2019-2020 Back to School Staff Announcements

By Allan  

 

Welcome Back Howard Roadrunners!

I hope this finds you still enjoying your summer and not thinking about school yet. My summer was mostly short little trips and relaxing, which was my request to my family this year, since last year I felt like I never got a chance to relax at home. So this year I got more time to read books (best book was The Thirteenth Tale), watch movies (best movie was either the remake of True Grit or the 4-hour documentary Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream), and watch TV shows (best show was The Haunting of Hill House)

I’ll keep this first blog post of the year short and will send out a longer one the first week back. In the meantime, feel free to let me know if you have any questions or if there’s anything I help you with.

Eight items of note before you return:

• Staffing Updates – We have several new staff members joining us this year, some of which were announced at the end of last year and some who joined us over the summer. This year we’re joined this year by Emmanuel Gemora (Learning Center), Jyllian Martini (Technology Support), Paige Toro (Life Skills EA), Jasmine Ward (1st grade), Josh Ward (Night Custodian), and Cynthia Wenks (ELL). Emmanual is our new 0.5 Learning Center teacher, taking over for Katie, who is now full-time CLC. Emmanual has previously taught the K-2 behavior classroom at Fox Hollow. Jyllian takes over for Peggy as our TSS. Jyllian was previously the TSS at Kelly, Twin Oaks, Family School, and ECCO and this year will be split between Howard, River Road, and Kelly. Paige comes to the Life Skills program with experience working at EC Cares and Bridgeway House. Jasmine was hired over the summer to teach 1st grade with Jessy. Jasmine student taught here at Howard and last year did a long term sub job in both Carla and Justine’s classrooms. Josh was hired at the end of last school year to be our 12-month night custodian, coming to us from Holt where he was the Nigh Custodian for the past five years. Cynthia is our new ELL teacher, who comes to us from Buena Vista and who also worked with Corianne at ATA. Please welcome these folks to the Rockin’ Howard Team!

I’m still going back and forth with district folks about our staffing and enrollment. It does sound like we’ll get at least one additional classroom teacher, but I’m meeting with district admin Thursday to discuss staffing and which grade levels will get additional support. I’m still making the case that we should be owed more staffing, but I’ll keep folks updated.

Still to be hired are a Project Pass Coordinator (i.e. a Tier II & IIII behavior support EA), which I did group interviews with another principal earlier this week and hopefully will have an announcement soon, a 3-hour Learning Center EA, which Bryan and I are interviewing for on Tuesday, August 20th 9:00-11:30 if anyone would like to join us, and a PE Teacher, as Michelle is moving to teach PE at Corridor/YG. The PE Job Posting is now up and closes on Monday, so please feel free to share if you know of any good candidates. I’m tentatively planning to hold interviews Friday morning next week if anyone would like to join. I’m waiting on downtown administrators to conduct interviews for our new BEST Coordinator and our 10-month night custodian. Also, Looking Glass is planning to add a second counselor to our building. Below is a list of the gen ed classroom teaching assignments and linked here and also on the Google Team Drive is a complete 2019-2020 Staff List (with all 80 people working in our building) as well a Classroom Map. Hopefully I didn’t miss anyone.

KG: Shelly Silver, Robin Vaughan
1st: Jessy Corliss, Jasmine Ward
2nd: Nicole Kerins, Angela Larsen, Ashley Pond
3rd: Charissa Charpie, Allison Kreider, Rhonda Lawson/Stephanie Peterson, Natalie Niccum
4th: Justine Chunn, Jenny Groshong, Carla Zimmerman
5th: Lupe Callihan, Imelda Cortez, Suzy Rock

 

 

• In-Service Week Schedule – The calendar of events for the first two weeks of school is at the end of these announcements and the complete calendar for the school year is on the Howard Staff Google Calendar, but below are details for in-service week.

August 27 (T) – Planning Day – Teachers report back and this is a protected planning day. I’ll have some breakfast goodies, coffee, and drinks in the Staff Room at 8:30 to welcome folks back and to meet new staff members.

August 28 (W) – Building PD Day – Classified staff report back this day and we’ll start the day with everyone in the cafeteria. Breakfast burritos will be available 7:30-8:00 for folks who placed orders and the Back-to-School Staff Meeting with everyone will begin at 8:00. This meeting will be focused on building and some logistical items and I’ll hopefully be able to keep things brief.

August 29 (H) – Planning Day/Optional 4J BTS Event – The 4J Back-to-School Event at South Eugene High School is this morning, 8:30-10:30. Attendance is encouraged, but optional. Following that, there will be multiple required trainings for some licensed and classified staff (primarily specialists, such as PE, Music, Library, Counselors, etc.), so look for emails from the folks running those sessions for details. I’ll share more information once I receive it.

August 30 (F) – Half-Day PD/Half-Day Planning – All staff, classified and licensed, will meet in the cafeteria and will have a 3-hour training on supporting student behavior. Following that there will be a 1-hour training for licensed staff focused on introducing the Instructional Framework and a PLC reboot.

September 2 (M) – Labor Day, No School

September 3 (T) – I have a placeholder Staff Meeting from 8:00-10:00 scheduled this day if anything comes up that can’t wait until our first regular staff meeting. At 10:00, I’ve scheduled a Q&A Session for new staff members to meet with me in the office to answer any questions you might have. I can get busy durning in-service week and am not always easy to find, so I’ve set this time aside. Also, “Meet Your Teacher” will be from 1:00-2:00, when families can come see their classrooms, drop off supplies, and meet staff.

September 4 (W) – The big show begins! We are not doing the big gathering in the gym this year and will have student follow our normal morning routine, but we will still have people stationed around the school to direct students before and after the first bell to help direct traffic. I’ll include more details in my first regular staff announcements.

• Breakfast Burrito Orders Due 8/26 – We’ll continue our welcome back Breakfast Burrito Gathering tradition before the Back-to-School Staff Meeting in the cafeteria. If you’d like a burrito, please complete linked Breakfast Burrito Order Google Form by Monday, August 26th at 9:00. You’ll need to log onto your 4J Google Account to complete the form. I’ll also bring some donuts and bagels and other breakfast goodies if burritos aren’t your thing.

• Master Schedule Updates – Linked here (XLS and PDF) and on the Howard Google Team Drive (Howard Elementary School > Schedules > 2019-2020) is the 2019-2020 Master Schedule. There are a lot of moving parts with creating a master schedule, so it will never be the perfect schedule for everyone and will never be all things to all people, but let me know if you spot any mistakes or have any suggestions. I’m certainly open to ideas if you see a way to improve things that don’t create problems elsewhere in the schedule.

• Class Lists – For making any changes to class lists, please ignore the Google Sheet Class Lists we used to create class lists in the spring. Instead, go by what’s in Synergy, which is what is being updated for students who have moved away and when new students are enrolling and/or returning. If we need to make any adjustments to class lists, please let me know and we will get them updated. Class lists, with the exception of Kindergarten, will be posted Friday, August 30th at 12:00.

• Summer Classroom Availability – Crystal and Josh have been hard at work and ALL classrooms are ready for any staff wanting to come in early to begin setting up your space.

• Assessment Pilot Opportunity – If any teachers are interested in piloting FastBridge or MAP this year instead of using easyCBM, see the above links for summaries of each program. If you are interested, you would attend a 90-minute training on 8/23 or 8/26 (extended contract available) and one more during the school year. Let me know ASAP if you’d like to pilot.

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

August 26 (M)
9:00, Breakfast Burrito Orders Due!

August 27 (T)
Licensed Staff Report Back
8:30, Welcome Back Breakfast Gathering (Staff Room)

August 28 (W)

Classified Staff Report Back
7:30-8:00, Welcome Back Breakfast Burrito Gathering (Cafeteria)
8:00-12:00, Back-to-School Staff Meeting (Cafeteria)
1:00, PBIS Team Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)

August 29 (H)
7:30-8:30, District Back-to-School Breakfast & Social (SEHS Lawn)
8:30-10:30, District Back-to-School Event (SEHS Auditorium)
10:30, Specialist Staff In-Services (Various Locations)
12:30-1:30, Recess Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)

August 30 (F)
8:00-12:00, Behavior Support & PLC PD (Cafeteria)
12:00, 1st-5th Class Lists Posted

September 2 (M)
Labor Day – No School

September 3 (T)
8:00-10:00, Potential Staff Meeting (Cafeteria)
10:00, Q&A Session for New Staff – Optional (Allan’s Office)
1:00-2:00, Meet Your Teacher

September 4 (W)
Classes Begin
PBIS Monthly Theme – Safety
PBIS Rules Round-Up

September 5 (H)
Regular Day

September 6 (F)
1:35, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30, Early Release PD (Volunteer’s Classroom)
4:00, KG Class Lists Posted

Keep playing and we’ll see you in a couple weeks!

Allan