Week of June 11, 2018
Hi Everyone,
We’ve made it! The final week of the school year! Thank you, everyone, for making our school so great for our students and families. Here’s the final announcements of the school year.
• End of Year Ice Cream Celebration – After kids leave on the last day of school at 12:15, we’ll have an end-of-the-year ice cream celebration in the cafeteria. There will be root beer floats, ice cream sundaes with all the fixings, and it will also be a chance for us to wish well those staff members leaving us this summer. See all you there!
• PE and Music Updates – Downtown has finally decided how PE and Music will work for next year, which is that students will get two PE classes and two Music classes each week, all year long. For us, that means we get to have a full-time PE and full-time Music teacher all year long. Ronny is moving to ATA to become a health teacher. David is staying with us. The district will help us hire a new PE teacher who will stay with us all week long.
• Master Schedule Updates – Last Thursday we worked hard on revising the master schedule. There will be some changes next year as we try to maximize the PE time across the school. In addition, we are setting a common English Tier 2 time to allow for greater flexibility in grouping across grades. Lastly, one other big change is to formalize SLD during language time across all the grades.
•4th Grade Interview on Monday and Tuesday – We will be having 4th grade interviews on Monday and Tuesday. I will let staff know as soon as a hire is confirmed in June.
• Fire Drill Tuesday at 9:00 – While a few classes are away on field trips, we’ll hold our June Fire drill at 9:00.
• Field Day – Field day is Monday in the AM. It will include several stations which are detailed in Ronny’s email. Ronny did a great job organizing the whole thing. Also, Jaime helped to finalize the volunteer schedule. Thank you Ronny and Jaime for coordinating this.
Teachers — please go back and read those emails and attachments closely for organization on Monday. PE will be cancelled tomorrow.
• 2018-2019 PLC Info & Free Book! – I recently shared with teachers about the Professional Learning Community (PLC) model teachers will be participating in next school year. Principals have been reading the book Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work, and if there are any teachers interested in also reading the book to learn more about the process, I thought I’d offer to purchase the book for you for your summer reading list. Let me know by the end of the week if you’d like a copy of the book and I’ll get it ordered for you. On a related note, to support the PLC rollout across the district, downtown added another Staff Development Specialist (SDS), which has made for some SDS re-shuffling, so for next year Reid Sheppard has still been assigned to our school (Yes!).
• Summer Lego Robotics PD at Lane ESD – Teachers, there is a summer professional development around Lego Robotics and Coding happening at Lane ESD, August 1-3. If our building sends at least one teacher all three days and fills out the paperwork on your plan for how to use it with students, our school will get a complete LEGO EV3 Core Set (a $400 value)! I would be able to cover the refundable $50 registration fee to reserve your spot. If any teachers are interested, let me know by the end of the week. See this workshop link for additional information.
• 4J book giveaway June 11-13 – Library Services is moving out of their space at the Ed Center and has hundreds of gently used ex-library books to give away. There are books for all age levels, from preschool through high school, fiction and nonfiction. This is a great opportunity for teachers to add to their classroom libraries. When: Mon-Wed June 11-13, 1:00-5:00 Where: Library Services, Ed Center (straight from the main door, jog left, follow the signs) What: books, bookends, posters
• Care Team Summer Resource – Linked here is a List of Summer Family Activities sent to me by the contact at DHS. The document is in both English and Spanish.
• Changes to District TAG Identification for 18-19 – Sarah Prater Eichner, the District TAG Coordinator, let Building TAG Coordinators and principal know about some changes coming next school year. Her email has all of the details, but the short version is that next year there will be a fall TAG testing window for students to be referred for testing. There will also be a spring testing window for students scoring in the 97% on OAKS. Sarah is also planning to visit schools to share information about the process for identification of underrepresented populations. I will give you a revised district TAG plan in the Fall.
• District School Improvement and Professional Development Surveys – Downtown is surveying licensed, classified, and administrators regarding district professional development and school improvement plans. Linked here is the Classified Staff Survey and Licensed Staff Survey.
• Survey on the future of assessment in 4J – Oscar Loureiro sent an email to teachers and Title 1 EAs earlier, but if you haven’t already, please complete the linked Criteria to Choose a Universal Screening Assessment for 4J. One of the district goals on the 4J Vision 20/20 Strategic Plan is to have a balanced system of assessments that supports effective teaching and learning, informs continuous improvement, and promotes equity in student access and outcomes. See the above linked email for additional details.
• District Admin Update – Peter Tromba is returning to 4J to be principal of Spencer Butte Middle School, as Tasha Katsuda departs for a role as a district curriculum director in Bethel. Peter has been principal at North, Monroe, and at Spencer Butte nearly 20 years ago. He’s also been the 4J Technology Director before he was recruited to work at ODE. Peter is an old friend of mine who I am happy to see back in a leadership role in 4J.
Here is our end of the year calendar:
June 11 (M)
Field Day from 9:00-11:00
June 12 (T)
All staff library books due back to the library
June 13 (W)
5th Grade to the Coast All Day
June 14 (H)
June 15 (F)
Last Day for Students, Early Release
Last Day for 192 & 196 Day Classified Employees
9:00-10:30- 5th Grade Breakfast (Cafeteria)
11:15- 5th Grade Clap out
10:35, Grab-n-Go Sack Lunches (Cafeteria)
11:40, K-5 Dismissal
12:00, Staff Last Day of School Root Beer Float & Ice Cream Party and Staff Farewell Celebration (Cafeteria)
June 18 (M)
Last Day for Licensed Staff
4:00-5:30, Joel to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)
June 28 (H)
Joel’s Last Day
July 26 (H)
Joel Reports Back to Work
August 28 (T)
Licensed Staff Report Back
August 29 (W)
Classified Staff Report Back
El Camino del Rio Staff Back-to-School Staff Meeting
Have a fabulous summer everyone and I’ll look forward to seeing you all in the fall!
Joel
