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It sure doesn’t cost much to make people feel a sense of belonging!

New Certified Training Day: New Certified Staff Orientation will take place Monday, August 28^th at North Star Elementary. Breakfast service will begin at 7:30 and it would be great to have as many admin there as possible before 7:30 to welcome our new hires and create a positive and supportive atmosphere. Even if you don’t have any new hires!

The program will begin at 8:00 with a welcome address from Steve Cook, to be followed by each site introducing their new staff members (name and position) to the whole group. Following the introductions, our new hires will go into breakout groups for the duration of the morning, and admin can clear out.

It is a full day for our new hires; following the breakout sessions, they have a BEA-sponsored lunch and then finish their day in trainings specific to their roles.

From Julie

• DIBELS: Here is the 23-24 DIBELS Schedule. Training will be on Friday, Sept. 8 from 7:30-10:30 in the Boardroom for anyone (certified or classified) giving the DIBELS benchmark assessments and/or progress monitoring. This will be designed for both experienced and inexperienced folks: PLEASE SIGN UP HERE so I know who to communicate information to & so I can provide enough materials at the training. Please reach out to Lindsley Gehrig with any questions or clarifications!

• Coaching: Here are the Instructional Coaching Assignments for this year. When setting your coach up for success, please consider:
  • Include in the staff picture (the Brady Bunch thing)
  • Provide a mailbox
  • Provide keys to building and alarm codes
  • Copy codes
  • Office space if possible
  • Email list

• 8/30 Professional Learning Day: Here are the Admin Assignments for 8/30 Professional Learning Day. Additionally, here is the List of 3-5 Teachers who need to take HD Word Plus on 8/30.  If not on this list, we assume teacher took the training in April and has completed the requirement. If that is the case, those 3-5 teachers can use that block of training time this day for planning. This link lists where everyone should go, including your specialists.
• Unfortunately, because our entire district is training this day, we are unable to provide food or snacks for these events. I know that certain building leaders are considering having something for staff on this day. You can do this, but please be thoughtful as to which team you are paired with. If one school got snacks and the other at the same building did not, that wouldn’t feel really great. During launch week it is likely that you are providing snacks/food during other days or times too. Take all of this into consideration when or if you choose to provide something additional for your team.

From Skip re: Seesaw: Be on the lookout tomorrow for an email from Skip about the district purchase of Seesaw for all classrooms, students, and families K-5. Seesaw is a platform for student and family engagement and communication (may be that solution to “texting” families you are looking for!). His email will be a heads up to you about this opportunity and what you can do to support it’s use for teachers wanting to jump right in.

Classified Calendars: This is the link to the calendar we went over on Monday.

From Safety: Please review the Safe Oregon Point of Contact Roster that was sent out by the safety department on 8/21/23 to ensure your contact information is correct. Please also ensure you have the Safe Oregon Tip Line number saved in your cell phones so that you know it is the tip center when they attempt to contact you. Safe Oregon Tip Center (844) 472-3367.

If you would like to receive text alert notifications when the district puts out information about incidents taking place at schools (i.e. a school goes into Lockdown), please sign up through our district website for the BLConnect text messages.

Task Force Update: The team has been working on a video regarding some of the task force messaging that you all have already heard during our launch. The hope remains to have this to building leaders on Monday so you can share it with your teams. As described, you should plan to have this take about 10 minutes. Lora did get it confirmed that it will be sent to us on Monday, so we will send it out to you as soon as we get it.

Important Information from Central Oregon FAN: Being that we have several new team-members, we wanted to refresh everyone on the role and function of FAN advocates. HERE one-page summary about these amazing supports for our families.

From Dana re: our FAN: Thank you for your patience as I work to staff FAN. HERE you will find the name of the Advocate assigned to your school.  Two positions are in the process of being hired.  One Advocate is out on leave. Based on changing demographics in our district, some assignments have been modified to better meet the needs of our students and families. Supervision of our McKinney-Vento program will be transitioning to Kinsey Martin this year. Please reach out if you have any questions

From Tami Pike: OHA/ODE SMILE AND HEALTHY GROWTH SURVEY- If you receive communication regarding having your school participate in the OHA/ODE Smile and Healthy Growth Survey, please let Tami Pike know.

From Jackie Mueller, Sustainability Coordinator: Please share the Sustainability Overview with all incoming staff. This document will give staff and overview of why sustainability is important in Bend-La Pine Schools as we start the school year. BLS is striving to have a school wide Sustainability Advisor in each school to work with Green Teams. Details will be coming soon, but please check with staff to see if there is any interest in this position. If you would like to stay informed on Sustainability in BLS, bookmark the Sustainability blog for resources and education ideas.

A few of the 22-23 accomplishments:

• Green Teams working on Food waste reduction through Love Food Not Waste
• Cafeteria commercial composting at 9 schools and silverware at 16 schools
• Vanpool in place at Three Rivers
• 14 schools certified as Oregon Green Schools
• Earth Day celebration at Miller Elementary School
• BLS involvement in Climate Teach-in day
• Year 6 of the Strategic Energy Management program – $56,000 in energy milestones and savings
• Sustainability goals embedded in the District Design Standards
• Grant for reusable dishware kits for schools – to be used for in-class celebrations and staff celebrations – to get one for your school email [email protected]
• 400+ students involved in BLS Green Teams

From Jennifer Hauth: Several of you of reached to partner and ask questions about welcoming your new school counselors to your building. Jess and I have put together a brief overview of a comprehensive school counseling model and considerations when collaborating and planning the school counseling program at your school site. A .5 school counselor will only be able to do an abbreviated program. Depending on the needs of your school, there is an option for Tier 1 but I anticipate they will be doing more Tier 2 (small groups, individual short-term/skill building sessions, family engagement, collaboration and consolation). All counselors are responders when students are in crisis and can do suicide risk screens and safety plan. However, SSCs and school psychs are also trained and this duty should be shared.

All new counselors have school counseling mentors assigned to them and Jess Calbreath is serving as our district lead counselor. She will be running our monthly PLCs as well as all professional development.

New to Sharezies: Jessica and Dan shared their MTSS calendar and Ben shared his slidedeck about the 5 Voices. Additionally, Nichole shared her Marten Memo, Patrick shared a check-out form, Tim shared his Three Rivers family letter, and I put in an example of a CORE Effectiveness slidedeck. Thanks everyone for sharing the wealth and if anyone has come up with a better name for this tool, I’m all ears!

Sexual Abuse training offered by PACE: Child sexual abuse is a pervasive societal problem that requires ongoing conversations. Learn about child abuse statistics, the grooming process and how to identify a predator in educational settings. Head into the new school year with a baseline understanding of how to prevent sexual abuse and bring your questions! There is a current training planned for Aug. 31 at 12:00 pm. If you are interested, you can sign up HERE. McKenzie Nix is a great resource and she can come to talk to staff or do trainings during the year. Email [email protected]. 

Red Rover: You likely received an e-mail from Red Rover regarding your new account. Below are some basic training videos that may be helpful to learn more. Remember, no office maa

• Red Rover Basics for Employees
• Time Tracking for Employees

Student Services Info: Below are the documents we discussed on Monday. HERE is a link to watch the SB 819 presentation. 

• Student Services Information
• Inclusion Foundations
• SB 819

From the Office of DEI: Who is our school’s Latino Family Liaison?

Family Liaison team hiring has been ongoing since last spring–getting closer!  Liaisons’ school assignments should be ready as soon as hiring is complete, by end of next week at the latest.  Thank you for your patience—I know you need this information yesterday.

In the meantime, please use Linguist Link to request interpreters for back-to-school events like Open House.  You can also request an interpreter to come to your office for a couple hours to make phone calls, etc.  (Make sure you submit translation requests ASAP for all welcome-back newsletters and invitations to your events.) 

If you need more immediate support, there are various tools available for language access.  If you need a Family Liaison for a specific family support situation beyond interpretation, please contact the Welcome Center (x6820 or [email protected]).  If you have other questions, reach out to Kinsey. 

Also from the Office of DEI: ICCL liaison to LEAD/equity work: By next Thurs Aug 31, please submit here the name of your ICCL team member who will serve as the liaison/representative between your building’s leadership team and the district’s LEAD/equity work.  Some context and FAQ on this ask are available here—if you or your ICCL have additional questions not addressed there, please reach out to Kinsey. 

Lastly from Office of DEI: September Tier I equity and inclusion strategies:

1. Menstrual Dignity Act: When your staff teaches behavior expectations in different areas of the building this fall, be sure to explicitly teach the purpose and expectations for use of the menstrual products and dispensers in the bathrooms.  Basic talking points and additional resources here.  Also be sure that school tours include mentioning where and how all students can access gender-neutral bathrooms and expectations for behavior in those spaces.  
2. Classroom practices: Share with teachers: Our district equity coaches can help teams walk through Menstrual Dignity Act, Bias Incident Lesson (more on this soon), or other sensitive topics.  Reach out to the team!  Additional tips and strategies available on the LEAD website.

UKG Info: HERE is a one-pager in order to change a time-leave request for a prior period time sheet. Most of you need to do this for two time periods in July to mark all the non-contract time you took in July. Thanks Nichole!

August 9th Launch: Pretty please share your feedback about our launch for ES this year. We have only 6 responses and we want to make sure that we gather your ideas before it feels like it was a year ago (we might already be there). Thanks in advance.

Forefront Information: Here are a few resources that will be helpful to School Psychologists, Learning Specialists, Administrators, and Interventionists:

• New Reporting Suite

• Using Forefront to run Data meetings webinar on 9/13 – if you can’t go, but register, they will send you the recording afterwards.

From IT: Please encourage your teaching staff to check out the “Teacher Hub” located in the Staff Portal Quick Links.   This is your one stop resource shop for all new and returning teachers.   

Call to Action from Deschutes County: Oregon Health Authority recently notified us that the state is seeing an uptick in younger youth suicides (ages 14 and younger).  While the number of overall youth suicide deaths has not changed from the year prior, this change in our younger population is concerning. 

We are sharing this information with you to place emphasis for those serving students, grades 4 to 9, to be vigilant in watching for warning signs and to follow your school’s protocols/Adi’s Act when they see signs for suicide risk.  We want to encourage our school districts to continue to support school staff and ensure they are receiving suicide prevention/intervention trainings as we move into this coming school year.

We have the benefit of knowing how diligent you all have been when it comes to this state-level call to action and we encourage each district to carry on with your district’s policies and protocols when it comes to suicide prevention.  Below are some key reminders to help support each of your districts and schools in order to help keep a vigilant eye, steps to take, and the resources available. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Warning Signs

• Verbally (directly/indirectly) stating they do not want to be here, are burdensome, etc.
• Indirect verbal example for younger ages: “I want to go to sleep and never wake up”
• Direct verbal example for younger ages: “I want to die”
• Giving away prized possessions
• Examples for younger ages: giving away Pokemon cards they historically have cherished or a stuffed animal
• Shifts in mood, affect, academics, socialization
• More warning signs, including risk factors, can be found here.

*** If we see any of these warning signs, follow your school district’s Adi’s Act. Each sign should be taken seriously.***

Resources Available

• First Step App (see attachment)
• YouthLine: 877-968-8491 or text “teen2teen” to 83983
• 988: available via call or text for both English and Spanish, 24/7
• Deschutes County Crisis Line: 541-322-7500 ext. 9
• Click here for the Deschutes County Local Mental Health Resource Page

Looking for an Artist? Arts for Learning Northwest is an organization that may be of interest to you or your team. This program has a variety of art programs available to support schools. Take a look!

Important Dates!

• August 28, 7:30 am: New Teacher Orientation Day at North Star Elementary (until about 9 for administrators and a full day for new staff)
• August 29 8:30-9:30+ District Virtual Welcome Back Event (see Scott’s notes above about the enthusiasm around it.
• August 30, all day: Districtwide Wayfinder and Really Great Reading Training for all
• September 6, first day of school! It is a full Wednesday.
• September 11-22, first round of partnered site visits will happen these two weeks. Scheduling will come later, but you can expect they will be sometime between 8:00-11:30.
• September 13, First School Improvement Wednesday (SIW). Early release at 12:45.

and finally….

Reminders and Asks

For Monday’s Meeting: As part of our connection activity on Monday, we ask that you all come to the meeting with “Your Voice”. Ben Johnston is going to lead us in understanding this personality/leadership tool and how he has used it in the past with teams. 

To find “Your Voice”, please take the free quiz using THIS LINK (click on the blue area on the bottom right of the page). Thanks, to Ben for jumping in to be the first person to share!

In addition to Ben talking with us, we will have a visit from several different district folks about various topics, community partners sharing their missions, and Jessica and Dan will be talking a bit about the MTSS process that they ran last year.

Feedback for August 9th: Please take a moment to provide us feedback related to the Elementary-Specific Training Day. Thanks in advance for your input!

From Julie Walker: Here is the schedule for professional learning on August 30th.   You can share this information with staff. Also, if you have any new hires in your building, please communicate the need to sign up for the new hire trainings on August 24^th (curriculum) and August 25^th (classroom management). These are optional trainings but would be extremely supportive for an educator that is new to Bend La Pine. I haven’t had many of our new hires sign up. I think they might not have access to email yet so, please communicate this opportunity to them. Please let me know if you have any questions. 

From Student Services: Crisis Prevention Intervention Training Opportunities. This training is our non-violent crisis intervention training.  This is a requirement for each school to have a team trained in their building.   HERE is the link to currently trained employees.  Registration for these trainings in UKG. If you have specific questions, please contact Magadalyn Hasse in the Student Services office at ext. 1060.

We have 3 CPI trainings this month. 

• Aug 24 – CPI for Administrators ONLY- This was created JUST for administrators based on feedback last year but currently, only one person is signed up.
• Aug 31 – CPI Refresher Course
• Sept. 1 – CPI Initial Course

From Paul Dean in HR: This is very long, but important UKG and My Team members Information: Building leaders may notice that there are employees on their My Team area of UKG who were temporary teachers last year and are still appearing as if they are on your 2023-24 roster.  This is due to a deliberate decision that we made in June to not terminate temporary certified staff (a) because so many of them are rehired, it would create double work if we had terminated them on June 30th, and (b) if we terminate them, then they would not have BLS email access nor UKG access to track job openings and communicate with hiring managers

On August 18th, we will begin the process of terminating temporary certified staff from the 2022-23 school year who have not been rehired.  As we process those, you’ll notice them drop off of your My Team rosters.  

Before building leaders departed for the summer, office managers emailed an updated certified FTE list for the 2023-24 school year to [email protected].  We are still processing the changes from those FTE lists and assisting new hires so your My Teams information will become gradually more up-to-date each day.  

July was devoted to BLAST new hires and movements (we had an unusually large volume of these this past year) and assisting moving new certified staff through the onboarding/licensure process.

Onboarding New Employees. Please note that once an external candidate accepts an offer of employment, it can take 7+ days for them to be cleared to work.  Drug testing takes as long as 5 days once the person goes into the lab and background checks can take an average of 3 days after they submit the necessary information.  In addition, the new hires have to complete all of their onboarding paperwork before they are legally allowed to show up at your site. DO NOT HAVE THEM WORKING PRIOR TO NOTICE FROM HR.

If you post a job today, begin interviews after 5 days, do your necessary reference checks, submit a request to hire, wait for HR approval, get a verbal offer of acceptance THEN the 7+ day onboarding process begins.  Please take this timeline into consideration as you may need to have a substitute to begin the school year for people who have not been cleared to work in time for the start of school.

Supervisors will receive an email from one of our Specialists when employees clear the hiring process and are permitted to begin working, but if you want to check the status of a new hire, please wait until at least 7 days after the verbal acceptance to email [email protected]. REPEAT: DO NOT HAVE THEM WORKING PRIOR TO NOTICE FROM HR.

HDESD Sub System: Red Rover Replacing Frontline Absence Management We are hearing from staff that they have received a login notice from Red Rover.  Please help us communicate to staff that HDESD passed last year’s data from Frontline to Red Rover therefore it is NOT up to date with 2023/24 data,  Office managers will need to work with HDESD to align current staffing assignments with Red Rover accounts as this is outside the scope of BLS HR’s work.

We have not received a request from HDESD to give them updated data from the 2023-24 school year yet so it will be a few weeks before you can expect to see anything different in Red Rover.

Update:  We received this email from HDESD on Thursday morning

Good morning HR partners,

I wanted to share the email below that was sent to your office managers yesterday with the news that invitations had been sent out to staff to login to Red Rover and set up their profiles. We go live on Monday and at that point, staff will be able to add absences and select their preferred substitutes. Also, on Monday, our substitutes will be able to begin accepting jobs.

Please know that we will be working alongside office managers, staff and substitutes during this transition and while we know there may be anxiety with a major software change like this, we stand ready to assist in any way we can.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you, Kristen Johns, Human Resources Manager, High Desert Education Service District, 541.693.5625, [email protected]

2023/24 Evaluations

All BLAST, certified and classified evaluations will be completed through UKG’s Performance module.  Level Leaders will add Paul to a horizontal team meeting in late September to provide a training and answer any questions that you have.  Here is the anticipated timeline:

• October 1 – Certified goal setting/SLGG go live
• December 1 – BLAST goal setting go live
• February 1 – Classified goal setting go live

We are happy to provide another training in March/April to guide you through the self-evaluation and summative evaluation process and ask that level leaders schedule Paul to join another horizontal meeting training during that window of time.

Wildfire Smoke / AQI and Heat Illness Training Reminder. Administrators are not being asked to deliver the trainings, rather, please encourage your staff members to take time to review the training materials available on the portal:

• Wildfire Smoke & AQI BLS Training
• Heat Illness BLS Training

OEBB Open Enrollment is open! Please encourage staff members to check out the Benefits website for all kinds of great information, learning opportunities, and resources to help them complete their enrollment. Enrollment closes on September 15.

Paid Leave Oregon. Paid Leave Oregon is “a-go!” American Fidelity is the equivalent plan provider for BLS. We are working to set up information with American Fidelity for employees to submit their applications online and will send out communication once the system is ready.

Please check out the Paid Leave Oregon portion of the Benefits website for more information. If administrators have questions around employee, eligibility, etc. please reach out to the Benefits team at [email protected]

EAP & Wellness Resources. A reminder that the Human Resources Portal page has some great information and resources for employees to help support their well-being.

• Our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) available to ALL employees and their families.
• Wellness Resources available to all employees and benefit eligible employees are listed here

From Scott McDonald in IT. Help Desk: Please note: our excellent IT Help Desk is for district staff only!  Please do not forward or give our IT help desk number to students or families for any reason. Nope! Not even for the reason you are thinking about right now!

Student Connectivity Solutions: For the previous three years, our district has provided hotspots to students who did not have internet access at home. The demand for these hotspots has decreased significantly from over 600 in 2020-21 to 132 in 2022-23. Additionally, the federal funding for student hotspots has moved toward a family-centered solution called the Affordable Connectivity Program.  

The Affordable Connectivity Program allows qualifying families to receive internet from almost all providers at a significant discount. I encourage you to promote this program to your families in any way possible. Families from any of our CEP campuses automatically qualify. If you are a principal from a CEP school, you can use the attached letter (in both English and Spanish) as a starter template. Be sure to modify all of the highlighted areas before distributing the letter to your families.  

Finally, we in IT know that connectivity is a significant barrier (ranked 5^th) to student learning. Other solutions (including hotspots) for those with insecure housing are being considered. We will communicate additional possibilities as they become available.

From Tami Pike: The Oregon Department of Education is requiring that individual schools complete a school-level communicable disease management plan for the 23/24 school year. The plan template for the schools in our district is almost complete. All individual school sites need to do is enter information relevant to your school sites. (It will be painless, I promise.) Please have your school plan completed and submitted to me by Tuesday, August 22, 2023. (Instructions on how to complete your school’s plan are listed below.) The deadline for me to submit this information (on behalf of Bend-La Pine Schools) to the Oregon Department of Education is Friday, August 25, 2023. (*Attached you will find the school nurse assignment list as of August 13, 2023. You will need this information when completing your CD Management Plan for your school site.)

1. Please DOWNLOAD and complete ONLY the yellow highlighted areas in the 2023-24 School-Level Communicable Disease Management Plan for Bend-La Pine Schools Template. Please do not input information directly into the Google Doc template. You must download it first.

2. When saving your plan, please title your school plan as follows:

YOUR SCHOOL NAME 2023-24 School-Level CD Management Plan for Bend-La Pine Schools

3. Please upload the completed plan for your school into the following Google Drive folder.

Also from Tami Pike. Illness Symptoms and When to Stay Home

Bend-La Pine Schools follows the Oregon Health Authority/Oregon Department of Education’s Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools. This guidance includes when an individual should be excluded from attending school (in-person) or any school-related activities such as clubs and sports. 

For information on symptom-based exclusion guidelines, see page 8 of the Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools. 

• Fever – An individual must be fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications.
• Diarrhea/vomiting – Must be at least 48 hours since last episode.

COVID-19 is no longer an excludable disease (unless symptoms of fever, vomiting, and/or diarrhea are present). Parents/guardians/staff are no longer required to report positive cases of COVID-19 to the schools. COVID-19 test kits and medical grade face masks are available to students and staff upon request. Check with your school nurse about how to obtain a supply for your school.

Please refer families to the Health and Wellness section on our Bend-La Pine Schools website for more information about when to stay home.

Kids’Inc Building Link: If you have a Kids Inc program, please make sure you check this link for your 3 spaces.

Staffing Plans: Keep on updating those plans! (Staffing Summary Tab–update actual numbers in column E and section averages). Don’t know what we are talking about? Let’s talk!

Inservice Week : Here is a reminder of the the guidelines for inservice week, as you and your leadership teams plan and prepare for your launch to the school year.

Important Dates!

• August 21: 8:00-12:00: Elementary Admin Horizontal, Board Room
• August 22: Deadline to upload your school’s communicable disease plan here
• August 28, 7:30 am: New Teacher Orientation Day at North Star Elementary (until about 9 for administrators and a full day for new staff)
• August 29 8:30-9:30+ District Virtual Welcome Back Event (see Scott’s notes above about the enthusiasm around it.
• August 30, all day: Districtwide Wayfinder and Really Great Reading Training for all
• September 6, first day of school! It is a full Wednesday.

and finally….

Reminders and Asks

From Lora regarding the role of Media Managers: Here is a link to a document outlining the guidelines for our media managers. Please let us know if you have any questions or want to discuss any ideas around how you used them in your school.

From Lora: Just a friendly reminder that is in violation of Oregon law to require or even ask K-12 students to provide or pay for ANY supplies required for their “free and appropriate public education.” Here are the exceptions:

• Instrument rental
• PE uniforms
• (applies only to elective classes) Materials for projects that the student will keep (i.e. jewelry). Students cannot be prohibited from taking the class if they don’t pay a materials fee, they just can’t keep the projects.

For the law/policy geeks, here is the law: https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_339.155

From Doug Pigman, Executive Director of Facilities, regarding summer maintenance:

Welcome back Administrators!  We hope you had a restful summer, and you had an opportunity to do something fun. 

We wanted to send out a recap email to provide an update on the current state of our Outside Services crew. Knowing that we have struggled in the past to get the needed summer help,  we posted the positions mid-February in an attempt to get our posting out before the competition. We were looking to hire and onboard 13 temporary summer staff but received very little response. At that time, the job openings were posted, and the projects and workload had been identified, but by mid-June, we had only one (1) additional summer staff member on board. By late July, we had only four (4) additional summer staff onboarded, however, during this time, we were then five (5) permanent staff down, putting our team at a deficit of one (-1). As a result of being extremely short-handed, our staff has been working overtime in an attempt to keep up as much as possible, but everyone can clearly see it is not humanly possible with this much of a staffing shortage.

Our permanent employees, who would normally be committed to summer projects, have now had to switch to mowing and maintaining the grounds the best they can. The normal areas where attention has been historically focused, such as weeding, parking lot sweeping, sidewalk edging and other normal summer tasks, were simply out of our control to fully maintain. Field lining is set to begin next week; therefore, we will need to move employees from the mow crew to complete field lining on time, which means we will have even fewer employees maintaining grounds at this time. 

The Outside Services crew takes great pride in their work and would like to have everything finished for the returning students this fall.  If there are specific projects you may have requested to be completed this summer and it has not been done, our team requests your patience as we are working to the best of our ability. 

For your viewing pleasure, here is a copy of 2022 Bond projects.

From Scott Maben, Communications: Our Welcome Back virtual presentation for all district staff will be Tuesday, August 29, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. This will be a Microsoft Teams meeting. In the event it runs a little past 9:30, we advise not scheduling other staff activities before 10 a.m. that day.

We encourage you to gather your building staff for a group viewing of our Welcome Back event… perhaps serving breakfast treats, creating a Bingo game, using a campfire theme. Have fun!

A “save the date” postcard was recently mailed home to all district employees and noted more information will be shared via email. We anticipate sending that email to all district no later than Monday, August 14. Our final agenda planning meeting will be this Friday.

You may be asked why, post-pandemic, we are still holding this meeting virtually. It’s about the logistics of gathering all staff in one location and the distance employees need to travel. The impact on the rest of the workday is especially challenging for our south county schools. We want to make it as easy and stress-free for all employees to join us for this one-hour kickoff to the school year.

From Eric Powell, Assistant Director of Student Services : SIRC (Sexual Incident Response Committee) /STAS (Student Threat Assessment System) Information

*Please review your SIRC/STAS Level 1 Team for the school year (and add/update names as needed): 2023-2024 SIRC/STAS Teams Link

*Please sign up for one of the SIRC/STAS trainings below to be prepared for the school year:

2023-2024 Training Dates (STAS)

2023-2024 Training Dates (SIRC) – Elementary

2023-2024 Training Dates (SIRC) – Secondary

*Here is a link to our SIRC/STAS 101 document (also linked in the ‘Resource Guide’) for you to reference as you think about threat assessment for the school year: SIRC/STAS 101

From Scott McDonald, Director of Instructional Technology Greetings, Your IT System Support team provides many important training opportunities for admin, office, and support staff at the start of the year. You can find a calendar of available offerings and support documentation on the “Office Staff Essentials” page in the staff portal. PLEASE make sure your office staff is both aware of the training calendar and that they are protected from schedule conflicts as much as possible. Our IT team is not available for make-up sessions. One-to-One support will need to be provided by staff in similar roles. 

Any of these training sessions are open to administrators. Having multiple people in your building with operational knowledge of our systems is strongly encouraged.

Staffing Plans: Keep on updating those plans! (Staffing Summary Tab–update actual numbers in column E and section averages). Don’t know what we are talking about? Not to worry, we’ll provide some 1:1 support next week!

Inservice Week : Here is a reminder of the the guidelines for inservice week, as you and your leadership teams plan and prepare for your launch to the school year.

Important Dates!

• August 11, Wayfinder training, virtual link sent to you from Jennifer Hauth. 9:00-10:00
• August 14, 9:00-12:00: Title 1 Meeting in the Boardroom (Title schools only). You will want to bring school admins, office managers, and you are welcome to invite your title teachers (we can pay them) but will leave it up to you to invite depending on what they do. Please bring your computer too!
• August 21: 8:00-12:00: Elementary Admin Horizontal, Board Room
• August 28, 7:30-9:00: New Teacher Orientation Day at North Star Elementary
• August 29 8:30-9:30+ District Virtual Welcome Back Event (see Scott’s notes above about the enthusiasm around it.
• August 30, all day: Districtwide Wayfinder and Really Great Reading Training for all
• September 6, first day of school! It is a full Wednesday.

Tammy: (541) 408-1382 Lisa: (541) 977-8183

and finally…. this is my kind of baseball!

When we choose to trust the journey and embrace love and joy, we are free to fly. —Anniken R. Day

FYI

Reminders and Asks

Wayfinder training: Recently you received a login code from Wayfinder, and an invite from Jennifer Hauth, to a 45 minute virtual admin training with Wayfinder on Friday, August 11, starting at 9:00. This training is not optional, so please make sure you get it on your calendar and click on the link at 9:00. If for some reason, you are unable to make it, please reach out to Lisa or Tammy to let them know.

From Kinsey Martin, Policy, Advocacy, and Equity: Inclusion and belonging are critically important values in our organization.  A key opportunity to demonstrate these values is to respect important holidays observed by faith groups in our community.  Some of these dates are not designated days off school within our district calendar, so we need to do our best to keep them free of major activities.  

On the following fall dates, please do NOT schedule school family nights, special events or trips, or exams/required activities or trainings (for staff or students) that can’t be made up. In addition, share with your office, athletics, counseling, and teachers as applicable.

Learn more about these holidays and how to accommodate here.   Guidance for best practices around religion in our schools here.  

Also from Kinsey: Taking It Up workshop: Our district’s intention is that all staff—prioritizing leadership—participate in Coaching for Educational Equity (CFEE, a week-long intensive workshop) and/or the two-day Taking It Up.  Many of our leaders are already CFEE graduates, so we’re well on our way.   

CFEE and TIU are incredibly valuable ways to engage in the ongoing journey of understanding oppression in Oregon’s history and education system, as well as to develop shared language as a leadership team and staff.   

If you have not yet participated in CFEE and don’t anticipate being able to do so in the next year or so, please sign up ASAP for Taking It Up this August 22-23.  ​Please also consider including this invitation in your welcome-back message to your staff and encouraging them (particularly your ICCL members) to sign up.   Thanks!

From Scott McDonald in IT: Beginning this week, a new network for personal devices (Bring Your Own Device) is available in our schools and district facilities. This network is called BLS BYOD.  BLS BYOD will be replacing BLS Wi-Fi (our old personal device network). Staff and students needing a wireless connection for their personal device should now use BLS BYOD.  This change does not impact district issued computers, iPads or other devices. Additionally, district owned devices should never be connected to BLS BYOD.

The password to connect to BLS BYOD is knowledge. After connecting, you will be prompted for your district username and password.

Staffing Plans: Keep on updating those plans! (Staffing Summary Tab–update actual numbers in column E and section averages). Don’t know what we are talking about? Not to worry, we’ll provide some 1:1 support next week!

Inservice Week : Here is a reminder of the the guidelines for inservice week, as you and your leadership teams plan and prepare for your launch to the school year.

Important Dates!

Tammy: (541) 408-1382 Lisa: (541) 977-8183

and finally…

“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” Amy Poehler

Are you looking for something fun to do next Tuesday, August 1st? Why not grab your family and come to a Bend Elks Baseball game, courtesy of us! We will be standing at the gate at Vince Genna Stadium starting at 6:00, where we will be purchasing admission for you and your family to come see the Bend Elks take on the Springfield Drifters. We hope you can come join in on the fun as an elementary team, watching another team work together to achieve great things! If you can make it, we’ll see you Tuesday –Go ELKS!

Staffing Plans: One of the first things we need you to do when you return is to update your staffing plans with the names of any new staff you have hired on the certified and classified tabs. On the first tab, you will also update the “actual” numbers you have enrolled according to Synergy and the class size averages (you will see a red date from the last time Stephanie updated actual numbers on July 14–please change the date you update, so we know it is current.) And lastly, please update any openings you have on the front tab, so if you put someone as leaving and you have hired a replacement, it does not need to stay there. We resent your plans so that you all have them, since several of you are new since they were initially sent.

Exec. Director Connection: You may be wondering if Lisa or Tammy will be supporting your site in particular next year. Lisa (541-977-8183) will be supporting Bear Creek, Elk Meadow, Ensworth, La Pine, Pine Ridge, Ponderosa, Silver Rail, W.E. Miller, and Westside Village. Tammy (541-408-1382) will be supporting Amity, Buckingham, High Lakes, Highland, Juniper, Lava Ridge, North Star, R.E. Jewell, Rosland, and Three Rivers. Although we have specific sites that we will be connected with, this year, you can plan to see much more of us both at all of the sites. We plan to visit together sometimes and other times just individually so we will be ready to support any school as needs arise. We will talk more about this at our launch.

Inservice Week : Here is a reminder of the the guidelines for inservice week, as you and your leadership teams plan and prepare for your launch to the school year.

Important Dates!

Details for each date were in last week’s BLOG. Look there for additional information

Ask Us Your Burning Questions!

Click on this link, to ask a burning question or 5 that you would love to know the answer to. We will answer them one on one, in the blog, or at a meeting. Remember, the only stupid question is the one never asked! Our phone numbers are also listed below.

Tammy: (541) 408-1382 Lisa: (541) 977-8183

and finally…

Welcome to the 2023-2024 season!

We have been getting more and more excited these past two weeks, about growing together with such an awesome team of caring, passionate, and dedicated elementary leaders. We can’t wait to see you all real soon!

This blog will be your weekly communication from us and you can expect to continue to receive it on Thursday afternoons/evenings each week. It will be filled with FYIs, To-Dos, Laughs, and more. It is expected that you read it and act on the things that are noted each week. (We’ll spend time on what this means when we see you in person.)

For now, we just wanted to reach out about some important dates we want you all to have, so they don’t catch you by surprise.

Important Dates!

August 2, 8:00-3:30 in the Board Room: New Administrators Orientation. If you are new to your role at your school (Principal, Assistant Principal, Dean of Students) or new to Bend-La Pine altogether, this day is for you. If you are unsure whether or not this means you, reach out to us and we’ll get it clarified for you.

August 7, 8:00-4:00 at the Riverhouse Convention Center (Riverhouse Convention Center, 100, 2955, US-97). A Culture of Safety and Belonging: K-12 Leaders: This is day 1 of our K-12 leaders professional learning conference. This day will focus on what we/you are doing to build a culture of safety and belonging for everyone in our schools. After morning greetings, our keynote for the morning will be John Krownapple, co-author of “Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity: The Keys to Successful Equity Implementation.” Lunch is provided.

August 8, 8:00-4:00 at the Riverhouse Convention Center. A Culture of Leading and Learning: K-12 Leaders: This is day 2 of our K-12 leaders professional learning conference. This day will focus on what we/you are doing to build a culture of leading and learning for everyone in our schools. After morning greetings, our keynote for the morning will be a guest from the Franklin Covey Institute, focusing on Trust and Inspire Leadership. The afternoon will have elementary only breakout sessions focusing on Tier 1 systems of support; think PBIS 2.0, and high leverage instructional strategies. Lunch is provided.

August 9, 8:00-4:00: Elementary Team Launch. Mark your calendars for a fun day! You will be receiving a special invitation inviting you to this special event. Our goal is you leave this day feeling connected, prepared, inspired, supported, and hopeful!

August 14, 9:00-12:00: Title 1 Meeting in the Boardroom (Title schools only): We will be spending some time going over Title 1 expectations for the year, introduce a new model of support with Meryll Paris, and get your input on ways in which we can better support you. Please make sure in addition to the admin from your school attending this meeting, your office manager is present as well.

August 28, 7:30-9:00: New Teacher Orientation Day: This is new teacher orientation day, but building admin must also attend for the start of the day, as you will be introducing new teachers to your school. When that part of the morning is over, you are free to go back to your building.

August 29, (time TBD, but plan for about 1.5 hours around 8:00): District Virtual Welcome Back Event: This morning, we will have a virtual kick-off for all district staff, welcoming them back, celebrating, and setting the stage for a great year. All schools are asked to watch this together as a school community, with schools gathering in the library, gym, or other common meeting space. There will be a theme and team spirit award to the staff who comes together showcasing the theme and connection.

August 30, all day: Districtwide Wayfinder and Really Great Reading Training for all. You will be receiving information about where your teachers are to report for the training this day, as your primary and intermediate groups will be split up and you will be training at different locations. You will also be expected to attend the trainings and assigned a site as well.

Ask Us Your Burning Questions!

Click on this link, to ask a burning question or 5 that you would love to know the answer to. We will answer them one on one, in the blog, or at a meeting. Remember, the only stupid question is the one never asked! Our phone numbers are also listed below.

and finally…

Tammy: (541) 408-1382 Lisa: (541) 977-8183