November 22, 2021

By Allan  

Howdy Bolts,

Fifteen items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – Five staffing updates:

• Behavior EA Job Posting & Interviews – Our Behavior Support EA Job Posting is now up and closes Tuesday. Hopefully I’ll get candidates on the 24th and can set up interviews for the following week, most likely on Tuesday, Nov. 30th or possibly Thursday Dec. 2nd if HR is slow getting me the candidate list, so let me know if you’re interested in being part of interviews and I’ll send you candidate applications and interview questions.

• 2.5-hour Title 1 EA (Hannah Connor) – Hannah Connor was offered and accepted our 2.5 hour Title 1 EA job. She currently works and is planning to continue to work as a Behavior Technician at the Center for Autism and Related Disorders and prior to that worked as a Personal Support Worker.

• School Nurse (Lisa West) – Nurse Cathy has been the school nurse for the ENTIRE Sheldon Region, but she is getting some relief. Lisa West has joined 4J and will be taking over at Holt and Monroe. She was at Health Screening last week, so some of you may have already met her. I actually met her about 30 years ago, because we went to high school together (Go, Highlanders!).

• BEST Coordinator (Lily Hamilton) – I realized I hadn’t included in prior announcements Ben decided to decline the BEST Coordinator position in favor of retaining his building hours, which he would have had to give up job rights to, so downtown has been conducting interviews for a while and has hired a new coordinator for Holt, Lily Hamilton. She’s a recent graduate from the UO and has worked as a Garden Educator, a Summer Program Leader at Willamalane, and as a Preschool Teacher. Downtown is still hiring BEST EAs for Holt and once they are hired, we’ll be able start things up.

• Holt Same Name Fun! – If you’re keeping track, we now we have Ashley & Ashley, Debbie & Deb, Jackie & Jacque, Jeff & Geoff, Katie, Katherine & Kathy, Kelly & Kelly, Liz & Elizabeth, Melanie & Melanie, Robert & Robbie, and Robin & Robin. Most impressively, we now have Lisa, Lisa, Lisa & Lisa, who should really start their own band.

Please give a big welcome to all our new folks!

• Artist in Residence Survey 2021 (Term 2) – For our Term 2 Artist in Residence, teachers should take a look at the LaneArts Residency Descriptions to pick your top five artists. Then fill out the linked Artist in Residence Survey 2021 (Term 2), which will help facilitate our discussion and decision at our December 7 Staff Meeting. Please complete the survey by Friday, December 3rd.

• Fire Marshall Inspection Results – Ryan is connecting with folks who had items the Fire Marshal flagged as needed correcting. If you’re interested, linked here is the complete Fire Marshal Inspection Report, which also including additional emails and documentation. The two main items we got dinged for were:

• Combustable items hanging from ceilings
• Door egress width (3-feet) blocked by rolling carts and other items

Door egress is something they’ve always been stickers for, but items hanging from ceilings is a new one to me. The Marshall will be coming the first week of December to make sure we have corrected items on the report.

• Staff Meetings, Library or Cafeteria? – It was asked last week if we need to continue to meet in the cafeteria or if we could move back to the library. I checked with downtown and even though staff are vaccinated and we are wearing masks, we still need to maintain 3-feet distance, which we cannot do with a staff our size in the library, so for now we’ll continue holding Staff Meetings in the cafeteria.

• Timeline for Potential Staffing Shifts at Semester – It was asked at last week’s Staff Meeting what the timeline would be for potential staffing shifts as a result of students changing pathway from online to in-person or vice versa. I asked at a principals’ meeting and was told they should have more information following the middle and high school shifts, which are happening now at their trimester break. They’ve realized a lot of survey data need cleaning up, with duplicate, incomplete, and/or conflicting submissions. Once that is cleaned up, the process should move fairly quickly, but as of right now, we were not given any firm dates outside of January 10th is the deadline for elementary families to submit a change request and that second semester, when students would start their new pathway, is only twenty-one days later on January 31st.

• Current Online & In-Person Numbers – Related to the above, linked here Enrollment as of 11-01-21. Holt has 486 total students, including both online and in-person. 25 are in K-5 Connect, 15 in EOA, and 446 are in-person. The grade breakdown for online students is:

KG: 5
1st: 9
2nd: 7
3rd: 5
4th: 4
5th: 10

• FREE Students CoatsJessica Cristobal, wife of UO Football Coach Mario Cristobal, donated a bunch of student sized coats to Holt. If you know of students in need of a winter coat, please check in with Melanie if we have coats in their size.

https://twitter.com/JessCristobaLLL/status/1461901510602735621

• Seesaw Family Connect – Downtown backed off on saying ALL school communication must go through Seesaw, but teachers should try to use Seesaw as a way for families to see what students are doing in class (recording videos of themselves or taking pictures of their work). This will hopefully build a connection with families, which is more challenging right now due to safety protocols. A short video message now and then can be another method for families to feel more connected to their child’s teacher.

• K-5 Health Curriculum Adoption/Pilot Opportunity – Let me know if any of you are interested in being on the adoption team to help select a new 4J Elementary Health Curriculum. See the linked email for details, but let me know by the end of the week if you’d like me to submit your name.

• Student Quarantine Change – Lane County Public Health notified 4J they are changing the 14-day quarantine for student close contacts to a 10-day quarantine. See this email for details. Another state change coming next month is a test-to-stay option.

• Reminder: Heath and Safety Protocols – HR asked principals to share a few reminders about face masks:

• Our team does not anticipate ODE or Lane County Public Health changing the requirement that face masks are required indoors for all students and staff.
• Masks should be worn at all times unless actively eating or drinking or if you are in a room with the door closed.
• Many staff have elected for an increased level of protection and use an N95 or KN95 mask. It is not appropriate to assume this means they are not vaccinated. If you recall, last year many of our employees were fit tested for N95 masks.

If you have any concerns about colleagues not following current protocols, please contact me.

• HANDBOOK HIGHLIGHT: Toys – This week’s highlight from the Holt Staff Handbook, is on Toys, which are supposed to stay home:

Toys
Toys are to be left at home. If a student brings a toy, it is teacher discretion to remove and hold if it becomes a distraction. Toys for after school programs or events should remain in a student backpack

• Computer Science Education Week / Hour of Code Dec. 6-12– December 6-12 is Computer Science Education Week, which include the Hour of Code, which was started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify “code”, to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities but expanding to all sorts of community efforts. Check out the tutorials and activities at Hour of CodeComputer Science Education WeekKhan Academy, and these Edutopia Articles. Let me know if any of you are doing something cool for the Hour of Code. I’d love to see if we can get some media coverage for some of our activities during Computer Science Education Week.

• JUST FOR FUN: What to Watch! – Ever wonder what’s new and good to watch on the streaming services? Check out Variety’s What to Watch page, which is updated weekly. They cover new and recommended shows on the major streaming platforms. I can usually find one or two new shows or movies that interests me.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

November 22 (M)
3rd Grade Staff Room Duty
9:00, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Zoom)
4:30-6:30, Allan to Conscious Discipline PD (Zoom)

November 23 (T)
1:00-3:00, Holiday Food Box Pick-Up
2:45-3:25, Leadership Team Meeting (Library)

November 24 (W)
Regular Day (maybe)

November 25 (H)
No School — Thanksgiving Break

November 26 (F)
No School — Thanksgiving Break

November 29 (M)
4th Grade Staff Room Duty

November 30 (T)
2:35-4:00, Behavior Support EA Interviews (potential)

December 1 (W)
Monthly Walk+Roll to School Day
9:00-11:00, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
2:40-3:25, KG Data Team Meeting
7:00-10:00, School Board Meeting (Zoom)

December 2 (H)
9:45-10:45, Elem Director of Elementary Visit
2:35-4:00, Behavior Support EA Interviews (potential)
5:30-8:00, Holt Staff Annual Gingerbread House Event (Katie’s House)

December 3 (F)
7:30-8:30, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting (Zoom)
1:30-2:30, Classified Staff Meeting (Library)
1:30-2:20, 1st Grade Data Team Meeting
2:25-3:15, 2nd Grade Data Team Meeting
2:30-4:00, Allan to New Teacher Mentor Meeting (Zoom)

Fingers crossed for a nice and quiet short week.

Allan