http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=11254
Greetings Holt Staff,
Nineteen items of note for this week:
• Staffing Updates – Four staffing updates:
• Michael Larsen (CLC Teacher) – Regular Holt sub, Michael Larsen is taking Kristina’s spot at our CLC Teacher. Michael has a Masters Degree in Special Education and prior to teaching worked as a CLC EA. To help with the transition, Michael will start on Monday and will overlap with Kristina through her last day on September 30th.
• Max Taylor (Behavior EA) – Max was hired as our new Behavior EA and started last Friday. He recently graduated from the UO with a Sociology Degree and has experience working as an office assistant at Chavez.
• Kyla Lenker (Utility COVID EA) – Kyla joins us as our Utility COVID EA. She has an Elementary Education degree and most recently worked as an EA in Junction City. Before that she worked as an inclusion specialist with middle to college-aged individuals experiencing DD. Kyla has an intake meeting with HR later this week and should be able to start soon after.
• Student Office Assistant (Anna Moore) – Sheldon High School student and former Holt student Anna Moore will be our new Student Office Assistant. We’re still working out her exact hours and start date, but she should be starting soon.
Please welcome these fine folks to Team Holt. Go, Bolts!
• Walk+Roll to School Day – Not this week, but next week on Wednesday, October 6th is Walk & Roll Day! Please encourage your students to walk, bike, carpool or ride the bus to school. If students live a long way from school, they can try parking a ten minute walk from school and walking the rest of the way. The goal is to reduce traffic and pollution around our school and to promote physical activity for our students.
• Rainy Day Arrival Plan – This is Oregon, so we’re only going to do the rainy day arrival plan if it’s an downpour. However, if we do get a downpour, here where grade level cohorts will be stationed and who will be supervising:
5th Grade – Covered Area (Connie & Iris)
4th Grade – Gym (Ben & Tasha)
• Enters through gym doors on blacktop3rd Grade – Cafeteria – (Marilyn, Max, Alex)
• Enters through gym doors by bike rack
• 2 in cafeteria one at gym doors2nd grade – Library (Robbie, Annie, Jackie)
• Enters through 2nd grade door and walks to library
• Robbie in Library, Annie at door, Jackie at K-2 intersectionKinder & 1st Grade – K-1 Hallway (Cheryl, Wendy)
*Outside – Kim, Allan, Darla directing traffic flow
*Breakfast carts at each station for handing out breakfastAT BELL all stations stay in area until released to avoid mixing cohorts
• K-1 and 2nd graders in Library released first
• 5th grade enters through 2nd grade door
• 3rd released
• 4th released
• Updated Inside Recess Supervision Plan – Related to the above, linked here is the Updated Supervision Schedule, which includes a revised inside recess supervision schedule for where recess supervisors are stationed.
• COVID & Quarantine Updates – Holt has not had any positive staff or students at school yet, but it’s only a matter of time before we a class or groups of students and/or staff have to quarantine while we contact trace. Talking to other principals who’ve had to do this, please take note:
• COVID Cleaning Update – I asked at a principals’ meeting about the discrepancy between what custodians were told and what’s in the district COVID-19 Communicable Disease Plan and the COVID-19 Infection Prevention Cleaning and Disinfecting Protocols. I’m not totally satisfied with the answer since I still see discrepancies, but an email from the custodial manager said the plans and practices are aligned.
• Seating Charts to Allan ASAP – If you have not already, give me your seating chart as soon as possible. This also goes for PE, Music, Title, and SPED groups. Paper or electronic copies are fine.
• 6-feet apart if you don’t want to quarantine – If you have a COVID positive student, any student who were within 6-feet of them for for 15-minutes cumulative time over the day will also need to quarantine. This also applies to staff, so keep yourself and students 6-feet apart whenever you can if you want to avoid dealing with quarantines.
• Do staff quarantine after a close contact? – If a staff member is fully vaccinated and was identified as a close contact, they DO NOT need to quarantine unless they are presenting COVID symptoms (Fever > 100.4, cough, shortness of breath, chills, difficulty breathing, or new loss of taste/smell) and continue work as normal.
• How long do students quarantine after a close contact? – When kids are quarantined individually either through exposure at school or at home, they cannot return for 14 days.
• What happens when an entire class has to quarantine? – Linked here is the full doc of What happens when a positive case has been identified? but here is the short version:
Day 1 – Asynchronous lessons from classroom teacher
Day 2+ (if necessary) – Synchronous lessons from classroom teacher, following the K-5 Connect Schedule
Day 3 – Students NOT identified as close contacts return for in-person learning• What happens when individual students have to quarantine? – Also on the What happens when a positive case has been identified? doc is this full answer, but below is the short version:
1. Teachers send parents the Family Quarantine Letter (edited to fit how you are sharing lessons).
2. Teachers provide students lessons by either Option A: Send the essential components of your daily in class learning and activities as a Seesaw assignment or Option B: Until Oct 15, assign students the pre-made lessons created by TOSAs (linked on the above doc).
3. Students may access a district teacher (not their brick and mortar teacher) during office hours (links and times are in the above doc).
4. Communicate and collaborate with case manager for any student on an IEP or 504 or ELD.
• Student Quarantine Extended Absences K-5 – A longer more detailed version of the above is described in the Grades K-5 Student Quarantine & Extended Absence Process I shared last week. The following Teacher Quarantine Flow Chart has also been created to assist teachers with this process, which includes details on preparing students now before a quarantine, what happens for a whole class quarantine, and for individual student quarantines.
• How do I know if a student is on quarantine? – I shared this earlier, but as a reminder, if a student has a little grey house next to their name on your Synergy seating chart, that student is on quarantine. District contact tracers are sometimes slow to update this, so just ask myself or office staff if you’re wondering about a particular situation.
• DUE: Classified & Licensed Self Assessment & Goals – All staff, both classified and licensed, need to complete a self assessment in TalentEd by September 30th. Licensed staff need to also complete a Goals Development Form by October 30th, which later next month we can develop some optional building goals people can use.
For the self reflection ratings, how I evaluate staff on the 1 – 4 scale is a 3 is the target. If you’re a 3 (Effective), you’d doing a solid job. If you’re a 4 (Exemplary), you should be going around the school district teaching other staff that area. A 2 (Area for Growth) is not necessarily a bad thing. It just mean there is room for improvement. For myself, I can think of lots of areas I know I can get better at.
• iPad Charging Options – If teachers want a charing stating in your classroom Brian got his hands on some extra chargers and there are a couple options:
• COW Cart w/Chargers – Long term, I think we’ll be able to keep iPads at school and won’t be required to send them home daily, so COW carts are probably the best long term solution. Brian can wire a cart with about 5-chargers for now (chargers are on backorder and can be fully wired up with chargers later).
• Power Strip w/Chargers – Short term, if you’re tight on classroom space right now, a power strip with 5 chargers hooked up might work better for now. If you’d like this option, also let me know how long of a cord you’ll want for your power strip.
Teachers should let me know if you’d like one of these options.
• Second Step Tips – In addition to the digital resources I shared last week (let me know if you didn’t get access), each grade level should have at least one physical kit, as well as the bullying prevention unit materials. Let me know if you are missing anything. 4J Behavior Specialist Shasta Quigley shared the following Second Steps resources:
Getting Started:
How the Program Works Scroll to the bottom of the page for the 8 minute walkthroughVIDEO: Program Walkthrough Overview of the teacher dashboard, how to create classes and online resources and lessons
Other Links:
K-5 Digital Scope & Sequence
Pacing Guide for a 20 week sequence. Includes information on length of lessons• Site Based Safety Committee – 4J has been out of compliance regarding state requirements for building Safety Committees. Myself, Kim, and Darla will make up the team, but I wanted to open it up to anyone else who would like to join. Linked here is a Safety Committee Email from Brooke Wagner with a description of committee and committee member obligations. Let me know by the end of the week if you’d like to join or if you have any questions.
• Friday Afternoons – I shared earlier that I’m pushing pause on Wednesday and Friday PD/PLCs, but downtown officially told principals October 1st should be 1-hour of protected prep and the remaining time in the afternoon should be protected for teachers to create asynchronous content that can be used by students in quarantine.
• Student Birthday Treats – I’m putting this in Monday’s Quick News, but for health and safety reasons we cannot allow families to send swag bags or gifts to students on someone’s birthday. We can allow pre-packaged foods, such as store-bought cupcakes, popsicles, or individually packaged treats.
• Chairs Up at End of Day – A reminder to staff, please have students put chairs up at the end of the day.
• October 15th PD – A few people have ask what the plan is for the Friday, October 15th PD Day. All that’s been shared with principals is “Professional Development (5.5 hours), Guest speaker – Race/Equity, SEL Building Specific, Teacher Planning Day.” So now you know as much as I do.
• Highly Qualified recruitment change for SPED EAs – To open up the classified candidate pool, HR Emailed principal they are no longer requiring applicants for SPED EA vacancies to meet HQ standards, which is a minimum two years of college. I’ve heard rumors this may soon apply to general EA positions as well, so if you know of anyone good out there who couldn’t apply for position before that they should do so now, whether it’s for a permanent job or as a sub. UPDATE: HR Emailed principals Sunday that beginning immediately, ALL educational assistant candidates who are at least 18 years of age and have a high school diploma or equivalent, will be referred to hiring administrators for consideration.
• Licensed Rover Subs – HR Emailed principals they have hired 5 “rover” subs who will fill any unfilled sub jobs, which have been rampant across 4J. They plan to hire 5 more. If there are days where there are no unfilled licensed sub jobs, they’ll be assigned to any unfilled classified sub jobs.
• REPEAT: Safety Week, THIS WEEK – Safety Week is this week. See the schedule below and see the Sept. 13, 2021 Announcements for details.
• Monday – Directed Evacuation (i.e. Fire Drill) – 1:45
• Tuesday – Lockdown Drill – 8:35
• Wednesday – No Drill or Weather Make-Up Day
• Thursday – Room Clear – Time decided by teachers
• Friday – Earthquake/Fire Drill – 8:35Please let me know if you do not have a manual or if you have any questions or suggestions.
• REPEAT: SELCO’s Educator Grants, Due THURSDAY – SELCO’s SPARK! Creative Learning Grant Program is now accepting applications for projects up to $1,000 that inspire curiosity, make learning accessible, and spark something new. Applications are due September 30.
• REPEAT: EEF Grant Applications DUE NEXT WEEK – EEF Grant Application are due Friday next week. No one has brought a grant to me yet, so unless someone tells me this week they want to submit a grant, I’ll plan to recycle some old grants for books, PBIS stuff, and various supplies.
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:
September 27 (M)
Safety Week
Allan turns 50 and get’s a discount a Denny’s!
8:10, Allan Reading to Class
9:00, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
12:05, Allan Reading to Class
1:45, Fire Drill
2:35, Sunshine Committee Meeting (Library)September 28 (T)
8:25, Lockout Drill
2:45-3:25, IPBS Meeting (Library)September 29 (W)
No Drill or Weather Make-Up Day
2:45-3:25, PLC Meetings – Repurposed for Leadership Plan Discussion (Library)
4:00-5:00, Allan to 4J Data Team Meeting (Zoom)September 30 (H)
Room Clear Drill – Time decided by teachers
2:45, Allan to IEP Meeting (Zoom)October 1 (F)
8:35, Earthquake/Fire Drill
1:25-2:25, Asynchronous Content Prep TimeOctober 4 (M)
9:00-11:00, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)October 5 (T)
2:45-3:25, Staff Meeting (Cafeteria)October 6 (W)
Picture Day
Walk+Roll to School Day
2:45-3:45, Asynchronous Content Prep Time
7:00-10:00, School Board Meeting (Zoom)October 7 (H)
Regular DayOctober 8 (F)
1:25-2:25, Asynchronous Content Prep Time
Two weeks down, thirty-four to go! Have a good week, everyone!
Allan
