http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=9704
Hello Howard Staff,
I know everyone loves Friday meetings, so why not hold a virtual meeting, even during a pandemic?
It was nice getting to see peoples’ faces who joined the Zoom Meeting, but for those who couldn’t, below are some items of note.
As always, please feel free to call, text, or email me if you have any questions or if there’s anything I can help with.
Take care of yourselves, everyone (and wash your hands)!
Allan
Staff Phone Directory – Downtown has realized not all staff have access to email and are looking at alternate ways to communicate via text and autodialer. They’ve asked principals to make a staff phone list to make sure everyone gets information as well as compile a list of phone numbers. Let me know if you have a new phone number or think we may have an outdated one. Also, let me know if you cannot receive texts or you do not have access to email. Downtown wants that information as well (and since anyone reading this does have email access, let me know if you know of anyone who cannot text or email from home).
Building Access – Staff may enter the building if you need something. With the exception of kitchen staff, who work from mornings through meal services, no one else is working or arming/disarming the building.
Student Meals – Thank you to everyone who’s been able to help deliver meals to McKinney-Vento families who cannot make it to a meal site. I know not everyone is able to help for various reasons, but thank you to staff who have been able to help. Starting next week, we are moving to food boxes that will last for two days and will deliver these on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays. See Mellissa’s email for details.
PK Childcare Site – Governor Brown ordered school district to provide child care for “essential health care workers” (e.g., doctors, nurses, home health care workers and individuals who work with the elderly) and Howard’s Preschool Promise Classroom is going to be one of the child care site for children ages 3-5 (SEHS will also host a 3-5 site). ECCO and potentially SEHS will provide infant care (ages 0-2) and elementary age students (ages 6-12) will be at Holt, ATA, and Awbrey Park.
Remote Learning/Homework – Resources are fine to share, but teachers should not assign any work. Downtown is working on some sort of remote learning plan that will be shared with staff sometime after the break.
Cancelled Events – Outdoor School is cancelled and likely will not be rescheduled. A number of other field trips were planned and would need to be rescheduled if teachers still want to do them. We also had a few assemblies scheduled that were effected. We won’t make up missed Roadrunner Assemblies and will resume when we come back. Also, many states are cancelling state testing and Oregon is looking into obtaining a waiver from the feds.
COWS in STEAM Room – Jyllian emailed staff about this, but all COWs have been secured in the STEAM Room during the closure. They’ll need rechargeing when students return.
Reporting Back – Staff will probably report back earlier than students return. The current student return date, April 29, may be extended or shortened by the governor. When we return, classroom will likely want to do a lot of community building, almost like the first day of school or a family reunion where everyone can share their stories.
EEF Grants – Don’t forget to get me your EEF grant ideas. I haven’t heard if the deadlines for this gas changed. Linked here is the EEF Email Sent to Principals, the 2020-2021 Grant Application Website, and here is the 2020-2021 EEF Grant Application. We can submit up to five grants in any amount up to $5,000 per application. As of now I don’t have any submissions.
2020-2021 Staffing Update – I’ll send a more comprehensive email later, but I submitted our staffing plan for next school year yesterday. We’re still waiting for the corrected classified SPED staffing, ELL staffing, and for information on the new Licensed Behavior/Dean of Students position. A few items of note include:
• I chose SIA Plan #2, which had four classes at 1st, 3rd, and 4th grade.
• Imelda is moving to 4th grade.
• Carla is moving to Title 1/ESC
• Mellissa is dropping ESC & Title, but staying ESSA Instructional Coach and adding SIA reading facilitating
• Title added some hours to EAs who asked for more time and also added a new 3-hour position.
• Christina is leaving her EA position to start a teacher ed program next fall
• We had four temp classrooms teachers (Savannah, Kaitlyn, Megan, and Cheyenne) and we will have vacancies for KG, two at 1st grade, one at 4th grade, and one at 5th grade, all going to the Job Expo.
