{"id":1433,"date":"2025-02-27T23:37:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T23:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/tammy.doty\/?p=1433"},"modified":"2025-02-28T01:01:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T01:01:56","slug":"february-27-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/tammy.doty\/2025\/02\/27\/february-27-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"February 27, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Tammy and Karen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to March (in 2 days)! You will see above that the new Action for Happiness Calendar is out and we are focusing on Mindful March! What I love about the suggestions in this calendar is that they are simple strategies that when put into action can make a big difference in our mindset and overall happiness. At this time in the school calendar, we are all working on our plans for next school while keeping our schools vibrant places for learning through this school year. When I was a principal, it was in March that I often found myself putting aside my own needs and making the argument that I couldn’t slow down for even a minute. I could not have been more wrong! Mindfully slowing down and taking even a few minutes to rest between activities is the best thing we can do for ourselves! My challenge for you is to choose a chair somewhere in your workspace (not your desk chair) and go and sit in it for 5 minutes. Text or email me a photo of the chair so that I can send you some good wishes for peace and a surprise in the mail!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sign up for March Site Visits<\/strong>: It is time to sign up for our March Site Visits<\/a>! We will send an agenda at the beginning of next week and add them to your calendar invitations. Plan on spending some of the time talking about staffing and visiting a classroom or two! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Readings for Admin Meetings: <\/strong>In preparation of our next admin PD meeting, please be sure to complete the Leadership Intention activity from Chapter 1 of Thriving Leaders.  Here is the document<\/a> in case you want a digital copy. We will also be talking about Chapter 2, so please read that prior to attending on Wednesday!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kindergarten and the Contract: <\/strong>It’s that time of the year to start thinking about the 25-26 kindergarten season!  There are a couple of things in the contract regarding kindergarten in the springtime we want to make sure you are on top of.  First, 16.2.5.4. For kindergarten staff, no later than the first week of April, you need to convene your team to plan for transitioning students into kindergarten.  This means what are you going to do for your May information day\/evening as well as your plan for transitioning and building classes in the fall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, speaking of May information day\/evening, please go to this document here<\/a> and please let us know your May Kindergarten orientation date, time, and activity.\u00a0 This should be chosen now to be within the contracted 60 calendar days if you are doing it as one of your after contracted hours events you are requiring.\u00a0 You can also make it optional to your kindergarten team and pay them to attend.\u00a0 We also advertise it on our website and media outlets very soon and need the information for that.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common Language:  <\/strong>We had a conversation at cabinet regarding the use of the term “graduation” for anything other than seniors who “graduate” from high school.  We are going to align K-12 to reserve the terms “graduation”, “graduate”, etc. for graduating seniors only.  For other kinds of celebrations K-8, the terms “celebration” or “promotion” will be used to represent those types of transitions.  So, long story short, if you do any type of Kindergarten or 5th grade celebrations, please be sure to use other words to describe that celebration instead of graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ALL-STAFF MEETINGS MARCH 13 WITH DR. COOK<\/strong>: Please remind all your building staff of the virtual meetings with Dr. Cook on Thursday, March 13<\/strong>. These 30-minute virtual meetings<\/a> are open to all District employees, with two afternoon time slots to accommodate different work schedules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cook will provide updates on bills making their way through the state Legislature and how they could impact our work to build a budget for next school year. He also will touch on directives related to public education coming out of Washington, D.C. Dr. Cook will leave time to answer a few staff questions. PICK YOUR TIME!<\/p>\n\n\n\n