January 27, 2020

By Allan 　

 

Hiya Roadrunners,

It was fun seeing folks at the staff party. Thank you to Mellissa for hosting and for everyone who was able to come out!

Six items of note for this week:

• 2020-2021 Staff Survey, Due Feb. 14th – Principals will receive staffing allocation for next school year on Wednesday, February 19th, so to help me in planning potential staffing scenarios for next year, I’d like staff to complete the linked 2020-2021 Staffing Survey (preferred) or the linked file (PDF or DOC). I’d like to know staff members’ individual plans and preferences for the future as well as your thoughts on next year’s staffing plan and/or master schedule. Please complete the survey by Friday, February 14th. All answers will be kept confidential and please let me know if you have any questions.

Our preliminary projection is for next year is 497 students, which is inline with our current enrollment and seems accurate to me. Depending upon staffing ratios, we may have one or two fewer teachers than this year (we’re currently over-staffed), but there may be later staffing hires if 4J’s Student Success Act (SSA) plan includes additional teachers and support staff and the plan is approved by the state.

• Report Card & Grading Day Updates & Reminders – 1 new item, 4 repeats, and 1 updated item regarding report cards and grading day:

• Parent Reports Next Week – Principals and testing coordinators were emailed last week that Parent Reports (containing attendance, benchmark, and state assessment scores) will not be available to print until after the winter benchmark testing closes on Thursday. I’ll plan to print reports and the parent info sheet as soon as they are available, which at this point downtown is hoping to have ready the Wednesday before Report Cards go home. The Spanish reports came late last year, but I’ll put those in teacher mailboxes for any student where Spanish is flagged as the home language in Synergy once the reports are available.

• REPEAT: Report Card Resources – The 4J Elementary Report Card website has info on getting started, best practices for teacher comments, a link to the Report Card Bridge Document, as well as printing instruction and information on Synergy Grade Book.

https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/elemreportcard/files/2020/01/Performance-Key.png

• REPEAT: Report Card Send-Home Date – Report Cards will go home on Friday, Feb. 7th, which is a district-wide date to send these home.

• REPEAT: Print AFTER Thursday – Report cards should not be run until Friday. Attendance and other updates will be run after school Thursday, so that info will not print correctly if they are run early.

• REPEAT: Report Card Grading Day, Licensed Staff – For licensed staff, it is okay to work from home if you let me know in advance, but be sure to plan ahead if you need to collaborate with any colleagues on grading.

• UPDATE: Report Card Grading Day, Classified Staff – For classified staff, I have not seen any info on an EA Extravaganza. It was on the original district PD calendar for the year, but I’m guessing it’s been cancelled due to Curriculum Administrator Sue Wilson having left 4J and her replacement not being brought on board yet, so instead connect with your cooperating teachers for what you might do this day.

• Book Winner Book Suggestions – Last spring I wrote a last minute fourth EEF grant to buy new books for the Monthly Book Winners when we only had three grant submissions. It ended up getting funded this fall by school board member Gordon Lafer with leftover funds from his election campaign. I’m planning to place a book order this Friday, so if staff have suggestions for what the popular books of the moment are, let me know and I’ll get them ordered.

• Care Team Resources – Here are a couple new resources (also on the Howard Staff Team Drive) shared at last week’s Student Care Team Meeting:

• Adolescent & Family Services (AFS) – AFS delivers treatment for teens with alcohol and drug problems. Counseling services are provided in an outpatient setting at one of our two Eugene locations: Oregon Social Learning Center Developments, Inc. (ODI) and Centro Latino Americano (Centro) and can be provided in English or Spanish. AFS also provides family therapy. They are technically a research study, so there are incentives for family participation. https://www.odiclinic.org/afs/ and flyer.

• SNAP Training and Employment Program (STEP) – Not if you are on TANF, but if you are receiving SNAP benefits and need help with employment & training, STEP can help with Financial Assistance, Career Advancement, Building Job Search Skills, and resources for Home & Family. See the linked flyer (English and Spanish) for more info.

• Supporting English Language Learners’ Strengths – Emergent bilingual or multilingual students who are in the process of learning English need educators whose methods and mindsets draw out these learners’ strengths. Many of the educator voices in this issue of ASCD Express were once English learners themselves, providing a mix of experience and expertise on the shifts necessary for multilingual students to thrive. Follow the above link for articles on Being an Advocate for English Language Learners, Removing Barriers to Learning in Math for All Students, and An Asset-Based Approach to Support ELL Success. On a related note, here’s an Edutopia article on Five Tips for Getting the ESL Student Talking, an article from Colorín Colorado on What are BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) and CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency)? which includes a nice video and also What Is the Difference Between Social and Academic English?

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

January 27 (M)
Benchmark Testing Continues
School Choice Visitation Week #2
10:00-1:00, Rest & Return Room Opens (RM21)
2:45-3:30, Site Council (Conference Room)

January 28 (T)
8:15-11:30, Allan to Elementary Principal Meeting – Gaston Covering (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM26)
3:30-5:30, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)
6:00-7:00, School Choice Evening Presentation & Tour (Library)

January 29 (W)
Last Day of Tailfeather Challenge
9:15, School Choice Visitation Tour
10:30-7:00, 4J New Teacher Institute (STEAM Room)
2:35-3:30, Equity Team Meeting (Imelda’s Room, RM7)

January 30 (H)
8:10-8:55, BSU Meeting (Community Room)
7:00-8:00, BEST Strings Concert (Kelly MS)

January 31 (F)
No School* – Grading Day (possible hazardous weather makeup day)
In District School Choice Closes
1:00-3:30, Allan to PLC Principal Booster Meeting (Ed Center)

February 3 (M)
National School Counseling Week
Second Semester Begins
12:40-2:25, OBOB Battles #1 (Library)
3:45-5:15, Allan to Elementary Principal Meeting (Ed Center)

February 4 (T)
2:45-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM25

February 5 (W)
Walk+Roll to School Day

February 6 (H)
Regular Day

February 7 (F)
Popcorn Friday!
Report Cards Sent Home
9:30-1:00, KG Hearing Screenings (STEAM Room)
1:30-2:00, EA Supervisors’ Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – PLC (Library)

Hard to believe we’re almost halfway through the school year. Enjoy the 4-day week!

Allan

This entry was written by Allan, posted on January 25, 2020 at 10:25 pm, filed under Announcements, Articles, Equity, Video. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.