Week of September 14
What’s coming up?
September 14 (M)
8:45-11:45, Joel to Rosh Hashanah Services until 12:00 (Out of building)
12:00-1:00, IEP Planning Team with Kelly Korach, Justin Potts, Katie Hynes- Petty, Jennifer Harris.
1:00-2:00, Parent Group Advisory Team Meets in Room 10
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
September 15 (T)
8:15-9:45- All EA’s in a Systematic Supervision Training from 8:15-9:45 with Brie Stiller. (not in classrooms or available for assessments) (Conference Room)
2:40-4:45, Staff Meeting (Library) Carmen and Jennifer will share a Culture of Caring PD.
6:00-7:00, Parent Group Meeting (Library) (All staff are welcome to attend)
September 16 (W)
1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration time begins for 2015-2016. (All grade level teams work in the library.) Specialist will be available to share data. Possible PLC activities: analyze schedule, KRA data, Easy CBM initial data, consider your literacy small group instructional structures for the year, set team goals in math, work on AIMS4S3 Planning.
2:45-3:45, Uninterrupted individual planning time
September 17 (H)
2:00-2:30, Back to School Assembly (We will call students to the CAFETERIA before 2:00)
2:45-3:45, PBIS Meeting (Piper’s Room 8) (EA’s encouraged to attend. 1 hour comp time available)
The next PBIS meeting will be on a Wednesday @ 1:45 in the workday.
3:15-4:45, Design Team Meeting (Library)
September 18 (F)
12:30-1:00, Strings Assembly for 4th and 5th Grade (Cafeteria)
2:15-4:00, Initial Eligibility Meeting (Conference Room)
September 21 (M)
9:00-9:30, First Fire Drill
1:00-2:00, Joel in meeting with Jennifer Scurlock (Office)
September 22 (T)
9:00-10:00, Joel @ Dual Language North Articulation Meeting
8:00-3:30 Title Meeting
2:45-3:45- First PLT Meeting ( TASKS: Design Leadership Plan, Review Staff Handbook, Discuss Year 4 Priority Status and how to present SBAC Data)
September 23 (W)
1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration time begins for 2015-2016. (All grade level teams work in the library.) Specialist will be available to share data. Possible PLC activities: analyze schedule, KRA data, Easy CBM initial data, consider your literacy small group instructional structures for the year, set team goals in math, work on AIMS4S3 Planning.
2:45-3:45, Uninterrupted individual planning time
September 24 (H)
Academy Day- No School- AIMS4S3 Training
September 25 (F)
Academy Day- No School- AIMS4S3 Training
Important News Snippets and Announcements
District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – Linked here is the updated District Back-to-School Memo for 2015-2016, which covers a variety of district rules, policies and guidelines. All staff must review the memo and sign & return the check list acknowledgment form to Edna no later than Monday, September 28th. The memo is the same as last year with the exception of updates to the following sections:
2.) Summary of Spending Guidelines and Controls for 2015-16 – There are new spending guidelines and control in this massive document, but the part that applies most to building staff is in regards to Employee Reimbursements. See the link here to view just that section, but be aware that expenditures are supposed to be pre-approved by the building principal and that reimbursements are limited to $250 per reimbursement, per month.
5). School Board Policy JB: Harassment, Intimidation, Bullying, Cyberbullying, Hazing and Teen Dating Violence – This section was updated to include gender identity in the list of protected classes.
6.) School Board Policy JFG: Transgender and Gender Noncomforming Students – This is a new policy and also a more thorough corresponding administrative rule, that spells out rights of transgender and gender nonconforming students in regards to harassment, names/pronouns, registrations & SIS information, dress code, restroom accessibility, PE, athletics and activities, and locker room accessibility.
9.) School Board Policy AC: Nondiscrimination – This section was also updated to also include gender identity.
12.) Attendance Expectations – The district expects reliable and timely attendance by all employees. Please see the linked Attendance Expectations which are more explicit and detailed than those in the past.
Classroom Newsletters – I’d love to have copies of classroom newsletters (electronic version preferred) when teachers send/email them home to families. Remember: It is now an expectation that all classroom teachers communicate with parents on a weekly basis via newsletter of a half page each. I have increased copies to 1000 to accommodate this. Ask Karen for some easy fill templates. This helps me keep up to date on what’s happening or going to happen in classes when families ask, and it also lets me know details of any class activities that I might be able to get the local media to come out and cover. I love promoting our school!
MEET THE SUPERINTENDENT
Parents are invited to drop-in discussions with our new superintendent:
Wednesday, Sept. 16, 5:00–6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 22, 7:00–8:30 a.m.
4J Education Center, 200 N. Monroe St., Eugene
Our school district has a new leader, and he wants to meet you. 4J superintendent Dr. Gustavo Balderas is inviting parents and the public to stop in to get to know him and to share their thoughts and questions about Eugene’s schools.
Two “Meet the Superintendent” drop-in sessions are offered in September, one in the evening and one in the morning to accommodate families’ differing schedules. Both September sessions will be at the 4J Education Center near downtown Eugene; future opportunities will be held at different locations around the district.
• The Five B’s Reminder – Office help for medical needs usually follow these guidelines. The Five Bs are the five acceptable health/medial reasons to send students to the office, which are Bleeding, Barfing, Badly Bruised, Broken or Burning Up with Fever. Please note that tummy aches, sore throats and being tired are not on this list. Also, it’s helpful if staff do send students to the office if you can send them on their own, rather than sending them with “helpers.”
• Camino del Rio PRIDE/PBIS Assembly – Thursday, September 17, from 2:00-2:30 Kick-Off Assembly. The assembly will be in the cafeteria. Look for more details from Erin Piper on the skit each team will do to present teachers and staff to the school.
• Student Photos on Internet and in the Media – We’ve had more students than usual this year with No School Web Site, No News Media, No Photographs and/or No Videos checked off on their enrollment paperwork. Teachers, please take note of which of your students have these restrictions before sharing any photos in newsletters or on your websites. You can find this information in Synergy by doing the following:
1. Go to REPORTS
2. Go down to STU401, but click on the blue icon to the right that says “Open Report Interface”
3. Click on CONDITIONS
4. Click ADD
5. Under Conditions select “NewsMedia” or “SchoolWebSite” in the dropdown
6. Under Not menu, select “Not” in the dropdown
7. Under Operator, select “Contains” in the dropdown
8. Under Value n, type in Y
9. Then click print and you have a list of your students who do not have permission to be on the school website or be in the news media
• AM/PM Synergy Attendance Reminder – When taking attendance in TeachVUE, teachers have ability to check both AM and PM for absent students on one screen and only having to save once. To do this, first hover over the ATTENDANCE tab and then click LIST. Next select BOTH, located in the top left of your screen, and you will now be able to mark students absent in both the AM and PM columns and will only have to click SAVE once. Below are a couple screen shots of what I’ve described. This reminder is because quite a few teachers are not been marking PM absences. Let me know if you have any questions on this and to prevent people from wondering if they’re doing it right or not, I’ll let teachers know by Wednesday if PM absences are still not getting checked and/or saved.
First PLT Meeting, 9/22 – I’ll hold our first PLT meeting on Wednesday, September 22 at 2:50 in the conference room to develop leadership plan options. Schools with 300-349 students are be allocated 18 days to be divide among up to 6 teachers. We’ll vote on our leadership plan at an October staff meeting. Feel free to email me your thoughts on leadership plans for the year or (optionally) come to PLT to listen in and participate.
Title IIA PD Application Ideas – We can apply for up to 13 sub days to support professional development. Ideas developed so far include peer observations around math instruction and student task analysis, time to study AIMS4S3. The application is due 9/15, the day of our first staff meeting, so if you have any additional ideas, please let me know before then.
Free Mindset Kit – If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Stanford University’s FREE Mindset Kit. This free set of online lessons from Stanford University’s PERTS research center introduces students to the power of the growth mindset and describes what teachers and parents can do to help students embrace it. The kit has separate courses for teachers, parents, and teaching teams so I may bring this to a staff meeting at some point.
District Admin Update – You may have read that Family School moved to the Crest Drive building over the summer from ATA (who’s grown so much they ran out of space for Family School). Twin Oaks principal, Kathy Owen, will now be the principal of both schools and will be splitting her time between the two buildings.
Northwest Community Credit Union (NWCU) Grant – NWCU has a grant opportunity seeking requests for classroom supplies, technology, books, funding for projects, programs or field trips, to Northwest People Power volunteers to paint, landscape, move, or spruce up a space to make it a better learning environment for kids. Nominations will be accepted through October 15, 2015, while project fulfillment may extend into 2016. See their website for more information.
Withholding Recess as a Punishment Declines – Rachel Farkas, PE TOSA, shared this EdWeek article recently regarding the debate over withholding recess as a punishment. It’s an interesting read if you have time.
FUTURE OF EUGENE’S PARKS
What do you want for the future of Eugene parks and recreation? – LAST DAYS TO TAKE SURVEY
The City of Eugene Parks and Recreation is working on a 10-year vision to guide the development of Eugene’s parks, trails, recreation facilities and sports fields. And they can’t do it without you! Take the 10-minute survey by Monday, September 14. As a thank-you, you will be entered to win customized recreation experiences for family and friends and more. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YN8FPKD
Have an excellent week.
Saludos cordiales,
Joel
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