https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=11823
Hello Holt Staff,
It’s Teacher Appreciation Week, but let’s take time to appreciate ALL Holt staff members and everything you do each and every day. To honor everyone, our fabulous parent group, PAHS, is organizing a food train for Holt Staff on Monday and Wednesday (I’ll bring donuts on Tuesday and Thursday). You all are a RAD staff to work with, who make me glad to be part of Team Holt!
Fifteen items of note for this week:
• Expo Updates – No updates yet from HR regarding last week’s Job Expo. Stay tuned!
• REPEAT: Staff Pockluck, Monday – The Sunshine Committee May Staff Pockluck is happening this Monday, though PAHS is also feeding us. Feel free your name to the Staff Potluck Luncheon Sign-Up. Sunshine will provide Birthday cake for May Birthdays!
• Friday PD: 22-23 Master Schedule Planning – This Friday’s PD time will be for staff wanting to give input on next year’s Master Schedule. If you’d rather share your input over email or before the meeting, that’s fine too.
• 2022-2023 Elem Content Minutes Schedule Guide – Related to the above, downtown made a 2022-2023 Elementary Content Minutes Schedule Guide, which has the suggested (not required) amount of minutes for each content area for when schools develop their master schedules. Holt is already pretty aligned with these guidelines, with the exception that the guide lacks a math intervention period and the ELA times vary a bit. Also, the guide has a 15 minute morning recess instead of 20 minutes, which I pointed out is different from 4J’s Standard School Schedule. District admins said that was a mistake and 5 minutes will have to be pulled from somewhere else.
• 3/4/5 Annual PBIS Student Climate Survey – Traditionally the climate survey has been administered to 3rd-5th grade in early spring. However, this year the Instruction Department revamped the survey to administer to all students in grades 3rd-12th and it is almost ready to share all the details, including the link. 3rd-5th grade teachers will need to pick a date and time to administer the survey during the month of May. Be on the lookout for additional details, coming out soon.
• GI Outbreak Update – See the linked email for an update on our suspected Norovirus / GI outbreak from the head of 4J’s Health Services. The short version is cases are down by a lot and we may be able to lift current protocols this week. A big shout out to Ryan and Ritchie who’ve had A LOT of work added to their plates as a result of this outbreak.
In related news, this stomach thing seems to be making the rounds as I got a notification my own kids’ school about an outbreak at their schools.
• No Toys or Other Items at Recess – Outside of book (but not a library book), kids are not to bring toys or other items out to recess. We’re starting to see more items snuck out to recess if staff can remind students and keep an eye out for smuggled items.
• Gaga Ball Update – Facilities came out last week to survey our Gaga Ball Pit FIP (Facilitates Improvement Proposal). It’s not official until the Facilities Team meets, but it sounds like they will approve our plan. They’re a bit reluctant about it because they know that as soon as one school gets a Gaga Ball Pit, then ALL elementary schools will want one, but I like laying claim that we’re THE FIRST school in 4J with a Gaga Ball Pit. They did make a couple changes to our original proposal. One, the location needs to be on a hard surface, so it will be on hard-play next to the covered play area (see map below). The second change is we need to add rubber matting below the pit, which makes sense to avoid scraped knuckles. Facilities will install the pit, but that probably won’t happen until over the summer. However, we’ll plan to bring out the Gaga Ball Pit as a Field Day stations so kids will at least have one day with it this year. If you’re interested, linked here is a Gaga Ball Rules Slide Show I made and got classified staff input on.
• Field Day Updates – We got an okay from downtown last week to do K-2 and 3-5 Field Day, complete with parent volunteers to help run stations. We’ll hold Field Day the last week of school Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. We’ll decide on a date a a future Staff Meeting.
• 4J Summer Seal Program Updates – Downtown is hoping to add an incentive to get more staff to fill summer school vacancies. Class sizes will be increased if they do not have enough staffing and the Sheldon/North regions will be combined. I volunteered Holt to NOT host the SEAL program and to instead host Migrant Ed, which ends earlier and operated fewer days in the building.
I also asked about the summer cleaning schedule for schools hosting the SEAL program. District admin were not sure, but believed Facilities is planning on cleaning these buildings prior to the summer use, but are going to confirm that.
• Library Media Services Info – District Librarian, Amy Page, shared the linked Library Media Services Slide Show with principals, which links out to a wealth of resources for teachers, including safe search engines, the district digital book collection Sora (USER: 4J username, PASS: 4J email password), and the underused research website PebbleGo (USER: holt1 PASS: school). She also shared that she is available to create curated research sites, such as the one on slide #4 about Exploring Penguins. Just contact her at page_a@4j.lane.edu
• Next Level Sports Flag Football Staff Discount – Next Level Sports partners with the University of Oregon to bring a co-ed youth Flag Football league to Eugene June through July for grades K-7. I share this here because they are offering a coupon code for staff, so let me know if you’d like that code.
• Teacher Appreciation Week Freebies – Check these RetailMeNot and WeAreTeachers articles containing lists of all the freebies and discounts educators can get this week. Applebee’s free lunch or dinner, 20% off at Buffalo Wild Wings, 15% off J.Crew, 15% off at Michaels, 20% off at Pieology Pizza, or a free cheeseburger with any purchase at Sonic! I’m bummed Insomnia Cookies isn’t on there, but there’s some good stuff here. Also, McDonald’s has free coffee or soda if you show your ID, but wasn’t on either list.
• Celebrating Inclusive Mother’s Day & Father’s Day – As we celebrate and honor caregivers in schools, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be opportunities to recognize the diversity of family structures. See this Welcoming Schools Article for how to inclusively celebrate these holidays.
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:
May 2 (M)
Teacher/School Staff Appreciation Week
May Staff Potluck
5th Grade Staff Room Duty
8:30, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Zoom)
9:05-9:50, 3rd Grade OSAS – ELA CAT
11:20-12:20, 5th Human Growth & Development (Henrich & Parks)
1:10-2:10, 5th Human Growth & Development (Lovato & Ayres)May 3 (T)
9:05-9:50, 3rd Grade OSAS – ELA CAT
10:00-11:30, Allan to Superintendent Interview Panel Meeting (Zoom)
11:20-12:20, 5th Human Growth & Development (Henrich & Parks)
1:10-2:10, 5th Human Growth & Development (Lovato & Ayres)
2:45-3:25, Staff Meeting (Library)May 4 (W)
Star Wars Day!
Monthly Walk+Roll to School Day
8:00, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Zoom)
9:00-10:00, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
9:05-9:50, 3rd Grade OSAS – ELA CAT
11:20-12:20, 5th Human Growth & Development (Henrich & Parks)
12:30-12:55 – Delgani Strings Visit to Longoria
12:45-2:25, Storyteller, 4th Grade
1:00-1:25 – Delgani Strings Visit to Benavides
1:10-2:10, 5th Human Growth & Development (Lovato & Ayres)
1:30-1:55 – Delgani Strings Visit to Talley
7:00, School Board Meeting (Zoom)May 5 (H)
9:05-9:50, 3rd Grade OSAS – ELA CATMay 6 (F)
School Lunch Hero Day (2nd Grade)
9:00-10:00, Allan to Superintendent Interview Panel Meeting (Zoom)
10:10-12:00, 5th Grade Monroe Visit
1:30-2:25, Friday PDMay 8 (SU)
Mother’s DayMay 9 (M)
ELD/Speech/Title/Counselor Staff Room Duty
TAG Testing Window
9:05-9:50, 3rd Grade OSAS, ELA PT
11:30-12:30, 5th Grade OSAS, ELA CATMay 10 (T)
9:05-9:50, 3rd Grade OSAS, ELA PT
11:30-12:30, 5th Grade OSAS, ELA CAT
2:45-3:25, PBIS Meeting (Kelsey’s Room)
6:00-7:00, Conscious Discipline Parent Night (Zoom)
6:00-7:00, ACE Awards Celebration (Facebook)May 11 (W)
School Nurse Day (Office)
8:30-1:30, Allan to Superintendent Interviews (Ed Center)
9:05-9:50, 3rd Grade OSAS, ELA PT
9:00-11:00, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
11:30-12:30, 5th Grade OSAS, ELA CAT
12:45-2:25, Storyteller, 4th GradeMay 12 (H)
9:05-9:50, 3rd Grade OSAS, ELA PT
9:10-10:10, 4th Grade School Garden Project Lessons (Garden)
10:40-11:40, 4th Grade School Garden Project Lessons (Garden)
11:30-12:30, 5th Grade OSAS, ELA CAT
12:45-1:45, 4th Grade School Garden Project Lessons (Garden)
5:00-6:00, Site Council (Zoom)
6:00-7:00, PAHS (Parents at Holt School) Meeting (Zoom)May 13 (F)
11:30-12:30, 5th Grade OSAS, ELA CAT
1:30-2:25, Friday PD
And May the 4th be with you, always…
Allan
