Quote to consider:
‘Students who are loved at home come to school to learn, and students who aren’t, come to school to be loved’. ~ Nicholas A Ferroni
To Dos:
ANNOUNCEMENT COMING: As I am sure you know by now Gov. Brown, just before Christmas, announced that Oregon public schools will continue to be held to Ready Schools Safe Learners Guidelines, but the timing of reopening schools to students will be moved from a state (meeting local metrics) decision to a local (school board/superintendent) one. I am being told that our district will be releasing an announcement in response to this adjustment and next steps for us, later on this week.
SPANISH INTERPRETER: Consider utilizing our Spanish interpreter system this Wednesday from 1:30-4:00pm to make connections with our Spanish speaking families to celebrate their students’ success during CDL in 2020 and encourage their continued engagement with school in the new year. Use the link on the sidebar of the blog to sign up by Tuesdays at 9:00am.
CONTENT TEAM MEETINGS IN 2021: Mark your calendars as we are returning to our every other week content meeting schedule (same day/time/WebEx room as 2020). This week we’ll meet with PE/health, science, and math. Next week we’ll meet with ELL, LA, and SS.
Bits and Bobs:
MIINI-OBSERVATIONS: Certified staff, please see this document. The SLGGs, observations, and evaluation process this year has been modified to better accommodate distance learning. I will connect soon with our Probationary staff to discuss scheduling the two formal observations.
COVID DOCUMENTS: Here are a couple of documents that may be nice to review as we inch closer to bringing students (in larger numbers) back into our buildings. Both of these relate to physical distancing requirements in schools. This one is a one-page FAQ document from Ready Schools, Safe Learners guidance. And this one pulls a few aspects of social distancing requirements from this same document and comes complete with a photo!
I believe you have all seen this – but it may have been a while, so I’m sharing it with you again as it may become more relevant as we draw nearer to the reopening of schools to our students. This chart was designed as a tool for navigating who decides (or who needs to be asked) Covid-related questions.
INCLEMENT WEATHER DURING CDL: Please read over this one-pager that gives more information re: weather closures during CDL.
MLK is a holiday (non contract). The district is not making any adjustments to the CDL schedule for holidays (we didn’t adjust for Veterans Day either). Students also do not have school on Friday the 5th (as that is a grading day) so the total days balance out in the end.
Two options folks could consider:
- Make Tuesday the 19th and Thursday the 4th an extra day with an activity that doesn’t interfere with your timeline. This would allow you to keep your current cadence.
- Make Tuesday the 19th the first day of the week and Monday the 25th the last. You would only have to be off in schedule for two weeks as you would “catch up on Thursday the 4th.
HIPAA/FERPA INFO (from Nurse Megan):
- Inform the family that staff cannot share private health information with others unless given signed permission from the family. If families want the information shared with other staff (ex: all their teachers), staff can assist by providing 2 recommendations:
- Provide contact information to the family for all the staff members that the family would like to notify. Encourage the family to contact those staff and provide any details they would like to share.
- Alternatively, if the family shares that they would like all teachers to be updated, the staff member can offer to send an email to the parent with all the teacher’s emails. The family can simply reply all to that email and share whatever they would like.
- If staff members are concerned about a student, please email the school nurse with the student’s ID number and basic details of the concern. This includes COVID-19 positive cases and exposures (especially if the student is attending or scheduled to begin attending any LIPI support classes).
- General emails with generic information can be sent to groups. (For example, if a teacher hears of a health concern, they may email other teachers that the student is dealing with a health concern at home and may not be able to attend all classes for the next week.)
LANGUAGE/ELL NEWSLETTER: Check it out January’s newsletter here.
Reminders:
CDL ATTENDANCE: Students should NOT be marked NPV if they only attend half the WebEx, don’t have their video on, etc.
Below are the attendance guidelines during CDL (these have not changed since their implementation in the fall).
– Participating in a video class
– Communication from the student to the teacher via chat, text message or email
– A phone call with the student
– Posting completed coursework to a learning management system or web-based platform or via email
– Turning in completed coursework on a given day
HEALTH REMINDER: If you are coming into the building, please remember to always maintain a minimum of six feet distance from others whenever possible and continue to wear a face covering. If you have any cold or flu like symptoms (even if just the “sniffles”), please do not come into the building. Please click here to read a letter for staff from the district nursing team. Please email our nurse, Megan Barrett, if you have specific questions.
High Desert Highlights:
