February 27, 2017

By Allan 　

 

Greetings Everyone,

Just ten items of note for this week:

• 2017-2018 Staffing Updates – We did get our ELL allocation for next year and got a slight bump from 0.6 FTE to 0.7 FTE. No other updates for Classified SPED, ESC, TSS, or BEST staffing or a timeline for when we’ll get them. We’ll kind of be in a holding pattern until we get our classified SPED staffing and our ESC staffing since those allocations will effect both our classified and licensed staffing plans. I’ll keep staff posted as soon as I get any new information and I’ll still plan to hold the optional staffing meeting this Wednesday at 1:30 to discuss where things stand and my current thinking. Hopefully we’ll get the rest of our allocations before Wednesday and I can send out more specific staffing scenarios before the meeting.

• Literacy Night – The schedule for Thursday’s Literacy Night will be:

5:00-5:30, Staff Dinner of Mezza Luna Pizzas and Salad (Staff Room)
5:30-6:00: Free pizza (Cafeteria)
6:00-6:30: Visit Classrooms
5:30-7:30: Scholastic Book Fair (Library)

Since it sounds like not everyone got to the school wide book in time, teachers should just be sure to have some good old fashioned literacy activities and projects (it is Dr. Seuss’s birthday after all) to share with families when they visit your classroom. We’ll have sign-in sheets for each classroom and each family that signs in will get a book delivered to their classroom the following week.

• Fire Drill Monday at 1:10 – Third time’s a charm! We’ll give our Fire Drill another try for Monday at 1:10. If it’s raining at that time, my plan will be to look for any break in the weather on Tuesday starting in the morning and hold the drill then.

• District Title 1 Audit by ODE & Parent Survey – Classroom teachers, later this week Bianca will put class sets of Oregon Department of Education parent surveys (in English and Spanish) in your mailbox for you to send home in Friday envelopes this week. ODE will be conducting a monitoring visit of 4J Title 1 schools the week of April 24th. Prior to the visit, ODE wants to hear from families in Title 1 schools. They are looking for feedback on how their child’s needs are being addressed, as well as wanting them to know their voice are being heard. Completed surveys should be returned to the green basket in the office by staff mailboxes. All surveys are due by Wednesday, April 12th.

• Stop, Walk, Talk Review – I shared this earlier in the year back in October, but it may be time for a review of Stop, Walk, Talk with students again. Below is a good video that could be used for a class review of Stop, Walk, Talk at a Caring for Kids/Caring School Curriculum class meeting.

• Attendance Lesson 101 – This was shared with secondary principals, but I thought the lessons here also apply to elementary students if any of you would like to go through this activity with students. Have you ever heard that missing a day of school now and then isn’t a big deal? Well it is. Being absent even 1 day a month negatively affects learning, but missing 2 or more school days a month for an entire school year, known as chronic absenteeism, increases the risk for students to under perform academically and experience delays in prosocial skill development. In short, attending school does matter and every day counts. To help support students with this message, linked here is a step-by-step attendance lesson that demonstrates the impact of accumulating absences.

• Doors to Classrooms and Spaces and Windows to Classrooms – Randi Bowers Payne asked that the following information below be shared with all staff. All doors to classrooms and spaces must be locked when not in use. Students may not be in any unsupervised rooms/spaces in the building which may be left unlocked and unsupervised. If you happen to find a student(s) without adult supervision have them leave and notify administration immediately. If you discover a door that does not shut and/or lock completely, please let your custodian and administration know right away so it can be fixed. In addition, there must be visibility/line of sight when walking by classrooms (i.e., no completely covered hallway windows).

• Exits/Egress Must be Unobstructed at All Times – The Risk Management Department wants you to be aware that there is an OROSHA Administrative rule; stating exit routes MUST be unobstructed. The fine can be anywhere from $300 to $2100 depending on whether the violation is low serious or low death. The rule applies during after school social and sports events as well as during school hours. See the linked Exits & Exit Routes OAR 437-002-0041.

• Literacy in Every Classroom – This month’s issue of ASCD Express focuses on literacy, with articles on reading and writing in math, how to support ELL students, building stamina for struggling readers and writers, and more.

• 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 27 (M)
Book Fair Begins
7:30-7:50, Allan to Suspension Reentry Meeting (Office)
9:00-9:40, Allan to Classroom Observation
1:10, Fire Drill
2:30-3:30, Site Council (Community Room)
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

February 28 (T)
In-District School Choice Closes
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, B203)

March 1 (W)
Open Enrollment (Out-of-District) Begins
1:30-2:00, Optional Staff Meeting to Discuss 17-18 Staffing Scenarios (Volunteer’s Classroom)
2:00, TAG Plan Writing Meeting (Title Room, C205)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

March 2 (H)
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)
5:00-5:30, Staff Literacy Night Dinner (Staff Room)
5:30-7:30, Literacy Night

5:30-6:00: Free Pizza (cafeteria)
6:00-6:30: Visit Classrooms
5:30-7:30: Scholastic Book Fair (Library)

March 3 (F)
No School – Howard PD Day
8:00-12:00, Howard PD Day (Volunteer’s Classroom)

March 6 (M)
Classified Employees Appreciation Week
2:30-3:00, Allan meeting with KG Team
3:00-3:30, Allan meeting with 1st Grade Team

March 7 (T)
2:30-3:00, Allan meeting with 2nd Grade Team
3:00-3:30, Allan meeting with 3rd Grade Team
4:00-6:00, EEA Outdoor Classsroom Management Seminar (School Garden Area)

March 8 (W)
Wacky Wednesday – Crazy Hair Day
No Title 1 Wednesday
School Choice Lottery Results Emailed to Parents
1:30-2:00, Allan meeting with 4th Grade Team
2:00-2:30, Allan meeting with 5th Grade Team
9:00-9:30, Allan meeting with Title 1 EAs & other EAs if available
2:30-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, A101)

March 9 (H)
8:00-4:00, Allan to LEL Meeting (Willagillespie)

March 10 (F)
2:30-3:00, Allan meeting with specialists

And if you haven’t seen it, a number of Howard students have been featured on the Promise of Oregon website this past month. A few of them are linked below.

Have a good one!

Allan

 

One Howard kindergartner had a special story written about him titled A Special Act of Courage.

This entry was written by Allan, posted on February 25, 2017 at 9:43 pm, filed under Announcements, Articles, Literacy, Video. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.