September 12, 2022

By Allan  

Hi Everyone,

We survived our first week of school and now gird yourselves for our first full week of school!

Twenty-five items of note for this week:

• Assembly Photos? – If anyone snapped some photos of Friday’s Assembly, please send me your photos. I’d love to post some on our Holt social media.

• Back to School Night (i.e. Curriculum Night) – To better capture our hybrid Curriculum Night / Open House, I’m rebranding our event “Back to School Night.” I’ll send out the linked Back to School Night Flyer to families on Monday. Let me know if you have any suggestions for edits. I’ll include in the Quick News article that specialists (SPED, ELD, Music, PE, and Library) will also be available to meet with families. The schedule will be:

5:30-6:00 Back to School Night Begins
– Kindergarten meetings in classrooms begin
– 1st-3rd grade open house in classrooms (drop in)
– Free pizza & Title1 Annual Meeting in cafeteria:

6:00-6:30
– 4th/5th grade meetings in classrooms begin
– 1st-3rd grade open house in classrooms (drop in)
– Free pizza & Title1 Annual Meeting in cafeteria:

6:30 Back to School Night Ends

• Leadership Survey – Shared at the back-to-school Staff Meeting is the linked Leadership Plan Survey. This will be on the agenda for next week’s Staff Meeting and filling out this form will help focus that discussion.

• Morning Announcements, Monday @8:00 – I’ll start doing Monday morning announcements this week at 8:00. I’ll do them at this time each Monday until we have our usual student news crew in place. I’ll do a few short announcements and end with the Pledge of Allegiance.

• Friday PD, Curriculum – Downtown asked principals to share the following info with teachers:

Geodes PD for grades K-2 (for classroom teachers): Zoom session from 2:25-3:55. This training is a 90 minutes session that goes past the typical work day and teachers will be compensated for the additional and optional 30 minutes that they attend on both Fridays. Teachers will take their 1 hour of preparation time before the PD session.

Social Studies PD for grades 3-5 (classroom teachers): The social studies PD will ONLY run for 1 hour via Zoom, 1:25-2:25.

• Fire Drill, Thursday, Sept 22nd @12:50 – TIME UPDATED – No this week, but next week will be our first Fire Dill of the year, on Thursday, September 22nd at 12:55. Since this is our drill, it’s fine for teachers let students know about the drill ahead of time to do pre-teaching before it happens.

See the Holt Staff Handbook for complete details on Fire Drill Procedures, but highlights are:

• Students and staff clear the building, following the Evacuation Routes.
• Teachers should take their Emergency Binders (let me know if you do not have one).
• Classes walk single file to their marked spot at soft play/playground (see map).
• Students at specialists (PE, Music, Title, ELD, SPED, etc.) return to their homeroom teacher for attendance
• Teachers take attendance and raise their green card once all children are accounted for.
• Notify the admin or designee or of any missing/additional children in your line by raising the red card.
• Admin or designee running the drill will announce the all-clear when classes may return to the building.

On a related note, I’m planning on holding a “Safety Week” the week of Oct. 31st to review all the most common safety drills. Principals are still waiting to hear from downtown what they want us to present to staff on the I Love U Guys standard response protocols, which is replacing the ALICE Drills. I asked if principals could put together our own presentation if we were comfortable, but was told we had wait for downtown to create it.

• Voice Level in Hallways – Student voice levels in the hallway should be zero until you reach the fire doors near the cafeteria, where students should try to keep it to level 1 of volume.

• Classified Computer Access for Email – All staff should check their email at least once each workday. Mornings are the best time to check, since this is when last minute schedule changes get communicated due to unfilled sub jobs. If there are classified staff who’d like a laptop to check email, let me know and we can get you one. There is also a computer available in the office by the copier for staff to use.

• Air Quality Updates & Inside Recess– We had some bad air quality over the weekend and downtown emailed that schools are to do, using AirNow.gov as the official AQI measure.

AQI 150 or higher, keep outdoor activities to a minimum. Students may have recess outside, but activity should be limited—no high-exertion activities like running games.
AQI 200 or higher, all recesses and activities are done indoors.

• 4J Policy Review Highlights – Checklist Due Oct. 30 – Linked here is this year’s District Back-to-School Memo, which covers a variety of district rules, policies and guidelines. Section 1 is the portion that staff are required to review and return to me a singed Staff Orientation Checklist by Oct. 30th. I’ll dedicate the “Building Based” Friday PD on Sept. 23rd to giving staff time to review this on your own. I didn’t spot much that changed since the last 19-20 Policy Memo, but here are some highlights:

GIFTS – Staff cannot accept any gift or gifts with an aggregate value of $50 or more during any calendar year from any single source (person or entity).

REIMBURSEMENTS – Expenditures must be pre-approved, are limited to $250 per reimbursement, per month, and should be submitted and paid through Financial Services within 60 days of when the expenditure was incurred. Per IRS requirements, employee reimbursement requests that are submitted more than 60 days following the expenditure will be considered TAXABLE INCOME to the employee.

RACIAL HARASSMENT POLICY (NEW) – Adopted last spring, Board Policy ACC – Racial Harassment, sets the expectation that staff who have knowledge of racial harassment are responsible for taking action to stop the behavior and report it that day to the school admin. Examples of conduct prohibited by this policy, regardless of intent, include but are not limited to: racial slurs or epithets; unwelcome gestures or acts of physical aggression based on the person’s race or ethnicity; derogatory language about a person’s skincolor, accent, appearance or dress when linked to ethnicity or ancestry; statements or display of graffiti or printed material promoting racial stereotypes; offensive jokes or comments about a religious group when based on actual or perceived shared ancestry, ethnic characteristics or residency in a country with a distinct religious identity; display of symbols of hate; and verbal or nonverbal slights or insults which communicate hostile, derogatory or negative messages to persons based on their race or ethnicity. Students who violate this policy are subject to discipline as provided in the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook. Staff members who violate this policy, including by failing to stop or appropriately respond to a report of racial harassment, are subject to discipline.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT – In 2021, the district’s Sexual Harassment policy was revised to distinguish between harassment towards staff and harassment towards students. All incidents of sexual harassment are to be reported to the building administrator. Sexual harassment of students and employees is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

ATTENDANCE – 4J expects reliable and timely attendance and timely leave notification by all employees. Be sure to review the linked Attendance Expectations and Notice Requirements document.

REPORTING CHILD ABUSE – All staff are mandatory reporters. If you become aware of abuse/neglect, you must notify the building administrator and also complete an Abuse Reporting Form (make a copy and don’t edit the original), which helps me track dates, concerns, and how many calls we’ve made for individual student. To make a report, you can call either:

Oregon Child Abuse Hotline, 1-855-503-7233 (SAFE)
Eugene Police Department Non-Emergency number, (541) 682-5111

GUEST SPEAKERS – Staff must ensure presenters and guest speakers adhere to the following guidelines:

• Information presented must be educational, not promotional.
• Presenters are prohibited from gathering personally identifying information from students.
• Information presented should be age appropriate and relevant to curriculum and classroom instruction.
• Information must be presented in a neutral and nondiscriminatory manner.
• District representatives (Holt staff arranging the presentation or guest speaker) have a responsibility for vetting and supervision of guest speakers and outside presenters. Building administrators have the authority to cancel or stop presentations deemed to be inappropriate.

WELLNESS POLICY – Key elements of the 4J Wellness Policy that may affect you include:

• Soda pop (including no-calorie varieties) will not be sold or distributed at school.
• Use of candy as a reward is strongly discouraged. Certain candies that are largely sugar with minimal nutritional value may not be given to students as a reward.
• Foods of minimal nutritional value that do not conform with the wellness policy (such as soda pop, most candy, candy-coated popcorn, water ices) may not be purchased with a district funs and cannot be reimbursed.

TRANSGENDER & GENDER NONCONFORMING STUDENTS – Students have the right to be addressed and referred to by a name and pronoun that corresponds with the student’s gender identity, consistently asserted by the student at school. Students have the right to keep their transgender status private. Students shall have access to a restroom that corresponds to the gender identity they consistently assert at school.

• Start of the Year Feedback – The first week of school seemed to generally go well, but can you think of anything that would have made it smoother? Let me know your thoughts so I can make note of them for next year. As of now feedback I’ve gotten is:

⁃ Rules Round-Up start time should be later on first day of school.
⁃ Looking up bus route info for new enrollments not on the list yet ahead of time.
⁃ And not really in our control, but I can give downtown the feedback staff should have more time for prep inservice week and to schedule most of the PD until after the school year has started.

• Hall Passes – We are using the pink Hall Pass / Office forms until they run out and have an updated one we’ll use. In the meantime, you can write “C” for Calming Room since it is not listed.

• Friends Riding on Buses – The Transportation Dept. shared with secretaries that they will again allow students from the same school to ride home from school with a friend IF THEY HAVE A NOTE FROM A PARENT/GUARDIAN. The procedure is that students should bring the note to the office (or office staff can write a note if parents call or email), where office staff will initial, stamp or in some way designate that you have seen the note and assessed that it is authentic. Students then show the note to the driver at the end of the day and they will allow the students to ride home together. If students come to the bus without some designation from the office, the driver will send them back to the office.

• CPR/AED/First Aid Training Update – I tried to grab the Oct. 14th PD day for the CPR/AED/First Aid Training, but they are unavailable that day. Instead, they are checking if they can break up the 5.5 hour training into two parts we can do after school or if they can do one long one starting right after school.

• TalentEd Goals and Self Assessment – All staff, both classified and licensed staff, need to complete the self assessment/reflection in TalentEd by October 1st. For licensed staff, I’ll hold an Optional Building SMART Goals Meeting next week on Wednesday, Sept. 21st.

• REPEAT: Principal Visits to Classrooms – Teachers, if you haven’t already, let me know a good 10-minute block of time I can come and visit sometime this month. Thank you!

• REPEAT: Team Sign-Ups – If you’d like to sign-up to be a member of one of our building teams, please add your name to the Team Sign-Up Sheet (2022-2023). Leadership Team (monthly), PBIS Team (monthly), IPBS/SEL Team (twice a month), and I added an Equity Team Meeting (monthly).

• REPEAT: Insurance Open Enrollment Deadline, THURSDAY – A reminder that you need to choose your insurance plan by September 15th or else you will lose your health insurance benefits for this year. See the linked 4J Open Enrollment 2022-23 Website for details.

• REPEAT: Holt Staff Fun Facts – If you haven’t already, be sure to fill out or update your info on the Holt Staff Fun Facts Spreadsheet.

• Human Resources FAQ – HR sent principals an HR FAQ at the start of the year and I wanted to highlight a couple points:

Unpaid Leave Days – If staff request unpaid leave days, either because you’ve run out or unable to use sick or personal leave days, they must request this time, in advance from Human Resources. HR will generally contact the supervisor (me) to discuss any potential hardship on the program, before approving the leave. To request unpaid leave, staff should go to the HR leave webpage: https://www.4j.lane.edu/hr/loa/

Employee Assistance Program (EAP) – All staff are eligible to use the EAP program through Uprise Health. EAP is a free and confidential service to staff and their dependents and provides a wide variety of benefits. To access services, call 866-750-1327 or go online to uprisehealth.com and use the access code: OEBB.

Employee Assistance Program Services include the following:

Counseling Services – 1 to 6 Visits
● Face-to-face counseling
● Counseling by phone
● No copays
● 24-hour crisis assistance

Work-Life Balance Resources
● Legal & Mediation
● Childcare, Adult & Eldercare Services
● Online Will Preparation
● Mediation Services
● Identity Theft
● Financial
● Home Ownership Program
● College Planning Program
● Free Resilience Webinars

• Enrollment Info – Holt is now officially one of the few school overenrolled. Not by a lot, but enough I can make more compelling of arguments with district admin about some of our class sizes and they can’t come back with “change your current configuration to fix it.” Here’s the district Enrollment as of 09/09/22.

• District Leadership Update – Downtown is adding another admin position and also reworking some of the positions. If you’re interested, see the linked email for details and the new district admin organizational chart.

• Sept. Library Connection Choice Board – Easy to miss in Amy Page’s monthly Library Connection is the Student Choice Board, which works great as an early finisher activity for students, particularly at older grades (K/1 would need more help), or can be that extra homework activity a parent might ask for. Check it out!

• Building Strong Foundations With Classroom Routines – Investing time early in the year to establish procedures and expectations lets teachers and students enjoy a classroom that runs more smoothly (almost!) every day. See the Edutopia Video below for some good tips and reminders.

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

September 12 (M)
Pastini Fundraiser Begins (Sept. 12 – Oct. 16)
Fall Benchmarking Window Opens
ELD Begins (Tier 3 Reading Time)
4:00-5:30, Allan to Equity PD (Ed Center)

September 13 (T)
2:45-3:30, PBIS/SEL/Equity Meeting (Kelsey’s Room)

September 14 (W)
Regular Day

September 15 (H)
Deadline for Open Enrollment (Insurance)
9:00, Safety Committee Meeting (Office)
6:00-7:00, PAHS (Parents at Holt School) Meeting (Cafeteria)

September 16 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to MAPS Meeting
1:25-2:25, Friday PD, 3-5 – Social Studies (Zoom)
2:25-3:55, Friday PD, K-2 – Geodes (Zoom)

September 19 (M)
International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Pastini Fundraiser Continues
Fall Benchmarking Continues
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Zoom or Ed Center)

September 20 (T)
School IT Professional’s Day (Speech/ELD)
2:45-3:30, Staff Meeting (Library)

September 21 (W)
2:45-3:15, Optional Building SMART Goals Meeting (Library)
7:00-9:00, School Board Meeting (Zoom)

September 22 (H)
12:55, Fire Drill (UPDATED TIME)
1:00-5:00, 4J Flu Shot Clinic (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Kelsey’s Room)

September 23 (F)
1:25-2:25, Friday PD – Building Based (4J Policy Review)

Have a good week, everyone!

Allan