Madison Middle School

Madison staff,

Four days left – we got this! Here are this week’s updates:

Madison INFORMATION     

• Last Day of School: There has been a change and we are having a full day ending at 3:35.  I wish it was a noon release but no one asked me my opinion. This is the latest draft.  I do not see the times changing much but maybe some supervision assignments might change.
• No Yearbook, but yes signature book: As most of you know, Madison included track and promotion pictures in the yearbook, so that means they will not be ready until this summer.  Most schools do a yearbook signing activity at the end of the year, but we cannot.  That being said, the office is creating a Signature Book for students to get signatures.  We will hand out the 8th grade books during promotion practice on Wednesday and 6th/7th graders on Thursday. 
• End of the Year (More Structure versus Less Structure): I am very comfortable with you using part of your period for signatures, but please do not use the whole periods.  We will have behavior issues if that is your only activity on the last day.  
• 8th Grader’s Week: 
  • Monday – Normal (probably your last day with 2nd and maybe 3rd period)
  • Tuesday – Field Trip
  • Wednesday – Normal Focus and First (So Theater students can set up the chairs for promotion).  Second period – 8th graders will all come to the small gym and line up alphabetically. During promotion practice, 7th grade band members will be helping. When promotion practice and awards is over – 8th graders will do a normal rest of the day.
  • Thursday – We are to take attendance this day.  The language I am using that we are not sure who will attend so teachers will do all their wrap up on Monday and Wednesday.  8th grade teachers please have activities ready for students that show up even though we do not know how many will show up.
• Staffing Update: The PE job is posted and closes on the 14th.  If you know anyone you want to work with next year – please encourage them to apply: Link to Job. I do not know when our other jobs will be posted but if you know a SS teacher that wants to work part time, please let Gina know.  Also we should be looking for a couple of EAs if you have friends you want to work with – please let Gina know and she will let you know when the job gets posted.
          
  
• Locker Clean Out Time: We are going to clean out lockers on Wednesday during Focus Class.  Please work out with your commons teachers to split the time so all the students are not out at once.  From this point on – I am fine with backpacks being carried to class.  Even though the students do not have their computers, I am hoping they still have their writing utensils, etc so they know it is a school day and not just here to hang out.  
• 2023-24 Master Schedule: Linked here is a draft of next year’s master schedule. The first tab is the main schedule and the other tabs are what will change each quarter or semester.
       
• Repeat: Report Card Window: Courtney is opening the report card window today – June 9th. Please remember that you need to email your canvas grades to Courtney for each trimester.  If you need/want help – Nicholas Hadley is district person who can help you. 
        
• Repeat: TalentEd Goals Reflection: All licensed staff need to complete the Goals Reflection in TalentEd before the end of the year. Please let me know if you have any questions. Here is the link to the spreadsheet that the amazing Dorothy created that can help with your end of year data for the grade guardian risk score.    Some helpful data for the behavior goal can be found attached to email sent by Dorothy on June 6th.

• Repeat: End of Year Tasks: If you like to pre-plan, linked here is the end of year checklist. All items need to be completed before you officially check out at the end of the year. 
• Summer Technology Check out for Staff –
  Here is the link to click on for Summer take-home. 
  Mark will have a COW up front for educators to put their iPads, MacBooks, and assorted chargers in for those who aren’t taking them home. He will be updating Operating systems and programs as well on those that remain here. 
  If you take it home- please DO update it to Ventura and run the appropriate Managed Software Updates. 
•  

  Interim Assessment Summer Opportunity – I have met with district and state reps to work on a plan for our work on Interims, next year. If you are interested in earning money over the summer to engage in this work, watch for an email on Monday containing details about both the pay and the work product for that time.  
         

DISTRICT INFORMATION            

• 2023-24 District Calendars: Staff were emailed next year’s Employee Work Year Calendars and the District Calendar. There are two mid-term grading days on the calendar that are new to elementary schools. This is to put all grades on the same calendar (no more days where elementary is in session, but secondary isn’t and vise vera), but the district will need to bargain with EEA about what these days look like for elementary school teachers. It’s unclear if they’ll be planning days or if elementary will begin sending home mid-term reports for families.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION   

• Learning for Justice Spring Issue: The Spring issue of Learning for Justice’s magazine is chock full of some really incredible content. The focus of this issue is in acknowledging a student’s rightful place in the school and in the classroom community. This is only something if you want some summer reading or looking for ideas for next year.
    

Looking Ahead:

Looking Ahead:

June 30 – Principals Last Day
July 26 – Principals and Mary Report Back
August 14 – Courtney and Donna Reports Back
August 24 – 196 Day Classified Staff Report Back
August 25 – Licensed Staff Report Back
August 30 – 192 Day Classified Staff Report Back
September 4 – Labor Day
September 6 – First Day for 6th Graders
September 7 – First Day for 7th and 8th Graders

This is my (Peter) last ever Madison blog post. It has been my honor to serve as your principal these past 6 years. Madison has felt like my home since I started and I have so much love for this place and all who work and learn here. Thank you so much for being such an amazing and supportive community. Madison truly is the best!

We hope you have a wonderful last week!

Peter and Gina

These have been my reminders the last four week and are even more important the last week of school.

• End of the Year (More Structure versus Less Structure): Keep students busy.  Middle schoolers need to change activities at least every 15 minutes.  That might mean you do a longer warm up activity to have less work time.  Leaving students to work on an assignment for longer than 15 minutes – you will start to have behavior problems in your classroom.
• End of the Year (More Structure versus Less Structure): Make Up Days or days where the students finish activities before the bell.  Please have things for them to do.  Just hanging out and moving about the classroom will create headaches for the students trying to work plus you. Also, please make sure that you are marking tardies; particularly after break and lunch. That’s an area where we’re starting to see kids push limits.
• End of the Year (More Structure versus Less Structure): In most classrooms towards the end of the year, we are doing projects and group work.  When doing these type of assignments, please work very hard to structure them in a way to keep all students engaged.  I would not recommend using the commons areas as they are very hard to supervise and this time of year, students like to wonder away from where they are supposed to be if not supervised.
• End of the Year (More Structure versus Less Structure): Please do not let students go to other teachers room unless you have talked to the teacher.  Just writing a note because a student asked is not good.  We have a lot of subs in the building and I feel students are taking advantage. As we get closer to the end of the year, we need more structure than less.

Madison Staff,

We only have 1 more 5 day week of the school year! As predicted, some students’ behaviors increase as the end of the year draws near. This means the ReFocus Room is getting pretty busy, especially the end of the of the day. If you have students who ask for a break but don’t really need the ReFocus Room, please have them try a classroom break first. It’s hard to help some of our regular visitors when the ReFocus Room has more than a handful of kids. 

Here are this week’s updates:

MADISON INFORMATION     

• Staffing Update: PE position is still not posted, but I hope soon.
                                
• End of the Year (More Structure versus Less Structure): Make Up Days or days where the students finish activities before the bell.  Please have things for them to do.  Just hanging out and moving about the classroom will create headaches for the students trying to work plus you. Also, please make sure that you are marking tardies; particularly after break and lunch. That’s an area where we’re starting to see kids push limits.
• Midsummer Nights Dream: Come support the theater program this week.  There are three showings all starting at 6:30; Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
• Repeat: TalentEd Goals Reflection: All licensed staff need to complete the Goals Reflection in TalentEd before the end of the year. For those of you who used the template goal around grade guardian, Dorothy is working on preparing that spreadsheet for your Focus class’ risk, based on grades and missing assignments. I’ll send it out when it’s ready, hopefully by mid-late next week.
• Next Friday after school: We will have a third and final work session with the interim assessments.
• College and Career Day: Friday, 6/2
  • We are one week away from our College and Career Exploration Day!

    The Planning Committee wanted to share some more logistics with everyone about the event.

    • Presenters are planning to arrive by 8:30 to be escorted to their classrooms to start getting set up
    • Please share with your presenter which lunch they will have based on when your lunch is – we are providing sandwiches, chips, and fruit for our presenters down in the staff room. Any dietary needs will be labeled.
    • Students will be following their regular class schedule and seeing the presentations in those classes. We are considering changing this up for next year with more student choice, but this is what we are asking for this year. 
    • Each student will have a Presenter Passport to keep with them throughout the day. We will have these ready to go for your first period class in your mailboxes. Please hand them out at the start of first period that day as you are taking attendance.
    • We are asking that you give Lion Loot to students who are filling in their Passports toward the end of each period of the day. Please save the last 5 minutes of each class period for Lion Loot drawings. Gina is working on getting a variety of small prizes for students to earn for being a good audience member.
    • Our 6th period Lion Loot drawing will be a larger prize. (Gina – are we able to do the gift card for each class for 6th period?)
    • Our Plan B just in case we have some last minute cancellations is to combine classes. If you have class periods that are small and we have a classroom without a presenter, we would like to combine classes with you. 
    • If you have students who will be in your class twice that day (intervention classes), our plan is to invite those students to join a different classroom presentation so they don’t hear the same presentation twice. Please take attendance first. If it is a large number of students, please let someone know and we will help support that class.

DISTRICT INFORMATION        

• Classified Staff – OEBB Dependent Eligibility Verification Due by June 27: If you’re a classified staff member AND you have dependents covered by your insurance, be on the lookout for mail from OEBB about verifying your dependents. If you’re married, you’ll have to send in a copy of your marriage license and the front page of your tax return. For dependent children, you have to send in copies of their birth certificates. There is a cover sheet that comes in the mail along with directions of what to do. Feel free to ask me any questions you have! Don’t delay – failure to verify your dependents will result in them being dropped from your insurance.    
                 
• COVID Updates: 4J is changing three COVID protocols to align with changes in state policy. One, COVID positive staff and students are no longer required to quarantine for 5 days and instead just need to be fever free for 24 hours without meds. Two, schools receive new testing kits in the fall to have on-hand. Three, effective June 17th, the vaccination and religious or medical exemption requirement for staff, visitors, and volunteers will end.
       
• Administrator Updates: A few updates to district and school leadership.
  • Nadira Rizkallah will be principal at Edgewood Elementary next year. Nadira was previously co-administrator of River Road and Buena Vista and most recently served as South Lane’s human resources and equity director.
  • Kimberly Ingram has been named the principal of YG for next year. Kimberly comes from Salem Keizer where she’s been the principal at Battle Creek elementary for two years and was the district’s elementary curriculum coordinator for MTSS. She also has a Ph.D in special education.
  • Megan Russell, currently the AP at Gilham Elementary, will shift to Monroe Middle School as their AP.
  • Tom Piowaty, principal at Yujin Gauken, will move to Gilham as their assistant principal next year.
  • Carlos Sequeria, formerly assistant superintendent at Lane ESD, will join the Spencer Butte team as their assistant principal.
  • Eric Anderson, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, has been named the new Assistant Superintendent at Lane ESD.
  • Kevin Gordon, formerly principal of Adams and Camas and currently principal of Laurel in Junction City, has been named as Chavéz’s principal for next year.
  • Ed Mendelssohn will take over as the College and Career Readiness/CTE Administrator next year when Tia Holliday retires. Ed has been in administration for 20 years in 4J and Springfield.
  • Adrienne Pierce will serve as the Secondary Curriculum & MTSS Administrator.
  • Morgan Christianson will shift from Title IX Coordinator to Human Resources Administrator supporting licensed staff.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION   

• None
         

Looking Ahead:

We hope you have a wonderful week!

Peter and Gina

Madison Staff,

Here are this week’s updates:

MADISON INFORMATION      

• End of the Year (More Structure versus Less Structure): Please do not let students go to other teachers room unless you have talked to the teacher.  Just writing a note because a student asked is not good.  We have a lot of subs in the building and I feel students are taking advantage. As we get closer to the end of the year, we need more structure than less.
• Staffing Update: I think a new principal has been hired and I am excited to hear the announcement.  I have no insider information of who they hired and waiting just like you.  In addition to the principal, we will be hiring two 7 hour EAs and a PE teacher.  If you know anyone interested, please let them know to be looking at the 4j job listings.  I do not know when they will get posted.
• Welcome Mike Riplinger – We are excited and relieved that Mike will again be joining us all next week, while Peter is in Portland supporting his ailing parents. It’s helpful to have Mike helping out because as the former principal of Awbrey Park, he has a relationship with many of our students and can effectively take on more student-centered issues than a random sub administrator would be able to.     
• Congrats to Robin Wellwood! Our former nurse, Robin Wellwood was recognized last week with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the ACE Awards. Robin was recognized for all her contributions to our school district over her amazing career. Congratulations, Robin! 
      
  

DISTRICT INFORMATION        

• Leadership Plans Postponed: The original plan was to work on next year’s leadership plan this year after school improvement plans were finished. The main team redesigning leadership plans hasn’t finished their work, so the new leadership plan structure will likely be introduced in the fall. The team is working to make compensation more equitable at all levels.      
       
• School Climate Survey: The annual school climate survey will be here soon. The climate survey asks kids about their safety at school, experience with bullying, and if they have trusted adults.  Gina will let us know when and where students will take this survey. We use the results to help us set goals for the following year. 
• Repeat: Upbeat Survey: You should have received a link to the end of year Upbeat Survey last week. It’ll look much the same as last time. We are hoping for 100% completion of the survey, so that everyone’s voice is heard. Submissions are being accepted until next Friday, 5/19.
• May SSD Newsletter: Linked here is this month’s SSD newsletter. It includes information on Transition Services, progress reports, CMA services, and playgrounds.
            

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION   

• Free Webinar: Zaretta Hammond – SOR + Culturally Responsive Instruction as a Path to Equity: Zaretta Hammond is hosting a free seminar on May 17 at 1pm (definitely not an ideal time) about using SOR alongside Culturally Responsive Instruction to bring truly equitable practices into the classroom. If you register, you’ll get access to a recording of the webinar.
  
  • Want to attend live? Add your name to this Google doc to let us know you’re interested. I’ll do a wheel spinner and we’ll cover two people’s classrooms so you can attend the webinar live with Carla!
        
• A Reminder About Mother’s Day: We have quite a few students who don’t live with their mothers, were removed from their mother’s care, or who have lost their mothers. Please consider shifting “Mother’s Day” themes to “Love Makes a Family” or “Adults I Love” themes. Students can celebrate and recognize any adult who takes care of them. This Welcoming Schools article has some ideas and resources.
       
• Discounts & Freebies for Teacher Appreciation Week: Check out some of the links below for discounts and freebies. There are offers from Applebees, Canva Pro, Adidas, Great Wolf Lodge, and many more.
  • Romper.com = list of deals available
  • Insomnia Cookies = free 6 pack of cookies with any $5 purchase.

Looking Ahead:

We hope you have a wonderful week!

Gina and Peter

Madison Staff,

Here are this week’s updates:

MADISON INFORMATION     

• SCIP Plan: Our finalized SCIP plan is linked here. It’s due this Friday, so this is your last opportunity to share any feedback or ideas with me before it is submitted. 
• EasyCBM: The Spring window for easyCBM reading and math tests is now open. All students need to be tested, this round. IN the winter, we only needed certain students. Thank you to Mr. Miller for helping out by proctoring the 8th grade reading tests to 8th graders, so that Misty and Katie can focus on state testing.
      

DISTRICT INFORMATION        

• Repeat: Parent Survey: I sent the following email to families this week. The district is seeking feedback from all families about the superintendent’s three priorities: communication, well-being/safety, and meeting the needs of underserved populations. If you could send the info below in Seesaw as well, I would appreciate it! Here’s a link to a pdf of the survey so you can see what’s being asked.
  • Dear Families,We are looking for your feedback to improve our school and our district systems. We would love to hear from you! Please complete the survey below which asks for your input on how we communicate with you about your student’s progress, our school’s climate and culture, and opportunities for parent involvement. We are in the process of drafting a new school improvement plan. Your feedback will help us better target our goals around these three areas.
    English Survey:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TWK56SG 
    Spanish Survey:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TQHLW8D
         
• REMINDER! Confirm your dependents with OEBB!: Please don’t forget about confirming your dependents with OEBB. Licensed staff should have received something in the mail by now with steps to confirm your dependents. If you don’t submit the required paperwork, your dependents will lose their benefits. Contact Jaime Meyers, the licensed benefits coordinator, if you have any questions.
       
• District Staffing Updates:
  • Jen Hebard, currently principal of both Kennedy MS and Chinese Immersion, will be principal of just Chinese Immersion next year.
  • Brian Watson, currently assistant principal at Monroe MS, will be the principal of Kennedy MS next year.
  • Jim Moore, currently principal of Edgewood, will move to South Eugene as their assistant principal and athletic director.
  • Joe Hadley, currently principal of Charlemagne, is leaving the district at the end of this year.
  • Sarah “Poppy” Campbell, currently AP at Spencer Butte, has been selected to be Charlemagne’s principal next year.
  • Deirdre Pearson, currently principal of Chavez, is moving and has accepted a principal position in her new city.
  • Mike Ingman, currently working as an HR admin and formerly principal of Sheldon, will return to Sheldon as their principal next year. Kay Graham served as interim principal this year and is retiring at the end of the year.
  • Carey Killian, the current principal of South Eugene High School, is leaving at the end of the year. Kee Zublin, currently the secondary director of teaching and learning in Bethel, will step in as principal at South next year.
  • Nain Muñoz has been hired as North Eugene’s new principal for next year. Nain (pronounced “nine”) has served as principal at South Albany and Clackamas high schools and was the community schools coordinator at Redmond.
         

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION   

• The New Slang: This week’s new word is homie hopper. A homie hopper is a person who “hops” from one person to another where the people they choose to date are within the same group of friends. Urban Dictionary says it became a word in 2013. Not sure why I’m so far behind the times…
  
  

Looking Ahead:

We hope you have a wonderful week!

Peter and Gina

Madison Staff,

Here are this week’s updates:

MADISON INFORMATION     

• Focus Class: I would like everyone to keep their focus students in their classes.  There is one asterisk on that comment though.  If you want the student in your class to finish a project/assignment/test or to get extra help for your class, that is fine with me.  One of our goals of Focus is to build that family feeling and that is hard to do with students leaving your class.  Moving forward, if you want a student to do work in your class, please reach out to the student’s Focus teacher. That way it can be a conversation between two adults and then we are taking out the student honesty variable.
• Neoprene computer bags: Last Monday you will handed out the neoprene computer bags to all students who have not been given one yet.  We have ordered more, but please start making sure students are using the bags when computers are not in use.
• Classified Sick Leave Bank Help: Sally Duerfeldt, the Classified Benefits Coordinator, will be here Tuesday, May 2nd from 8:30-10:00 to answer questions and help anyone interested in the Classified Sick Leave Bank. Open enrollment for the bank opens May 1. Staff who donate some of their sick leave time to the bank can then access the bank if you need to be out for a longer period of time and need additional sick leave. Stop by the staff room on May 4 to learn more from Sally.
   
• Staffing Update: A couple of updates about next year’s staffing:
  • Access Center (Formerly known as LC) EA: Brandi Geddis will be starting on April 19th to help support students on Amy’s caseload.
  • New Principal Coming: My time at Madison will come to an end at the end of the year.  I am the new Athletic Director at North Eugene.  I have loved my time at Madison and would not want to work at another middle school.  Many of you have welcomed me into your families through stories and pictures and those are some of my favorite parts of working with you all.  I was told that 4j will be posting the principal position.    
       
• Barsotti’s Family Update: Last weekend, I had the opportunity to ski with my dad and Nephews at Mt. Bachelor when my family was in Arizona for Easter.  On the second run of the day, my dad broke both his bones in his lower leg.  My family likes to blame me, but this one was not my fault.  It was a super easy run and he just fell wrong.  My mom is doing way better but is not in a spot to take care of my dad and herself so my siblings and I are back to taking turns supporting them.  My week is the week of April 24th.  I am looking for a sub to help support you while I am gone.  
  

DISTRICT INFORMATION                  

• Congrats to ACE Award Nominees! Linked here is a list of everyone who was nominated this year. Here are the Monarchs who were nominated: Peter Barsotti, Tim Wilcox, Zoe Haupt, Queen Mary, and Suzie McLauchlin.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION   

• None this week 🙂
•  

Looking Ahead:

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Gina and Peter