https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=12676
Welcome back, everyone!
Hope you all had a restful spring break.
Twenty-one items of note for this week:
• 23-24 Staffing Updates – Three updates:
• SPED EA Staffing Update – SSD is evaluating requests for additional staffing next week, but HR added back 2 hours of SPED EA time, which brings Molly back up to her same hours as this year. This is not in response to our request for additional EA time, but I believe it’s downtown using “fix-it” funds to avoid unnecessary bumping.
• Darla Moving to EOA Next Year – Darla was officially placed at EOA for next year, which leaves us with a counseling vacancy for the Job Expo. HR and EEA made an agreement a few years ago giving principals an option to officially hire temp licensed staff ahead of the Job Expo, rather than holding disingenuous interviews. Bummer for us, but good for Darla and EOA. We will miss you, Darla!
• Whitney Moving to Gilham Next Year – SSD has placed Whitney into a full-time SPED position at Gilham for next year. One of Gilham’s SPED teachers is retiring at the end of the year, leaving them with a vacancy. We’ll miss you, Whitney!
• 23-24 Vacancies Summary – Below is a list of the openings we’ll take to the Job Expo later in April:
0.2 FTE PE
0.2 FTE Music
0.5 FTE 1st Grade Classroom (job share w/Gloria)
0.5 FTE Special Education
1.0 FTE CounselorDowntown is planning to combine the 0.2 PE position with other 0.2 PE positions around the district instead of sending n 0.2 vacancies to the Job Expo, but I’ve let HR know Tracy is interested in continuing as our 0.2 Music specialist next year.
If you know any good current 4J folks out there interested in being our counselor, part-time SPED teacher, or a 1st grade job share, tell them Holt Staff are a SUPER RAD group of people to work with!
• MONDAY PD Info: LICENSED – For complete details, see the linked PD Email or April 3 PD Info for Teachers Google Doc, but below are the basics:
Locations:
Holt: K-1 teachers and support staff (Cafeteria, Gym & Library)
ATA: 2-3 teachers and support staff (Cafeteria, Library & STEM lab)
Roosevelt: 4-5 teachers and support staff (Cafeteria & Library)What to bring:
• Charged laptop
• Charging cord
• Printed teacher guides (Wit and Wisdom and Fundations) if you prefer printed versions over using digital versions.
• Water bottle
• 3rd Grade Specific: You will have an opportunity to look at Level 3 Fundations. You will need to bring your Level 3 Fundations book OR use the code on the front cover to gain access, as you have not used this book yet.SPED teachers are meeting at Sheldon HS from 8:30-11:30 in Room C-9. Music teachers are meeting at Roosevelt in their Music Room, 8:00-12:00. ELD is 9:00-12:00 at ATA. I haven’t heard of plans for other licensed specialists. If you haven’t heard from your district TOSA or admin, let me know and we can make a plan for this day.
For the building-based PD time, we decided as a staff to use this time for team collaboration.
@devincomedy Every PD for teachers is the same.
• REPEAT MONDAY PD Info: CLASSIFIED – The final day of the Classified Pathways PD is April 3rd at Churchill High School at the same times (8:30 – 11:30) and in the same rooms as the previous session. If you’re having trouble remembering which Pathway you’re in, look in your inbox for an email from Reid Shepard (type in the Zimbra search bar “from:reid”) which may have the subject line of “Pathway Cohort.” If you are a new employee, still having trouble finding your cohort, or have any other questions, please CLICK HERE or use the question link on the Pathways Webpage to let organizers know.
• Classified Staff Meeting April 3rd @12:30 – I’d like to meet with classified staff on Monday, April 3rd at 12:30 in the library to review Stop, Walk, Talk and how to use this with students. You got a bit of an overview a couple weeks ago, but we are rolling this out after spring break. See the STOP, WALK, TALK items a few bullets further down for details.
• REPEAT: NED Mindset Mission (i.e. Yo-Yo) Assembly, TUESDAY, 1:20-2:05 – We talked last week at the staff meeting about the NED Mindset Mission (Yo-Yo) Assembly, and the only date left was the first day back on Tuesday, April 4th in the afternoon, which I scheduled for 1:20-2:05. We’ll hold the assembly in the Cafeteria and classes should plan on arriving in the gym at 1:15 so we can start promptly at 1:20. Linked here is an Assembly Map & Directions.
• REPEAT: Staff Shout Outs! – We’ll share Staff Shout Outs at the start of Tuesday’s Staff Meeting. The link can always be found on my blog and also on the Holt Staff Dashboard.
• Friday PD: Double Prep – The 4J PD Calendar lists “Building Based” as the topic for this Friday’s PD, but for Holt, this is a payback day for a missed “Staff Choice” Friday when I instead held a meeting to discuss 23-24 staffing.
• Holt Friday at 4:00 – Come blow off some steam at our APRIL Friday at 4:00! The location is TBA, but I’ll connect with Sunshine folks and make an announcement at Tuesday’s Staff Meeting. Mark your calendars and see you there!
• REPEAT: Stop, Walk, Talk Rollout – Staff decided we will use lessons 1 and 2 of the Stop, Walk, Talk Bully Prevention Lessons. Teachers will teach the first two lessons during the first week back from spring break. Lesson 1 takes about 50 minutes and lesson 2 takes about 30 minutes. Lessons 3, 4, and 5 offer additional practice for specific situations (Gossip, Inappropriate Remarks, and Cyberbullying) if teachers would like to cover these as well.
I’ll also start papering the hallway and other common areas with Stop, Walk, Talk posters to reinforce. I’ll also put a few out on the playground, though I know they won’t last long due to the weather and busy little hands.
• Holt Night Out Fundraiser – DoughMo Cookies, Tuesday, April 11th – Tuesday, April 11th is a Holt Night Out Fundraiser at DoughMo Cookies! Owned by a Holt family and located in Downtown Eugene at 980 Oak St. under the Overpark Parking Garage (free parking the first hour). Grab some coffee & Lattes for friends and co-workers or bring the fam for big & thick cookies and soft serve! Just mention Holt when ordering and DoughMo will donate a percentage of your purchase to Holt!
• Team Meetings, 4/12 – The first two Wednesdays of the month on non-Staff Meeting weeks are dedicated Team Meeting times. Teams should:
• Meet in their wing so specialists can connect if needed
• Take care of any needed team business
• Complete the Team Meeting Minutes Form (make a copy) and email it to holt_staf@4j.lane.eduThe Team Meeting Minutes Form can also be found on the Holt Staff Dashboard.
• DATES UPDATED, 4/4: Master Schedule Committee Reps & Prompts – At Tuesday‘s Staff meeting, we discussed a master schedule development process that involved one grade-level rep per level, a specialist rep, and an interventionist rep meeting to help develop next year’s master schedule. The plan will be:
April 14 – Reps MeetApril 12-26 – Teams Build Dream ScheduleApril 25 – Reps Meet to combine schedule and plan next stepsMay 2 – Staff Meeting DiscussionBefore the April 12th meeting, teams should decide their preferences regarding the following areas for their reps to bring to the first meeting:• Subject Area Times – How much time do you want for reading, writing, math, science, SEL, etc? For reference, linked here is the District Elementary Content Minutes Schedule Guide from last year.• Recesses – Do you want to stick with single grade levels or do you want to try doubling grade levels for AM recesses? If doubling recesses, which grade levels? Also, would you be interested in doing 15-minute recesses Monday through Thursday and longer recesses the last day of the week (Thursdays if Friday is a non-school day).• Morning Meeting – Should we keep the 20-minute Morning Meeting time or change it?• Closing Meeting – Continue 15 minutes for a closing meeting or change it?• ELD Pullout Time – Continue pullout time during Tier III reading? If not, what time should pullout happen?• Afternoon SSHA Time – Continue the afternoon SSHA (Science, Social Studies, Health, Art) time or change it?• PE / Music Morning Preference – Most prefer afternoon PE & Music times, but are there any grades who prefer a morning time?• Library Times – We’ll assume most folks prefer their weekly library time to be opposite their PE/Music time, but do you have a preference for your second (every other week) library time?Please let me know if there are other considerations you think teams should discuss and let me know ahead of time so I can share those with teams ahead of time.
• Tech Subscriptions Follow-Up – A follow-up to my prior announcement that we had to eliminate Technology Subscriptions from the Title 1 Budget in order to minimize staff cuts, but a few folks asked about what exactly are the 22-23 Technology Subscriptions, which are Scholastic News (K/1), Time for Kids (2/3/4), and Learning A-Z (4/5).
• No Kurig Cups Next Year – More sad budget cuts, but we had some extra funds that were paying for Kruig Cups in the Staff Room, but these funds are also disappearing next year, so folks will want to have your own stash up cups for next year.
• Sidewalk Bark Chip Update (Now Grass Re-Seed) – Facilities changed their mind and said they are now going to re-seed the grass the muddy path along the sidewalk between soft-play and hard-play instead of laying down bark chips. Never mind that there used to be grass there and it will only get stomped out again into dirt and mud, but that is their response at this point.
• 4J Attendance Data – Principals received the linked District-Wide Attendance Data to help write our updated School Continuous Improvement Plans (SCIP). Holt’s Site Council already reviewed this data last year, but what we didn’t have access to before was comparison data to other schools. I don’t believe this changes anything for our SCIP, but it is interesting to see how we compare to other schools, which is generally better than most comparison schools.
• REPEAT: Recess Reminders for Teachers – I shared this at last week’s Staff Meeting, but wanted to remind teachers of the items came up at the last Classified Staff Meeting:
Teachers Meet Class at Red Curb – Teachers should pick up their class at the red curb and should not stand ATA a distance and wave them over.
No Riding in Wagons – For safety reasons, students are not allowed to ride in wagons (for the classes who use wagons for lunch boxes).
Warn Class No Eating on Playground – Warn kids that eating or litter on playground is automatic referral and will sit out the remainder of recess. Kids should only eat on the sidewalk at morning recess. There should be no eating at lunch recess, but kids can keep an orange or other shelf stable food in their pocket. If kids at lunch recess still want to eat, they should stay in the cafeteria.
• Behavior Referral Reminder – For all staff, be sure to document behavior incidents with a referral and also be sure to fill them out competition, particularly the date and time.
• District Admin Update – HR emailed principals that Yujin Gakuen principal Tom Piowaty is stepping away from YG, but will continue in 4J in another role that’s soon to be announced.
• Background Remover – Apple has a built-in “background remover” for images on Macs and IOS devices. It’ll blank out backgrounds behind portraits, people, and figures. Open a photo on a Mac in Preview, then > Tools > Remove Background. Bingo! You can also do it in the finder by right clicking on the image file, then > Quick Actions > Remove Background. The same trick works on photos on an iPad or iPhone. Just press your finger on the figure and you get the option to share a backgroundless version. Great for isolating products, making a headshot photo, or green-screening things to blend into a collage. Just 5 years ago this magic would be considered “AI.” Maybe it is.
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:
April 3 (M)
No School — PD/Planning Day
Kindergarten Staff Room Duty
8:00-12:00, Teacher ELA PD (K/1 Holt, 2/3 ATA, 4/5 Roosevelt)
8:30-1130, Classified Pathways PD (Churchill)
12:30, Classified Staff Meeting (Library)April 4 (T)
School Librarians’ Day
Birthday Drinks & Goodies in Staff Room:
Library Week #1 Classes
8:00, Morning Announcements (Zoom)
1:20-2:05, NED’s Mindset Mission Assembly (Cafeteria)
2:45-3:30, Staff Meeting (Library)April 5 (W)
Pesach, First Days of Passover (Jewish) – April 5-13
8:50-10:45, Book Nook, During AM Recesses (Cafeteria)
1:00-2:15, 4th Grade Storyteller (Classrooms)April 6 (H)
9:00, Safety Committee Meeting (Office)
5:00-6:00, Site Council Meeting (Library)
6:00-7:00, PAHS Meeting (Library)April 7 (F)
1:30-2:30, Friday PD – Payback day for missed Staff Choice 3/4
4:00, Holt Friday at 4:00 (Location TBA)April 10 (M)
Pesach, First Days of Passover (Jewish) – April 5-13
Library Week #2 Classes
1st Grade Staff Room Duty
8:00, Morning Announcements (Zoom)April 11 (T)
Holt Night Out Fundraiser – DoughMo Cookies
8:45-5:15, 5th Grade Outdoor School (Camp Wilani)
2:45-3:45, PBIS/Equity/SEL Meeting (Kelsey’s Room)April 12 (W)
8:45-5:15, 5th Grade Outdoor School (Camp Wilani)
8:50-10:45, Book Nook, During AM Recesses (Cafeteria)
1:00-2:15, 4th Grade Storyteller (Classrooms)
2:45-3:30, Grade Level Team Meetings
2:45-3:30, Master Schedule Committee Rep Meeting (Library)April 13 (H)
8:45-5:15, 5th Grade Outdoor School (Camp Wilani)
10:00-1:30, 4th Grade School Garden Project (Garden)
2:45-3:30, Allan to Evaluation Planning Meeting (Zoom)
4:00-7:00, Allan to Elem Job Expo Round #1 (Zoom)April 14 (F)
1:30-2:30, Friday PD – Building Based (Equity)
Have a good week, Bolts!
Allan
