan, staff who can risk screen and safety plan with students include school counselors, school psychologists, and student success clinicians. ASIST trained school nurses and student success staff can collaborate with their school based mental health professionals after screening on next steps in safety planning and lethal means calls home. Policy requires that a student is screened and parent/caregivers are notified the same day that a concern is noted. Same day notification to administrators is also a requirement, as is the entry of all screening information and contact details intoStudent Safe. All administrators have access to the Student Safe system, and if anyone would like a 1:1walkthrough, please reach out.
Action Items
ENJOY THIS LIST WITH NO ACTION ITEMS!
Important Dates
November 24-28: Fall Break and Thanksgiving
December 2: Horizontal in the Board Room from 3:00-4:30–Cheer to follow??
December 9: PLCs 3 and 4, from 3:00-4:30
December 16: PLCs 1 and 2, from 3:00-4:30
December 22- Jan 2: Winter Break
January 13: Horizontal Meeting 3:00 – 4:30 at Highland Elementary
And finally… Congratulations to our Next Duck Drawing winner Anna Park!
Anna Park serves as the Assistant Principal at Ensworth Elementary, where her leadership is defined by heart, versatility, and an unwavering commitment to students and families. On any given day, you’ll find Anna teaching in classrooms, working directly with students, supporting families, or simply spreading joy throughout the school. She wears many hats—and wears them all well. Anna brings a radiant smile and a boundless energy that lift the entire Ensworth community. She has a beautiful gift: she truly sees people. Whether she is partnering with a teacher, listening to a student, or connecting with a family, Anna helps others feel included, safe, valued, and heard. Her presence strengthens relationships, builds trust, and creates a school environment where every person belongs. Congratulations Anna! Let us know what your beverage of choice is and we will get it delivered!
As we wrap up a long week of parent-teacher conferences (and the loooong days that you put in), we want to take a moment to express deep gratitude for the time, energy, and heart you’ve poured into building strong partnerships with families. These conversations strengthen the bridge between home and school—and your commitment shines through in every one of them. As we head into the long weekend, we hope you’ll take time to rest, recharge, eat too much candy, and enjoy a well-deserved break!
Please take a moment to sign up for the next round of Site Visits! For November, we will be doing a “Gratitude Tour!” We want to hear about all of the things you are grateful for at your school!
As you may have seen, the anticipated federal shutdown is expected to disrupt SNAP benefits beginning in November. Many families in our community may experience reduced access to food for an unknown period of time. Local food banks are already reporting strain as they prepare to absorb the increased need.
We will share resources and reminders of local food services in the next Family Spotlight. In the meantime, please feel free to 1) print, distribute, and share these bilingual food resource lists with all families and with your staff (Bend, South County, Redmond), 2) if you feel moved, consider donating time, funds, or other support to any of these local services (you can easily google any of their websites and find the Donation button 🙂), and 3) if your PTA or Booster Club wants to support food access, encourage them to support these local services.
For those who visited the Giving Plate for our Community Engagement Bingo activity this week, thank you. Your presence meant a lot to their over-stretched team, now more than ever. (Missed it but want to visit and count that Bingo square? Contact me!)
MAC Survey – Action Needed:
With the SNAP food assistance program being frozen and our students being impacted, this is a great time to remember just how critical our FAN Advocates are for our community. Your participation in the MAC Survey process (completing your training ASAP, claiming time on the survey day in mid-November) brings in funds that pay for FAN Advocate positions, so that we have folks on staff who can help families navigate. Thank you for prioritizing this! Contact your FAN Advocate if you have questions.
From Paul Dean in Operations
Work Order Submission Best Practices
When submitting a work order that requires greater visibility at your site, please include @[insert principal’s email], @[insert custodian’s email], and @[insert office manager’s email] in the comment section of the request. Doing so will:
Ensure that key staff are aware of the request, helping to reduce duplicate work orders.
Allow all recipients to receive automatic updates as the work order progresses.
To help our maintenance staff be better prepared and efficient:
Provide as much detail as possible in the Description/Summary section. This information helps staff bring the right tools and materials and may prevent multiple trips.
When possible, attach photos showing the repair issue. Photos help clarify the request and document the condition of the area needing repair.
From Jennifer in Student Well Being
College and Career Day:
It’s that time of year again. November 20th is College and Career Day in Bend-La Pine Schools. As with last year, we are looking to draw attention to the multitude of pathways available to students after they graduate high school. This is a K-12 day! We want all students to be dreaming about what options they have after they leave our schools.
Here are a few things you could do at your site to make the day a success. It would be great if classrooms or advisories could look to do something for just 10-15 minutes this day. Dress as a professional Encourage students and staff to dress up as someone from a career they are interested in. Remember there are a lot of great careers out there! Wear college colors Encourage students to wear the colors of a favorite college. Remember, college can mean community college, trade school, 4-year university, etc. Be careful with wording here as college brand clothing can be expensive and prevent students from feeling like they can participate. Colors are more inclusionary. Consider incorporating videos or lessons bringing awareness to careers and colleges. Our 6-12 sites could lean into some of the activities in SchooLinks. All secondary students have required activities to complete through BLS School Counseling curriculum and to complete their Educational Plan and Profile, so this would be a perfect opportunity to complete one of these required activities. Consider onboarding 6th and 9th grade students on this day if you haven’t already done so. Students are required to take a “Find your Path” assessment when first logging in that will jumpstart the college and career exploration process. Comprehensive School Counseling Program and Lessons could be completed this week: High School and Middle School Wayfinder also has some great resources, especially their integration with Roadtrip Nation and their Future Ready Collection K-12. For middle school, these have been added for the week of November 17th as potential advisory lessons in ourscope and sequence. Here is a great website from the State of Oregon called Career Journeys. There are amazing short videos, lesson plans and other activities any teacher could do. Also available is the Career Connected Learning Central Oregon website which allows exploration of career paths close to home. Consider inviting parents from the community in to talk about their careers. This could be done in a variety of ways from advisory to lunch opportunities. You could also ask parents to submit a short video of them talking about their jobs and stitch them together for students. Remember our visitor and volunteer requirements if you decide to invite parents into schools.
We hope you’ll join in the celebration. Please send pictures of your participation to Becca Burda.
Wayfinder data Available: Wayfinder Waypoints data from the summative assessment is now available for your MTSS meetings. I will work with elementary admin on Tuesday, November 4th to go over how to use it. High and middle school admin leads, I will meet with you all in our smaller teams in the next two weeks. Reach out with any questions. Elementary and Middle school Counselors will be trained on Wednesday, November 5th during shared SIW. We are still working to schedule time with high school counselors.
From Lindsley – Elementary Literacy Coach
I am putting the following in the TLC blog- it is specific to 2nd grade but if you see cursive taking instructional priority in other grade levels at your school, you could use the same questions to get alignment through your building.
2nd grade RGR Handwriting – recommend sticking with print through the end of the program
At about unit 13, it will shift to cursive. I recommend continuing to do the lessons for all the rich sentence-level grammar, but continue with print (could use this paper)
Why no cursive? Ask yourself and your teams these questions.
What standard supports cursive instruction?
Are your students all fluent with print yet?
Unless your class is at 100% reading at benchmark, how could the additional time it takes to learn cursive be spent teaching them to read?
If they are at 100%, which technology would better serve students today- typing fluency or cursive fluency?
Action Items
Consider printing and distributing information about food resources to your community!
Review Paul Dean’s tips for submitting work orders
Start thinking about celebrating College and Career Day on November 20th.
Bring computers to November 4th Horizontal meetings so we can look at Wayfinder Data together.
Don’t forget Daylight Savings Time ends on November 2, 2025!
Important Dates
October 31: No School and School Improvement Plans are due today.
November 4: Horizontal Meeting 3:00 – 4:30 at the Board Room
November 11: Veteran’s Day–Enjoy!
November 12: All Admin PD from 3:00 – 4:30 at Perseverance Hall
November 14: Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day
November 18: PLC 1 and PLC 2 Meeting Day 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
November 20: College and Career Day
November 24-28: Fall Break and Thanksgiving
And finally… Congratulations to our Next Duck Drawing winner Stephanie Jensen!
Stephanie is the Assistant Principal at Buckingham Elementary! She has been a leader with BLS for 10 years. Prior to that she worked at Sisters School District as a Reading Teacher and ELD teacher, which means she has a vast knowledge of instructional strategies and she is passionate about ensuring kids have everything they need to feel a sense of belonging. She believes in the Power of Moments, and likes to create experiences for teachers, kids, and families that are meaningful and memorable. She is always on the go, literally– she even has a treadmill under her desk so she can keep up the steps after the kids are gone! Congrats to a great leader, teacher, and mom! Stephanie, let us know your drink of choice!
October: When the Lost and Found pile achieves legendary status
From Tammy and Karen
We have had great site visits with you this month and have been so impressed with your productivity in getting SLGGs, SIPs, and everything else done. We recognize that you have also been so busy building community with your staff, students, and their families! This time of year, our calendars are full and our patience sometimes… less so. However, this is also the best time to slow down and take a pause when we feel that “October Overwhelm” creeping up on us. Remember that being rooted in purpose means we don’t have to rush to prove our growth — it’s steady, grounded, and real. So refill your coffee, smile at a student story, and give yourself permission to thrive slowly. Even trees take their time turning colors.
It’s time to begin delivering Erin’s Law lessons. Here are the resources for your teachers. Please share with your staff.
From Jennifer in Student Well Being
3- 12 Waypointsopen until Friday October 24th end of day. Thank you to all of you that have had your students complete the assessment. School-wide student data will be ready for review on Monday, October 27th.
K–2 Waypoints Assessments Instructions for Teachers
The custom Waypoints formative assessments are now open in the app for K–2 teachers. Here are the questions.
Julie emailed these instructions to all K-2 teachers, and they will be listed in the TLC blog next week.
Please have teachers complete them by November 21.
You’ll find them listed in your “To Do List” on your Wayfinder Teacher Page as “2025 K Beginning of Year,” “2025 1st Beginning of Year,” etc. Each includes only six questions aligned to the Life and Career Readiness priority standards reflected on the progress report. These are educator observed Waypoints and they are not on student iPads. Detailed instructions here. I have turned off the K-2 Educator Observed Summative assessment so that will no longer be visible for K-2 teachers.
Tip: Have a class list with questions listed across the top. Think about students who might fall into the sometimes (2-developing) or rarely/never (1-beginning) category. Use this rubric to observe these students first. Then use professional judgement and observation to consider where the rest of your class is in their development. In addition, when teaching Wayfinder lessons, notice which lessons are focused on the priority standards and observe how students respond to the corresponding lessons.
From Lillah Lehner in Safety:
All STAS/SIRC Teams:
After completing a Level 1 STAS or SIRC assessment, please upload the 2 page Outcome and Safety Plan into Synergy>Student>Documents tab>STAS/SIRC is a new Doc Category tab. The Doc Comment will be Outcome and Safety Plan.
The following people will have access to this document:
Principals and Assistant Principals
Counselors
Student Success
Athletic Directors
SPED specialist such as Pych’s
District Directors/Executive Directors
Please call Lillah Lehner in Safety with questions: 541-355-8854
From Kinsey – Office of Policy and Advocacy:
Student organizing: clubs, petitions, etc:
Students have the right to gather and organize–examples include forming new clubs, circulating petitions, etc. However, we can put certain limitations on these activities, when done thoughtfully.
Here is the relevant policy with guidance for you. A couple reminders: No new student clubs should be forming without principal approval. If you believe a club, petition, or other student-organized activity is going to cause a disruption and should be prohibited, please contact me so we can discuss specific considerations.
Please remind staff about this policy and ask that they contact you if they are hearing about clubs or other student organizing that would require procedural considerations under this policy.
Family engagement calendar:
We now have an Outlook calendar to communicate and coordinate district-wide family engagement events and key dates! It includes district-wide events where families are the audience, such as Financial Aid night or Latino Family Night, as well as the “do not schedule” dates for religious observances.
This is a staff-facing tool, for awareness, access, and coordination of school, district, and program-specific family events. Please work with your office staff to add this calendar to your school Outlook calendar—instructions here.
If you are planning a district-wide event and would like it added to this calendar, please contact Dalia Juárez or email [email protected].
From Dave VanLoo in School Improvement
OSAS Testing Annual Notices and Opt-Out Forms
The Bend-La Pine website has been updated with the 2025-26 fillable PDF annual notice and opt-out forms that we are required to share with families. There are separate notices and opt-out forms for ELA/Math testing (grades 3-8 & 11) and the SEED survey (grades 3-11). Please share our website with links to the required forms using whatever methods you typically communicate with families and have copies available for parents to pick up in the office by ODE’s dates and timelines below.
Consistent with the requirements of ORS 329.479, ODE has developed an annual notice (available through ODE’s Test Administration webpage) that describes these assessments, identifies the timeframe when the assessment will most likely be administered, and identifies an adult student’s or parent’s right to excuse the student from testing. Districts and public charter schools must provide parents with the ODE-developed annual notice at the beginning of each school year.In addition, districts and public charter schools must provide parents with separate notice at least 30 days prior to administering the statewide summative assessments in Math and ELA using the ODE-provided 30-day notice and opt-out form (also available through ODE’s Test Administrationwebpage), or a district-created form that exactly reproduces the language of the ODE-provided form. School districts and public charter schools must use the language of the 30-day notice and opt-out form provided by ODE to communicate with all parents about state testing requirements and their right to opt out for high school students by January 4, 2026, and for students in Grades 3-8 by March 1, 2026.
ODE SEED Survey
Oregon law (House Bill 2656) requires each school district to make the SEED Survey available to students in grades 3-11. Parents or guardians may decline, either verbally or in writing, to have their student participate in the SEED Survey. Schools will provide parents with notice of administration and the process for declining participation at least 5 days prior to administering the SEED Survey. Students may also decline, at any time, either verbally or in writing to participate. Students may also decline to answer individual questions on the SEED survey.
Please contact Dave with any questions.
From Sean Reinhart, Jennifer Hauth, and Jamie Gunter
The Student Services Team is reaching out with a yearly reminder of protocols and procedures around suicide risk and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), as required byAdi’s Act (Senate Bill 52). We will be providing a series of updates to ensure that administrators are informed on updated protocols.
View the updated sudden death response procedures.
Review with all of your building staff on these procedures.
Ask all staff to contact their building administrator if they become aware of any information on the death of a staff member, student, or parent in your school community.
If a Staff member reaches out to an administrator:
Thank the reporter and ask that they don’t contact other individuals and share the news they have heard. Oftentimes the information is inaccurate or incomplete and unknowingly propagating rumors can cause harm.
The building administrator reaches out to Sean, Jennifer, Scott, or their Level Leader (in that order until the first person is reached).
Student Services will walk you through next steps.
Best-practice postvention around notification helps to prevent further harm or contagion, ensures accuracy and consistency, protects and respects the family, supports emotional safety, and lays the foundation for healing and recovery. If you have questions or concerns around this process, please reach out.
From Lindsley Gehrig – Instructional Coach
Here is a self-paced Acadience progress monitoring training to share with school leadership teams. I hope this serves as a solution for schools needing to train staff on progress monitoring. This training is still a work in progress but can be shared now to get folks started.
Challenges of training folks like we have in years past:
Pulling staff from buildings for large training
Duty/lunch schedules disrupted
Sub shortages
Training within each building
19 individual schools
Instructional coaches focusing on early literacy instruction and math curriculum adoption
Schools not having access to an experienced assessor (interventionist or learning specialist)
I recommend leadership do the following to set folks up for success:
Dedicate time within the staff members’ schedules
They do not need to be done all at once, you can focus on one subtest at a time
I think about 30+/- minutes per subtest
Have people do it together!
They can calibrate and discuss
Problem-solve together
From Scott McDonald – Information Technology
Synergy Mail Delivery Issue
It has come to our attention that on occasion, certain Synergy (ParentVUE) messages are currently being marked as “spam” and are not able to be viewed by families with a TDS email address. We have already engaged both Synergy support and TDS to identify the cause and resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
In the meantime, please be aware that teachers using Synergy mail may occasionally receive a “bounce back” message from families who are unable to view their message. We will provide an update as soon as normal delivery is restored.
Looking for a few administrator iPads- As we transition students over the next two years to the iPad 11, we will be lean on older device inventory. If you are an administrator and you rarely use your iPad for your position, we hope you will “volunteer” to turn in your iPad to your IT Client Service representative. Thank you in advance for your help.
Waypoints Assessment window closes on October 24th. Please remind staff and check out your progress in Wayfinder.
Please work with your office staff to add the Family Engagement calendar to your school Outlook calendar—instructions here.
Review Opt Out notices and contact Dave VanLoo with any questions
Never use your iPad? Consider returning it to IT for reuse!
Important Dates
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 1:30 – 3:00 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.
November 4: Horizontal Meeting 3:00 – 4:30 at the Board Room
November 11: Veteran’s Day
November 12: All Admin PD from 3:00 – 4:30 at Perseverance Hall
And finally… Congratulations to our Next Duck Drawing winner Ned Myers !
Ned is the Assistant Principal at Pine Ridge Elementary! If you are in need of some fast energy, fun socks, a skip in your step, or advice about where to have fun in the Bend area, then Ned’s your guy! Ned is a native of Bend and a graduate of Bend High School. To say he is enthusiastic about his school, the district, and his home town would be a big understatement! Congratulations Ned! Let us know your coffee drink of choice and we will deliver!
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.
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!
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
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 positionafter Friday, October 10will 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!)
Open UKG → To Do and complete/submit any evaluation steps sitting at your stage.
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:
Click to select the file you are attaching in the workbook.
Click the ‘chain link’ icon to copy the link to that file -OR- Ctrl/Command+C.
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.
Tab -OR- click on the file name pop-up (as above) to complete the attachment.
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 8th 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
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!
Staff are having fun and connecting with families in all sorts of different ways, whether you are the Silver Rail PE and Music teachers directing morning traffic, or the High Lakes SRO being attacked by a herd of kittens while reminding families of our pet policy on campus, families love to see staff enjoying what they do. Thank you!!
Reminder, if you are out and about this Saturday and are looking for something to do, or are fascinated with the history of Old Bend, stop by the Ed Center’s 100th Birthday party this weekend! You are sure to learn something you didn’t already know about this old lovable building (plus there are treats and great music by our own students and staff!)
From Tammy and Karen
Our next round of site visits start this coming week! We are looking forward to seeing you all as we will be coming together this time (Karen, Tammy, and Julie when available). Here is our agenda:
The first Educator Network Day is quickly approaching (October 8). As you can see in this list of available topics, most of your schools will be hosting a session (or 2) that staff can choose to attend. (Deborah, please head over to LPE to support that session with Megan. Tim (and Lorin unless you are doing secondary), please head over to Pine Ridge to support one of the two sessions there. Trevor and Carl please head to Jewell and support one of the two sessions there.) Thanks for your help and support that day. Here is what we need you all (Principals and Assistant Principals) to do:
Arrive on time to the session
Support the people teaching the session at your site. You can see who they are here.
Make sure all staff get signed in and accounted for.
Actively participate the entire time of the session (we are modeling what we expect of the staff and will learn along the way as well). Thank you!
The Safety Team has been asked to present at a national conference on best practices for visitor management. If you have any success stories of using Raptor (custom alerts, large events, etc), please share them with us. We would really appreciate the opportunity to highlight our schools’ amazing work. So far, we have only had two schools share with us!
STAS & SIRC Training
All new admin and counselors have been asked to attend one of the 8-hour sessions. REGISTER HERE.
Training dates are:
Thursday, October 2 -Mountain View High School
Monday, October 6- Pacific Crest Middle School
If you have any questions reach out to Lillah Lehner ([email protected])
From Kinsey in the Office of Policy and Advocacy:
Religion and Holidays:-Action Items
Please share this policy with your staff. I recommend asking your staff to review and following up in particular with your Music teachers and those planning holiday events.
Here is the “Do Not Schedule” document of cultural and holidays, updated with 25-26, 26-27, and now the 27-28 dates. Be sure your office staff and those who plan events and activities have this updated version.
Here (scroll down to October) are student-facing materials on Halloween and costumes.
From Transportation. Reminder: Please share with your staff—Transportation staff are allowed to enter the building to use the bathroom, if they are wearing their BLP id. They are not required to walk around to the front of the building and “check in”. Please direct them to the nearest staff bathroom by the bus entrance. Thank you!!
From Maintenance: We’d ask that schools submit work order for keys, locks or any other maintenance issues at a school. You can find a link to it on the Staff Portal>right hand column> toward the bottom>Hero HQ.
The benefit to the person who submits the request (it can be any staff member), is that they get to see the updates as maintenance staff addresses it. In addition, it allows our maintenance department to track and analyze the work being performed by our staff.
As an FYI, here is our Maintenance Department Structure and staff responsibilities. Enjoy!
From Jennifer in Student Well Being
Please see the updated Outside Behavioral Health Memo that discusses our approved behavioral health and case management providers, as well as, attendance codes.
Great job Pacific Crest, Bend High, Highland and Three Rivers for the highest completion rates so far!!
If you want to see the classroom/advisory completion rates for your school, you can follow these steps to view Waypoints completions rates by class:
Switch to your School Admin role (see How to Change Your Role). If you do not see a System Admin role, please email Austin James to have this setup for you.
Click on “Waypoints” from the left-hand navigation menu
On the Waypoints page, select “Summative” on the left-hand side
In the Completion Rate box, you can view the overall completion percentage across the whole school
To view the completion percentage by class, click on the “View Details” button in the Completion Rate box
Action Items
Need something to do Saturday? Ed Center has a 100th birthday party!
Remind your teachers to sign up for their Educator Network Day class starting Friday
Got a Raptor Success story? Share with Kayla Martin in Safety
Are you new and need STAS/SIRC training? Sign up!
Share the policies on religion and holidays with your staff, esp with the holidays on the horizon
Make sure staff know to let transportation staff in the building to use the restroom without having to go up front and sign in (only if they are wearing their id)
Remember if you need something from maintenance, you need to submit work orders.
Share attendance codes with office staff
Important Dates
October 1: All Admin PD 3:00- 4:30 at Perseverance Hall
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, Kate Donegan!
Kate is the Principal at Ensworth and this is her second year in Bend-La Pine Schools. Prior to that, Kate worked in the West Linn-Wilsonville SD for many years where she held several different positions. Her background in Special Education brings a focus and belief that all students, regardless of their circumstances can achieve and grow when given the opportunities to do so. You can also catch her running the trails around Bend and loving on her family, including a (not so shy anymore) Aussie dog. Kate, let us know your drink of choice and we will deliver this next week!
Take a moment and notice: your dignity is never something you have to prove. It doesn’t hinge on what others think of you, the roles you hold, or your achievements — your worth is built in. How might you honor that dignity in your own life today? Perhaps by speaking truthfully in a hard conversation, setting a boundary that reflects your values, or simply resting when you need rest, knowing you deserve it.
From Tammy and Karen
We have been enjoying our site visits and have been impressed with how well the school year is starting at each of your schools! Great learning happening in classrooms, and lots of smiles all around! Hooray!
We are getting a jump start on SLGGs (Student Learning Growth Goals) this year, in an effort to have them turned in by October 15. Chat GPT has made us a quick reference guide for what is required in the state of Oregon:Two SLG goals are required. Of these two:
One goal must address the whole class or course load of students.
One goal must focus on a subgroup of students who have historically been underserved or who need additional support (e.g., students with disabilities, English learners, students below grade level, students from specific demographic groups, etc.).
Both must still meet the other parameters: standards-based, measurable, based on baseline data, rigorous but attainable, with clear growth targets and progress monitoring.
This is explicitly stated in Oregon Department of Education guidance and is part of the Oregon Framework for Educator Evaluation and Support Systems (aligned to OAR 581-022-2410).
Here is the SLGG form that your teachers and you will use to fill out your SLGGs as well as a list of plug and play SLGGsfor everyone in your building. Some of them are open-ended for your specialists who will design goals specific to their content. Please be aware that you may have some SLPs who do not need to do SLGGs because of their licensing. In addition, counselors and Student Success Clinicians do not do SLGGs either, but Jennifer Hauth does require them to do goal setting, which is also linked on the document.
SLGGs are due by October 15. The pre-arranged conversation you have with each staff member about their goals counts as one of the mini observations you are required to do for the year.
Reminder: Time sheets are due on Monday. Please use the electronic time sheet that was sent to you by Jessica Houser. You simply enter any time off in the 25-26 tab and it will autopopulate the time sheet for September. Simply print it, sign it, and send it to April Jorgenson! Thanks!
We have something exciting to share! Please pass this onto your staff.
New Resource: Swank 🎥
Swank is our district’s new streaming service for feature films, offering a library of 215 titles, with the option to request additional films when needed. It provides a simple, legal way for teachers and administrators to use movies in the classroom and for school events, while replacing personal streaming services and hardwiring devices. Learn more in our Introducing Swankblog post.
From Paul Dean – Chief Operations Officer
We are initiating a districtwide enrollment forecasting study in partnership with FLO Analytics, a firm specializing in K–12 demographic and facility planning. Their work will support our ongoing efforts to align resources, programs, and facilities with student needs.
FLO will be analyzing:
Historical and current enrollment trends
Housing development and land use data
Grade progression and demographic patterns
Heat maps identifying where students live, what school they attend and how this is expected to change in the next 10 years
The forecast will be completed in the first quarter of 2026 and is designed to inform future planning conversations. We will share the findings in a way that supports transparency and collaboration as next steps emerge. Please direct any questions about the process to me
From Transportation: Thank you for your patience as we continue to work through our backlog of requests from families. If you have an immediate need don’t email [email protected]. Instead, please contact our office directly via phone.
From Kinsey – Policy, Advocacy, and Equity:
1. Student Anti-Bias Lessons:
The 25-26 anti-bias student lessons are here! As a reminder, this is an annual lesson for all students K-12, required to be completed before Oct 31. While there is a sequence of suggested lessons, there is only one required lesson. For self-contained classes or longer advisory periods, you can fit it into one session; for shorter periods, plan on two sessions to complete it.
The lessons have been refreshed with improved slides, updated content, and new activities. For 6th-12th grades, there is a new video featuring the voices and experiences of our very own students! (Fun fact: it was filmed and produced by a recent BLS graduate.)
Principals, please be sure to:
review the materials yourself (watch the student video!),
consider adding in your own message to personalize the lesson (see Slide #3 on the HS slide show for an example of a principal’s message to the school)
ideally, provide planning time for teachers to review the updated materials,
make a copy of the Family Letter, hyperlink your level’s slides, edit any of the message as you see fit, and send to your families at least a few days before the lesson is taught,
contact the Advocacy Coaches if you’d like prep or co-teaching support for your teachers,
be in classes and participate in the lesson with students if possible,
send any feedback from your teachers or families afterward, if applicable.
2. Policy notes:
Distribution and display of materials: If you have local community partners or external groups requesting to share information with families or students, please direct them to the Community Bulletin Boards in your lobby area. Some select partners and organizations can distribute materials more directly, but those are limited:
Here is policy guidance on those levels of distribution, and here is a reference chart. Principal or designee needs to approve, and all materials should support our values. Related: Here is our Advertising policy on what businesses or groups can be displayed for donation/advertising-related purposes–you might share this policy with your PTA groups.
Animal visitors: Thanks for the conversation on this this week. As a reminder, any animals on your campus must be approved by you. Policy here. Quick reference:
If service animal for staff: direct them to Benefits.
If service animal for student: contact Student Services.
Therapy animal, classroom pets, or other visitors: request form here, principal approves/denies.
If parent bringing animal at pick-up or school activities: No. Comms will send a reminder to families via Spotlight.
Immigration guidance: At your request, here is that guidance again. Let me know if you have questions!
From Ryan Kelling, Executive Director of Human Resources
We have gotten some questions on the application of Article 15.4 of the BEA/BLS CBA should apply to itinerant staff – that is, those employees who work at more than one site – and are asking for some input on current practice. The contract language outlines expectations for Certified Employees to attend a set number of after-school/evening events each year. For itinerant staff, however, the application of this requirement is less clear and may require collaboration between sites.
To help us determine a standard practice moving forward, we’ve created a short Google Form with background information and a request for feedback. Please take a few minutes to review the form and share your perspective.
Only administrators who currently supervise itinerant staff need to respond. Your input will be important as we work to establish clear and consistent expectations for these situations. Please fill this out by Wednesday, September 17, so that we can review and offer guidance.
Let Ryan know if you have any questions.
From Dave VanLoo – Director of School Improvement
Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR) Updates
ROAR is available for use. Our focus is on the English version of the four core measures (Letter, Phoneme, Word, Sentence). Other optional reading or math tests should become available for staff to use soon. Be aware that these other measures are not as far along in the research and development process and reports are likely to contain less information.
Please share the following information about ROAR to share with families via newsletters or other communication methods. (Note that opting out of ROAR applies only to research happening at Stanford University. This does not opt the student out of taking ROAR at their school.) Feel free to edit this text to meet your school’s needs.
Our school is using a new tool to help meet students’ learning needs. The Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR) is a set of student-friendly, game-like activities that assesses important reading skills and provides valuable information to teachers. More detailed information and resources for families are available at this link ROAR Family Guide.pdf.
ROAR comes from Stanford University and results are used in research to improve teaching, learning, and assessment in schools. If you wish to have your child’s performance on ROAR excluded from this research, complete the form linked in this letter ROAR Research Information Sheet – English and Spanish.pdf. Submitting this form does not exclude your child from participating in our school’s universal screening assessment systems. It simply means that their results will not be included in Stanford’s research studies.
2025-26 District Assessment, Testing, & Surveys
Here are two updated documents summarizing common standardized tests and surveys for the current school year. One is a schedule showing when different assessment activities occur. The other is a general overview of the purpose and logistics of these assessments. Both of these documents will continue to be updated throughout the year as is beneficial. Please reach out with any questions.
Complete your time sheet on the electronic tracker, print, and send September time sheet to April J.
Share ROAR information with families
Share info about SWANK with your teachers (this can also be used at evening events!)
Review Anti-Bias lesson and complete the 8 steps in Kinsey’s section.
Important Dates
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.
October 1: All Admin PD 3:00- 4:30 at Perseverence Hall
October 7: Elementary Leadership Meeting, 3:0 – 4:30 at Education Center Board Room
October 14: PLCs 1 and 2, 3:00-4:30
October 16: TAG Admin ICCL 3:30 – 5:30 Education Center Board Room
October 21: PLCs 3 and 4, 3:00 – 4:30
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.
October 30: Parent Teacher Conferences
October 31: No School
And finally… Congratulations to our First Duck Drawing winner! Erich Brocker from RE Jewell
Erich is the Assistant Principal at RE Jewell. He has held several positions at BLS and is a resident expert on Creating a Culture of Belonging through Dignity. You can also catch him mentoring assistant principals at the BAM group! Erich, let us know your drink of choice and we will deliver this week!
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
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:
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.
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:
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.”
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.
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!
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.
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
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!
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:
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.
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.
Check out the new Administrator Hiring Guide—Go to UKG, recruitment tab, and choose the hiring guide on the right hand side of the page.
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:
-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.
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.
