February 10, 2019

By Allan  

 

Howdy Everyone,

If you didn’t hear through the grapevine, congratulations to Jeff who’s wife just had their second child!

Twenty items of note for this week:

• Classified Self Evaluations Due Feb. 28th – I have to submit all classified staff evaluations to HR by March 31st, which mean I need all Classified Staff Self Evaluations completed by March 20th, which will give me three weeks write up end-of-year evaluations and find time to meet with all 46 classified staff members. Self evaluations this year need to be completed online using TalentEd. Your login is your full email (username@4j.lane.edu) and your password is your regular email password. Let me know if you have any questions on this.

• REPEAT: OBOB 2/3/4/5 Assembly, FRIDAY – Linked here is the OBOB Final Battle & Awards Assembly Map & Directions for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes, which will be on Friday, 8:40-9:10 in the gym.

• BJ Blake Covering for Allan, Tuesday – Retired 4J administrator BJ Blake will cover for me while I catch up on some formal observation write ups. I’ll still be in the building, but will be hiding in the STEAM Room or the Looking Glass office while BJ does the kid wrangling for the day.

• Data Team Meetings This Week – See Mellissa’s Data Team Email for details, but the schedule for Data Teams meeting this week is:

WEDNESDAY
Kinder 11:10-12:10
3rd Grade 12:20-1:20
5th Grade 1:30-2:30

THURSDAY
2nd 8:10-9:10
1st 9:30-10:30
4th 10:55-11:55

• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release PD is designated as a Behavior Framework session. Principals have not yet been told what we are covering this day, so stay tuned.

• REPEAT: 2020-2021 Staff Survey, DUE FRIDAY – Principals will receive staffing allocation 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 Word). Please complete the survey by this Friday. All answers will be kept confidential and let me know if you have any questions.

• Roadrunner Awards Assembly, 2/21 – Not this week, but next week is the February Roadrunner Awards Assembly. The planned mid-show entertainment will be a special Roadrunner Award for Bruce the Gardner. See Mellissa’s Email for details and the linked Roadrunner Awards Assembly Map.

• Fun Friday! – Superhero Day, 2/21 – Not this week, but Friday next week is a Fun Friday and it’s Superhero Day! Start getting your kids pumped and start planning your outfit or coordinating group plan for some much deserved goofy fun and community building!

• Library News! – News from Ms. Hopkins!

The library is always open to kids for a calm place to work or a high 5.  Check out a new book, or just to take a brake from life.  :)

We sadly have some kids in transition and a few may be moving away from us. If we have prior knowledge of kids moving I would prefer if they did not check out a library book. Sadly, a few have moved this year.  There are times it can’t be helped I know, but maybe we could catch a few. 

We have also noticed that kids are starting to throw items off the walk ways.  I have been finding things in my office, library and story cove.  I’m thinking before/  after school and when groups are going back to class.   It’s fun to watch thing fall :). 

The kids are so happy with their library books that I have some sharing going on.  Please, please have the kids bring the books to the library so we can switch names.  I’m happy to do it anytime.

Thank you so much for all your support, I work with the best people!  

OBOB games continue this week! – They will be running from 12:40 to approximately 1:40 give or take :). The kids are excited, nervous and anxious to show what they know about the books. Please encourage good sportsman ship and behavior Mrs. Connor and Mrs. Ing will be running our games for us. The students are to come to the library quietly a few minutes before their battle. I will send them back to class as soon as we finished up their games. Thank you for supporting our OBOB kids! There will be OBOB lunches on Tuesday in the community room.

Game #1
12:45 – story cove
The Purrmaid Detectives #4 vs. The Rad Readers #1

Game #2
1:05– story cove
The Galaxy Pandas #6 vs.Tentacle Kitties & Sloth #8

Game #3
1:20 – story cove
The Purrfect Fursona’s #5 vs. The Double Duos #3

Game #4
1:40 – story cove
The Watermelons # 2 vs. Time Travelers #7

February 12th (Semi Finals) 8:40 – 9:10 – Teams TBA
February 14th Final OBOB Assembly 8:40am – Grades 2-5 (2nd grade may want to attend as they will be incoming 3rd graders) – Battling teams TBA

Book Fair Happenings – Our big fair is less than a month way, I can’t believe it.  A jungle theme should be so fun, new book tables and I ordered one more case of books.  We earned another custom fair which entitles us special things.  If you have a book that you might like to see at the fair please let me know and I will see if I can it in.  I have put in a request for next year partial OBOB list.

I am reaching out for book fair volunteers.. please please

The fair takes several volunteers to run smoothly and keep me in one piece.  I have linked the sign up page below if you would like to help.  Mr. Chinn has graciously offered up trade time.  It’s a lot of fun and the kids love to see you!   I could really use a few extra hands :)

Also, If you know of a parent volunteer who you think might like to help, please feel free to share the link to our Howard Book Fair Homepage.  – Thanks again – Julie

• Student Care Team Referrals – The Student Care Team will meet in two weeks, which means student/family referrals to the team are due Friday next week. Common referrals, though not limited to, are:

• Homeless or impending homelessness
• Medical concerns about the child or other family
• Extreme behavior issues – ­additional supports needed outside of school
• Mental health concerns (child or family member)
• Death of a parent
• Incarcerated parent -­ concerns about recent incarceration or pending release
• Unknown if open child welfare case but has concerns that were called in
• Domestic Violence
• Specific resource needed but unknown where to refer

Try to get a signature on the 4J Release Form (English & Spanish) so DHS can research the family situation to see what services they would qualify for. If there’s a situation where you can’t get a signature, you can also refer “hypothetical” student or family situations. Let me know if you have any questions about potential referrals, but if it’s a situation that’s on your mind, it’s probably a worth referring to the team.

• White Bird Resource Guide – Link here is the White Bird – Little Help Book. It’s a 91 page document, so I recommend saving it rather than printing, but it’s a pretty comprehensive guide for local resources ranging from crisis lines to food assistance to health to housing to job assistance and much more. This is also available on the Howard Staff Team Drive > Teams/Meeting > Care Team > Resources > General

• OHP Enrollment Event at Buena Vista, Feb. 18 – Karen Pérez shared with principals the linked flyers (Event Info and OHF Info) to you regarding an Oregon Health Plan (OHP) enrollment event. This event is available for families who need to enroll for OHP or need assistance renewing their enrollment and will be available in Spanish for families as well.

• CASA of Lane County Info – Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Lane County, who are advocates for children in the child welfare system, asked that the linked CASA Flyer and CASA Informational Video be shared with staff. They are hoping school staff will better understand the role of CASA as well as hoping to enlist volunteers (maybe sharing info with interested retired educators).

• Child Welfare Calls – Principals were recently told that if you need to make a child welfare call to DHS, you do not have to call the new centralized Oregon Child Abuse Hotline, 1-855-503-7233 (SAFE), which still has wait times of up to an hour. Instead, you can call the Eugene Police Department Non-Emergency number, (541) 682-5111 or you can connect with me to call we can jointly call to the North Region EPD School Resource Officer.

And remember, when you make child welfare calls, let me know and also complete an Abuse Reporting Form (Word or PDF) so I can track dates, concerns, and how many calls we’ve made for individual student. Downtown is in the process of creating a standardized form for the schools to use, but in the meantime, continue using the Howard form.

• Early Hiring for Great Student Teachers – HR is wanting to hire strong student teachers before other school districts this year, so they are asking principals to forward names of excellent future educators. I’ve talked with a few teachers already, but if your’e working with someone who looking to stay in the area who 4J should snap up, please let me know.

• Photos for Indoor Signage – If staff ever want to reward or incentivize classes by getting pictures posted on the indoor signage, just send me the photos. The Tech Department installed a new system that allows me to simply update a Google Slide instead of the old AMX system, which took me nearly 20-minutes per slide to update. On a side-note, David Nelson is seeing if there’s a way to display the time on the slides, which was one good feature of the clunky AMX system.

• 3rd annual Eugene Youth Math Festival (Free) – Saturday, February 29 at McArthur Court on the University of Oregon from 10:00-1:00 is the 3rd annual Eugene Youth Math Festival, where students who like math and share a passion for games, problem solving, and hands-on math activities, are invited to attend. I took my kids to this free event last year and it was great! See the above link or the linked Math Festival Flyer.

• Google Voice (get calls & texts w/out giving out your cell number) – Want to call or texts families from your cell phone but don’t want to give out your number? Maybe I’m late to the game on this, but I just figured out you can get a free phone number using the Google Voice app (iOS or Android). Get texts and phone calls on your phone with this dummy number, which you can delete or change at any time.

Another related tip I know a lot of people aren’t aware of, if you have an iPhone, you can turn off your caller ID when you call a parent if you don’t want to reveal your phone number. Just go to Settings > Phone > Show My ID

• Reflections on Becoming More Culturally Responsive – Here’s nice Edutopia Article about a group of participants in a program on culturally responsive teaching practices sharing what they’ve learned about themselves—and how their teaching has changed as a result.

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

February 10 (M)
12:40-2:25, OBOB Battles #2 (Library)

February 11 (T)
BJ Blake Covering for Allan
9:00-10:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM26)
4:00-5:00, Allan to 4J PBIS Meeting (Ed Center)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)

February 12 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
8:40, OBOB Battles – Semi Finals (Library)
11:10-2:30, Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)

KG 11:10-12:10
3rd 12:20-1:20
5th 1:30-2:30

2:45-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center)

February 13 (H)
8:10-8:55, BSU Meeting (STEAM Room)
8:10-11:55, Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)

2nd 8:10-9:10
1st 9:30-10:30
4th 10:55-11:55

2:30-3:30, 5th Grade ODS Teacher Planning Meeting (Suzy’s Room)
5:30-6:30, Outdoor School Parent Meeting (Library)

February 14 (F)
Valentine’s Day
Oregon’s Birthday
8:40-9:10, OBOB Finals – Grade 2-5 Assembly (Gym)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Behavior Framework (Library)

February 17 (M)
No School – Presidents Day

February 18 (T)
8:15-11:30, Allan to Elem. Principals’ Meeting – Gaston Covering (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM25)

February 19 (W)
2020-2021 Staffing Allocations Released
11:00-9:00, PTO Dickie Jo’s & Dickie Yo’s Fundraiser – Bring a Flyer!

February 20 (H)
11:00-9:00, PTO Dickie Jo’s & Dickie Yo’s Fundraiser – Bring a Flyer!

February 21 (F)
Popcorn Friday!
Fun Friday! – Superhero Day
8:15-8:40, K-5 Roadrunner Assembly & Tail Feather Reward
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – OSAS/PLC (Library)

Enjoy your three day weekend and if you were experiencing any odd student behavior last week, it may have been the building up to this weekend’s Snow Moon.

Allan