January 25, 2021

By Allan  

 

Hello Holt Bolts,

If non-lotto players were wondering, the Mega Millions pool members became $4 dollar-airs after Tuesday’s drawing which was reinvested in a Powerball ticket and a $1 Megabucks ticket, but sadly we are all returning to our day jobs.

However, if anyone wants to get in on a pool for the Oregon Lottery St. Patrick’s Day Raffle, send me $10 by the Friday. It has a smaller jackpot, but better odds. One $1 million top prize, 300 prizes of $500, and 1,500 prizes of $100.

Eleven items of note for this week:

• Virtual EA Extravaganza on Friday – Educational Assistants and other interested classified staff, please see the Extravaganza Email and the EA Extravaganza Offerings & Zoom Links for what to do this Friday’s Classified PD offerings while licensed staff work on report cards.

• Staffing Updates – Three staffing updates:

• KG/Title 1 EA Posting (5.25 hours) – The 5.25-hour KG/Title 1 EA Position was posted last week and closes this Tuesday.

• Title 1 EA Position (4 hours) – We are sadly losing Andrea, who was hired by Camus Ridge as their new Title 1 Coordinator. She will start at Camus on Wednesday, so her 4-hour Title 1 EA Position is now posted and closes on Thursday. Connie Gilhuber will sub for Andrea until we can make a permanent hire.

Please feel free to recruit any educator buddies or solid candidates for these openings!

• 4/5 SSO Blend: Emma Knight – From the district pool, we’ve hired Emma Knight for our Same School Online 4/5 Blend. Emma is currently teaching a part-time CDL job share in an Adams 2nd grade classroom, but before she moved to Oregon she taught 5th grade and kindergarten in Hawaii. Please welcome Emma to Team Holt!

• Vaccination Updates – Principals received an HR Vaccination Email asking us place staff into two groups for receiving the vaccines. I used a randomizer website create the groups, which managed to follow their one requirement, which was to break up grade levels, so we don’t end up with an entire grade level in one group. Linked here is the Vaccination List I submitted to HR. It’s not in the email, but a principal buddy clarified with HR that one group does not have priority over the other, meaning Group A doesn’t necessarily go first.

• Students/Adults COVID Positive or in Quarantine – Staff have been good about notifying me when you find out any families are COVID positive, but HR is asking for us to also notify them if we find out any students or parents or others in the home are in quarantine.

• Report Card Send-Home Info – Following our stand-up staff meeting on Friday to decide how we want to handle supply distribution and report card distribution, we decided on the following:

• Feb. 4th Supply Distribution will stay as originally scheduled.
• Feb. 8th, classroom teachers will email report carts (either through Synergy or Zimbra) to parent/guardians by the end of the day.
• Specialists (PE, Music, Title, and SPED) will email classroom teachers their reports to attach to your email.
• Parent Reports (sample report) will be emailed to teachers the morning of grading day.

• UPDATED: Class Lists, DUE FEB. 12 – Fill in your A/B cohort groups and Same School Online (SSO) info onto the Hybrid Class Lists 2020-21 Google Sheet (Staff Drive > MISC > Class Lists). There’s a tab for each classroom with a column for each of your cohorts. Also note:

• NEW: SSO Blend Breakdown – I forgot to include this last week, but here is the breakdown of how many of each grade should go into the SSO blends:

K/1(23 total) 11 Kinders and 12 First Graders
1/2 (23 total) 6 First Graders and 17 Seconds
3/4 (24 total) 16 Third Graders and 8 Fourth Graders
4/5 (25 total) 10 Fourth Graders and 15 Fifth Graders

• UPDATED: Siblings – The first tab, Siblings, tells if students in have siblings or not. If students have elementary age siblings, place them into Cohort A. If there are siblings at middle or high school, they can go into either cohort group.

• REPEAT: Pathways – The second tab, Pathways, tells if students have selected Hybrid, SSO, or EOA. Be sure to place students at your grade level returning from EOA. There are a handful who are coming back either to Hybrid or Same School Online.

• REPEAT: CDL Placement for Returning EOA Students, DUE MONDAY – We need to notify families this week of class placement for students returning from EOA on Feb. 1. Whether they chose Hybrid or SSO, they will need a classroom placement while we are still in CDL. Grade levels should email Melanie which teachers are taking these students by Monday.

• REPEAT: Keep Class Lists Confidential – Downtown does not want us going public with what students will have what teacher/class A or B until right before we go Hybrid and Same School Online.

• REPEAT: 2021-2022 Staff Survey, Due Feb. 15 – To help prep for 2021-2022 Staffing, please complete the linked 2021-2022 Staffing Survey by Feb. 15. All answers will be kept confidential and let me know if you have any questions.

• Feb. 4 Supply Distribution Sign-Up & Info – Next week’s supply distribution is on Thursday, February 4th from 8:00-3:00. If you are available, please add your name to the Supply Distribution Sign-Up Sheet to help between 8:00-3:00. Staff can utilize trade time if you work beyond your normal hours this day. And this time we really do have headphones to hand out!

• UOTeach-In on Educational Equity & Anti-Oppressive Pedagogies – Misael Flores Gutierrez, the 4J Equity, Instruction & Partnerships Administrator, asked principals to share the linked email about this year’s annual  UOTeach-In. The online events will take place Feb. 22-27. The keynote is Dr. Bettina Love, author of We Want to Do more Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, and co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network. Other speakers and sessions will focus on anti-oppressive pedagogies and anticolonial and Indigenous pedagogy.

• Keeping Story Time Alive in the Pandemic – Story time is a powerful tool for helping preschool and elementary kids and their families feel connected during distance learning. I’m a sucker for a good picture book, so this Edutopia Article clicked for me. And let me know if you’d ever like a guest reader. I love any excuse to read a book to classes!

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

January 25 (M)
Dynamo Groups Resume
1:30-4:00, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
5:30, This Week in Sports w/Mr. Cole (Zoom)

January 26 (T)
12:30-1:30, School Choice Presentation & Tour (Zoom)
6:00-6:30, Creation Crew w/Ms. Jackie (Zoom)

January 27 (W)
9:00-9:45, Virtual Coffee w/the Principal (Zoom)
9:00-9:45, Allan to Check-In Meeting w/Jeff Johnson (Zoom)
9:30-10:00, 3rd Grade Data Team – Tier 3
10:30-11:00, Allan Meeting w/Office Staff & SSC (Zoom)
10:40-11:10, 4th Grade Data Team – Tier 3
12:00-12:30, 5th Grade Data Team – Tier 3

January 28 (H)
Make a Hat Day – SPIRIT DAY!
12:00-8:00, Oakway Pegasus Pizza – Holt Night Out Fundraiser
12:30, Allan to Attendance Meeting (Zoom)
2:30-4:00, Allan to Evaluation Planning Meeting (Zoom)
3:00-4:00, Technology Leadership Team Meeting (Zoom)

January 29 (F)
No School – Grading Day

February 1 (M)
Second Semester Beings
EOA Student Return
5:30, This Week in Sports w/Mr. Cole (Zoom)

February 2 (T)
12:30, Allan to Attendance Meeting (Zoom)
3:00-4:00, Staff Meeting (Zoom)

February 3 (W)
8:30-9:00, Student Council (Zoom)
9:00-9:45, Virtual Coffee w/the Principal (Zoom)
9:00-3:30, 5th Grade Data Team – Tier 1/2
9:30-10:00, KG Data Team – Tier 3
10:40-11:10, 1st Grade Data Team – Tier 3
11:15-11:45, 3rd Grade Data Team – Tier 1/2
11:45-12:15, 4th Grade Data Team – Tier 1/2
12:00-12:30, 2nd Grade Data Team – Tier 3

February 4 (H)
8:00-3:00, Supply Distribution (Front Entrance)

February 5 (F)
12:00-1:15, Lunch Bunch – KG 12:00, 3/4 12:20, 1/2 12:40, 5th 1:00 (Zoom)
6:30-7:00, Bertha Holt’s Birthday – Ultimate Spirit Day – Zoom BINGO

Have a good week, everyone!

Allan