November 28, 2016

By Allan  

 

Hello Roadrunners,

Hope you all had a restful extended weekend over the short holiday break.

Ten items of note for this week:

• Rescheduling Missed Conferences – For families who no-showed at conferences, teachers should make at least one attempt to reschedule a new time with those families. And a conference over the phone is a perfectly acceptable alternative to a face-to-face conference if that is easier for families who missed the first time around.

• SSD Staffing Updates – I’d announced earlier that Cassandra Baker, who’s been doing a long term EA sub position in Life Skills most of this year, was going to have a permanent SSD employee transfer into that position, but that person’s start date has been delayed until after winter break at the earliest, which means we get to keep Cass for a bit longer.

• New Building Updates – Here are the items of note regarding our new building:

• Last Call for 3-Month Rule Furniture Wish List – Now that all the Neo Rok stools are out in each wing, we should have a good idea of how many chairs and stools we may be short on, so let me know by the end of the week if you have any additional furniture you’d like ordered our of bond funds. There’s no guarantee we’ll get any of the items on our list, but this is our chance to ask. Linked here is the most up-to-date furniture wish list that I’m planning to submit.

• Interactivity Update – We’re working on getting the Tech Department to have Misty and/or some other techs to come out to Howard for an extended time to get everyone’s interactivity working. Once I have more details I’ll let people know. After checking in with people on their interactivity issues last week, it sounds like it intermittently works for most everyone and the pens shoot out wild lines periodically, but the interactivity is not as reliable as were the good old fashioned SMART Boards. More to come on this.

On a related note, I was talking with the Edison principal last week and he said teachers at his school who have the same EPSON projectors report the same issues, which makes me wonder if this is less of a wiring issue and more a quality of product issue.

• Optional EPSON Projector Training Tuesday at 2:30 – A quick reminder that there will be an optional training Tuesday at 2:30 on how to use all of the EPSON projector functions. Let me know if any teachers are willing to volunteer their classrooms.

• VGA Projector Wiring Issues – I don’t know if this will help with interactivity issues and most everyone is using HDMI to project instead of VGA, but the project manager over at Roosevelt thinks he figured out the issue of VGA performance being wavy when plugged into the wall. He says it’s not the wiring system, but is the Apple adapter that is the problem. They tried two aftermarket adapters, Insignia & Belkin, and both of them work perfectly out of the box. He also noted that if you’re using a VGA adapter, you should run the linked Firmware Update. Technology is still checking up on this, but I’ve asked them to get us these VGA adapters to replace out Apple ones.

• Laptop and iPad Cabinet Storage Option (Due Friday) – Our pilot for storing iPads (Angela’s Room) and laptops (Jenny’s Room) in the classroom locking cabinets instead of taking up floor space with COWs has been a success and has been approved by Kim Finch at the Technology Department. If you’d like to copy Angela and Jenny’s set up (pictured below) let me know by the end of the week and I will have Facilities order you the necessary power strips, vertical dividers, and wire clips.

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• Care Team Resources – The November Care Team Meeting has a few new community resources that were worth sharing:

• Social Service System NavigationOFSN (Oregon Family Support Network) is a group that offers parent and caregiver respite for children with emotional, behavioral, mental and/or physical challenges, peer delivered support groups and child and youth activities, family fun events at low or no cost to families, assistance to families navigating the health care system, peer support and advocacy for children protected under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act,community connections and referrals related to mental and/or behavioral health, ongoing peer support and peer services for children experiencing mental, emotional, behavioral or physical challenges, and advocacy training and support for the family voice at local and state wide committees, boards and task forces.

• Assistance Washing Clothes – For families needing a place to wash their clothes, First Place Family Center in South Eugene and The Eugene Mission offer free laundry access. Another resource Matt did some research on in Springfied is Laundry Love, At the Holiday Coin Laundry (179 14th St, Springfield) the 2nd Monday of each month from 5pm-7pm and the last Thursday of each month from 10am-12pm, families can do their laundry for free. Laundry detergent is provided (sometimes fabric softener and dryer sheets too), but not bleach. We also have a washing machine here in the custodial area that I think I’d be willing to open up in specific cases.

• Families “Precariously Housed” First Place Family Center has a new funding source for project looking to help families who are “precariously housed” or on wait lists to get into housing. They can help with moving expenses, deposits, and other expenses. Interested families should call Chris Stark, who they should be able to reach off their main phone number.

• Clothing AssistanceCatholic Community Services offers a Clothing Closet at their Springfield Center (1025 G Street, 97477 – corner of 10th & G Street across from the Brattain House). Both of their locations actually provide clothing, but since their Springfield Center is larger than their Eugene Center they’re able to house a full Clothing Closet. Families can come in any day for the clothing in their lobbies and can go to the Clothing Closet once a month. Right now they are offering up to 10 items per person in the household. For example, if there was a mom, dad and three children, that household could get up to 50 items free from the Clothing Closet. Hours are Monday – Saturday from 9:30am – 12:30pm. It is completely run by volunteers so their hours are somewhat limited right now. Families interested in this service would just need to check in at our front desk for a brief intake. Bags of Love is another local service where a family can give them a size and they give them clothes, hygiene products, other basic needs

• List of Social Services – Similar to the 2016 Parenting Now Resources for Families (English and Spanish) I shared last year, linked here is a very comprehensive resource guide from the Relief Nursery (PDF and DOC) that ranges from counseling, to anger management, to immigration assistance, to 19 pages more of local resources for families.

• Wrap Around Services (“Wrap”) – Wrap is for OHP/Trillium youth under 18 who have a mental health diagnosis, who are involved in at least two youth-serving systems (i.e. mental health, substance treatment, Dept. of Youth Services, Child Welfare, Developmental Disabilities, school) and experiencing difficulty meeting the youth and family needs. The Wrap facilitator supports the children and their families meet their needs and assist them in accessing services. If you’re thinking of accessing this for a family, they should complete the linked form, and let me know because I have some additional information for who to send it to.

• Elementary Math Adoption – In 14 days the math adoption team will review data collected over their seven-month adoption process and make a recommendation for next year’s math curriculum. If you have not had an opportunity to let your voice be heard yet, please do so in the next week. Check out their website for more information. Review the linked updated version of the back-to-school flyer. Provide your feedback about the 3 options the adoption team is considering via this short survey. Contact Maddy Ahearn if you have any questions.

• IEP Meeting Compensation – Many non-SSD licensed staff attend IEP meetings during planning times or outside the workday. The EEA contract allows for licensed staff to be compensated for up to four hours of additional pay. I wanted to remind teachers to track your IEP meeting times on the Non-ESS Licensed IEP Time Log (this form hasn’t updated their acronym from ESS to SSD yet), which will be accepted later this year between April 25th and June 9th. The attachment can also be found on the HR Forms section of the 4J website.

• Licensed and Classified Breaks – Principals were asked to check in with all licensed and classified staff to assure that they are getting their 30-minute duty free lunch and required breaks (see linked document). Please let me know if you are not getting your required breaks. If it is indeed not happening, I want to ensure that we fix the situation.

• Computer Science Education Week / Hour of Code Dec. 5-9 – Next week is Computer Science Education Week, where all students are encouraged to participate in the Hour of Code. There are many teacher and student friendly tutorials you can find online at Code.org, Khan Academy, CSEdweek.org, and even a Minecraft and Star Wars coding tutorial. Please let me know soon if any of you are planning coding activities, because I’d love to try to get some media coverage for our school.

• Disrupting Inequity – The latest ASCD Express writes that in a talk to teachers on October 16, 1963, author James Baldwin notes that it’s not really a black revolution that is upsetting the country. “What is upsetting the country,” he says, “is a sense of its own identity.” His talk came just months after the historic March on Washington and weeks after the 16th Street Baptist church bombing that killed four young girls. Baldwin saw a society wrestling with the systemic effects of racism, or the realization that if you have to lie about one aspect of history, “you must lie about it all.”

By the same token, pulling at the threads of inequity has the power to unravel whole systems of injustice. In this issue, they follow educators who disrupt bias through their approach to behavior interventions, school funding, curriculum, and critical conversations about race and poverty. Here’s how to show up for equity and take action.

• 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:

November 28 (M)
8:20-1:45, Kreider/Shadwich Salmon Field Trip
2:30-3:30, Site Council Meeting
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

November 29 (T)
2:30, EPSON Projector Specialist Training (Angela’s Room)

November 30 (W)
Picture Retakes
1:30-3:30, Grade Level Collaboration Time (Volunteer’s Classroom)

December 1 (H)
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30, Allan to Eval Planning Meeting (Conference Room)

December 2 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
10:30-12:30, November Birthday Lunches with the Principal (Conference Room)

December 5 (M)
Computer Science Education Week / Hour of Code
2:30-3:30, Allan to Eligibility Meeting (Conference Room)
2:15-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center) SKIPPING

December 6 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Full-Day Kindergarten Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, B203)

December 7 (W)
No Title 1 Wednesday
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (Howard)

December 8 (H)
Bianca Out, 12/8, 12/9, 12/12

December 9 (F)
Regular Day

December 10 (SA)
9:00-4:00, PTO LulaRoe Multi-Consultant Pop Up (Gym/Cafeteria)

Hard to believe there are only two weeks after this one until Winter Break!

Allan

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