February 29, 2016

By Allan  

Enjoy

 

Hello Howard Staff,

With staffing decisions now upon us, it’s never easy or pleasant to have these discussions where the outcome of which has the potential for unwanted changes and challenges for our colleagues, whom we work with every day. While I want to be transparent in our process for deciding upon a staffing plan and to give everyone a chance to have their say, I also don’t want staff to ever feel like they are competing or at odds with one another. Howard staff has always been good about putting students first and I think that is the best way to frame these difficult decisions. I believe it’s important for staff to work together when we make our decision a week from Tuesday and to move forward from that point. You all are the best!

Fifteen items of note this week:

• K-2 and 3-5 PRIDE Assemblies, Wednesday – This Wednesday is the PRIDE Awards Assembly for Integrity. The PBIS Team will be sending out the details, but the K-2 assembly will be 9:10-9:35 and the 3-5 assembly will be 9:40-10:05, both in the gym. Integrity PRIDE Awards are on the counter in the mailroom. See the linked map and directions for details and watch for further information from the PBIS Team.

• Wacky Wednesday: Favorite Color Day – This Wednesday is the March Wacky Wednesday, and this time it’s Favorite Color Day, so we don’t have to worry about planning elaborate costumes this time. Tell you students to come to school wearing their favorite colors and remember to don your favorite color!

Comlimentary-Colors

• Safety Committee Meeting – I’ve scheduled a follow-up Safety Committee Meeting with the 4J Risk Manager, Randi Bowers-Payne, for input and answers to questions that were generated at our meeting earlier in the year and some questions generated since then. That meeting will be on Wednesday, March 16th at 2:30 in the library. The meeting is open to anyone who would like to attend. As a reminder, linked here are the Safety Committee Meeting Minutes from that meeting, which contains various safety questions/concerns that were raised. Please look over the minutes and let me know before the meeting if you have any additional safety related questions or topics you think should be brought up at the meeting.

• Emazing Readers Assembly Reschedule – We accidentally schedule this on top of the Fluoride Varnish also happening in the gym on March 9th, so we’re working to reschedule the assembly for another date. Stay tuned for this new date.

• Student Care Team Resources – I wanted to share a few resources that were shared at last Wednesday’s Student Care Team meeting. One is a service through OSU Extension Services, FoodHero.org, which provides families with recipes, meal ideas, budgeting, shopping, and many more resources, such as classes. The site is available in both English and Spanish. They also offer the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program. This came out of a situation where a parent was having trouble managing food budgets and had little experience cooking, instead buying more expensive prepared/processed foods. A second resource was for a situation involving an adoptive parent looking for support with challenging behaviors, and DHs shared a state run website, the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center, which has many resources ranging from trainings, to a lending library, to support groups, to many other support services. A last one is WellMama, which is a non-profit that provides pregnancy and postpartum mental health support services to women and their families in Eugene and Springfield area.

• March PBIS Focus: Safe Bodies – The March PBIS monthly focus is Safe Bodies. The PBIS team created a PBIS/CFK Cheat Sheet that matches our PBIS monthly themes with corresponding Caring for Kids (CFK) class meeting lessons. This is an easy way to tie the two activities together.

• EAST Reminder: Lesson Plans – HR meets monthly the the substitute teacher’s union, EAST, and HR emailed principals asking us to remind both licensed and classified staff to help in getting lesson plans to substitutes. Sometimes lesson plans are sent directly to substitutes outside of AESOP, but many substitutes access AESOP via phone rather than computers. Also, some may not have access to technology or printers at their homes. Other situations have lesson plans coming very late via email and the substitute may not have access to a computer/printer in the building. When possible, attach lesson plans in AESOP rather than only emailing them directly to the Guest Teacher/Substitute. This step will also will allow office staff to serve as back-up and assist in printing off the lesson plan in the event the Guest Teacher/Substitute is not able to access the plans from home. NOTE: Lesson plans can be attached after the position has been accepted.

Viola-Swamp

• State Testing & Student Opt-Outs: FAQs for Staff – In the email sent by Randy Bernstein to all staff last week regarding state testing and opt-outs, I wanted to highlight the Staff Communication Guidelines section of the email. Note that during work time, over district email or using other district resources encourage parents to opt-out. Outside of work hours, staff are free to express their opinions publicly about standardized tests or about opting out, but if families ask you about testing in your official capacity as a school district employee, staff are to remain neutral and factual. The best response is to refer them to either me or the school district website on the opt-out process.

• TELL Oregon Teacher Survey Deadline Extended – Due to high interest, the TELL Oregon Teacher Survey deadline has been extended to Thursday, March 10th. Now that we’ve seen out staffing for next year, this is an opportunity to sound off at the Oregon Legislature about school funding, class sizes, testing, teacher evaluations systems and other topics. The survey takes about 20–30 minutes to complete online. The survey will ask you for a unique individual code, which you can request online or you can get off of the letter that was put in licensed staff members’ mailboxes last week. As of writing this, there have been only three responses from Howard (the website allows you to see the response rate by school).

• Bias in the Journeys Materials – This is a reminder of something I shared earlier in the year. Downtown is wanting to address bias in the HM Journeys reading materials. Principals have been asked to have teachers report elements of bias you come across in the new reading materials, whether it’s race, gender, religion, language, culture or otherwise. There is not a formal reporting form or an official plan of will be done with the collected information, but I do think it’s important for us to report bias in Journeys and in any other curriculum materials.

• Barnes & Noble Book Fundraiser – Clair Wiles, the NEHS Key Club advisor, let me know that they have set up the Barnes & Noble Books fundraiser for the school library and classroom for April 15, 16, and 17.

• Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program (FFVP) Audit Update – If you were wondering how we did on the ODE and USDA audit, Howard passed with flying colors. Nice work, team!

• Supervision & Security Information – Linked here is a flyer with tips from Risk Management on preventing vandalism and theft through line of sight supervision, keeping keys with staff, not covering classroom windows, keeping doors locked, closer supervision in high risk areas (such as the TSS space), and monitoring classrooms and hallways during passing times (which is a time we’ve had some thefts out of backpacks).

PACE-Supervision-and-Security

• Should schools change approach to Black History Month? – February is Black History Month, which this year has been marked by calls from some to reconsider how the nation — and schools — mark the month. Some educators say setting aside a specific month for such lessons can lead to less integration of the topic throughout the school year. See this article from The Atlantic for the complete story. On a related note, remember that Teaching Tolerance has many quality ready-made lessons that can be used throughout the school year to teach topics on race, equity and diversity.

• 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:

February 29 (M)
Progress Monitoring – Week 9
11:30-3:30, Allan and Robin to Title 1 Principal & Coordinator Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to Nutrition Services Community Meeting (Ed Center)

March 1 (T)
Women’s History Month
Youth Art Month
Music in Our Schools Month
National Nutrition Month
Open Enrollment Begins
2:30-3:30, Optional Staff Meeting (Library)
5:30-7:30, Allan to EEF Gala (Ford Alumni Center)

March 2 (W)
Wacky Wednesday, Favorite Color Day
NEA’s Read Across America
9:10-9:35, K-2 PRIDE Assembly (Gym)
9:40-10:05, 3-5 PRIDE Assembly (Gym)
10:20, Allan Meeting w/Sodexho Rep (Office)
12:00-2:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Mid-Cycle Goals Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, Site Council (Staff Room) Moved to 3/9 @1:30

March 3 (H)
ELPA Testing Begins
9:00-11:30, Carla’s Class to Museum of Natural and Cultural History
2:30-3:30, Taking it Up Meeting (Staff Room)
3:00-3:30, Allan to Folding Panel Partitions Training (New Building)

March 4 (F)
8:30-1:30, Allison’s Class to Museum of Natural and Cultural History
12:20, Safety Patrol Check-In Meeting (Library)

March 7 (M)
Classified Employees Week
Women in History Week
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center)

March 8 (T)
International Women’s Day
7:45-1:45, Data Team Meetings (Staff Room)
2:30-3:30, Staff Meeting (Library)

March 9 (W)
Fluoride Varnish in Gym
8:40-9:05, K-2 Emazing Readers Assembly (Gym) Rescheduled due to Fluoride Varnish Conflict
9:10-9:35, 3-5 Emazing Readers Assembly (Gym) Rescheduled due to Fluoride Varnish Conflict
9:00-11:00, Allan to OAC Meeting (Construction Trailer)
4:00-5:00, North Region Principals’ Meeting (Kelly MS)

March 10 (H)
8:30-3:30 Allan, Carla, AJ to LEL Meeting (Edison)
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Room 6)
2:30-3:30, Dr. Baldaras Visiting BEST

March 11 (F)
Book Fair Preview

March 12 (S)
9:00, Regional OBOB Competition (North Eugene HS)

March 13 (SU)
Daylight Savings Time (Spring Forward)

Have a good week, everyone!

Allan

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