http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=926
Hello All,
I want to thank everyone for working together last week when discussion staffing plans for next year. This is never easy and this year is especially difficult given the level of cuts. I just wanted to express my appreciation of how everyone handled themselves during this difficult time.
Four items of note for this week.
• Daylight Savings Time Begins – If you’re reading this on Sunday, remember to set your clocks forward one hour.
• April 2nd Professional Development, Edmodo – For our professional development day on April 2nd, I wanted to do something more on the “fun” side and not get too heavy, so I have arranged with Kim Ketterer for a training on a new district-wide deployment of Edmodo. If you read Kim’s email from a couple weeks ago, it’s a free and secure online networking platform for teachers, students, parents and school administrators. Since the fall, 4J has been using it with teachers involved in the EdTech grants (Adams, Chavez, Madison, and Awbrey Park) and are now ready for staff across the district to start using it.
For that day, we’ll meet in the Corridor Library from 8:30-10:30. Be sure to bring your laptop (fully charged) and also a list of student user names and passwords so we can get your classes set up. This day is also a 2 hour furlough day for teachers, so teachers should remember to go home two hours earlier than you would normally work.
• Title 1 Beyond Next Year – At last week’s district Title 1 meeting, it was announced that schools below 50% Free & Reduced lunch count, which is both of our schools, should be aware that they may not receive Title funds after next year. The reasoning behind this is that a majority of schools in 4J are now above the 40% for F/R meals and it becomes an issue of diminishing returns when the funds are spread too thin. This means that next year we will want to make sure we have strong F/R numbers by the end of December if we want to maintain Title 1 funding.
• Big Green Help – Call for project ideas – Due by March 23rd – The NEA Foundation and several other organizations (including Nickelodeon) want to turn the spotlight on schools and shout them out for cool, fun, and innovative kid-led green projects. Attached is the email I received and also a link to their website if you want more information.
Enjoy the week!
Allan