August 9, 2021

By Allan 　

 

Hello Holt Staff,

I won’t say “Welcome Back!” because there’s still three weeks of summer, but I figured I’d share the back-to-school info I have so far. 

For staff new to my weekly Allan’s Announcements, my intention is to send just one all staff email per week, so not to clutter up your inboxes. My hope is that staff read the announcements by the end of the day Tuesday each week (once school starts, that is). Announcements sometimes get long, but I like to err on the side of over-communicating rather than under-communicating. I’d advise staff to read the bold heading for each bulleted item and then decide from there if it applies to you or not.

Sixteen items of note:

• Staffing Updates – Please welcome several new Holt Bolts:

• Sharon Alberts (Office Assistant) – Sharon worked as our Hybrid EA this past year and is Holt’s new Office Assistant, now that Holt is making the shift away from two secretaries to one secretary and one office assistant.

• Ashley Castro (Music) – Ashley comes to us from Norfolk, Virginia, where she taught elementary music before taking time off to have her son and moving out to Oregon.

• Connie Chiakowsky (Nurse) – Connie was Holt’s school nurse in the past and she is returning to us this school year.

• Emeli Iris Finn (3-hour EA) – Emeli Iris just graduated from the UO with a degree in Communication Disorders & Sciences/Linguistics and is joining us in a newly created EA position.

• Robbie Cortez (Library Assistant/EA) – Robbie comes to us from New Mexico where he taught kindergarten, 1st, 3rd, and 4th grade, as well as has worked as a reading interventionist before relocating to the Eugene area.

• Melanie Pinto (CLC) – Melanie is replacing Cole in the CLC. She was most recently a special education teacher at Coburg Charter and Twin Rivers Charter School. Before that she was a teacher at Chavez.

• Robin Seno (Kindergarten) – Robin Seno most recently taught kindergarten at Yujin Gakuen and before that taught kindergarten at Howard. Robin also taught 3rd grade a number of years in California.

• Robin Vaughan (Kindergarten) – Robin Vaughan most recently taught kindergarten at Howard, but has previously taught 3rd grade and also worked as a Title 1 Coordinator.

• Wendy Williams (Kinder EA) – Wendy comes to us from Yujin Gakuen where she was Kindergarten EA and before that she worked at a Title 1 EA at Fairfield Elementary.

Please welcome these fine folks to Team Holt!

Below is a list of the classroom teaching assignments. Linked here is a complete 2020-2021 Staff List and also the updated Holt Website Staff Directory. Let me know if I missed anyone. Also, linked here is a 2021-2022 School Map. Hopefully I didn’t miss anyone.

KG: Katie Gulewich, Lesli Harmon, Robin Seno, Jeff Stimler, Robin Vaughan
1st: Jacque Barton, Elizabeth Cobb, Heidi Gori, Lisa Zluticy
2nd: SJ Moore, Jenna Norton, Ashley Wolf
3rd: Caitlin Benavides, James Longoria, Desiree Talley
4th: Lindsey Daggett, Ashley Reich, Mandy Robison
5th: Liz Ayres, Debbi Heinrich, Candace Lovato, Geoff Parks

• EA Interview Volunteers – If any of you are willing/interested in helping hire our newest staff members I’m holding interviews this Tuesday, August 10th, 1:00-3:15 for a 4-hour EA position and will also hold interviews for a Temp 1:1 SPED EA on Tuesday, August 24th, 9:00-11:00. If you know of any good candidates for the temp position, please encourage them to apply. The posting should hopefully go this week. This person would support an incoming kindergartner and the position may become permanent depending upon how things go the first six weeks of school. UPDATE: SSD changed their mind and made this a sub job instead.

• In-Service Schedule – Principals just have dates, times, and topics, so I’ll share additional details when I get them, but at the bottom of this email and on the Holt Staff Calendar are what we know so far about the the first two weeks of school. For the PD I’m in charge of I’ll try to keep things useful but succinct so staff can maximize prep time.

• Report Back Dates – Most staff report back the last week of August. Here are the report back dates:

• Elementary Secretaries – Monday, August 16
• Licensed Staff – Monday, August 30
• Classified Staff – Thursday, September 2 (196-day on 8/27)

• Building Access – Now that Migrant Ed has moved out, Ryan and Ritchie have started working on waxing floors. I’ll post updates on the Staff Zimbra Calendar, but C & D wing are drying and should be open as of Monday and A & B wing should be finished and available by Monday, August 16th, if not earlier.

• 21-22 Master Schedule – The 2021-2022 Master Schedule is linked here and is also on the Holt Staff Dashboard. The master schedule also includes EA Schedules and the PE/Music Schedule broken out.

• Who is A/B and C/D on the Schedule? – Grade level teams should let me know which classes will follow the A, B, C, or D schedules and I’ll add names to the Master Schedule, as well as put names on the PE and Music Schedule.

• Meet Your Teacher, 9/8 @2:00 – With the first day(s) of school later in the week this year, I’ve move the Meet Your Teacher Event later in the week as well to Wednesday, September 8th from 1:00-2:00.

• Transition Day, Sept. 9 – You may have noticed the 4J Elementary School Calendar 2021-22 has “Transition Day for Selected Grades” on Thursday, September 9th. Principals haven’t been told the plan for this day yet, but my guess is it will be an orientation day of sorts for Kindergarten and possibly 1st grade. I’m not sure what the expectation will be for upper grade teachers this day.

• Events for the Calendar? – Are there dates or events we need to add to the calendar? Meetings should all be there, but let me know if there are other Holtober Fest type of events that need to be.

• School Hours – A few people have asked what school hours are this year, but we’re back to regular school hours, which for Holt are:

Monday – Thursday: 7:55-2:25
Friday: 7:55-1:10

• COVID Protocol Updates – If you want to deep dive into what the state is requiring of districts, you can read Ready Schools, Safe Learners Resiliency Framework for the 2021-22 School Year. However, updates are being released soon, so downtown is holding off on announcing decisions just yet on cohorting, arrival/dismissal, meals, etc. For now, follow the current 4J Mask Guidelines (SHORT VERSION: Wear as mask if not vaccine verified or if students are around) and remember to “Badge-In” if you come to school.

• Holt Staff Handbook – The Holt Staff Handbook includes most every relevant building policy and procedure. Some of these may change depending upon COVID protocols, but these are how things operate during normal times. Please take time to review the handbook and let me know if you have questions or if you spot anything that possibly needs revised.

• District Admin Updates – Linked here (and here and here and also here) are a number of district admin updates, which includes:

• Directors Equity, Inclusion & Inst: Misael Flores and Larry Williams
• Student Services Admin: Angela Crum (Holt’s new SSD admin)
• Student Services Admin: Joel Lavin
• Adams Principal: Natalie Oliver
• Awbrey Park Interim Principal: Mark Watson
• Camas Ridge Interim Principal: Mike Riplinger
• Charlemagne Interim Principal: Tom Maloney
• Gilham Assistant Principal: Megan Russell

• Relationships Matter More Than Rules – I really liked the thesis of this pre-COVID Edutopia Article on the importance of building positive relationships and creating positive community within the classroom at the start of the school year. Meaningful relationships matter for learning. The rules and policies you enforce are important for keeping a well-managed class, but rather than emphasizing control over your students, developing community and connection is a surefire ingredient for a good school year for all. Try the strategies in the above linked article to begin forging strong relationships.

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

August 10 (T)
9:00-11:00, Interviews 4-hour EA (School Garden)

August 16 (M)
Elementary Secretaries Report Back

August 16-19 (M)
4J Camp iPad

August 23 (M)
Office Opens

August 24 (T)
9:00-11:00, Interviews for Temp 1:1 EA (School Garden)

August 30 (SA)
9:00-12:00, Project Hope – Holt Clean-Up Day

August 30 (M)
Licensed Staff Report Back
8:00-10:00, Building Welcome Back and A.C.T. PD (Library)
10:00-11:30, 4J Keynote – Keith Jones (Zoom)
12:30-4:00, 4J Learning for All (Zoom)

August 31 (T)
8:00-11:30, 4J Instructional Tech (Zoom)
12:30-4:00, 4J ELA Adoption (Zoom)

September 1 (W)
Teacher Planning Day
9:00, Optional Q&A Session for New Staff (Library)

September 2 (H)
Classified Staff Report Back.
9:00-11:00, District Kick-Off (Zoom)
12:00-4:00, 4J ELA + Math Acceleration PD

September 3 (F)
8:00-12:00, Principal Led PD, PLC, Instructional Strategies, SEL (Library)
1:00-4:00, Principal Led PD, PLC, Instructional Strategies, SEL (Library)

September 6 (M)
Labor Day, No School

September 7 (T)
8:00-12:00, Principal Led PD
1:00-4:00, Principal Led PD

September 8 (W)
Teacher Planning Day
9:00, Optional Q&A Session for New Staff (Library)
10:00, Classified Staff Meeting (Library)
2:30-3:15, Leadership Team Meeting (Library)

September 9 (H)
Transition Day
2:30-3:15, PBIS Team Meeting (Library)
6:00-7:00, PAHS Meeting (Zoom? School Garden? Library?)

September 10 (F)
Classes Begin for All Students

Keep playing and we’ll see you in a few weeks!

Allan

This entry was written by Allan, posted on August 7, 2021 at 6:15 pm, filed under Announcements, Articles, P.D.. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.