Week of September 29
Calendar of the Week’s Events
September 29 (M)
8:00-8:40, Joel in 504 meeting.
8:00-11:30, Being a Writer Training for all teachers.
12:00-3:00, Joel at Being a Writer Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:45, September Site Council (Conference Room)
3:45-4:45, Meeting with Kerry Delph about our Camino Facebook page.
September 30 (T)
Kathy Larson Visit
Life Touch Picture Day (Gym All Day)
8:00-8:45- Joel visiting morning meetings.
9:00-9:45, Joel meets with new Chief of Staff, Charis McGaughy
2:40-3:00, Joel Meeting with Risk about Hilliard Traffic
October 1st (W)
8:00-8:45- Joel visiting morning meetings
1:40-2:40,Collaborative Planning Time
2:45-3:15, Dia de Los Muertos Planning Meeting in Room 9.
6:00-8:00, Curriculum Night- Plan de Estudios de Noche
October 2 (H)
Joel in Portland at Coaches and Principal’s Meeting
3:00-5:00, Design Committee
October 3 (F)
Academy Day- No School
8:00-12:00, Maravillas Training with a McGraw Hill PD Consultant
12:00-4:00, Teacher Planning Time in relation to Maravillas.
This week on duty:
Inside lobby: Olivia
Front of school: Erin Reckers
Bus area #1: Marcy
Bus area #2: Erin Piper
Bus area #3: Nancy
Please remember to take your class a few minutes early if you are on duty.
Here are 16 items of note for the week:
• Design Update– On the evening of September 25th we had a turn out of about 30 people. The majority of people attending were neighbors from the surrounding community. We presented an East option and a West option. The discussion was heated and clearly, specific neighbors feel they will be adversely effected by the West option. We will be debriefing again Monday by phone to land on an East or West siting option. The East option has benefits of providing more open space. Unfortunately, it will cost money to tear down classrooms to make an east option work. This will cost 750K and means less money put into the building itself. The West option is also attractive and can be built with a slightly larger budget since there will not be tear downs. The West option also will mean less disruption and no loss of capacity as we need more kinder classrooms in 2015-2016. Most likely, the team will move forward with a site decision in the next week either way. The cons of the west plan are related to the outside play options and clear separation of traffic and play. The team is working on other options this week to share more ideas about the West option to come up with ways to solve these problems. Here is the latest presentation provided by our architect team. There are also plans in my office on poster board which I will put up in the staff lounge this week.
• PBIS Assembly on October 9th- Get a small skit prepared with your grade level team or specialist team. The skit should be fun and short. Each piece should be 10-30 seconds.
• Next Parent Group Meeting is October 14th- Consider coming to the next parent group meeting. Our new parent group president wants to help families to hear from teachers about what is happening in classrooms. Drea wants to see if teachers want to do a short sharing of a particular grade level. It makes sense for us to start with kindergarten this month. Maestra Bucklew and Maestra Fleming, can you come to this event?
Copy Counts and conserving copies- I know many staff have been feeling the pressure of limiting copies in the IMC. Please understand that I am working hard to conserve our general supply funds. Last year, our school overspent these funds by over 8,000 dollars and we had to cover these costs with reserves from fleet funds. This is why Edna and I are watching the counts closely. It may be that we need to up the quota for all staff sooner than December. Also, please use Instaprint as much as possible. A little thinking ahead can make a big difference in reducing costs. Also, there is currently no limit on Instaprint orders. In addition, we are looking into limiting the office copying by using a hybrid online/paper system to cut costs there. At open house next week, please ask parents for their latest email address so we can make sure that system is as accurate as possible. Edna will provide a sign up sheet for you next week. If we could deliver our newsletter to a quarter or even half of our families via email, it would drastically reduce our copy costs in the office.
• Northwest Conference on Social Justice October 18th– Jill Torres is helping to organize staff who are interested in going to the Northwest Social Justice Conference. There will be a bus provided to 4j employees who want to go. It will be in Portland this year. It is 8-4:30 on October 18th, 2014 at Madison High School 2735 NE 82nd Ave. Portland, Oregon 97220
• Operation School Bell – Alicia wanted to inform you that tthere are Operation School Bell envelopes in your boxes. If you got some, please make sure to send them home with the student on Monday, September 29. The envelope contains time sensitive information. Please let Alicia know if you have any questions. Thank your for your assistance.
• Safety Week Continues – This week is Safety Week, where we’ll practice all of the most common safety drills. The schedule for the week is below. Of course, if it rains, we will have to adjust the schedule. Staff did an excellent job getting students outside for last week’s fire drill. I have included a link here if you want to read more about earthquake safety and preparedness.
• Monday, Sept. 29– No Drills.
• Tuesday, Sept. 30– Room Clear, time decided by teachers
• Wednesday, Oct. 1 – Earthquake/Fire Drill
• Thursday, Oct. 2– Lock Down (Code Blue and Code Red)
All of these drills are listed in the “Emergency Procedures Manual” which is the rainbow tabbed notebook that should be hanging in every classroom (let me know if you don’t have one). I won’t be making any announcement before the drills, so it’s okay for staff to prep your students before these drills take place. For the Lock Down drill, please review the Code Blue and Code Red procedures, which include steps that are specific to River Road and are more detailed than the general ones in the Emergency Procedures Manual. I will probably have Karen or Edna run this drill since I will be out of town that day. Please let me know if you have any questions.
• Sub Folders to Edna – If you haven’t already, be sure to give your completed sub folders to Edna. For licensed staff, EAST, the substitute teachers union, provided a list of what information is most useful for them when they go into a classroom, which teachers may want to take a look at before completing your sub folders.
• Eugene/Springfield NAACP Resource Center – The Eugene/Springfield chapter of the NAACP just had their Resource Center Kick-Off Event and I wanted to highlight some resources staff may want to recommend to students and families. There are a couple programs aimed more at secondary students, which are the Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) and the Youth Council, but the program that would most benefit our students and families is the Back to School/Stay in School (BTS) program, which offers free tutoring, computer lab and academic/Parental assistance and counseling every Saturday (beginning Oct. 4) from 10:00-12:00 at the LCC Downtown Campus.
• Language Link Interpretation Services – For individual parent meetings and phone calls requiring translation services (including Parent/Teacher Conferences), the ELD Office is highly recommending that staff use the Language Link phone service (see attached document for details). This is a company the district contracts with who are well versed in education jargon, can translate multiple languages and are quite experienced in translating for schools. The ELD office will still try to schedule an in-district translator for conferences, but just know that this is also an option and in some ways might be better for connecting with families since you’d be able to better avoid having everyone talking to the translator instead of talking to each other. Of course, during our conferences, most classroom teachers will conference in the language of the parent since we have bilingual teachers.
• Ed Center Artwork Display – The Ed Center has two glass display cases begging for student artwork. It needs to be either 8×11 flat or three dimensional no larger than 8 inches on any side. If you are interested in participating, please let me know. This is a great way to help kids fell empowered and proud of their artistic skills.
• Papa’s Pizza Student Incentive Award – Papa’s Pizza is offering achievement awards that can be given to students for good behavior or reaching other teacher set goals as an incentive. The students receiving the awards can redeem them at Papa’s Pizza for a free mini pizza. If you you’d like some of these for your class, please let me know by end of the week how many you’d like. Papa’s said they can provide them all school year long. I already received 25 last week to begin this program.
• City of EugeneTeaching Resources – The City of Eugene offers a wide range of K-12 resources that teachers can use to add interest and local content to lesson plans. This brochure offers some examples of these great opportunities for students, including RiverPlay/Discovery Village Field Trip, Hunting for History, Snow Plow Art, the annual Public Works Day and many others.
• UO International Cultural Presentations for Classrooms – The International Cultural Services Program is once again making their student ambassadors from across the globe available for the 2014-2015 school year. Since the program’s inception almost 30 years ago, ICPS participants have brought cultural diversity to our community through group presentations, panel discussions, and demonstrations of regional dance, music, food and many other forms of cultural expressions. This program is K-12 and is offered free of charge. If you would like to invite an international student to speak to your class, you can submit a request by filling out this online request form. If at any time you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the ICSP Coordinator, Lindsay Pepper, by email icsp@uoregon.edu or phone (541) 346-7429.
• VIDEO: “Hey White People: A Kinda Awkward Note to America by Ferguson Kids” – A radio station from Ferguson, MO made a pretty smart and snappy video highlighting common detours to discussing and addressing racism in America, our local community and even in ourselves.
• Hispanic Heritage Month- Check out the UO Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration organized in part by Jessica Zapata
Ten un buen semana de escuela!
Director Joel
Announcements, Being a Writer, Equity, Evacuation Drills, Maravillas- McGraw Hill, Office Procedures, Open House, Parent Involvement, Uncategorized | Comment (0)Week of September 2nd
Week of September 1st Schedule of Events
Monday, September 1st
Labor Day
Tuesday, September 2nd
Teacher Planning-8:00-2:45 PM
Open House 2:45-3:45 PM – See note below.
Wednesday, September 3rd
First Day of School-2014-2015
Early Release at 1:40
1:40-2:40 Collaborative Planning Time with your Grade Level Team or Specialists
Thursday, September 4th
School Wide BBQ 6:00-8:00 PM
Friday, September 5th
Green Team Meeting at 2:45 with GPS
Happy Friday
Hi all,
I had a great three day weekend and I hope you did too. I have not had a chance to get all of our PD materials listed in the tabs above yet, but will work on this during the day tomorrow. You can expect all the materials from PD sessions to be up with the exception of some of the Caring for Kid’s Planning materials. I have those in paper in case you missed it. Erin Gaston will probably get those to me in electronic form by the end of the week. I hope you all get settled in nicely to your routines. Enjoy getting to know your students. I am especially excited to get to know them this fall. In fact, I haven’t been this excited for the start of school since well, maybe 1984 when I started 5th grade.
I changed my blog address this week to remove the Awbrey Park reference. We are now Camino staff! Please bookmark this new address.
Here are some items of note for the week:
• Open House Procedures: Staff should greet families in your classrooms from 2:45 to 3:45. I will come on the PA to thank families for their visit at 2:40 and encourage them to go home. Please collect fees in your classroom of $ 25. This will help reduce the lines in the cafeteria for paying fees. Provide a receipt for them and keep track on a roll sheet. Edna will get these to you tomorrow before the open house. If families choose to, they can pay in the cafeteria. Families can pay for more than one child at once in your room IF you keep track of all payments. Edna, Yasmin, and any licensed specialists (Sarah, Karen, Bryan, Aline) available are encouraged to support fee payment and bus information distribution in the cafeteria.
• Supervision First Week of School – All available staff should help supervise in the morning out front and in the hallway areas. Students and buses generally start arriving at 7:50. Staff should also help out at dismissal in the bus area and by the front of the building near the sign. Even if you are not on the supervision list, please make yourself very visible on the first few days. It makes a big difference to relieve all those new school jitters and it’s just helpful.
• Staffing Updates – PE Position to be interviewed this week. We have not hired a Temporary PE position yet due to a lack of applicants. Still, just this weekend, a couple new applicants were referred in NEOGOV. Allan Chinn and my self will be reviewing these applicants and most likely doing interviews within a week. In the meantime, there will a a guest PE teacher to begin the PE schedule. The first day for PE is Thursday and a PE teacher should be here. Music also begins this week with David Adee.
Due to a large kinder class (85 at last count), I am lobbying the district to increase staffing for our kinder EA’s. I will keep you all up to date on how we are doing with that and if we get more hours to support kinder soon.
• PBIS Focus: Virtudes de Ganas PRIDE Focus is Respect– The September PBIS monthly focus is a great connection to your CFK Morning Meetings. Once you get beyond names and greetings, consider using respect as a theme for the month of September/October for conversation.
• Classroom Newsletters – Please forward me electronic copies of classroom newsletters (electronic version preferred) when teachers send/email them home to families. This helps me keep up to date on what’s happening (or going to happen) in classes, and 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!
• District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – Attached and linked here is the District Back-to-School Memo, which ALL staff must review and sign & return the acknowledgement form to Edna no later than Friday, September 26th.
• Camino del Río Staff Handbook Review – Attached is the updated Staff Handbook for 2014-2015. All staff must review the handbook and sign & return the acknowledgement form to Edna by Friday, September 26th.
• Principal Visits to Classrooms to Read and Greet – I’d like to again visit every classroom sometime during the first couple weeks of school to greet students. I’ll read a favorite story to your class and chat with the kids a bit. Teachers, please let me know a good 15-20 minute block of time to come and visit in Spanish or English. Thank you!
• TAG Identified Students – Jennifer and I will be reviewing any TAG identified students in the next week. We will send you an email to ensure you are aware of the student needs. We may be meeting to revise TAG Plans as needed.
• Information Supplied for Guest Teachers – In this email from HR is a list of suggested information/items that teachers should consider when preparing lesson plans for Guest Teachers. With the goal being seamless transition and a successful day when our permanent staff are out, it is essential that our Guest Teachers receive the best information possible.
• 4J Admin Updates – Maddie Ahearn is the new Math Curriculum Administrator for the 2014/15 school year. Maddie was previously a math teacher leader in 4J, working at North Eugene and Roosevelt. I was on the interview team that helped hire Maddie into 4j in 2010 and am happy to see her take on such an important role in our district. Before coming to Eugene 4J in 2010, she worked in Baltimore Maryland as a math instructional coach and teacher. Randi Bowers-Payne was just hired for the Risk Manager Administrator position. In Lansing, Michigan, Randi acted as the entire Human Resource department for a Regional Education Service Agency.
• Dept. of Ed. projects public schools will be ‘majority-minority’ this fall – If we needed an additional reason to focus on issues of race and equity, a milestone is expected to be reached this fall when minorities outnumber whites among the nation’s public school students for the first time, U.S. Department of Education projections show. This is due largely to fast growth in the number of Hispanic and Asian school-age children born in the U.S., according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.
That’s all for now. Have a great week.
Joel
Announcements, Back to School, Equity, Open House | Comment (0)