https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=5722
Hi Everyone,
Last week was another very busy one, but seems like things are starting to feel a little more routine and that we’re starting to get kinks worked out in our new building system. This week is actually our last five-day week for a couple weeks, since we will have our first Howard PD day next week and State In-Service Day the following week.
Thirty items of note for this week (sorry for another huge list):
• Fire Drill, Tuesday at 9:00 – Linked here is the revised Fire Drill Evacuation Map with the added line locations for all specialists. The drill will be at 9:00 on Tuesday.
• Teachers – Have a red and green card to flash Lori or myself indicate if all your students are all accounted for (green) or not (red). Let Lori or I know who your missing students are and we will check if they are with specialists. If your class is at Music or PE, meet your class at PE and Music location to make sure all students are accounted for. I have a few extra red and green cards that I will leave on the downstairs workroom table (though a thumbs-up or thumbs-down works in a pinch).
• Specialists (minus PE & Music) – Have a student lists of who is in each of your groups to determine if anyone is missing.
Let me know if you have any questions on this.
• Additional PE/Music Staffing for “Off” Semesters – HR has taken a look at our PE schedule this semester and Rachel has been teaching more classes her two days here than is allowed for PE & Music specialists, so we are getting an additional day of PE specialist time this semester on Wednesdays and one more day of Music specialist time second semester. Chirsanne Mehl, who was already set to teach PE here second semester on Wednesdays, will start teaching PE this Wednesday. For the classroom PE schedules, this means we’d like some classes to move their Monday and Tuesday PE times to Wednesdays, which will balance out the number of classes taught each day. Linked here is the current PE/Music Schedule, so teachers should look over the schedule and let me know if you’re willing to move a Monday or Tuesday PE time to Wednesdays. Thank you all for being flexible with our very fluid schedule this year and please welcome Chrisanne to the Howard Team!
• Staffing Updates – SSD has filled our last Life Skills vacancy for a 1:1 EA position. Shawna Lee started last Wednesday, so please welcome her to the Howard Team if you haven’t already! This leaves a KG 1:1 EA, a CLC 1:1 EA, and a night custodian position for SSD and Facilities administrators to fill.
• Staff Orientation Check-List Due Friday – The checklist acknowledgment form to indicate that you have read and understood the District Back-to-School Memo (and PDF) is due to me this Friday. Principals this year are expected to give HR copies of all signed forms, so be sure to review the memo and give me the signed form before the end of the week. I’ll plan to start bugging individual staff members Wednesday who haven’t turned in their acknowledgement forms. This is a requirement of all classified and licensed staff.
• Classified Staff Self Assessment Form Due Friday – This was a new requirement from the end of last school year, and similar to licensed staff, classified staff are now expected to complete the Classified Employee Self Assessment form (Word and PDF) at the start and end of each school year. HR has already notified classified staff of this new expectation, but I wanted to remind staff this form is due to me by this Friday. This form is not sent to HR and is only seen by me. Feel free to email me an electronic copy of the form if you are using the linked Word file, but I will also put hard copies in staff mailboxes on Monday. Let me know if you have any questions.
• Licensed Staff TalentEd Self Self-Reflection Form Due Friday – Most licensed staff also have a deadline this Friday to complete your Self-Reflection form in TalentEd. This is required for all temporary, probationary, and contract teachers who are on year-2 of the evaluation cycle, which is most of you. Log onto TalentEd and complete this form. For licensed staff, I do not see the contents of your self reflection, but I am notified once it is completed. On another TalentEd related note, I removed all of the optional tasks for teachers on Contract Year-2, and the optional Mid‐Cycle Goals Reflection for everyone. Let me know if you have any questions on any of this or need any help logging onto TalentEd.
• Optional Leadership Plan Meeting Thursday @2:30 – This Thursday at 2:30 in the Conference Room will be an optional meeting for anyone interested in drafting this year’s Leadership Plan. Linked here is last year’s Leadership Plan, which will be our starting point, but this year we have 22 days that can be divided between up to seven people.
• Optional Building SMART Goals Meeting Thursday @3:00 – This Thursday at 3:00 in the Conference Room will be an optional meeting to discuss potential building wide SMART Goals. My current thinking is to continue to use reading and math easyCBM as the two academic goals, but and to change the professional goal to focus on science. Teachers are, of course, welcome to create their own goals, but it’s nice to have everyone with the same goals and I know it also saves teachers time of drafting their own goals.
• Learning About Learning (LEL) Network Teacher Rep Needed – For several years, 4J has had LEL Networks, first with only principals and later adding teacher reps from each school. Downtown now wants to rotate teachers who participate, so each school will have two teachers and rotate one off and one new one come on each year. Allison is rotating off and Carla will continue for her second year, so please let me know if any of you are interested joining Carla and myself as part of the LEL Network.
The purpose of a Learning About Learning Network is to orient members to the Instructional Rounds process and to begin the process of building teams of leaders who are able to learn from one another around the craft of leading instruction. The goal of instructional rounds isn’t to provide feedback to the teachers being observed, but rather the primary purpose is for observing classrooms to compare LEL members’ own instructional practices with those of the teachers they observe. The chief benefit of this approach resides in the discussion that takes place among LEL members at the end of the observations as well as in subsequent self-reflection. This short post from Edutopia has a nice overview of what the process looks like and linked here are the LEL Meeting dates & times. Feel free to ask Allison, Carla or myself if you have any questions. Let me know if any of your are interested.
• New Monthly Absence Management Entry Requirement – Downtown is now requiring all staff to enter their own absences (administrators too) in AESOP. This is not a change for licensed staff who put in for substitutes, but staff who do not always put in for subs or record their absences, both licensed and classified staff should take special note. Staff can reference the district AESOP Quicksheets and Support for Licensed and Classified Staff website that will walk you through the process. There is a wealth of helpful information there including some videos regarding how to use the system if you are not familiar. If you need help you may also contact the sub desk at (541) 790-7689.
• First Aid Training Update – After speaking with Nurse Robin, the Oct. 7th First Aid class will be a full-course for those without a current card and NOT a refresher. Robin reconsidered the curriculum and the time/content difference is considerable with the new G2015 guidelines. The full-course training go from 10:30-12:30, with a half hour lunch break, and then from 1:00-3:30, but will try to finish by 3:15. Up to 24 staff can attend. Robin also said we have option of eating during class if everyone wants to end a bit earlier and everyone taking the class agrees.
Right now we have more people wanting to attend than spots, so please let me know if any of you are dropping out due to the course being the full-course and not a refresher. And if anyone wants to attend who did not let me know earlier, let me know and I’ll put you on the waiting list, which is currently three people.
• Oct 7th Howard PD Day – Related to the above, the first Howard PD Day will be Friday, October 7th. I’ll send out a more detailed agenda after confirming times with the technology department, but we will meet from 8:00-10:30 in a volunteer’s classroom (let me know if you can volunteer your classroom). The main topics will be science kit resources, a redo of the back-to-school tech training by 4J Tech Staff this time, and also some business items (Leadership Plan, IPBS, Thrill the World, etc.).
• Curriculum Night, Oct. 6th, 5:45-7:00 – Just a quick reminder that Curriculum Night will be on Thursday, Oct. 6th, the evening before our Howard PD Day. We’ll keep the same plan as in the past with teachers, including specialists, offering two sessions for families to attend.
• 5:45 Drop Off,
• 6:00-6:25 for Session 1
• 6:30-6:55 for Session 2• September PTO Updates – The PTO Meeting last week had a very good turnout. There were a lot of new parents and a few of them even stepped forward to take the lead on different PTO events and Board positions (including some Howard staff who are now also Howard parents). Linked here are the minutes from the PTO meeting and also their PowerPoint, but the short version is the PTO is planning all of their traditional fundraising events (with a few tweaks and refinements) and are also planning a few new ones, like a Wayback Burger fundraiser and adding food trucks at the Holiday Bazaar. The PTO was also able to provide more funds this year to completely cover the Technology Fee for families and were also able to increase Teacher Classroom Funds. See below for details on that.
• Teacher Classroom Funds – The PTO cut us a check for teacher funds and they gave us significantly more this year, so even though we have far more students and staff than we did last year, and thanks to the generosity and fundraising efforts of the PTO, we are able to increase the per pupil allocation for classroom funds from $14 per student to $17 per student. Last year we did a per pupil allocation to differentiate between larger and smaller classes, which isn’t a perfect system since class sizes fluctuate over the course of the year, but I believe it’s the most fair way to divide the funds and to account for differences in class sizes. Specialists will again receive $125. See the linked PTO Funds List for the amount breakdown. There is some left over in this amount that goes into a principal slush type fund, that we typically use for things like buying shoes, backpacks, and such to help students/families in need.
• Attendance – AM and PM Reminder – Quite a few teachers are not getting both their AM and PM attendance entered. One issue is a Synergy upgrade that happened last week and made it so using iPhones or iPads are not saving properly, but Edupoint is looking into it. The Technology Department is recommending teachers refrain from taking attendance on iPads and use a laptop until they get more information from Edupoint. However, we’ve had teachers not getting PM attendance recorded before this upgrade. I’ll plan to let individual teachers know on Monday and Tuesday if you’re not getting attendance entered correctly, so if you don’t hear from me, you’re doing it right.
• Birthday Lunches with the Principal – For staff new to Howard, each month I do “Birthday Lunches with the Principal” for all the students who have birthdays that month. This Friday I’ll have lunches with students in the Community Room who have August and September birthday. Not linked here, but attached in my email is a list of all the students who have August and September birthdays sorted by grade level and teacher.
• We are Team Eugene Lanyards – Staff may have seen the “We Are Team Eugene” t-shirts floating around at the start of the year. Downtown sent buildings lanyards with the same slogan if you’d like one. I’ll put them in the giant M&M candy dish in my office if any of you would like to add another lanyard to your collection.
• New Building Updates – The list is getting shorter, but here are the items of note regarding the new building:
• Keep the Punch List Items Coming – If you see something, say something. No matter how small, let me know if you see something that needs fixed or looks wrong. A door that doesn’t shut right, an unpainted post, a cracked tile, or whatever. I send a daily email to our project manager and this is the time to get all these little annoyances (or big ones) fixed. If you’re curious, here are my emails from this past week.
• New Upstairs Copier – Our new copier arrived last week and should be ready to make copies. Peggy has put in a request to the Network Services to activate the data port in the upstairs workroom, at which point she will connect the printer to the network and will send staff directions on how to add the copier to your list of printers on your laptop.
• Intercom Volume – I’ve heard from three people that the paging from the office is unbearably loud in classrooms. Please let me know if it’s too loud in your classroom because we’re trying to figure out if this is a building wide issue (which is easy to fix) or just in certain classrooms (which is fixable, but a bit more work).
• Move Classroom Furniture Out from Under Curtains – There are lots of reports of curtains jamming when they retract up. For some, but not all, the issue is furniture, bean bags, and other items are being left under the curtains when they automatically come down at 5:00 (and 7:00, and 9:00, and 11:00) each night. If the curtains are not hanging evenly when come down, they do not retract evenly and end up getting jammed. However, some curtains are having other issues and the curtain installers are coming down this week to take a look as several of them.
• All School Paging Dial Tone – I know the beeping and dial tones at the end of pages from the office are annoying, and I just wanted to say that the phone people from the Tech Department are working to eliminate those.
• Community Open House Flyer – Thank you to everyone who came to help at last week’s Community Open House. It was fun for me because I got to see staff and families from when I was a Howard student (1970s & 1980s), from when I was a Howard teacher (1990s & 2000s), and from now as a principal (2010s). Linked here is a Self Guided Tour Flyer that PiVOT created. Although I could certainly make a crabby version of this flyer that includes all the things I wish our building had or did differently, our new building is still definitely an upgrade from what we had before.
• DHS Reporting Form – Sadly, we’ve already had to make a couple child welfare calls to DHS this year, but I wanted to remind staff that when you make calls to be sure to notify me and to also complete an Abuse Reporting Form (Word and PDF) so I can track dates, concerns, and how many calls we’ve made for individual student. Forms are also available in the filing cabinet in the office.
• Guidelines for Email Signatures – Allison already shared this with staff, but principals were send a separate email from downtown to share the linked Guidelines for Email Signatures with staff. These guidelines are intended to promote a professional, businesslike image in all Eugene School District 4J employee email communications. Email signatures should include your name, the school or department to which you are assigned, the name of the school district, email address and telephone number. You may also include your job title as reflected in official district records. To use a working title instead of your official job title, you must obtain written permission from a Human Resources administrator. Email signatures should be in black text in an easily accessible font. The district name is Eugene School District 4J with the words in that order and the J in 4J capitalized. Email signatures should not include colored text, complicated fonts, images, clip art, background, any personal quotes, slogans, legal disclaimers, or a job title other than your official job title.
Format Order:
Your name
Your official title (optional)| School or Department Eugene School District 4J
Email address | Office Phone
Fax (optional)Sample Employee Signature:
Jane Doe
Teacher, Ace Elementary School
Eugene School District 4J
doe_jane@4j.lane.edu | 541-790-XXXX• Pledge of Allegiance – Principals were also asked to share that Oregon state laws states that students cannot be compelled to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Please do not require this of your students and we’re asked to use the phrase, “Please prepare for the pledge,” so I will update our Monday morning announcements. As in all situations, students must be respectful. The state law (ORS 339.875) is that:
• public schools shall display a U.S. flag in every classroom as well as on or near the school
• public schools shall provide students the opportunity to salute the flag with the pledge of allegiance at least once each week, and
• students who do not participate must maintain a respectful silence during the salute.The district’s Student Rights & Responsibilities Handbook reflects this same meaning with different wording under Freedom of Expression >> Participation in Patriotic Exercises: “Students may choose not to participate in patriotic exercises, but also have the responsibility to ensure the manner of their nonparticipation does not deny other students their rights to participate or disrupt the educational process.”
• Free Literacy Program for Spanish Speaking Families – The fall session of Pilas Family Literacy Program begins on October 3rd at the Dos Ríos Elementary School and on October 4th at the Fairfield Elementary School. Please see the linked flier and application for details and feel free to distribute this information. The program is open to all Spanish speaking families in Eugene and Springfield, and is open to children ages 0-13, offering:
• Pre-kinder readiness class
• K-3 Reading curriculum
• Homework Club for ages 9-13
• Family involvement activities
• English classes for parents• Google Account Log On for YouTube – If any of you have tried to go to YouTube this year, you may have noticed a new filter that restricts access to the site when you are on the 4J Network. See this linked YouTube Restricted Mode document for how to access YouTube, but the short version is, go to YouTube, click “Sign In” at the top right, sign in with your full email (i.e. USERNAME@4J.lane.edu), which will take you to the 4J Google Docs authentication screen.
• Announcing Apple Teacher: Get recognized today! – Apple just announced Apple Teacher, a new program created to support and celebrate educators. The program provides a self-paced learning experience with tips, inspiration, news, and learning materials to help teachers unlock the magic of iPad, Mac, and built-in apps in the classroom. Earn badges and an official Apple Teacher logo so you can share your achievement with the world. Sign up today! I tried it out and already earned the iPad Badge.
• City of Eugene Neighborhood Matching Grant – The City of Eugene Neighborhood Matching Grant cycle is open now through October 31st with $50,000 available for neighborhood improvement and community-building projects. Community involvement and building relationships are key components and are encouraged by requiring that the project budget include a match amount equal to, or greater than, the grant request. Grant guidelines and application materials are available on the City’s website, the linked flyer, or by calling Cindy Koehler at 541-682-5272.
• District Admin Updates – Kevin Herington has been hired into the position of College and Career Readiness and Career Technical Education Administrator. Kevin is a North Eugene High School graduate (Go, Highlanders!) who is coming back to 4J. Kevin has been doing similar work in California and here in 4J will oversee Career Technical Education (CTE), College & Career Readiness, AVID and Transitions.
David Bautista, who recently joined 4J in the equity administrator role, is departing. He has been asked to lead a dual immersion program in Santa Barbara, California, where his wife has been working. It was a difficult decision for David to leave 4J after only a few months, but his decision came down on the side of reuniting his family.
• ASCDExpress, Relationships First – Relationships don’t just fuel student learning, writes Rick Wormeli, they also invigorate teaching. “We are more willing to invest in students when we feel connected to them,” he notes, and that mutuality helps carry teachers during the hard work ahead of them. This issue of ASCDExpress offers tips for strengthening classroom bonds through structured discussions, writing tasks, parent engagement, and restorative interventions.• Howard in the News – If you missed news coverage at Howard this past week, here a link to KEZI’s coverage of the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and KMTR coverage of the Community Open House. I couldn’t find a video of the KMTR story, but here’s a link to the video I recorded off of TV, which includes an interview with Debbie Miller’s mom, who used to be a Howard teacher. Feel free to share these with kids. Seeing your school on TV is kind of magical for for kids and makes them feel famous, especially if they catch a glimpse of their friends or teachers, but I think Jenny captured the best photo of the night.
• 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 26 (M)
2:30-3:30, Site Council (Conference Room)
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Administrators Meeting (Ed Center)September 27 (T)
9:00, Deadline for Curriculum Night Spanish Translations
9:00-9:10, September Fire Drill
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, B203)September 28 (W)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team (Conference Room)September 39 (H)
2:30-3:00, Optional Leadership Plan Development Meeting (Conference Room)
3:00-3:30, Optional Building SMART Goals Meeting (Conference Room)
3:30-5:00, 4J Science Teacher Leaders Meeting (Howard Library)September 30 (F)
Classified Staff Employee Self Assessment Due
Licensed Staff TalentEd Self-Reflection Due
10:30-12:30, Birthday Lunches With the Principal, August & September (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Allan to Evaluation Planning MeetingOctober 2 (SU)
National Custodial Worker DayOctober 3 (M)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grace Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center)October 4 (T)
Bianca Out through 10/14
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)October 5 (W)
Cookie Dough Sale Fundraiser Ends
4:15-5:15, Allan to North Region Administrators’ Meeting (Kelly MS)October 6 (H)
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
5:45-7:00, Curriculum Night• 5:45 Drop Off,
• 6:00-6:25 for Session 1
• 6:30-6:55 for Session 2October 7 (F)
Howard PD Day
8:00-10:30, Staff Meeting (Volunteer’s Classroom)
10:30-12:00, First Aid Full-Course Part 1
12:30-3:30, First Aid Full-Course Part 2
Have a good week, everyone!
Allan
