Wayfinder: For those of you interested in using Waypoints as a measure for your belonging or SEL School Design work, the window to take the assessment is extended to November 15. There are some great ideas on how to use this assessment and I’ve been talking with people at site visits if you are interested.
Also, just a freindly reminder that Wayfinder is our core curriculum for SEL and this year there is the expectation that teachers are teaching the skill lessons (only 20 lessons total, so 1 a week for 20 weeks). Log into your Wayfinder Dashboard to see who is using the system and how you can best support the use of this program. Reach out to your coaches or Jennifer Hauth for ideas for PD!
Attendance policy: Last call for any feedback on content as we update the attendance policy.
The draft linked above includes all language from both OSBA’s sample and our current version. We’ll weave them into one coherent policy, but we left all the language from both in order for you to review and give input on preferences regarding any/all of it.
Please share with relevant office staff and ask for their insights.
Feedback we’re looking for:
Anything in this language that contradicts our preferred practices, or anything missing that we should add to capture current processes working well in your buildings;
Requests for training or procedural support related to this policy topic;
Please don’t make specific red-line edits—I’m just looking for your general thoughts on what’s helpful for you to codify in policy.
Send your feedback to Kinsey via email or phone call, by October 25
Related to attendance: We’ll be offering an admin PD group to dig into best practices for home visits. More on that soon!
Upcoming events and key dates: Please mark your calendars for these events:
District-wide 7th annual Latino Family Night:
Thursday, November 21st 5:30-7:30pm at MVHS
The Woodburn High School student mariachi band will be performing! Come grab some dinner, check out their performance, and connect with families, students, and staff for some games and fun!
Invitation here. Family Liaisons and Latino Family Advisory members will provide you with some copies, but feel free to share in staff and family newsletters.
MAC Survey Day: This will happen sometime the week of Nov 11. Please make sure your FAN Advocate can get in front of staff ahead of that week, to introduce themselves and remind about procedures. Also, thank you for prioritizing your own time to claim an activity that day if at all possible. Without you doing that, we can’t afford to have FAN Advocates in our schools (eek).
LGBTQIA2S+ Alliance principal conversation:
Our Alliance group would love to connect with principals (or an administrator from each school) for some conversation and to learn about what you’re proud of at your school, as far as LGBTQ student/family supports, resources, and experiences they can seek out.
Please plan to join us Tuesday, January 21st. (I’ll remind you later—just mark you calendar 🙂)
Please share with your staff and check out the special opportunity for admin too!
Celebrate a successful start to the school year at Educators’ Night Out at the High Desert Museum! It is Thursday, October 24, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
New this year – join the HDM for a special presentation for school administrators! We’ll share about upcoming grant opportunities and projects. Administrators will also have their own opportunity to win a raffle (we’ll even give you more tickets for each educator from your school you bring with you!)
Delicious snacks from the one of the best chefs in Central Oregon – Luckey’s Woodsman
Fabulous door prizes from local businesses like Bar Rio, Bend Pet Express, Greg’s Grill, Mountain Supply, and so many more!
From Scott Bojanowski in Safety. Please review the updated AQI protocols on our staff portal. We have updated the AQI map resources for administrators to use to make real-time decisions on AQI readings near your schools. We will now be using the EPA Air Now Smoke and Fire Map or the Watch Duty AQI Smoke and Fire Map applications that provide real-time AQI readings.
We will also be forming a stakeholder committee to review the AQI thresholds for cancellation of outdoor recess, sports, and activities. We will use the feedback from that committee to make future decisions and potential updates to our AQI threshold levels.
The public facing district website AQI page will be updated with this information in the next few days.
From Triz delaRosa in HR: Here is a quick guide designed to assist you as you navigate the UKG Evaluation tab in your dashboard. This guide will help you determine which of your staff are on cycle for evaluation this year. It’s intended as a “how-to” resource for using the dashboard report effectively. (See the email from Triz for more information.)
Action Items
Check out your Wayfinder Dashboard–do you have anyone needing support?
Time Sheets: This is a friendly reminder to submit your timesheets by Sunday. You also should have submitted any requests for leave during this time as well. Thank you!
EL Training: Update: We are all set to have our Administrator EL training at Ensworth Elementary in the library on Wednesday the 30th. It will be from 8:00-2:30. Lunch will be provided, so come ready for a day of learning with your colleagues and friends.
All Admin Training: It was confirmed this week that the all-admin monthly training is on for this month. It will be on Wednesday, October 23 at Perseverance Hall at Bend High, from 3:00-4:30. I know this month has felt brutal with so many trainings and meetings and for that I apologize.
SLGGs: Back by popular demand, here is a list of plug and play SLGGs for you and your staff. There are goals for Reading, Writing, Math, Wayfinder, and generic ones for any other content. You can see an email from Ryan below regarding filling them out in UKG. As far as a timeline goes, aim for having staff turn them in by November 8.
SpEd Team Meeting Template: I have shared with a few of you that Deborah at Rosland has a great template she uses when she has a weekly/bi-weekly meeting with her SpEd Department. This has really helped communication and planning within the department. Deborah has created a blank template that you are welcome to copy if you want. The first page is a long range planner and the agenda starts on page 2. Thanks for sharing Deborah!
Safety Cadre day has moved! Mark your calendars if you are the safety rep at your school. The Safety Cadre meeting has moved to Friday, November 8, 1:30-3:30 in the boardroom!
Family-teacher conferences: Please ensure you coordinate and submit requests for interpreters ASAP. Your Language Specialist and Family Liaison can help advise and coordinate this with your office team.
Policy training resources: Thanks for attending the policy training this week! Here is follow-up–please share with your staff and PTA/Booster Club leaders:
Bias incident student lessons: As you wrap up the teaching of those lessons across all classrooms in the upcoming days, can you please share a celebration with Kinsey about something that your building did well with these lessons? Did you have a teacher successfully incorporate student voice? A team who was creative with implementation? Presence from the equity coaches that was helpful? Please let me know what your school did well!
From Scott Maben in Communications:
Bookmark our Staff Portal for quick access to updates and staff resources
A great way to keep up on employee news, announcements, resources and tools is to check our STAFF PORTAL regularly. We are posting updates to the Portal almost every day.
We encourage all staff to bookmark the Portal on your browser. Better yet, you can designate it as one of your browser startup pages so it’s always right there. Here’s how to do that using Google Chrome:
1. In your Chrome browser window, click on the three vertical dots (for “More”) in the top right corner
2. Go down the list to “Settings” and click that
3. On the left, click “On startup”
4. Select “Open a specific page or set of pages” then “Add a new page”
5. Paste the site URL into the window and hit “Add” The URL for our Staff Portal is this: https://bendlapine.sharepoint.com/
You can add other startup pages as well, such as our District website (https://www.bend.k12.or.us/district) and your school website.
The “Quick Links” on the Staff Portal is a go-to resource for many of us. And keep an eye on the featured news items, which provides a mix of local news headlines and timely information we are sharing with you and our community.
From the Secretary of State: The countdown is on – checking in and hoping you’ll have participating 5th grade classes for the upcoming 2025 Oregon Kid Governor .. the clock is ticking for candidate video submissions, they’re due at 10am on October 25th and more information can be found here. In addition to the vital learning components, my ongoing engagement with past participants confirm the reverberating effects and experience of participating in this program are remarkable.
We’d be thrilled if you’d alert your 5th grade teachers of the impending due date for candidates and that alternately their classroom may choose a “voting only” status, without submitting a candidate. Please feel free to reach out to Nikki Fisher at [email protected] with any questions and we look forward to the most exciting ORKG campaign season yet!
With advance appreciation for your consideration, support and partnership
From Kim, Tina, and Chris in Transportation : Just a friendly reminder: Classroom chaperones are not allowed to bring other children with them on the bus for field trips. We have had a couple of instances already this year, and it puts our driver in a difficult position to deny them a ride. Thank you!
From Ryan in HR: There is work that needs to be done to get the 2024/25 UKG evaluation process up and running; in the meantime, schools may begin their SLGG process by copying/filling out the Google Form template and keeping a copy of it until the process launches in October.
Here are useful links:
SLGG Google Form – Staff can either make a digital copy to complete or they can print and fill out a hard copy. These can be uploaded into UKG (instructions to follow)
Staff can then attach a pdf of their completed form when the goal-setting task appears in their UKG To Do list.
From McScott in IT. To ensure the safety, quality, and compatibility of our technology, ALL tech-related purchases must be approved and processed through our IT department.
If the answer is “yes” to any of these questions, the purchase must go through IT:
Is it a computer, tablet, or related device?
Does it connect to or charge one of our devices?
Does it connect to our networks or get installed on a device?
Why is this important? While it may be tempting to purchase cheaper options from websites like Amazon, our district maintains strict standards to ensure all devices are safe, reliable, and compatible with our systems. Unsafe or substandard devices can:
Fail to work properly within our network environment
Pose risks such as electrical shock or fire
Introduce security threats like malware
Action Items
Turn in your Timesheet in UKG by Sunday
Arrange interpreters for conferences
wrap up bias lessons
Mark your calendar for all-admin training at Bend High, 10/23, from 3:00-4:30.
Want to apply to be on the District Admin Advisory Team? Sign up here by 10/16
Share SLGG information with staff
Remind staff to make sure chaperones do not bring non-school age children to ride buses for field trips
Important Dates
October 15: Horizontal Meeting at La Pine Elementary, 3:00-5:00 (La Pine and Juniper host) Please allow extra time for travel, depending on where you are located it could take 45 min to get there. Please do your best to be on time.
October 23: All Admin PD at Perseverance Hall (Bend High) 3:00-4:30
Conferences: Oct 29–3:15-7:15, Oct 30–3:15-7:15, Oct 31–7:15-3:15
October 30: Certified work day, 7:15-3:15
October 30: Administrator EL training–all day, Ensworth Elementary, 8:00-2:30—lunch provided!
October 31: Safe School Trainings need to be done by today
November 4: Karen Rush’s first official day!!! (maybe sooner if we are lucky!)
November 8: Safety Cadre Meets at the Ed Center Boardroom, 1:30-3:30
November 11: Veteran’s Day–No School
And finally…
Registration is free for all attendees, but space is limited, so we recommend registering ASAP. This event is for partners and Wayfinder-curious leaders across Oregon.
What to Expect:
Support your Staff and Students with Re-Aligning to their Purpose
Learn from a panel of Wayfinder partners across Oregon (80+ districts)
Learn How to Align with ODE TSEL Standards
Understand Barriers to SEL Implementation
Learn What’s to Come with Wayfinder Product Roadmapping
Address Buy-In Issues
Networking Time
Hot breakfast, coffee, and a hot lunch will be provided. Feel free to share with colleagues, all are welcome!—> REGISTER HERE
Announcement! Check your email tomorrow for an exciting announcement about our next Executive Director of Elementary Programs! I’m so excited!
Editable SIW Planning Doc: This was a request from our admin meeting last week. Here is a link to the SIW planning doc I made in Canva. Please make a copy and make it your own. Cross your fingers this works! If someone with more Canva experience than me can make it easier than this—please help!
Division 22 Requirements: Each year, the Deputy Superintendent has to submit to ODE a report stating that we meet a variety of requirements and have the evidence to back it up. There are several requirements that pertain to elementary and we need evidence to back them up. This week, we are focusing on your main schedule and where there is explicit mention of 150 minutes of PE/week. I have taken the sample schedule I shared with you and made slight changes that show what it is you need to do. You can see those here. This sample schedule shows the following:
75 minutes of PE+ per week using the SEL PE standards during morning circle
60 minutes of PE+ per week using one recess a day, 4 days per week of certified supervised and structured PE games at recess (4/5 need this to meet instructional minutes in other ways)
60 minutes of PE class/week
That is 45 min/week more than needed, so staff can adjust morning meeting/recess as they do already. Just make sure your main schedule shows where it would be in general. Please document on the specials block how many minutes/week PE is and for the others (recess and SEL), please put (PE+) to indicate you know the PE standards will be used here.
While it feels big, keep in mind, you are already doing it. It is the documenting of it for evidence we have to produce. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need anything. Many of you already shared you main schedules a while back. Because you shared live docs, I should automatically get your changes. If you did not share your schedule or don’t remember, here is the link to the folder that shows them and where you can link them to. (It’s the Admin Resources Drive—Schedules—24/25) The updates and sharing of schedules need to be done by Wednesday, Oct 9. Thanks so much!
October Site Visits: Please sign up here for an October site visit. When I send the invite it will include an agenda (spoiler alert! it will mostly be about school design plan work).
Conferences Time Frames: After consultation with BEA two years ago, we have landed on the following information regarding length of a conference. 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 building in transition times if needed.
Tracy Howk in Instructional Technology: Digital Citizenship week is October 14-18, an annual campaign to promote healthy, balanced, and positive approach to media and tech use among young people. Here are some handy resources.
From Kerry Morton, Math Instructional Coach: The Math Curriculum Review Team will need to share the pros and cons of each Field Test as we progress through the year. These will probably only be 10-20 minutes depending on how many questions your staff has about each program. These are the date ranges of when the team will need some time:
November 8-22 Amplify with Desmos
December 12-January 10 StemScopes
January 31-February 7 Experience Math
From Ryan in HR: I’d like to remind you of the importance of having all staff record all absences in Red Rover, not just those requiring substitute coverage.
Please share with your teams that every absence, regardless of whether a substitute is needed, must be logged in Red Rover. This streamlined process allows clerical and administrative staff to plan efficiently for any gaps throughout the day and helps us better manage school operations.
I appreciate your attention to this small but important ask. Your support in communicating this expectation to your staff will help ensure consistency and efficiency across the board. If you have any questions or need clarification, don’t hesitate to reach out.Thank you for your cooperation!
From Andrea in HR: We are excited to introduce Canopy, Bend-La Pine Schools new Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provider!
Canopy EAP services include mental health support, counseling, behavioral coaching, digital tools, and resources to help navigate life and work – from financial coaching to gym and pet insurance discounts – Canopy’s mission is to create happier and healthier lives for employees.
Canopy services are free, confidential, and available to ALL district employees and their family members. Learn more about Canopy and how to access their services on our district’s Benefits website.
From Scott Mc in IT: Regarding the Cybersecurity Awareness Training-
First of all, thank you all for supporting our Cyber October effort. Especially for your help to promoting the Cybersecurity Awareness Training. We will have another automated message sharing the link to the training early next week. It would be very helpful if you could communicate with your buildings the 30 minutes you are setting aside for the completion of the training. Now that this training is required, it will be a module in our “Safe Schools” effort moving forward.
From the Spotlight: New advisory committees to give employees a voice in District-level discussions
In an effort to bring Bend-La Pine Schools staff and leaders together in dialogue on District initiatives, Superintendent Steven Cook is forming advisory committees for Classified, Certified, Administrative, and South County employee groups. Each District Advisory Committees will meet four times during the school year, giving employees an opportunity to be a voice for their community. The purpose of each meeting will be to:
Hear from leadership on the state of the District, Legislative updates, District initiatives and issues before the School Board
Have a dialogue on these issues
Provide feedback on areas of focus
Share current and emerging issues from the field
The advisory meetings will begin in November at the Education Center, 520 NW Wall St. in Bend. The South County committee meetings will be in La Pine. Classified Committee members will be paid for their time. Certified Committee members will be provided with a half-day substitute.
We are planning for up to 15 members per committee with representation from schools, levels, and operational groups. Depending on the number of applicants, a lottery or other selection process may be used to select committee members.
Applications are due Wednesday, October 16. Applicants will be notified on Monday, October 21. To see the meeting schedule and submit your application, please use THIS FORM.
From Jessica Houser, Business Operations Manager: This is a reminder that the deadline for submitting information regarding employees who missed work due to being in a level two or three evacuation zone between September 9th and 17th is tomorrow, Friday, October 4th at 12pm.
If you have not filled out the Google From, please do so at your earliest convenance to ensure we have all the necessary information. Your input is important for us to determine the next steps for those affected. There is no need for your employees to submit additional forms at this time. We truly appreciate your prompt response and continued support.
Action Items
Update and share main schedules with PE documentation by 10/9
Want to apply to be on the District Admin Advisory Team? Sign up here by 10/16
Important Dates
October 9. PE minutes documented in main schedule due
October 7. Advertising training in the boardroom 10:00-11:30 (at least 1 admin and Office Manager)
October 15: Horizontal Meeting at La Pine Elementary, 3:00-5:00 (La Pine and Juniper host) Please allow extra time for travel, depending on where you are located it could take 45 min to get there. Please do your best to be on time.
October 23: All Admin PD—more to come
Conferences: Oct 29–3:15-7:15, Oct 30–3:15-7:15, Oct 31–7:15-3:15
Work Day: October 30, 7:15-3:15
October 30: Administrator EL training–all day, exact time and location TBD
October 31: Safe School Trainings need to be done by today
Cheers to Jesse, Erich, Calah the Office Manager, and their team over at Jewell Elementary—the 50th birthday celebration was an amazing event tonight! I was so amazed at all the former staff and students who came from near and far to check out the school, including the first principal 50 years ago, Bill Scott! (Small world–he was my advisor in my admin program 21 years ago!) It was such a special time for so many people. Nice work Jaguars!
From Tammy
Sharezies: The “Sharezies” document has been updated with another sample “Care” referral form, this time from Elk Meadow. This is a document that a teacher would use to request some
Pine Ridge Student Voice Council: Want an idea to grow your student voice input? Check out this note in Pine Ridge’s Staff Newsletter about their Student Voice Committee. There is a link to an information packet and application that clearly outlines the purpose and plan that PRE has for incorporating student voice into their practice. Thanks for sharing Nichole and Ned!
Pine Ridge Stuent Voice Committee: Below is the link to the information and applications that students/families will need if they are interested in applying for a spot on the Student Voice Committee. This is for 3-5 students. 3-5 teachers please send this link out as soon as possible via your classroom newsletters or your preferred communication system.
Dear Pine Ridge Families,
In an effort to have student voice more present in decision making at Pine Ridge, we are forming a student voice committee. The committee members, selected from grades 3rd-5th, will submit applications to be part of this committee. Below is a link to more information and the applications. If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Myers at [email protected]. Click here for the link to the information.
Topics of Interest/Problem of Practice: Here is a link where you can write down a topic of interest that you would like some thinking partners around. Some of the topics may be solved quickly here by your collaborative skills and ideas and some may make it to collaboration at a horizontal meeting.
To costume or not to costume–that is the question: Here is a link where you can let each other know what you are doing to adjust or not any costume celebrations. As a friendly reminder, should you choose to do costumes, we want to adhere to having respectful costumes as part of the celebrations. Here is a pre-made slide deck and a poster for teachers to discuss with students the way to celebrate appropriately. Equity Coaches can support these conversations if needed.
Tracy Howk in IT: This is last minute, but we just got work this class is in jeopardy of canceling, so please pass it on to your staff!
HDESD is putting on a free AI conference for educators on October 11. Dean says there’s sub pay available for those who want to attend. They’re looking for more participants to sign up or they’ll have to cancel, which is a bummer because the speaker lineup sounds great. The timing might also be handy as we’re launching MagicSchool AI in BLS. Registration ends OCT 1. Register here!
From Scott Mc in IT: October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and we’re excited to announce Cyber October! Throughout the month, our IT department will be sharing valuable resources to help improve your cyber hygiene and protect our school district from cyber threats.
Here’s what you can expect:
Weekly Tips and Tricks: Easy-to-follow advice to help safeguard your digital life.
Scam of the Week Announcements: Stay informed about the latest online threats.
Cybersecurity Best Practices: Strategies to keep your data and devices safe.
In addition, all staff will receive a link to our annual cybersecurity training. This mandatory training will take approximately 30 minutes to complete and is crucial in helping to protect both personal and district data from cyberattacks. The window to complete the training is October 1st through November 30th. Look for these updates in your inbox each week. Together, we can strengthen our defenses against cyberattacks! Thank you for your continued vigilance and support.
From Dave VanLoo, Director of School Improvement:
2024-25 District Assessment, Testing, & Surveys. Here are two updated support 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 documents will continue to be updated throughout the year as is beneficial. Please reach out with any questions.
Synergy MTSS Module Update. New this year schools will have access to data within Synergy’s MTSS module. Over the past few months staff have been hard at work building the infrastructure to make these tools available. Within the next few weeks, we expect to make the Early Warning System (EWS) available to schools. EWS is a tool for identifying students who may need additional support in the areas of attendance, behavior/discipline, and academics. Later this year additional tools will become available. While this development is occurring, vast amounts of student data remain available in DART and in the OSAS portal (state testing data). Reach out to Dave if you have questions about accessing or interpreting these data.
Students coming back to school. When we need to return a student to school (ex. no parent present at stop in the afternoon), we will be returning the student back to school, but it will be in the bus loop, not the front entrance/parent. Our buses are too big to fit in these front door loops- we did $20,000 + damage trying to get into a school yesterday afternoon 😕. Our routers will call the office and let them know when the buses arrive.
Guest Riders: Students who are not routed on a particular bus, cannot ride that bus. This includes if they bring a note from home saying they can go to Sally’s house for a play date. Caveat, if they ARE routed to the bus, they CAN get off at a different stop with a friend as long as they have a note from the school or from home.
We will be adding these tags to all kinders backpacks within the next 2 weeks. Red for RED kinders (don’t let off without a parent there), green for GREEN kinders (can be let off without a parent). The tags have first name, last initial, stop information and student ID#. We will also be notifying families of this, so they keep it on the backpack.
There may also be a few kiddos (Grades 1-5)that we keep an “extra eye on” that will also have a RED tag. This will just help alert drivers to make sure they are getting off at the correct stop. Schools can expect to see us up in the bus loop putting these on kinders in the afternoons. Hopefully this will be helpful in getting them on the right buses and off at their homes 🙂
Message from Jason & Ted (IT) and Eric (Student Services) about Synergy & Discipline Entry
We have learned that all incidents being inputted into Synergy as “Admin-Managed” are being labeled as “Major” in Synergy. Not every incident administrators input are going to be Major, so we needed to create a solution to this problem.
IT has generated a solution to this issue that is now LIVE in Synergy. Moving forward, you will notice the following options for you to select when entering incidents. Using these three options we can now correctly input incidents in alignment with our Student Code of Conduct:
Staff-Managed = Code of Conduct Response Level 1 (by Staff) [NOTE: Not all schools are utilizing Staff-Managed this year]
Minor Admin-Managed = Code of Conduct Response Level 2 (by Administrators)
Major Admin-Managed = Code of Conduct Response Level 3 or 4 (by Administrators)
From Jennifer Hauth, re: Wayfinder’s Waypoints.Waypoints, the initial summative assessment for students will be live in Wayfinder from September 15th through November 15th. Summative Waypoints allow educators to measure student growth of Wayfinder’s six Core Skills across the school year. By administering the summative Waypoints assessments, educators can understand areas of strength and growth for individual students and the class to make informed, data-driven decisions about instruction. Here is the info on Waypoints, including the new Waypoints Implementation Guides to help teachers set up the reason we are assessing students as well as instructions. The final summative assessment for students will be open May 12th through June 13th for students.
From Michell Spetic, Nurse on Special Assignment: OHA / ODE has changed the Communicable Disease Guidance for Schoolsguidelines this year for students and staff returning after having vomiting or diarrhea. They may now return to school after 24hrs of no vomiting or no diarrhea (this replaces the previous 48hr guideline)
Share HDESD AI conference info with your staff ASAP–Deadline is Oct 1
Important Dates
October 1: Admin/ICCL Meeting–Ed Center Board Room, 3:00-4:30
October 15: Horizontal Meeting at La Pine Elementary, 3:00-5:00 (La Pine and Juniper host) Please allow extra time for travel, depending on where you are located it could take 45 min to get there. Please do your best to be on time.
Conferences: Oct 29–3:15-7:15, Oct 30–3:15-7:15, Oct 31–7:15-3:15
Work Day: October 30, 7:15-3:15
October 30: Administrator EL training–all day, exact time and location TBD
October 31: Safe School Trainings need to be done by today
November 11: Veteran’s Day–No School
And finally…click on the diagram below to see the details of how to buffer yourself from burn out.
Classified Stakeholder Voice: This year, we are working on increasing stakeholder engagement and voice of all our staff. While we have systems in place to get certified input (ICCL teams, schedule building input, MTSS, etc,) ways in which we gather classified voices are not as developed. How are you making sure you are giving classified staff an avenue to engage and share their voice in your building this year?
After School Clubs: Could you please let me know if you have after school clubs that are run by school staff? I only know of 2 schools (TR, JUN), and need to know if there are more. We are currently in the process of figuring out how you can accurately pay the staff to run the clubs, as “time sheeting” them is no longer an option. At the moment, these clubs are put on hold until this is resolved (which we anticipate being very soon). If you don’t have clubs you pay staff to do, you can ignore this. If you want to start, please wait until this is resolved and move forward with the new guidance.
For Horizontal on Tuesday: Please take a moment before our horizontal meeting on Tuesday to reacquaint yourselves with your school design plans. Don’t do anything to them yet, as we will be talking about them on Tuesday. We will also be focusing on them at our next site visits and how they are a guiding document for your year long PD work in your schools. Pro Tip: Book mark the link above to help you save time in accessing them. Note: We will be coming out with SLGG guidance and sample goals for you soon.
Another fun opportunity for your kids: The fire station wants you! You can print this flyer to put on your community board advertising a community open house this next week at the north station. Bend Fire and Rescuewould love to see elementary school tours resume. They trailed off sharply after the pandemic, but fire stations are ready to host classes again. These visits can provide valuable learning experiences about fire safety and the role of firefighters. To schedule a tour, call 541-322-6300.
Advertising Practices: *Action Needed*. We are offering two options for dates to attend a workshop related to approving and accepting funds for advertisements. (This includes ‘donations’ that come in exchange for any form of publicity for the donor.) This training will help you feel clear and supported in determining whether and how to accept money from local companies or individuals, and is a chance to align across schools in accordance with the updated advertising policy and a few other related policies.
Principals/Office Teams: Please invite relevant staff (sample message here)–note the sign-up sheet there, for each of your team members to confirm attendance.
Each school should ensure the following roles in your building are trained: Administrator, athletic director, activities director, yearbook advisor, music/drama teachers, any additional or support staff who are involved in receiving or approving advertisement requests and funds.
Holidays and dates: You received a reminder again this year about protecting some significant religious observance fall dates from any special events. Please check your school calendar now and ensure there are NO special/one-time student/family meetings or events scheduled on these days:
Rosh Hashanah: Evening of Wed Oct 2 to evening of Fri Oct 4
Yom Kippur: Sat Oct 12
Within the next few weeks, you will receive a calendar with key dates like these over the next few years, so you can plan further ahead—stay tuned.
If your school is allowing any costumes for around Halloween, here are some lessons to discuss with students: K-5, 6-12, Poster. Equity Coaches can support these conversations if needed.
From Dave Hood, District Athletic Director: Hello—If you could please put this information in your next family newsletters that would be appreciated. The information is timely and impacts elementary students who attend our athletic events. Thank you!
From Scott in Technology: Do you know about Managed Apple ID’s?
Every student and staff member in Bend-La Pine Schools has a Managed Apple ID.
Your Apple ID sign in is your Bend-La Pine Schools email address.
To enhance the security of our digital environment and protect sensitive information, we strongly encourage all staff to use their Managed Apple IDs on their school-issued devices instead of personal Apple IDs.
Why Use Your Managed Apple ID?
Enhanced Security: Managed Apple IDs are specifically designed for educational environments, providing an extra layer of security and management capabilities.
Data Protection: Using your Managed Apple ID helps prevent sensitive school data from being inadvertently stored in personal accounts, reducing the risk of data breaches or leaks.
Seamless Access: Managed Apple IDs provide streamlined access to school resources, apps, and services, ensuring you have everything you need for your role.
200Gb of storage! All users can take advantage of 200GB of iCloud storage and access it from any of their school issued devices.
If you need assistance in making this change, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our IT Client Services team or our help desk. Note: Nearly 300 Bend-La Pine Schools computers are currently using personal Apple ID’s. Beginning October, users on these devices will periodically receive a message discouraging this practice. Thank you for your cooperation and for helping us keep our school’s information safe and secure.
From Stephen DuVal re: TAG. Just a reminder that we are hoping to move forward quickly with the hiring of our TAG ICCL members. These folks will attend four district trainings and then integrate with your ICCL team to meet their time obligations. The four meeting dates are 10/14, 1/13, 3/10, and 5/19 from 3:45 to 5:45 in the board room. We would also like to have your administrator in charge of TAG attend these meetings. If you have any questions, please contact Stephen DuVal.
Side Note from Tammy: Last week you were asked to fill out the information here. Admin TAG lead and TAG ICCL I know some of you are still hiring your ICCLs. If you know who it will be, but are finishing up the hiring process, please write their name and write “in progress” beside it. Thanks for the idea Nichole!
From Sean in Student Services: Hungerford Online:
In the next few days, you will be receiving a personalized notice (see below) inviting you to Hungerford Online. The Hungerford law firm has been a state leader in supporting districts with SPED/504 legal issues. When you receive the email, set you password and take a peek! These are IEP/504 training videos that you can use for your own learning or with your staff. Your SPED team members will be receiving this access as well, and we will discuss the use at their upcoming general supervision training. Further, we will be offering some facilitated training opportunities for you this year and will be utilizing this resource.
Action Items
Let Tammy know here if you run any after school clubs
Sign up here for the Advertising and Money training. Administrator and additional or support staff who are involved in receiving or approving advertisement requests and funds
Sign into district devices with your district Managed Apple ID, not your personal one
Fill out TAG ICCL with more than TBD please (then Stephen knows who to invite!)
Important Dates
September 24: Horizontal Meeting at High Lakes Elementary, 3:00-5:00 (High Lakes and Amity host)
September 26. Drop by and celebrate 50 years of Jewell Elementary! 5:00-7:00
October 1: Admin/ICCL Meeting–Ed Center Board Room, 3:00-5:00
October 15: Horizontal Meeting at La Pine Elementary, 3:00-5:00 (La Pine and Juniper host) Please allow extra time for travel, depending on where you are located it could take 45 min to get there.
October 30: Administrator EL training–all day, exact time and location TBD
October 31: Safe School Trainings need to be done by today
And finally… fall arrives this Sunday! Here is something yummy you could make to get you in the fall spirit! Recipe here!
Another 2 resource to share with staff: Here is a cool connection from the City of Bend, about Stormwater Educational Resources for teachers and classes. Check it out here!
Also, the High Desert Museum has moved their Oregon Encounters field day from spring to this fall! If your school has participated in this in the past, you don’t want to miss this! Check it out here!
Mark your calendar: Wednesday, October 30, from 8:00-3:00, during the teachers’ work day for conferences, is our administrative training for EL. Please block this time out in your calendar now so you don’t forget and fill up your day.
Executive Director Forum: The posting for the other Executive Director has closed. Next week there will be screening interviews, with the final interviews taking place on Monday, September 23. Please mark your calendar for that evening (guessing 1 hour somewhere between 4:00-6:00) for the Elementary Admin forum where our elementary admin team gets to meet the candidates, hear them answer our questions, and fill out the input sheet.
From Scott and Kayla: We are asking all school administrators to complete our safety survey by Monday, September 30th. Please provide as much feedback as possible, so we can provide high quality professional development to your site safety designees and campus monitors. Link here.
From Paul Dean: Over the summer, we updated our community use guidelines. Walt Norris met with all of the custodians to review the expectations regarding access to elementary school playgrounds and middle school tracks (we are not opening high school tracks at this time). Custodians have been instructed to leave one gate open for community access in the summer, on weekends and before/after school hours and were encouraged to engage with building leaders about which gate that should be. If you have not done so already, please make sure you identify the gate that makes the most sense to keep open. As always, these gates are to remain locked during the school day.
From the Governor: I signed a proclamation declaring the month of September 2024 as Attendance Awareness Month. I was joined by Oregon Department of Education (ODE) Director Charlene Williams, Senator Suzanne Weber, education advocates, and school district representatives.
“I am mission-focused on finding ways to improve educational outcomes for Oregon students, which means finding the cracks in our system that students may fall through,” Governor Kotek said. “We can’t provide quality education unless we make sure we get the kids to school. When a child is chronically absent, not only do they miss out on the daily learning they need to succeed, but schools aren’t able to provide services, support, or intervention.”
“We know that consistent attendance is key to student success. When students attend school regularly, they are more likely to learn, grow, and connect,” said Dr. Charlene Williams, Director of the Oregon Department of Education. “This initiative is a call to action for all of us—educators, parents, and community members—to prioritize attendance and to ensure that each and every student has the opportunity to thrive.”
ODE has released a Social Media Toolkit, a resource designed to help education leaders, advocates, and community members increase school attendance awareness.
From Lisa: I attended a seminar on Chronic Absenteeism and they provided this tool for use in schools. It may be something to share with admin regarding protocols to use regarding this topic. I think the most impactful tool may be page 3, which is filled with a variety of questions that teams can grapple with as they try to address potential barriers. These are broken into four categories (data, modification, relationships, community). Hope your first days have been wonderful!
From Lisa Birk: This month, we will not be meeting as a district leadership team on September 18th. More on future times together will be shared in the coming days.
Additionally, this document, is important to bookmark, as it is the updated link to the Culture of Safety contact list, of who to contact for a variety of things throughout our district (drill tacking, to pest control, to immigration, and so much more).
From Julie Richards: Would you support your instructional educational assistants attending additional professional learning? See dates below. Let me know here.
In the Spring, we discussed options for implementing additional training for our instructional educational assistants. We were able to offer an amazing two-day conference on August 29th and 30th. The feedback was very positive!! Additionally, we discussed offering training during 4 building SIW dates throughout the year. The training would be offered from 2:00-3:15 on 9/25, 11/6, 12/4 and 2/5. You would need to work with your educational assistants if this is outside their work hours to either trade time or you could have them fill out a timesheet (paid by the school) for the additional hours.
From Payroll: Timesheet cutoff is this Sunday, September 15th. All time and leave from 8/12-9/16 needs documented on your timesheet. To help the process run as smoothly as possible, we need you to submit your timesheet no later than 11:00 pm on Sunday, September 15th. This is the first critical step in the process of taking your hours from time worked to time paid. Thank you!
*Please note we are still performing maintenance and some leave balances and schedules may not be correct, please submit time/leave change requests for any leave that cannot be submitted. Please see the bottom of your paystub for correct leave balances. We have ongoing tech work occurring in UKG. As a result you may see inaccurate schedules, workdays, etc. please still submit your timesheet, you will be paid accurate contract pay.
From Transportation: Safety is of the utmost importance for our transportation department and we need your help with a safety issue that is popping up at a number of places. Please do not release students before 2:15. We schedule our buses to get to the schools a few minutes before the bell rings so they can line up without students running around. We have had reports from drivers that there are already students out and running around by the time they get there, which makes our drivers a little nervous as you can imagine. Thank you for your help with this.
Also, we need some help in finding a way to make kindergarten students more “visible” to our drivers, especially when there is a substitute driver. Is there a way you can help kindergarten students stand out, (put them in front of the lines for example)? We are in the process of creating tags for K student’s back packs; red tags for kinders that need an adult present to get off, and green tag for kinders that don’t. That will eventually help, but for now, it is tricky and we worry about missing a kiddo. Anything you can do to help with this is appreciated.
From Human Resources: Mostly pertains to secondary, but important to know State law prohibits Certified employees from relinquishing their duty-free lunch period to take on directed duties in exchange for pay. In other words, employees cannot take on a duty that can only be performed during their lunch period even where voluntary and paid.
As a result, any Certified staff member currently employed as a Lunch Detention Supervisor cannot continue in that role. We understand this may impact your current lunch supervision schedules. Katie and Stephen have already worked with some buildings to construct supervision schedules that do not violate this statute, so please reach out to them for support in adjusting current supervision plans as needed.
Certified staff may elect to perform duties during their lunch hour so long as those duties could be performed at another time. For example, lunch clubs are still permitted to continue, including those with Advisors compensated through an Extra Duty stipend. Any such club meetings, though, cannot be mandated to take place during lunch.
Also from HR: It has come to our attention that some of you have experienced issues with completing your required courses on the SafeSchools platform. Specifically, some users have successfully completed modules and received a certificate of completion, but these completions are not being recognized in the Schoox system, which informs UKG of your status.
While the exact cause of this issue is still being investigated, we wanted to share some tips that may help you avoid or mitigate these problems:
Use a Computer: Please avoid completing courses on your phone. Using a desktop or laptop computer can help ensure the platform functions correctly.
Browser Choice: We recommend using Chrome when accessing SafeSchools. Other browsers may not be fully compatible with the platform.
Course Interaction: Avoid pausing or skipping forward in videos. Engage fully with each module and ensure you answer any questions that appear promptly.
Save Completion Certificates: After finishing a course, please save or screenshot your completion certificate. This will serve as proof of completion if the system does not update automatically.
If your trainings do not register as completed: complete all of your safe school trainings and email all of the certificates in one email to [email protected] letting us know that they didn’t complete. We will credit your courses on our end.
We understand the inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience as we work to resolve the issue. If you encounter any problems, please contact [email protected] for further assistance. Thank you for your attention to this matter and for your continued commitment to completing your required training on time. (October 31)
From Sean Reinhart: Please see this link to view the Student Services Professional Learning Schedule 24-25. This is the PD calendar for all learning specialists, school psychologists, speech pathologists, school counselors, and Student Success staff. (Side note from Tammy: This aligns with our master SIW calendar, being the days marked with an asterisk and also includes, your co-curricular teachers as well).
For your parent newsletter:
Cellphones – A Guide for Parents and Caregivers
By age 11, about half of children in the U.S. own a smartphone. These devices become a constant companion in the lives of preteens and teens – a source of connection, creativity, and, yes, distraction and potential risk.
See this parent and caregiver guide from Common Sense Media with tips to help preteens and teens use their phones safely and responsibly.
The guide also includes tips for determining when your kid is ready for a cellphone.
Teléfonos celulares – Una guía para padres y cuidadores
A los 11 años, aproximadamente la mitad de los niños en Estados Unidos poseen un teléfono inteligente. Estos dispositivos se convierten en un compañero constante en la vida de los preadolescentes y adolescentes: una fuente de conexión, creatividad y, sí, distracción y riesgo potencial.
Consulte esta guía para padres y cuidadores de Common Sense Media (Medios de sentido común) con consejos para ayudar a los preadolescentes y adolescentes a utilizar sus teléfonos de forma segura y responsable.
La guía también incluye consejos para determinar cuándo su hijo está listo para usar un teléfono celular.
Action Items
Calendar the EL training (10/30) and Executive Director Forum (9/23)
Help Transportation out (no kids before 2:15 and identify K-kiddos)
Include cell phone tips in next parent newsletter
Important Dates
September 15: Payroll Cutoff—timesheets and approvals for this last period (August 13-Sept 15) are due today!
September 15: Cutoff date for enrollment for benefits!
September 15: Black Girls in Suburbia and follow up panel at the Tower Theater, 1:00-3:00
September 24: Horizontal Meeting at High Lakes Elementary, 3:00-5:00 (High Lakes and Amity host)
October 15: Horizontal Meeting at La Pine Elementary, 3:00-5:00 (La Pine and Juniper host) Please allow extra time for travel, depending on where you are located it could take 45 min to get there.
October 30: Administrator EL training–all day, exact time and location TBD
October 31: Safe School Trainings need to be done by today
As I make my way around to see you all, it is so encouraging to hear the stories of what a great start this week has been. You and your staffs are a huge reason why! Creating welcoming and inclusive spaces for everyone, clearly communicating expectations and information, and sharing the joy of learning with the students and families contribute to the success. Thank you for a job well done!!
From Tammy
Reminder: As you are planning out your events for the year, please remember, for the 2 evening events that you are requiring staff to attend (Open House does not count if you adjusted your hours that day to include OH in the work day), please remember that you need to notify them at least 60 days in advance. Without the notification, the event becomes optional. So plan them now if you haven’t already and communicate it out to your staff. It can sneak up on you if you don’t!
Fall Conferences: There have been some questions about fall conferences and the conference/work schedule. Below is the work/conference days if you have not already shared those dates out with staff. Per the contract, this does not include the full work day prior to conferencing, however BEA was part of designing this calendar and knows we may need a Memorandum of Understanding for fall conferences.
SIW the week prior to conferences is teacher prep time
Tuesday, Oct 29. Kids attend school. Conferences 3:15-7:15
Wednesday, Oct 30, Teacher work day 7:15-3:15, Conferences 3:15-7:15
Thursday, Oct 31, Conferences 7:15-3:15–everyone home in time for trick-or-treating!
Rearranging things: Just a heads up, that I am moving the “Action Items” section to after the information from our teams. It seems that I can put more there to simplify things for you if I call out actions in the team notes, but you need those for context first. Please let me know if this does not work for you. Ultimately, it is what is easiest for you!
From Scott and Kayla in Safety : AQI:Please review our district’s Air Quality Index (AQI) protocols and decision-making resources on the Safety site of our staff portal. We have added an AQI FAQ document that you can review and share with your staff regarding air quality and our protocols.
As a reminder, it should be the school administrator(s) making the decision on whether students should be participating in recess, PE, and outdoor activities during the school day, based off this guidance, and not individual staff members. Please reach out to Scott or Kayla if you have any questions, or need support in your air quality decision making process.
SROs. We are excited to have our School Resource Officers and Deputies back working back in your schools with you this week. Please review the district’s SRO/SRD point of contact information and phone roster located in the Safety Resource share drive and reach out to us with any questions regarding the SRO program.
From Andrea Wilson, HR Director, Benefits and Risk Management:
New Incident Report Form now available in the Staff Portal. As a follow up to the investigations trainings in August, the revised Incident Report Form is now available in the Staff Portal. The form now has a second page for the post-incident/accident investigation. BLS Incident Report Form – staff 9.2024.pdf
As a reminder, a site administrator or supervisor must complete a post-incident/accident investigation after every incident that results in employee injury. The investigation must be completed within 5-10 business days following the injury. Please reach out to Andrea Wilson if you have any questions, need assistance with an investigation, or have form feedback. Thank you again for your partnership and help as we navigate this new process!
From Jessica Houser, BO Operations Manager, Accounts Payable and Payroll
We know this is a busy and exciting time with many staffing changes happening across your sites. Please be aware that the cutoff for processing Personnel Actions (PAs) to ensure accurate payment and proper system setup for employees is Tuesday, September 10th. Any PA actions for September should be initiated in UKG by Monday, September 9th, using the appropriate HR action under the ‘team’ tab.
After this date, payroll processing begins, and any delays in submitting PA actions may affect employee pay or cause system issues. We appreciate your continued support when employees have questions, such as “Why hasn’t my location been updated in UKG yet?” Once a request leaves your hands, please understand that it can take some time for the system to reflect the changes. Your patience during this process is greatly appreciated.
Reminders:
Classified Staff: PA actions should be completed for location changes (Nutrition, Custodial, and Transportation only), budget code changes, and FTE adjustments.
Certified Staff: PA actions should be completed for budget code changes, FTE adjustments, and position changes within your school.
For questions, please reach out to:
Classified Specialists: Cara Gienger and Kelly Marty at [email protected]
Licensed Specialists: Trish Uhart and Candy Gelatt at [email protected]
Payroll Specialists: Jenny Ostrom, Kate Pardo, Lisa Brinlee, and Jenny Helvie at [email protected]
Thank you and we hope it’s been an incredible week with students!
From Eric Powell, Ted Helton, and Jason Westmoreland, re: Disciplinary Action in Synergy
We have identified an unexpected change to typical discipline data entry which has occurred because there is no mechanism to separate those piloting Teacher Referrals from those who are not when it comes to “Accepting” (or “Denying”) discipline incidents.
Previously, there was no concept of an “Incident Approval Queue”, you simply entered a discipline incident using either Student Incident or the Incidents screen in Synergy and the data was immediately ‘live’ in the system.
However, this year some schools are piloting Teacher Referrals, which introduces the concept of (and a Synergy screen called) “Incident Approval Queue”, allowing administrators to determine what discipline data should be accepted (or declined) from entering the system.
The side effect of adding this has been that ALL schools are affected by the change and will need to use the approval queue to finalize data entry by accepting ALL incidents regardless of how they are generated. This is required for the data to be state/federal reported, as well as being displayed in ParentVUE.
What you need to do: As a principal or VP/Dean, using the Synergy quick launch, type “Incident Approval Queue” and wait for the search to complete, then click on the resulting link to enter the Incident Approval Queue screen.
Once you have entered the screen, you can review any incident in question. You can click the Student ID to review the Student Incident screen, and the ID (Incident ID) to go directly to the incident in question if you want to review beyond the description displayed in the grid.
NOTE: For those participating in the Teacher Referral pilot, you may want to edit the Incident description to include your initials at the end of the description if you are working on an incident to indicate to the rest of your team you are handling that incident. Therefore, any incidents entered by a teacher via the Teacher Referral process without a set of initials has NOT yet been reviewed by anyone. This may be a quick way to identify who is working on what until we can get a better solution in place for you to manage who is handling which incidents / students.
To accept the incident, look to the far-right Action button, and select “Accept” if the incident has had all the data entry done for the incident and is ready for parents to view, etc.
NOTE: Most users will only have Accept / Deny – don’t worry about the other options if you don’t have them.
This will remove the incident from the Queue and make if available to view in ParentVUE and to be included in State/Federal reporting. THIS IS REQUIRED FOR ALL INCIDENTS.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Eric, Jason, or Ted by email. l
Walt Norris, Director of Custodial and Sustainability, re: Sustainability. Moving into the new school year the sustainability position is changing. Jackie Mueller-Wilson has taken a job with Deschutes County Solid Waste as a Community Outreach Coordinator. She will have some connection with the schools because of her position, mainly for support of the Green Team.
The sustainability position has been refined, going forward we will be concentrating on three main objectives:
Waste reduction across the district.
A lunch waste/composting/recycling system for elementary schools
A recycling program for secondary schools
The main focus this year is put our efforts into what we do as a district for sustainability. If we are thriving in the way we are sustainable, it will support our students thriving as learners too. The sustainability position will also support the Green Team initiative and also the SEM (Strategic Energy Management) program. Please continue with the Green Leadership Coalition through your schools and once the position is hired, we will work on the best way to support the Coalition. Best guess will be October to see the position filled.
Please reach out with any questions, I will do my best to answer or find someone that can. Thanks!
From Jennifer Hauth in Social Emotional and Mental Well Being:
Student Success: We have a new coaching model this year and many of the coaching assignments have changed as we onboard 10 new SSCs. Going forward, schools with the Student Success Intervention will have a Student Success team that will have two coaches – one team member will have a mental health/clinical/care coordination focus (Darlene and Megan) and one will have a system, SPED, PBSP/Data focus (Jen and Amanda) but they will work very closely together and will take the lead based on the situation or students need. We will be moving forward with building out a Medicaid billing model for our clinicians over this school year to launch for next school year. This information has not been shared with SSCs yet but more information to come as we learn more about what is possible in Oregon with Medicaid and schools. This became a possible opportunity for us going forward as of September 1st. The team has already been working closely with teams onboarding new SSCs so please reach out to your coaches if you have any questions. More to come as we navigate this new transition….
Wayfinder: We continue to have integration issues with Clever and Wayfinder for some staff. If you have a staff member that does not have the correct access or correct school listed, please use the instructional tool process to request what is needed. All elementary and middle schools that ordered workbooks should be receiving them this week if they have not already.
Waypoints, the intial summative assessment for students will be live in Wayfinder from September 15th through October 18th and the final summative assessment for students will be open May 12th through June 13th for students. Summative Waypoints allow educators to measure student growth of Wayfinder’s six Core Skills across the school year. By administering this optional summative Waypoints assessments, educators can understand areas of strength and growth for individual students and the class to make informed, data-driven decisions about SEL instruction. Here is the info on Waypoints, including the new Waypoints Implementation Guides to help teachers set up the reason we are assessing students as well as instructions.
From Scott McDonald, IT Director, re: device management tools
There are two applications available to assist with classroom device management, Apple Classroom and JAMF Teacher.
Apple Classroom. Apple Classroom is familiar to Bend-La Pine teachers, as it has been available for some time. The guide linked here provides all the information you need to get started with Apple Classroom. Common uses include:
Monitoring all student devices at once, displayed on a single screen
Locking iPads to a blank screen while giving instructions
Locking an entire class or individual students into a specific app
Managing small (ad hoc) groups of student devices
Apple Classroom is ideal for elementary classrooms or any classroom that doesn’t frequently require internet access.
JAMF Teacher. JAMF Teacher is a newer application for Bend-La Pine teachers and offers more restrictive controls than Apple Classroom. With JAMF Teacher, you can create a pre-determined digital lesson that allows access to specific websites and applications while blocking all others.
Use the instructions linked here to create your first JAMF Teacher lesson plan. JAMF Teacher is particularly well-suited for secondary classrooms that use online curricula.
For best results, we encourage both applications to be accessed from your iPad, rather than your computer.
From Sean Reinhart, Student Services
As a reminder, each inclusion EA in your building is issued a device (iPad or laptop) and needs to have read only access to Synergy SE, so they can review student IEPs. Please check with your inclusion EAs and have them confirm that their Synergy SE access is working. If not, please submit a help desk ticket to ensure they have access. Thank you!
Special Education Staffing Update: Each year, learning specialists provide our administrative team needs assessment, which help us staff your buildings. We believe we have a good staffing plan given the available resources. At this point, we have used all our staffing allocation to hire learning specialists, inclusion EAs, and other specialists. This includes already using 50% of the discretionary budget to hire inclusion EAs for the year. Before we look at any other staffing, we will need to wait until after we can verify all student enrollments, which should be within the first 5-10 days of school. After that, we will create a plan to support the sites with unexpected needs. Please remember that you can utilize your 70 hours (the “high needs” line item in your school budget) worth of funds to get a substitute. If you do end up using this option, it would be important to communicate with our team.
From Josh Marks, Student Services, re: 504 Coordinators
Welcome back to a new school year! I hope you all had a restful summer and are ready for another successful year ahead. I’m pleased to inform you that we have updated all of our 504 forms to better support our students’ needs. In addition, we will be introducing a new process for annual 504s that I believe will be a significant time saver for you.
To ensure everyone is familiar with these updates, we will be holding a mandatory training session. You can choose from one of three times on September 11, 2024: 8:15 AM, 10:30 AM, or 2:00 PM in the Board Room at the Education Center. NO SIGN UP NECESSARY.
Thank you for your continued dedication to our students. I look forward to seeing you at the training and to another year of great work together.
Action Items
Choose a mandatory 504 training and put it on your calendar
Make sure all inclusion EAs have access to Synergy and IEPs on their district issued device
Share Apple Classroom and JAMF with teachers
Meet with a team (ICCLs, teachers, etc.) to determine if you are using Waypoints this year in Wayfinder
Refresh yourself with AQI limits for inside/outside play–smoke has started to roll back in!
Make sure your office managers have initiated any outstanding PAs in UKG by 9/9
Share conference/work dates and times with staff if you have not done so already
Notify staff of evening events at least 60 days out
Important Dates
September 6: In bed by 7, thoroughly exhausted!
September 15: Payroll Cutoff—timesheets and approvals for this last period (August 13-Sept 15) are due today!
September 15: Cutoff date for enrollment for benefits!
September 24: Horizontal Meeting at High Lakes Elementary, 3:00-5:00 (High Lakes and Amity host)
And finally… if interested, don’t delay, registration closes 9/12!
What an amazing welcome back celebration on Tuesday! So fun to see the variety of ways your schools chose to shine during your 20 seconds of fame and what an incredible team we have. I laughed so much—I’m sure it was with you and not at you! It’s going to be a great year!
From Tammy
Staffing: We are now where we are waiting to see who shows up the first two weeks to determine if there are areas that are dire and need to be problem solved. Some of you have classes that are at the ratio or slightly over and we are aware of that. I know it is hard to be in that place and appreciate your positivity with your staff who may need that optimistic lens right now.
Community Connections: We have had several community organizations reach out with field trip ideas, music connection opportunities, and more. Here are links if you want to learn more. As always, follow our visitor policy for having guests come by our school to visit the classrooms.
Sunriver Music: They have funds to sponsor “Mindful Music Moments” for 6 more schools.
Veterans of Foreign War Auxilliary: They are available for interactive patriotic conversations with students about the flag and Patriot Day (Sept 11).
Certified Evaluation Process: Yesterday you received an email from Lisa Birk and Sarah Barclay outlining the expectations this year for certified evaluations. See the plan here.
I want to point out a couple of changes that tighten up our processes that are critical to employee support. First, is a very important timeline with probationary teachers and formal evaluations. The first formal evaluations need to be fully completed by the end of November (before Thanksgiving break), with the second rounds being fully completed by the end of January. This timeline is important in that we have to make recommendations to renew or not renew contracts by mid February.
The second is that some of the domains and standards that are being evaluated are different ones this year. That said, if an administrator has a documented existing concern about a certified staff member’s performance in ANY standard or domain on the evaluation system, or if a concern surfaces during this year, the administrator may include the applicable standard/domain in the evaluation of the certified staff member. The staff member should be formally notified of this focus on additional standards/domain as soon as the concerns appear. If at any time, you have a concern about an employee’s performance or professionalism, please make sure you loop me in on the concern.
Julie and I will be creating a SLGG document soon to share with you that contains plug and play SLGGs. We heard loud and clear how helpful this will be. Stay tuned!
First Week: It is my goal to get around to every school next week on either Wed, Thur or Fri. I will not expect to sit down and have a conversation with you, but rather just have a quick face-to-face to let you know how much I appreciate you!
Action Items
Update staffing plans every day please (for one more week).
Please read this information on having a successful partnership with Kids Inc.
From Scott and Kayla in Safety : Based on feedback our team has received, we are excited to provide opportunities for safety related professional development in the new school year. We are working on a survey that we will send out in a couple of weeks that we would like your feedback on the things you as administrators need to support the safety programs in your schools.
We will be asking you to identify one administrator on your team that will be the “go to” person for safety in your school. We will then be selecting 4 days that work for those identified individuals to meet with us, your campus monitors, and the SROs to work together on those identified training areas.
More to follow in a couple of weeks, but we wanted to get this on your radar so that when we send the survey out, it doesn’t blindside you to the request to select that individual. Please take time to think about areas of training you’re interested in receiving (i.e. reunification process, incident command for emergencies, standardizing campus monitor roles and responsibilities, etc.)- the more information we get from you, the better we can serve your needs!
Thank you for all you continue to do to keep our schools safe, and we look forward to working with you as the school year begins.
From Eric Powell, Ted Helton, and Jason Westmoreland, your Code of Conduct and Synergy Team!
The Office Discipline Referral (ODR) form has been redesigned to simplify the form and align with the new reporting system. Typically, this form is used by staff who do the discipline data entry for administrators (an administrator may fill out this form and then give it to a staff member to put into Synergy).
Here is a link to the Live Google Doc we’ll use moving forward for this document (BLS ODR: 24-25). Please get rid of all your old ones you may have laying around. It will also be linked via the Student Management Resource Guide under the Investigations document (within that tab): Investigations (Student Management Resource Guide).
From Robbie and Tracy in Instructional Technology: MagicSchool AI is here!
Exciting news! This fall, BLS is providing full featured MagicSchool AI accounts to all staff and students. Please spread the word! MagicSchool is an AI platform designed for educators, with a large suite of tools that help with building lesson plans, writing IEPs, differentiation, ideating more engaging lessons, communicating with families, and more! MagicStudent, the student facing side of the platform, accompanies teacher accounts. BLS is currently piloting MagicSchool but funds have been earmarked to purchase for any staff who would like to continue with their full featured ‘Enterprise’ account after October, which offers much more than the free version. Getting setup is simple usingMagicSchool login instructions. Please contact Robbie Faith and Tracy Howk for AI support, staff training, and anything else related to instructional technology.
From Julie Richards (formerly Walker) in Curriculum, Instruction, and Systems: Please communicate with your staff that the Dreambox Launchpad (placement screener) is open, and students will need to take this assessment the first time they are on Dreambox. We are asking that 1st-5th grade classrooms complete the Launchpad assessment by September 30th and K classrooms complete the assessment by December 2nd. This information will also be communicated in the TLC Blog.
From Paul Dean: ODE Facility Site Visits This is an important FYI that requires no action by building leaders.
ODE has signed a contract with Bureau Veritas (BV) to assess all school facilities. For partnering with them we (Bend La Pine Schools) will receive a comprehensive report detailing photos of system and component level deferred maintenance, assessor recommendations, cost to repair/replace system or component, cost to replace entire buildings, facility condition index, total gross square footage, observed Remaining Useful Life (RUL), ADA assessment findings and life safety deficiencies.
Please click on this Schedule of Visits beginning September 9th and continuing through November 1st to see when people will be visiting your school. Please note that BLS was assigned this schedule and was not offered input as to its timing. BV contractors will work with the BLS Maintenance and Custodial Departments to be on site visually inspecting facilities. School administrators are not required to attend the walk-through.
The information gathered by BV/ODE will be integral to Bend-LaPine Schools next Site/Facilities process in determining your schools’ facility’s needs.
From Jennifer Hauth in Social Emotional and Mental Well Being:
Wayfinder: Thank you to all the admin that came to our training on Monday. Here is a flyer that highlights all that is new since last year.
School Counselors: Here are the agenda and slides from their full day training on August 28th. Jess also created this awesome resource sheet for all things school counseling to help them easily access program updates/reminders as they begin the school year.
Student Success: Here are the agenda and slides from their full day training on August 28th. The coaches will be focusing their support on our 8 new Student Success Coordinator/Clinicians in the next week.
From Rachel Mavis in IT re: start of the year attendance procedures in Synergy
Hello! I am working with the school office staff to track student attendance during the first week of school and this is what the plan will be. Just wanted to make sure you were all in the know.
By Monday, 9/9/2024, if a student has not shown up to school, the student will be No Showed, unless a parent called in to excuse the student.
For excused absences, students will remain enrolled up to the 11th day of absence, then they will be No Showed.
For all students who miss the first days of school, then show up, office staff will be required to change enrollment and class start dates to reflect the date the student arrived. OAR581-023-0006
From Kinsey – Policy, Advocacy, and Equity:
Bias Incident Student Lessons: Early this fall, please reserve time at a staff meeting, PLC, or SIW for your staff to review the Bias Incident student lessons and prepare to teach them. In response to ongoing feedback and engagement with staff and students, Equity Coaches are refining prior years’ lessons. We’ll push out the 24-25 lessons to you within two weeks. I’d suggest aiming to have those completed across your building by October 25 latest. More to come—for now, just a note so you can plug this into your staff collaboration calendar. Thanks~
Equity Lens and Stance: Many of you have reached out to get copies of our district Equity Stance (the brochure you received at our admin launch) and the Equity Lens sticker. I’m having more printed so you can distribute, but in the meantime please remember: these materials are always available to you on the Portal under the Equity Tab (along with other resources like the current CAFE Program members list, etc). You’ll see the electronic version of the Equity Stance there, and at the end of that document is a link to the triangle Equity Lens tool that you can print for staff. Let me know if you can’t find something!
Important Dates
September 4: First day of school!
September 6: In bed by 7, thoroughly exhausted!
September 15: Payroll Cutoff—timesheets and approvals for this last period (August 13-Sept 15) are due today!
September 24: Horizontal Meeting at High Lakes Elementary, 3:00-5:00 (High Lakes and Amity host)
And finally…
I know after several displays of the worm this week, you were all wishing you knew how to do “the worm” as well. Here ya go!
Stress relief from laughter is no joke, so here are a few good jokes to keep in your back pocket when you meet someone who could use a laugh! (Or you want to crack yourself up!)
From Tammy
Staffing: Still watching!
Slides from today: My deck, Robbie’s deck and Jennifer’s decks are all uploaded in the slide link above.
Take care of yourself this weekend! I know how hectic it can be this time of year and we often show up with a half full cup, so make sure you do something this weekend to fill ‘er up! I appreciate you all!
Action Items
Update staffing plans every day please (for one more week).
From Garra Schluter in Nutrition: Did you know that your school could “Adopt a Cow”? It’s free through the School Nutrition Association! Check it out--they are so cute!
From Jessica Houser in the Business Office/Payroll: Here is a link to the payroll calendar we talked about at today’s meeting. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or need support!
From Scott and Kayla in Safety : The District Safety Team has put together a “need to know” safety refresher presentation for you to share with your staff. It includes all key expectations for staff accessing the building, in their classrooms, etc. We hopes this helps support communication with safety expectations for all!
From Julie Richards (formerly Walker) in Curriculum, Instruction, and Systems: Forefront’s overview page for Leaders has changed. It has some great new features that Kerry Morton, our Math Coach knows you will really appreciate! Here is a link to a 30 minute webinar that you can watch at your convenience.
NEW! We have made some adjustments to the protocol for 5th grade students wanting to take 6th grade math online. Please read this updated protocol. We will discuss in a little more detail at our next horizontal. Also, know that this will be sent out to 5th grade teachers next week.
From Paul Dean: Here is a link to the latest Operations Blog if you want to know what we are up to in operations.
From Jennifer Hauth in Social Emotional and Mental Well Being: Please check out this great back to school resource for families from Care Solace. Sharing this in your next newsletter or a quick email is a great way to build that family and school connection by providing families with some resources to support a smooth transition to school!
Also, the Culture of Care with the HDESD has some amazing trainings to support staff and school culture throughout the year. Here is a flier of what is available.
From Kinsey in Policy, Advocacy, and Equity: Families sometimes still need a free and reduced application to qualify for things other than free meals at school (AP exam waivers, summer camp scholarships, waivers for sports, etc). With the transition to CEP (all get free lunch) we no longer have that process for families. We are coming up with an alternative way to support families with the information they still need. Take a look at this list and add anything to it that you know they need free and reduced information for to apply. Thank you
From Ryan Kelling in HR: We are excited to announce the creation of two new extra duty positions, a new ICCL position within our elementary and middle school buildings, specifically focused on Talent and Gifted (TAG) efforts and a Green Team Advisor for all sites.
Please request to post both jobs in UKG.
The ICCL (TAG) role will be integral in enhancing our support for TAG students and ensuring that our practices are in line with our district’s high standards.
The responsibilities of this new position will mirror the existing ICCL efforts, but with a targeted emphasis on TAG professional development and systems. This means that the individual in this role will be dedicated to fostering growth and improvement in our approach to identifying and servicing TAG students.
Key responsibilities include:
Attending monthly meetings with district TAG leadership to strengthen existing systems and stay informed on best practices.
Gaining deeper insights into identifying and servicing TAG students.
Developing strategies for differentiation in the classroom to better cater to the needs of gifted learners.
Additionally, the person in this role will serve as a crucial conduit for TAG processes and services, ensuring that all staff within our building are well-informed and equipped to support TAG students effectively.
We believe this new position will significantly enhance our ability to provide exceptional educational experiences for all students by adding enrichment to our classrooms.
Reach out to Stephen DuVal for more information about the specifics of the role.
24/25 Green Team Advisor – New position
The Green Team Advisor has been added to the extra duty schedule. Each high school and middle school will find this added to their list of year round extra duty positions on the Extra Duty Google Doc. Each elementary school will be added to the Extra Duty Google Doc as they complete their hire.
The Green Team Advisor will serve at each school to educate and engage the school community with the knowledge and influence to be leaders in a sustainable society, use resources wisely and support the district’s efforts to make the school’s operations and activities more environmentally sustainable. Additionally, this position will support compost efforts at schools where programs are in place.
This new position will be paid on level F of the extra duty salary schedule.
There will be 1 FTE at each school site.
This new position should be posted and hired through UKG.
This position will be for one year only and if funds allow can be hired again the following year.
If you currently have someone who has filled this role in the past, they will need to apply for the position for this year.
Important Dates
August 26: New Teacher training–Update: only one admin rep needs to attend to welcome your new staff (but of course you both can come!). This will be at Pacific Crest Middle School, breakfast service begins at 7:00, and the program begins at 8:00 with welcome remarks from Dr. Cook.
August 26: Check in online between 1:30-2:00 for testing your computer set up for Tuesday’s Kick-Off
August 26: optional Wayfinder admin training on at PCMS at 2 pm in the Cornice room
August 27: District Welcome Back! An interactive whole school event. 8:30-10:00
September 4: First day of school!
September 6: In bed by 7, thoroughly exhausted!
September 15: Payroll Cutoff—timesheets and approvals for this last period (August 13-Sept 15) are due today!
September 24: Horizontal Meeting at High Lakes Elementary, 3:00-5:00 (High Lakes and Amity host)
Sorry, did anyone else in school administration laugh out loud when reading that quote?? I find myself reading it slow and gentle as I am sure it is intended, but inside I am running at full tilt wondering where all the time has gone and can we just have one more week before staff come back! It is also a great reminder to stop, take pause, breathe, and appreciate all that August has to offer. Step outside for fresh air, a quick 15 minute walk during the work day can be life giving. Take time to give yourself that gift–you just might find that you can thrive!
From Tammy
Staffing: I am starting to get a sense of where our enrollment is high and where it isn’t coming in as planned. I will let you know by the end of tomorrow (Friday, 8/16) if you are on deck to potentially lose an FTE/staff member. We are in that critical place where we have to try to solve problems by shifting FTE around. I know that is so hard. Next week I will connect with schools who may be on deck to receive a teacher from any moves if we can do that!
Your Front Office: Currently, the Ed Center is receiving an over abundance of calls from families stating “I tried calling the schools, but no one is answering their phones.” The ask is that you work with your office staff to make sure that the phones are covered and messages are answered. We would like to help, but so many of the calls are school specific and we can’t help. Thanks so much for helping with this.
ACRs. Heads up! We will look one more time at ACR (Area Change Request)s approvals on 9/26. Know that we will not fill you to the top of your range, as we know we need to leave a cushion for neighborhood schools, but if you have room to spare in a grade, you may be receiving an ACR.
Give input into Professional Learning: Please take a moment to fill out this quick survey regarding some on-going professional learning opportunities we want to put on for all admin throughout this year. Your input with Lisa and I at the end of last year mattered! We heard you loud and clear about how good it would be to meet around very specific topics like state assessment, TAG, 504s, student behavior management, reading, and more! Don’t delay–and let’s get competitive–I know elementary can do the highest survey percentage!
Agenda for 8/22 Horizontal
8:00-8:15 Connection and Agreements
8:15-8:30—Nick Shein–UKG Timesheets
8:30-9:00—Robbie Faith–Seesaw and Instructional Tech
9:00-10:00–Kinsey–New updated Bias work and investigations pertaining to this
10:00-10:10–Break
10:10-11:10–Jennifer and Jess—School Counseling and Student Success Coaching
11:10-11:30 Closing and Eval
Action Items
Update staffing plans at least every other day
Make sure you have sent all your instructional EAs this flier for their training on the 29/30. Questions? See the email Lindsley Gehrig sent you on 8/2. Also, Inclusion EAs will also have trainings those days as well. See last week’s blog for details from Colleen.
Start thinking about what cheer/song/interpretive dance/poem/etc. your staff will do at the welcome back celebration to show how your school is thriving/plans to thrive for this school year. No more than 20 seconds please.
Planning for your inservice week–grab your ICCLs to plan if you haven’t already!
Remind teachers and office managers if curriculum materials are needed, please order using this link. In addition, please reach out to Julie, Lindsley or your instructional coach if you have any questions or need support.
From Sean Reinhart in Student Services:
Thank you to those of you who have become CPI trainers to assist with the implementation of SB 283! We appreciate you! We want to ensure we help kick you all off on the right foot to feel successful in these trainings, so we have prepared some tools, tips, and tricks to get you started!
Please join us on Friday, August 23rd, from 9-12 in the Education Center Board Room 314 to connect and plan for trainings. Here is the agenda of the meeting:
Review the grant training requirements
Go over prepared slide decks for your staff trainings
Review Visuals
Review Information on what to send out prior to trainings
Create a plan how you can complete these trainings – with a buddy!
Answer questions
From Jennifer Hauth in Social Emotional and Mental Well Being: Please check out this great back to school resource for families from Care Solace. Sharing this in your next newsletter or a quick email is a great way to build that family and school connection by providing families with some resources to support a smooth transition to school!
Also, the Culture of Care with the HDESD has some amazing trainings to support staff and school culture throughout the year. Here is a flier of what is available.
From Kinsey in Policy, Advocacy, and Equity:
Upcoming dates to note: Rosh Hashanah is coming up (evening of Wed Oct 2 to evening of Fri Oct 4—learn more here). Please check your school calendar and do not schedule Curriculum Night or other special student/family events during those evenings.
More dates to come, just wanted to get you this one now since it’s coming up fast. Thank you for your commitment to the dignity and belonging of all our families!
2024 Elections: I would encourage you to plug this topic into an SIW or staff meeting early in the fall: Here is our policy around staff engaging in political activities. Teachers should know they may not “promote or oppose the nomination or election of a candidate,” and if they engage in discussion on an election topic they must “consider all candidates for a particular office or any side of a particular political or civil issue.”
Conversations about the election will come up this fall, whether through planned lessons or unplanned student dialogue. Teachers should prepare for either situation. Here are 10 steps for teachers to prepare, navigate, and respond to sensitive discourse.
Additionally, here and here are two great resources for teaching about the election and online news sources. Our district Equity Coaches can support teachers with these conversations—just reach out.
From Eric Powell in Student Services. This is a reminder about the SIRC & STAS refresher that we will now be hosting each year in partnership with the High Desert ESD. Only the Administrator lead for your school site needs to attend this meeting each year, so please forward this invite to a different administrator at your school if you are not the threat assessment (SIRC and STAS) lead for your site.
This 2-hour training will serve as our annual touchpoint for threat assessment. For those who have not attended the full SIRC and/or STAS training, you would also need to attend that training with Misty or Lillah at some point as well (That is the link that was in the blog 2 weeks ago).
Important Dates
August 19: Training: Managing Performance–Investigations, 12:30-4:30 (At Juniper Elementary–UPDATED)
August 19-21: Tammy out at a Federal Programs Budget conference (text if you need me and if I can, I’ll step out and help)
August 22: Elementary Admin Meeting—8:00-11:30, Jewell Elementary–thanks Jesse!
August 26: New Teacher training–Update: only one admin rep needs to attend to welcome your new staff (but of course you both can come!). This will be at Pacific Crest Middle School, breakfast service begins at 7:00, and the program begins at 8:00 with welcome remarks from Dr. Cook.
August 26: optional Wayfinder admin training on at PCMS at 2 pm in the Cornice room
August 27: District Welcome Back! An interactive whole school event. 8:30-10:00
