Diario Camino del Río

Week of April 30, 2018

Dear Staff,

I can feel spring in the air. The students are cheery and positive everywhere I look. I would like to show gratitude to our SLP support Susan Stewart.  Did you know that May is Speech and Language Support Month. As you may know Susan is very consistent, fun, and helpful to lots of our students.  Her work makes a huge difference for our kids.  I am always impressed with the students she graduates from SLP and the pride they show in making this accomplishment. Thank you Susan for your hard work and consistent smile and cheer.

 

Here are some items for the week:

• Field Trip Planning – It’s important to know what are the planned field trips by grade.  Set up a K-5 sequence of field trips. Equality of experience and a tradition for our school.  Our next staff meeting will be focused on this topic. 

• EEF Grants – Baile Folklorico, Strings program, Ethnic Studies Books for the library, Bilingual Family Garden Program are current grants being written.

• Summer School – Aline needs the applications to get to families and paperwork turned in.  Teachers need to utilize their relationship with family to help kids access this great opportunity.  Communicate with Aline about any updates. Please work hard to get our kids to Summer School. It helps our kids be successful.  The priority is for our K/1/2 students.

• Incident Parent Communication – Please make sure victim info is included on a sticky-note on the referral.  It is important so we make sure all parents of involved students are notified when there is an incident.  This includes level 3 and level 2 referrals.

• Field Trips – Communication will be improved on some of our field trips.  Field Trips will be included in the blog and on the school calendar.  We apologize if some staff were not aware of a school wide trip early enough.

• Second Standard School Schedule Draft– If you didn’t get a chance follow the links in Superintendent Balderas’ email, the district released a Second Standard School Schedule Draft. Highlights of this draft include Wednesday early release instead of Fridays, the school day being 10-minutes shorter, and River Road/ El Camino del Rio now has the later start time (8:30-3:00 MTHF and 8:30-1:45 Wednesdays). There is a link on the above website for feedback if you are so inclined.

• REPEAT: May 4th Math PD Day – Linked here is a May 4th PD Day Flyer with details about this Friday’s PD Day. For licensed staff, teachers grades 3-5 and Title/SPED teachers will meet 8:00-11:15 at Holt, and teachers grades K-2 will meet 12:00-3:15 at Holt. For classified staff, there will be an EA Extravaganza at the Ed Center. Details on that should be coming soon.

• Walk & Roll to School Day “Walking School Bus” – For the May 9th Walk & Roll to School Day, the Safe Routes to School Program Manager is organizing a “Walking School Bus” where regular ed buses will park at the Med RX Pharmacy in River Road. Volunteers will be stationed along River Road to Hilliard  during the walk. More details are going home in the May School Newsletter as well as a link to a Volunteer Sign-Up. Staff are welcome to help as well. Buses typically arrive between 8:00 and 8:05.

•Wednesday May 2 Staff Meeting Agenda: Theme is Planning Ahead-  We begin at 2:00 PM in the ELD Classroom. Please come on time. Lots to plan!

1. Field Trip Planning 
2. Calendar for 2018-2019
3. Schedule Feedback

• Care Team Resources– Here are a couple resources discussed at last week’s Student Care Team meeting. 

• Housing Authority (HACSA) is now called Homes for Good – On their new website, https://homesforgood.org/, at the bottom of the “Find a Home” tab you can find PDF flyersfor lower income housing rentals in Lane County. These complexes may or may not be managed by the Homes for Good but they do offer units that have reduced rent.

• Safe Families– Support for families in crisis get back on their feet. When a crisis strikes, many rely on relatives and friends, but for some families, this is not an option. For families out of options, you can call Safe Families and they will work to arrange care for your child with one of their certified Host Families. How it works:

• Parent(s) maintain full custody
• 100% Voluntary Placement and Hosting (Host Families are not paid)
• Children go home as soon as the parent(s) are ready
• Children ages 0-18 are eligible, including parenting teens
• Volunteer families are trained, and screened with background checks & home studies
• Stays can be as short as a couple days and as long as a year
• They are committed to reuniting parents and children as soon as possible

For more information or to get help, contact Angela Albin at (541) 349-2870 or AAlbin@safefamilies.net, or visit their website. https://eugene.safe-families.org/

• Licensed IEP/504 Time Logs– A reminder to teachers that you can request compensation for attendance at IEP and 504 meetings. Non-SSD staff use the linked 2017/2018 Non-SSD Licensed IEP/504 Time Log to request payment for up to six hours. SSD staff use the 2017/2018 SSD Licensed IEP Time Log. See the form for directions and how to submit. Forms are due to HR by 5:00 PM on June 08, 2018 and both forms can be found on the HR Forms website.

• REPEAT: Classified Self-Evaluation Forms DUE FRIDAY– All classified staff need to complete the Classified Employee Self-Assessment form (PDFor DOC) and give me a copy (email or hardcopy) by this Friday, May 4th. After I get a copy we will meet briefly sometime before the end of May, where I will go over the evaluation form I have to complete for each classified staff member. Let me know if you have any questions.

• REPEAT: Journeys & Being a Writer Materials Order (DUE May 18)– This Friday would be a good day to complete this if you team has not done so already. Grade level teams should meet to decide what Journeys and Being a Writer materials you want to order for next school year. See the linked Piktochart for details. Complete this Survey Link before Friday, May 18th.

• District Admin Updates– First, next year’s South Eugene High School principal will be Carey Killen, who is currently principal at Prairie Mountain in Bethel and was previously an assistant principal at Sheldon HS. She is replacing Andy Dey, who will be the new Director of Secondary, replacing BJ Blake who is retiring. Second, Tasha Katsuda, principal at Spencer Butte Middle School, has accepted a curriculum director position in Bethel, but will finish out the year. This leaves principal openings at Charlemagne and Spencer Butte. There is also an opening at Kennedy in the AP role.

 Our Schedule of Upcoming Events – 

OAKS Testing Continues through this week- Mostly in Math Instruction

April 30 (M)
Children’s Book Week
Children’s Book Day

Immersion Task Force, 3:30-5:00

May 1 (T)

PBIS Monthly Theme – Positive Attitude
Better Hearing & Speech Month 2018
4:00-5:00, Joel to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

May 2 (W)

8:10-8:35, En Lakech Reunion Comunitaria

9:15, Fire Drill
3:00-5:00, Joel to Report Card Sub-Committee Meeting (Conference Room)

6:00-7:00, El Día Reading and Literacy Night

May 3 (H)

ISTE Present for a photo shoot in certain classrooms

8:00-2:45, Data Team in Room 209 All Day- Title Groups Cancelled

3:00-3:45, GOTG- Student Support and IPBS Team

May 4 (F)
No School — Professional Development/Planning Day

No PLT

8:00-11:45- 1st Grade Position Interviews 
8:00-12:00, EA Extravaganza! (Time is Tentative)
8:00-11:15, SPED/Title/Grades 3-5 Teachers Math PD (Holt)
12:00-3:15, Grades K-2 Teachers Math PD (Holt)

May 7 (M)
Teacher Appreciation Week

May 8 (T)

Teacher Appreciation Day

8:15-11:15, Joel to Elem. Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

5:00-6:00, Site Council

6:00-7:15, Parent Group Meeting

May 9 (W)

8:10-8:35, En Lakech Reunion Comunitaria

Walk & Roll to School Day- Walking School Bus from Med RX Pharmacy at River Road

4:00-5:15, Joel to Report Card Committee Meeting

4:00-7:00, Family Preparedness Packet Training at Lane ESD

May 10 (H)

3:00-4:00, River Road Equity Meeting (David Barnes’s Room)

May 11 (F)

3:00-3:30, PLT

I am looking forward to the beautiful May weather.  It is looking pretty nice next Friday.

Best,

Joel

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Week of April 23, 2018

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Week of April 16, 2018

Greetings Shining Stars,

It’s Volunteer Appreciation Week, so be sure to give an extra thank-you to those amazing parents and volunteers you see working in our school on a regular basis!

Here are some items of note for this week:

• Job Expo Update– We offered a position to someone we know well, Jaime Jones!  Jaime will be doing our .45 ESC role and will also be working at Edgewood as a facilitating teacher. Congrats Jaime! This means we will have an opening in 1st grade.  The next Job Expo will provide an opportunity for hire but this position may also be filled by an outside candidate as it is a hard position to fill. I will be working with HR diligently to get it filled this week.

• 2018-2019 SPED Staffing Updates–  The official staffing was provided to us last week.  Katie is staying with us next year with a .05 reduction to be .75 FTE. Michelle Williams will be leaving us to another school, Awbrey Park Learning Center.  We will have a reduction to 4 hours with a new Special Ed EA. This is a sad decision for our staff since all of us know how much Michelle does for all of our students. Also, I would like to note that Katie and Michelle are really a dynamic team.  I have seen few Sped teams work so smoothly together. Michelle Williams, we will all miss you very much.

• FIESTA is this Friday- I hope you are all excited about Fiesta coming this Friday.  It will be a spectacular day. The PTO has much fun planned.

 

• 2018-2019 Calendar Approved– Kerry Delf informed admin and all staff of the  2018-2019 School Calendar, but a couple items worth noting are:
  • Conferences Nov. 8 & 9– There are shared district wide dates for Parent/Teacher Conferences on November 8th and 9th. I have not yet heard the parameters for these days, although the new teacher contract says that, “principals will collaborate with the school’s unit members before deciding when and how to conduct all-school parent conferences“ and that “all-school parent conferences after 4:00 p.m. will be compensated with an equal amount of workday hours off,” which sound like school will have flexibility to decide conferences times around these established dates. If we did it as we have had in the past, we could do evening conferences Wednesday, Nov. 7th, 4:00-8:00, all-day conference Thursday, Nov. 8th, 8:00-8:00, and a comp day on Friday, Nov. 9th (making a four-day Veterans Day weekend for most staff)
  • Semester Two Grading Day– The final grading day on next year’s calendar is AFTER the last student day. The plan is for downtown to print and mail report cards home after the grading day. However, teachers will still need to print a copy of report cards for when you complete student CUM files. The first semester report cards will go home with students as we have done in the past.

• 2018-2019 Master Schedule– I’m not planning to do much work on the master schedule until after the start/end times are settled (also the plan for the additional PE/Music times), but if you’re interested, linked here is a Draft Sample Master Schedule schools could use with the 6 hour 40 minute day schedule. See the linked district website for updates on the 4J Standard School Schedule. And on a related note, a second draft of start/end times for schools is being worked on and will be going out soon for feedback before the community forum Wednesday. There will be a team to plan next year’s schedule.    Here is the survey application if you want to be involved: Master Schedule Team Application
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• “Reunión Comunitaria” is repeated this Wednesday  – “Reunion Comunitaria” is the new name for our assemblies. TMany staff commented on the positivity created by last weeks assembly. We want to continue with that.  Classes will be organized into a circle instead of facing the front in rows.  This week, we ask that you create two rows per class so we can all fit in a circle together. In Lak’ech poem and a heartbeat clap will be recited with a few adjustments from Zelene and I. If there are teachers who want to help, contact me or Zelene to make for a heart filled experience in our community.

 

•  2018 ACE Awards—Nominate Now!– In case you missed the Ace Awards nominations email, they are now accepting nominations. If you’d like to nominate any of your colleagues in one of the five categories (teachers and licensed specialists, administrators and supervisors, classified staff, volunteers, and a special lifetime achievement award), follow this link to the Ace Awards Nomination Form. Nominations are due May 1st. Linked here is the ACE Award Nomination Criteriaand a link to the news release. Submit a Nomination by May 1, 2018.

 

• Classified Self-Evaluation Forms Due May 4th– As we approach the end of the year, all classified staff need to complete the Classified Employee Self-Assessment form (PDFor DOC) and give me a copy (email or hardcopy) by Friday, May 4th. After I get a copy we will meet briefly sometime before the end of May, where I will go over the evaluation form I have to complete for each classified staff member. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

• Foundations In Math – Summer 2018– 4J’s excellent Foundations in Mathematics course is again being offered this summer! A number of our teachers have attended this in the past and it’s gotten great reviews. The class typically fills quickly, so talk with your colleagues if you’d like to go as a team. A few of details:
  • It will be a 3 day course held from June 26-28.
  • Teachers will be paid extended contract for 2 of the 3 days.
  • Teachers can receive 1 U of O credit at a reduced rate.
  • See the Foundations in Mathematics flyer for details and click here to register.

 

• Title 1 Parent Survey– As an FYI, Title 1 schools sent out the annual Title 1 Parent Survey last week. It’s being done electronically and the due date for families to complete the survey is Monday, April 23. This is a fast turnaround for Howard, River Road, Chavez, McCornack, and Kelly because downtown wants to incorporate our results into their BEST grant application (the current BEST grant expires this school year).

• BEST & Strings Next Year– The district BEST Coordinator let me know that BEST is no longer partnering with Eugene-Springfield Youth Orchestras (ESYO)after this school year, which means that our String Academy program next year would have to be fee based. RR/ECDR has typically had a high participation rate of any school in 4J, but the increase in cost will likely price a number of families out of the program.

 

• REPEAT: EEF Grant Applications Due to Joel April 23rd – Grant proposals are due to do me by next Monday, April 23rd. Grant proposals do not need to be completely written out before the 23rd, but at least tell me the title and general idea before Site Council. May 15th is the deadline to submit the final grant applications to EEF. Take note that EEF prioritizes requests that support educational enrichment, equity and/or access programs, and that impact the largest number of students possible. EEF prioritizes grants that relate to the Arts, Literacy, and STEM. Grant requests may be requested in any amount up to $5000. Schools may submit up to 5 grant requests total. See the linked EEF website.

• Volunteer Appreciation Week & Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast (Staff Lounge),Wednesday 4/ 18 – Volunteer Appreciation Week is this week, so please take time to recognize any volunteers.  Volunteers can stop by anytime for breakfast foods, treats, and appreciation on Wednesday morning.  I would like to give a special thank you to the classes that are doing some of the decorations in the staff lounge in honor of our treasured volunteers.

 

• District Admin Updates– Chris Mitchell has been appointed Cal Young Middle School’s new principal for next year. Jericho Dunn, who started the year as Cal Young’s principal, resigned this spring and the assistant principal is filling the role for the remainder of the year. Chris has been principal at Roosevelt Middle School for the past six years. Chris’s replacement at Roosevelt Middle School will be Eric Anderson, the current principal at Charlemagne, who has previously been principal at North Eugene High School and also at Roosevelt form 2009-2012. Eric and I worked together during that time. Lastly, the Food Service Director for 4J Nutrition Services Kaylynn Olney’s last day was last Friday, in order to take a new job.  In the interim, the current Operations Manager will take over until Sodexo finds a replacement.

 

• Schedule of Upcoming Events– Here are the events of note for the next two weeks.

April 16 (M)
Volunteer Appreciation Week

SBAC Testing all the week in 3, 4, 5 grades.

8:30, Joel meeting with Esteban Camacho

9:00, Fire Drill

3:00-4:00, IEP Meeting 

4:00-5:30, Joel to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

April 17 (T)

8:30-9:00, Truancy Meeting

3:00-4:00, IEP Meeting 

4:00-4:30, Student Support Meeting

6:00-7:00- Joel in OABE Meeting

April 18 (W)

8:10-8:35, Reunion Communitaria

7:45-9:30,Volunteer Breakfast-  (Staff Lounge)

2:00-3:00, Staff Meeting

3:00-3:30, Student Support Meeting
5:30-6:30, 4J School Schedule Community Forum (Ed Center)

April 19 (H)

4:00-6:00, Joel to Job Expo (Ed Center)

April 20 (F)

No School- Professional Development Day- Racism Free Zone with Bahati Ansari

All staff required to attend including custodian and office staff. 8:00-2:30.

April 23 (M) 

3:00-4:00, IEP Meeting

2:00-2:30, Attendance Support Meeting

8:30-2:30, Joel to Report Card Revision Team Meeting (Ed Center)

April 24 (T)

8:15-11:15, Joel to Elem. Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

3:00-4:00, IEP Meeting

April 25 (W)

Administrative Professionals’ Day (formerly known as Secretaries’ Day)

2:00-3:00, Grade Level PLC Meeting

April 26 (H)

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day

3:00-4:00, IEP Meeting

April 27 (F)

Data Team Moved to Thursday, May 3.

3:00-3:30, PLT Meeting

LatinX Alliance

Have a fabulous week, everyone, and fingers crossed for a much drier week!

Joel

 

 

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Week of April 9, 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the Week of April 9th, 2018

Did you know this week is Library Appreciation Week? I would like to take a moment to recognize Pilar for her excellent communication skills, organization, and love for our library.  This year Pilar has done an impressive job organizing all the aspects of our new library space. It is really a beautiful space for learning and so much more.  It has become the hub of our school and the community.  Next to the classroom, we have more volunteers than any other part of the school! Thank you Pilar for making this such a beautiful and bright spot for our students.

• 4J School Schedule Updates & Community Forum– At a principals meeting last Friday, principals were asked to let staff know that the draft 2018-2019 schedule shared earlier is very much only a draft and is NOT going to be the schedule we end up using. District staff, in collaboration with EEA, are working on revisions that include looking at revising the dismissal times and also changing for some schools which ones are starting earlier and which ones are starting later. Gustavo said everything is on the table at this point. The district is also providing an additional opportunity for community input at a 4J School Schedule Community Forum on Wednesday, April 18 at 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM at the Ed Center. 

 

• Math PD Survey Closes Monday– This survey was sent to staff by downtown last week, but as a reminder, classified and licensed staff who attended last Monday’s Math PD should fill out the linked Math PD Google Survey. This is your chance to provide feedback on the PD and to give input on the May 4 Math PD. The survey will close Monday afternoon.

 

• EEF Grant Applications Due to Joel May 1– Our May Site Council will rank order grant proposals at via email  meeting, so grant ideas are due to me before that meeting. Grant proposals do not need to be completely written out before the 23rd, but at least tell me the title and general idea. May 15th is the deadline to submit the final grant applications to EEF. Take note that EEF prioritizes requests that support educational enrichment, equity and/or access programs, and that impact the largest number of students possible. EEF prioritizes grants that relate to the Arts, Literacy, and STEM. Grant requests may be requested in any amount up to $5000. Schools may submit up to 5 grant requests total. See the linked EEF website for details.

 

• Wanted or Unwanted Wobbly Stools?– Family School asked to try out some of our wobbly stools. Is there anyone who has stools they DO NOT want? Also, is there anyone who DOES WANT stools, but doesn’t currently have them, since I don’t want to loan something out staff here are needing. Let me know by the end of the week if you want stools or want to get rid of any.

• Blinds reminder – Putting items like furniture or other small items does damage  the blinds!  Howard is already experiencing this because people continue to place items in the way. Their blinds are breaking in places where items are in the way. Please avoid this.  Make sure you have all items out of the way.  

• Recycling Changes (When in doubt, do not use the plastic!)– Effective Monday, the waste haulers that serve customers within the City of Eugene will begin only accepting a redefined list of items for recycling. The following items will continue to be accepted in commingled recycling bins:

• Newspaper, ads and inserts, direct mail, magazines, and catalogues
• Flattened cardboard boxes
• Cereal, cracker, and shoe boxes (not refrigerated or frozen boxes!)
• Office paper
• Paperboard/cardboard egg-cartons
• Steel and aluminum cans (no lids)
• Certain plastic bottles and jugs will still be accepted: soda bottles, water bottles, milk jugs, and juice bottles (no lids)

Items that will no longer be accepted:

• Plastic tubs
• Any plastic item that isn’t a bottle or jug
• Aseptic containers (such as for milk cartons, or shelf stable soy milk)
• Shredded paper

Plastic bags, take-out food containers, plant pots, and lids of any kind should never be placed in commingled recycling bins. Any items that are not clearly recyclable should be put in the trash—when in doubt, throw it out. See the linked  flyer for details.

• KITS Summer Job Openings – The preschool to kindergarten summer transition program KITS (Kids in Transition to School)has job postings now up on the 4J Jobs website. If you’re interested in an 8-week summer job, there are openings for Educational Assistants, a Lead Teacher, a Site Supervisor, and Child Care. They prefer to hire 4J employees for these positions, so please apply if you’re interested.

Fire Drill Monday, April 16, at 9:00 – Next Monday at 9:00 will be our April Fire Drill. If we get rained out, I’ll reschedule for next week.

Volunteer Appreciation Week, April 16-20 – Volunteer Appreciation will is NEXT week, so please take time to recognize any volunteers you work with next week. Remember, we have a breakfast for them on April 18th. They can come to the “Reunión Comunitaria” with our students and then eat some yummy foods.

 

Master Schedule Team – We need a team to plan next year’s schedule.  We will have additional preps plus the new common schedule.   The team will meet several times before the end of the year. Here is the survey: Master Schedule Team Application

Esteban Camacho Mural Update – Lane Arts Council and I will be setting up the schedule to begin in late April. Expect to participate in a 4 session activity to create the mural.

Fiesta “Staffle Raffle” – PLT decided to have families buy tickets to put in the raffles instead of a silent auction for the staff activities. This makes for less of a popularity contest which is frowned upon by the community.  

PBIS Posters – School Wide Expectation Posters are ordered and should be hanging up in a week.

Asemblea- Now “Reunion Comunitaria” this Wednesday  – “Reunion Comunitaria” is the new name for our assemblies. This is based off the morning meeting concept but for the whole school.  Classes will be organized into a circle instead of facing the front in rows.  Cones and signs will designate class spaces. In Lak’ech poem and a heartbeat clap will be recited. Then, we move into the traditional Virtudes Premios.

 Teachers please come early at 8:10 to help students get set up in the new format.  The Reunion Comunitaria will be run from the center and include Virtudes as well as the Rayos de Luz awards.

Here is a summary of the upcoming events for the next two weeks:

April 9 (M)
National Library Week

North Region DLI Retreat -8:00-12:00

3:00-3:30, Joel in summative eval with a teacher.

April 10 (T)
Library Worker’s Day
8:15-11:30, Joel to Elem. Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

3:00-4:30- IEP, Conference Room

5:00-6:00, Site Council-  in the library.

6:00-7:15, Parent Group Meeting

April 11 (W)

2:00-3:00, PBIS Meeting

2:30-5:00, Joel out early for the Immersion Task Force Meeting

April 12 (H)

3:00-4:00, Equity Meeting

3:00-4:00, IEP Meeting 
4:00-7:00, Joel to Elem. Jobs Expo (Ed Center)

April 13 (F)

3:00-4:00, IEP Meeting 

April 16 (M)
Volunteer Appreciation Week

9:00, Fire Drill

3:00-4:00, IEP Meeting 
4:00-5:30, Joel to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

April 17 (T)

8:30-9:00, Truancy Meeting

3:00-4:00, IEP Meeting 

6:00-7:00- Joel in OABE Meeting

April 18 (W)

7:45-9:00,Volunteer Breakfast-  (Staff Lounge)

2:00-3:00, Staff Meeting
5:30-6:30, 4J School Schedule Community Forum (Ed Center)

April 19 (H)

3:00-3:45, GOTG

April 20 (F)

No School.- No comp time approved for classified staff. All staff expected to attend including office staff and custodian.

8:00-2:30-Racism Free Zone Training with Bahati Ansari and 2:30-4:00- Prep Time

Breakfast and Lunch Provided

Have a great week, everyone!

Joel 

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