Week of February 19th, 2018
Dear Shining Star Staff,
This week is National Custodian Appreciation Week. Craig Young and Dan O’Donnell have done an amazing job to transition us into this new beautiful building. Each day, I am in awe at how they have managed to keep the place looking beautiful and shiny. The budget for window cleaner is definitely going up! The school is bigger and different to clean than the old building. They are doing an incredible job. In addition, their friendliness and care for students carries on a long tradition at River Road/ El Camino del Río. Kindness and cleaning do go hand in hand. Dan and Craig are experts at this combination. Thank you both for your hard work and care for our students! The El Camino del Río community loves you!
• Making Every Classroom a Racism Free Zone- This week will be the 2nd meeting of the RFZ team. We will begin to fine tune the school wide language for our RFZ. In addition, we will begin to make plans for encouraging teachers in every classroom to establish their own RFZ. Student voice is very important in this process. We want each classroom to have a student written RFZ in each room. 100% of our classrooms!
Here is the current ATA RFZ declaration based on the RFZ of Jefferson and Magnet Arts Schools:
Arts & Technology Academy’s Racism Free Zone Declaration
We, the students of Arts and Technology Academy declare our school to be a Racism Free Zone.
- Our school will be free and open to all people without regard to cultural or color differences.
- No racist remark or harassment will be allowed.
- Any such actions will result in serious consequences and educational opportunities.
- Our school will be respectful to people of all races and cultures.
- All people will be welcomed here.
- We will do our very best to get rid of racism from our school and the world.
Consider modifying this to fit your students developmental level and share it with staff if you have created a declaration early. This can be a class wide writing activity.
• Mid Term Goals Meeting and Mid Term Goals Reports – I have been chipping away at mid term goals meetings this last week. We are about half way done. This year, I hope to meet with each teacher to see not just how you are doing on the academic goals set, but to find out how you are doing as a professional. This meeting is an opportunity for you to tell me more about how the year is going for you and if there is anything I might want to adjust in my leadership to support you. So please come with one thing I can change to be a better leader for you.
• District Report Card Revision Group – Instruction Department Leaders and EEA are putting together a group to work on revising elementary report cards, with the goal of condensing the report card, while keeping it meaningful. For the committee they want 6 reps per grade level from across the district, so let me know by the end of the week if any of you are interested in me forwarding your name to Brooke. Lilliana Chaves already wants to do this work. I will be checking in with her on Tuesday.
• EEF Grants Coming – It’s time to start preparing for EEF’s grant applications for next school year. This year, the application process will open on April 1st, and applications will be due on May 15th. The application form, details about the timeline, process, and many other helpful hints will be posted soon on the EEF Grants webpage. These grants have made a HUGE difference in developing our program and our library.
• Free Hult Center Field Trip: The Orchestra Swings – The Eugene Symphony will be featuring River Road students participating in the BEST After School program, onstage, at an upcoming youth concert:,The Orchestra Swings on Tuesday, March 13 at the Hult Center, with two performances, 10:30 AM & 12:30 PM. Buses are free and ticket prices for students were waived for River Road/ El Camino de Río (they are asking for $5 per adult, but the building can cover that). I plan on sending the 3rd grade to this and here is the link Online Field Trip Register Form. Perhaps another grade wants to go.
• Earthquake/Fire Drill Tuesday, February 27 at 1:30 – Next Tuesday at 1:30 will be our February Fire Drill and also our second and final required earthquake drill of the school year. Given the recent school shooting in Florida, I’m going to announce the drills ahead of time for students during morning announcements and also right before the drill. Parents will also be informed in the weekly newsletter.
• District Admin Updates – Harlan Coats, Director of Facilities and Transportation, has decided to retire at the end of the school year. If you don’t know Harlan, he’s a great guy and is 4Js very own Horatio Alger story. He was a 4J student, starting out in 1981 as a waste collector back when 4J ran their own garbage service, and worked his way up through the ranks to the Director of Facilities. 4J will be posting the position to find Harlan’s replacement. Harlan’s footprint on the quality of our school facilities is expansive and he will be greatly missed.
Here are some of the main events of the next two weeks.
February 19 (M)
President’s Day- No School
February 20 (T)
8:30-10:00, Classroom Observations and Mid Term Goals
10:15-1:45, Joel at the big staffing meeting
February 21 (W)
2:00-3:00, Staff Meeting-
PD focus on ELL’s and Academic Language Learners and Writing with Lily Gold.
6:00-7:00, Kindergarten Orientation
February 22 (Th)
8:00-4:00, Teachers and Joel at Dual Language Retreat at LCC
February 23 (F)
8:00-4:00, Teachers and Joel at Dual Language Retreat at LCC
6:30-8:30 PM, Movie Night
February 26 (M)
9:00-11:00, Joel in classrooms
4:00-5:30, Joel at All Admin Meeting
February 27 (T)
9:00-11:00, Joel in classrooms
1:30-1:45, Earthquake Drill and Evacuation- A special announcement will be made to families ahead of this announcement.
February 28 (W)
9:00-11:00, Joel in classrooms
2:00-3:00- Grade Level Planning for Math Instruction- Teachers expected to work together by grade level on math planning.
March 1 (Th)
8:00-4:00, Joel at the TAG Training at Lane ESD
March 2 (F)
9:00-11:00, Joel in classrooms
Have a great week everyone!
Best,
Joel
