Allan's Announcements

By Allan 　https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=4453

Hi Everyone,

It was a wild week last week, with the news of getting more staffing to reduce class sizes, which was welcome, but it’s been a lot of extra work for quite a few folks getting ready for our new classroom. I want to give a big thank you to everyone for pitching in to help get our new 4/5 blend ready to go. It’s times like this when so many people step-up that it’s clear that Howard has one of the best staffs around! Rock on, Roadrunners!

Fourteen items of note this week:

• Safety Week Schedule – The schedule for this week’s Safety Week will be:

• Monday, Sept. 28- Fire Drill, 1:30
• Tuesday, Sept. 29- Room Clear, time decided by teachers
• Wednesday, Sept 30 – Lock Down (Code Blue and Code Red), 9:00
• Thursday, Oct. 1- Earthquake/Fire Drill, 8:15

All of these drills are listed in the “Emergency Procedures Manual” which is the rainbow tabbed spiral notebook that should be hanging in every classroom. For the Lock Down drill, please review the Code Blue and Code Red procedures. These have Howard specific steps that are more detailed than the more general of ones in the Emergency Procedures Manual. Let me know if you have any questions.

• Student Care Team Referrals – We do have a student lined up as our main case for our first Student Care Team meeting this Tuesday, but I did want to extend the offer to staff if you have any student situations you would like brought up as hypothetical situations to the team. This can be a chance to find out from DHS staff their thoughts on a variety of situations, including but not limited to the following:

• Death of a parent
• Incarcerated parent -­ concerns about recent incarceration or pending release
• Homeless or impending homelessness
• Unknown if open CW case but has concerns that were called in
• Domestic Violence
• Extreme behavior issues – ­additional supports needed outside of school
• Specific resource needed but unknown where to refer
• Medical concerns about the child or other family

• 4/5 Blend Updates – This item got a bit long, so see my separate email for updates on this topic, which also includes the previous updates for a fuller picture how it’ll work.

• New Building Updates – Attached are the minutes from the last Owner/Architect/General Contractor (OAC) Meeting and below are a few items of note:

• Staff Moving Their Own Items – Facilities staff decided that staff moving their own items into the new building is not an option. However, one option they offered is if there are staff wanting to pack things up sooner that Facilities can arrange items to be moved into your new teaching spaces over spring break. For that to work though, a few things need to happen, including:

• The new furniture already placed in the classroom and punch list items have been noted.
• 4J warehouse staff are available to make this move (some are only 10 month employees and are off spring break)
• The logistics and coordination to make this happen warrants a substantial amount to move (not feasible to move 20-30 boxes)

• Move-In Extended Contract Updates – Here are some additional details on how staff members will be compensated for their packing and unpacking. This time will be outside the normal work schedule with the exception of the librarian. The library is to be closed 3 weeks earlier than normal. for time to pack and weed. Librarians get 5 days to unpack which they can use the full 40 hrs or give to other EA’s to assist as long as the extended contract doesn’t go over 40 hours total.

• Licensed Staff – 2 days to pack, 2 days to unpack
• Office – 3 days to pack, 3 days to unpack
• Food Services – 2 days to pack, 2 days to unpack
• EA’s – 2 days to pack, 2 days to unpack
• (Life Skills, SPED, Cognitive EA)

I’ve asked a few questions regarding this which I haven’t gotten answers for yet, which were; Will Title 1 EAs also be given days to pack and unpack? For Licensed Staff, do these days apply to itinerant staff (school psych, occupational therapist, school nurse, etc.) who all have spaces in the building but who work in multiple schools? Do the Office days include our office assistant or just the secretary? Do the Food Services days include Food Services Assistants or just Joan and Laura? Since Julie’s time in the library is less than 3 hours a day, I’m worried that three weeks is not enough time to pack and weed the library, so I’m seeing if Julie can get additional extended contact instead of having to close the library for longer than three weeks, which is what we may end up having to do. I’m also checking to make sure they’ll move Lynn Booth’s items, our Looking Glass Counselor who works on-site and who is moving into the new building, but who is not a school district employee. Let me know if you have any questions any of this.

• District Mandatory Policy Review and Howard Handbook Final Reminder – Last call for staff to turn in their acknowledgement forms (4J and Howard) stating that you’ve reviewed and understand the District Back-to-School Memo (link or PDF) and the Howard Staff Handbook, which were due last Friday.

• PTO Teacher Funds – The PTO cut us a check for teacher funds and although they gave us a bit more this year, it comes out a bit less once we divvied it up among our growing number of classrooms. Last year we did $400 per classroom, but this year to differentiate between larger and smaller classes I’m distributing funds on a per pupil basis of $14 per student and am reducing specialist allocations from $200 to $125. See the attached list for the amount breakdown.

• Teacher Synergy Drop-In Help – Tammy Christiensen, the Teacher Synergy TOSA, is offering to come to Howard for a drop-in session to answer Synergy questions that teachers may have. This would not be a formal presentation, but a low-key drop-by-and-see-her event. Most questions she’s answered to date revolve around seating charts, creating student log-in cards from Synergy data, and multiple teacher access to student information, grades, and/or report cards. Let me know if you’d be interested me scheduling a date some afternoon or on PD day for Tammy to come out to Howard.

• BEST Updates – Molly Lajoie has been hired as the new district BEST Coordinator. If her name sounds familiar, she was most recently the Executive Director of the Eugene Education Foundation (EEF). In regards to budget and staffing, Howard’s BEST program will have 9 hours per week for EAs and 0 hours for a licensed teacher to supervise academic instruction. Regarding BEST EA hires, HR will take care of the initial hiring process, where they will first contact EAs who participated in the program last year who were only working during after school hours, and second those EAs who worked both during regular and after school hours (seniority is considered in both cases). If there are vacancies after this process, HR will post the openings for other EA’s to apply.

• Potential After School Program – Similar to Young Rembrandts and the science program we did a couple years ago, I’ve been in contact with another fee based after school program called Bricks 4 Kids, which is a STEM related program that uses Legos in much the same way as “Lego Labs” which several schools did a number of years ago. It’s $10 a session (with discount vouchers available) and it sounds like a STEM type of program that kids would really get into, so I’m planning to work with the group to start offering classes later this year.

• Communicating about districtwide and individual scores – If you have families ask about state test results, you may find the district’s news release and key points helpful. Individual student score reports will be mailed to families of students who participated. Parents can expect to receive them later this month. (They are in process to be mailed out this week, but in case of any delays or complications don’t promise that they’ll be received this week.)

• Awesome Achievement | BJ’s Restaurant – Similar to the Papa’s Pizza Achievement Awards, BJ’s Restaurant is offering Awesome Achievement Awards that honor kids’ work with a free meal at BJs. Teachers can order up to 3 packs of 40 awards per year through BJ’s website.

• Sanipac Recycle Art Contest – SaniPac is looking for 6 great works of art to put on the side of their trucks to help celebrate and promote recycling in Lane County. They are sponsoring a contest for students in grades K-8. Winners homeroom classes will be awarded a pizza party and $350. The 6 winner and 6 honorable mentions will also receive $50 gift certificates to Maude Kerns Art Center and be featured in the Sanipac 2016 Calendar. See the flyer for details.

• These kids were geniuses — they were just too poor for anyone to discover them – Erin shared this article with me about how under identified low income students are for TAG. 4J used to blanket test all 2nd graders, but that program was eliminated due to budget cuts and consequentially TAG identifications have also declined. As the building TAG Coordinator, I want to encourage teachers to let me know if you think any of your students might possibly qualify for TAG. Most students now qualify for TAG off of OAKS scores, but I don’t think I’ve gotten a single parent request for TAG testing since I’ve been at Howard, so it’s incumbent upon us to help find which of our students are these hidden 97% ers.

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

September 28 (M)
Safety Week Begins
Book Fair Begins
1;10, Fire Drill
2:30-5:00, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

September 29 (T)
Room Clear Drills (done at time decided by teachers)
8:45-11:30, Allan to PE Teacher Interviews (Ed Center) – AJ to Cover
2:15-3:15, Allan to Evaluation/Planning Meeting
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team (Staff Room)
4:00-5:00, All Admin Training on Gender Identity Policy (Ed Center)

September 30 (W)
9:00-9:10, Lock Down Drill – Code Blue and Code Red
9:10-11:00, Allan to OAC Meeting (Construction Trailer)
2:30-3:30, Site Council (Staff Room)

October 1 (H)
8;15, Earthquake/Fire Drill
8:30-11:00, Kindergarten Hearing Screening (Portable North)
5:45-6:00, Curriculum Night Student Drop-Off
6:00-6:25, Curriculum Night Session 1
6:30-6:55, Curriculum Night Session 2

October 2 (F)
No Students – Howard PD Day
8:00-12:00, Howard PD (Library)
1:00, Allan to Daughter’s Jog-a-thon

October 5 (M)
Progress Monitoring Week 1
8:00-11:00, Allan to Principal & TAG Coordinator Workshop (Ed Center)
2;30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grad Evaluation Committee Meeting (Ed Center)

October 6 (T)
9:00-9:30, Allan Meeting w/Assistance League RE: Food Drop for Families
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Room 1)

October 7 (W)
International Walk and Bike to School Day
11:40-11:10, 4/5 Strings Recruitment Assembly (Gym)

October 8 (H)
Regular Day

October 9 (F)
Licensed Staff – Non-Contract Day
Classified Staff – Regular Work Day

Have an fabulous week, everyone!

Allan

PS:  If you missed it, Allison’s class made the cover of the City/Region section of the Register Guard this Saturday when they were touring the new building.