http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=10108
Hello Fellow Bolts,
One last week of summer and eleven items of note for this week:
• Reopening Updates: Instruction – Here are the latest updates on Fall Reopening Plans related to teaching and instruction:
• Classroom Teachers Specializing During CDL – I don’t think any grade levels at Holt do this, but during comprehensive distance learning classroom teachers are not allowed to “specialize” in content areas, where one teachers math to all classes, another teaches reading to all classes, and another teaches science, etc. However, grade level teams are allowed during distance learning for one teacher to prep all the math lessons, one prep all the reading lessons, one prep all the science lessons, etc. as long as it’s the homeroom teacher delivering the content and giving their homeroom students the feedback.
• Limited In Person Instruction – I don’t think any staff here were planning to do this, but principals got an Email from Charis and were asked to let staff know that they are not to start forming small groups of students to bring back and to not contact students and parents to make plans to come back for limited in person instruction. See the email for details.
• Phase II Planning Suspended – If you’ve been following district communications about Phase I and Phase II reopening planning, the above email from Charis also mentions that Phase II planning has been suspended, which was originally going to create optional lessons classroom teachers could push out to students for core subject areas.
• Class List Posting – Class lists are to be created as usual and will be shared with families in the same manner across the district. That manner is still to be decided, but they will very likely get posted just like normal, at the end of the first week staff report back. Stay tuned on this one too!
• School Supplies Not at Tech Distribution – Still no decision if there will be supply fees/lists, if the district is purchasing supplies, or if teachers can distribute materials to students, but principals were told that if we distribute supplies, it won’t be during the tech distribution. There’s a committee working on this one too.
• Can teachers distribute items to students? – This is another question I’ve been asked a few times this past week that and is another topic we’re waiting on an answer from the district operations committee. Rumor is that teachers will be able to send things home once at the start of year and then at a few different (monthly?) points during the year. However, there’s also questions about equity, if some schools are able to send home t-shirts and all sorts of great stuff and others cannot, so there may be some guardrails around what we’re allowed to send.
• Reopening Updates: Building Logistics – Here are the latest updates on Fall Reopening Plans related to facilities and building procedures and protocols:
• Shared Equipment Cleaning Protocol – Principals were given homework by downtown to develop a plan for school equipment that’s used by multiple staff members, such as workroom items (copiers, paper cutters, comb binders, etc.), staff room items (refrigerator, sinks, tables, etc.), office copiers, and staff restrooms. I’ve asked Ryan to make sure there are disinfectant spray bottles of Oxivir Five 16 Disinfectant (Instructions) in all staff restrooms, the workrooms, the commons area in each wing, and the office staff room. There are Cloriox Hydrogen Peroxide Wipes (instructions) in the workrooms to be used on the copiers, since we don’t want people spraying liquid onto the copier screen or keypad. Also, make sure the wipes aren’t soaking wet when used. The office will have Oxiver Five 16 Disinfectant Wipes (instructions), which are essentially the same as Clorox wipes, but Facilties thought staff would be more comfortable with a familiar brand for workrooms. See the above linked instructions for the procedure to disinfect all surfaces you have touched when you’re done in each of these areas. Let me know if there are other shared equipment or areas I’ve missed or if you have any questions.
BONUS PRO TIP! For cleaning staff restrooms, don’t touch the door handle on your way out with your bare hand. Use a sleeve or paper towel instead.
• No Hanging Out in the Staff Room – Staff Rooms and Break Rooms across 4J are closed for now when it comes to eating and hanging out unless a school has a large enough of space where people can take off their masks to each and also socially distance. Holt’s Staff Room is not large enough for this and for people to be able to move about the room, so staff will have to find another space to eat. However, the people may still use the fridge, sink, and such in the Staff Room. Just disinfect what you touch before you leave.
• Removal of Staff Owned Furniture (maybe) – There’s not a final decision on this, but staff may be asked to remove any non-4J furniture, particularly any porous (i.e. fabric) pieces of furniture. A decision is probably not coming soon since this is only a concern when we begin hybrid learning, which won’t be for a while, but I wanted to put this on peoples’ radar.
• No Bus Lane Use During Meal Distribution – With lots of foot, bike, and car traffic during meal distribution, happening Monday – Thursday, 11:00-12:00, staff should avoid the bus lane at these times. Traffic can get heavy when we’re passing out meals and food boxes, so if you do need to use this lane, make sure you are following the one-way traffic rules.
• UPDATE: COVID Capacity – If you’re interested, the Building Utilization Docs I shared earlier for when/if we do hybrid learning. This generated a fair number of questions from buildings, so principals got a Follow-Up COVIC Capacity Email that explained the process for how they arrived at these capacity numbers and also a few other questions about the numbers.
• UPDATE: Badge Entry Point Restrictions – The restricted card access entry points at all schools has made it so badges only work at the main entrance and not at all at other card readers.
• Back to School Staff Meeting, 9/2 @8:00 – Four items regarding our Back to School Staff Meeting on Wednesday, September 2nd from 8:00-12:00.
• Meeting Location – Since we can’t fit 60+ staff members in the library and also socially distance, we’ll meet outside or possibly in the gym. This week I’m going to test out some portable projectors and speakers to see which space works best, but feel free to share your ideas if you have any brainstorms on what might work better.
• Attend In-Person or Zoom – This is still being negotiated between downtown and EEA (OSEA has an agreement), but my plan is to give staff an option of how you attend this meeting. I realized there are health, childcare, and other reasons staff may not be able to attend on-site, so I’ll provide an option for people to phone or Zoom into the meeting. However, I’d like to get an idea of how many people will be attending in-person, so see the next agenda items to help me out with that!
• Attendance Survey & Breakfast Burrito Orders! – I’ll pick up some breakfast burritos for anyone who’d like one the morning of our Back-to-School Staff Meeting. Even if you don’t want a burrito, please complete linked Attendance Survey & Breakfast Burrito Order Google Form by Monday, August 31st at 9:00 to at least tell me if you’ll be attending the meeting in-person or by Zoom. This will help me in planning for seating, copies of mateirals, food, drink, etc. You’ll need to log onto your 4J Google Account to complete the form. I’ll also bring some donuts and other breakfast goodies if burritos aren’t your thing.
• Meeting Agenda – I have a tentative agenda for the Back-to-School Staff Meeting, but it sounds like downtown is going to mandate most all of what will be covered (another things we’re waiting on from the district). However, I did want to check with staff if anyone needs time on the agenda or if there were any topics you’d like placed onto the agenda. I’m planning to do a final agenda review with the Leadership Team the day before on 9/1, so send me any agenda items before then.
In general, I like to keep these meetings short since I know there is never enough prep time, and that’s going to be especially true this year, so even though downtown is dictating much of the agenda, I’ll do my best to respect the time.
• Inservice Week Schedule Coming Soon – Related to the above, I’ve asked downtown admin about this again and the answer is still “there’s a committee working on that.” This means I likely won’t have a complete agenda for inservice week until next week’s announcements.
• Staffing Updates — A few staffing updates:
• To Be Hired – The 4-hour and 3-hour Title 1 EA positions closed Tuesday, but HR let me know on Friday they are putting a hold on all EA hires, so I’ll keep everyone posted when they do allow us to interview. In the meantime, I’ve asked HR to repost the positions until they’re ready to let us interview, in hopes that will widen our candidate pool. Our 0.5 FTE Essential Skills Coordinator (ESC) position is now posted externally and closes Tuesday, so if you know of any outstanding candidates you’d like to lure over to Holt, please encourage them to apply! I’m tentatively planning on holding interviews Tuesday, September 1st at 12:30, so let me know if any of you are interested in volunteering your time to be part of the interview committee.
• Kim McManus (Student Success Coordinator) – District admin selected Kim McManus as our SSC, who comes to us from McMinnville (though she lived in Eugene) where she worked as an elementary school counselor the past three years, coordinating PBIS and IPBS, developing complex and simple FBAs, BSPs, and safety plans. Prior to working in education, he worked for the City of Eugene for 20 years at the Sheldon Community Center.
• Mark Elmore (Night Custodian) – Holt is getting additional custodial staffing this year, though it won’t start until students are back in the building. Once that happens, Mark Elmore will work at Holt for 2-hours and 6-hours at Edgewood.
• Ari Zyskind (Administrative Intern) – Ari was originally going to do an admin internship with me at Howard before I was moved to Holt. He is working on his admin license at the UO and is moving here from California, where he taught high school science. Holt will be his secondary placement, but you may see him around from time to time or on a Zoom, so I thought I would introduce him as well.
Please welcome our newest members of Team Holt!
• Classroom Assignments – I made this a bit for myself to help me learn where people are located at Holt, but linked here is a 2020-20201 Classroom Assignments Map. I went off a list Dan gave me, so let me know if anything on here looks amiss. The only thing I’ve changed is I made the small room next to the library Roseburg Therapy used into a TSS workspace, which will also double as our “Quarantine Room” when we return to hybrid model teaching.
• DonorsChoose.org is HOT! – Most of you are probably familiar with DonorsChoose.org, but it’s an on-line charity that connects the public to easily fund grants for public schools and I’ve seen a TON of Holt grants get funded the past few weeks. I think that with school reopening plans all over the news, people are looking for ways to support schools now more than ever. Maybe think about writing a grant for this fall or for later when kids are allowed back into school.
• REPEAT: Staff iPads – The school district now also has iPads available for staff who will be teaching or assisting with Comprehensive Distance Leaning (CDL) and who do not have devices. This includes both classified and licensed staff. These will be distributed after students have gotten their devices first, but there are a limited number of devices, so let me know as soon as possible if you do not currently have a device (or have an iPad 2 or older) and I’ll notify the Tech Department to put in your request.
• REPEAT: Report Back Dates – Most staff report back the first week of September. Here are the report back dates and the 4J Employee Work Year Calendars.
• Licensed Staff – Tuesday, September 1
• Classified Staff – Wednesday, September 2 (196-day on 8/27)• More Editable “Meet the Teacher” Slideshows – I shared a WeAreTeachers Meet Your Teacher Slideshow, but Jacque shared with me a few other slideshows you might like to checkout if it’s helpful to you. Slideshow #1, Slideshow #2, Slideshow #3
• Opinion: Embrace the “human” feelings this year – During this challenging time, it is OK — and expected — that students will demonstrate sadness and anger, asserts the author of this ChalkBeat Opinion Piece. In this commentary, the author shares that expressing these feelings runs counter to the traditional ways social and emotional learning is taught.
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are a few events of note for the next few weeks:
August 24 (M)
8:30-12:30, New Teacher Induction (Zoom)August 25 (T)
8:30-12:30, New Teacher Induction (Zoom)August 26 (W)
8:30-12:30, New Teacher Induction (Zoom)
6:00, PAHS Meeting (School Garden)August 27 (H)
196-Day Classified Staff Report BackSeptember 1 (T)
Licensed Staff Report Back
9:00-12:00, Leadership Team Meeting (School Garden)
12:30-3:30, ESC Interviews (School Garden)September 2 (W)
192-Day (most) Classified Employees Report Back
8:00-12:00, Back to School Staff Meeting (Location TBD)September 3 (H)
TBD by downtownSeptember 4 (F)
TBD by downtownSeptember 7 (T)
Labor Day – No SchoolSeptember 8-11
TBD by downtownSeptember 14 (M)
First Day of School
Looking forward to see you soon!
Allan
