Madison Middle School

Dear Monarchs,

Thank you for the joy and excitement you created during today’s River Walk. It was great to see all the kids participating and enjoying the event together! We managed to successfully raise $10,000 for the school, which is way more than the previous River Walk, prior to covid. We are excited to announce the winners for each of the prizes. That will happen a few at a time, each day next week during announcements. We will also post the names of winners on the monitors in the hallways.

Here are this week’s updates.

MADISON INFORMATION          

• Bathrooms and Out of Class – We are continuing to have a ton pf problems with kids being out of class to hang out in the bathrooms. They will often coordinate a time and each ask for a pass at the same time, or one will get a pass and then cruise past their buddy’s class and give them the “come on” nod. Kids are vandalizing the restrooms and making all kinds of messes. Please put some thought into your bathroom checkout routine. You may consider a sign-out sheet of some sort, in order to track which kids are constantly using the restroom or are out of the room for extended periods of time. The supervision team has noticed that there are some students who seem to get a bathroom pass every single period and seem to be constantly roaming the halls. Thanks so much for your help in trying to minimize these behaviors so that we can keep our restrooms clean and cared for.
  
     

DISTRICT INFORMATION                   

• Friday District PD: This week’s PD is teacher’s choice. Peter sent an email this afternoon with more info. 
       
• Talent Ed Tasks and Goals: I am working on some sample goals for teachers to use related to our school wide goals of AVID Organizational Support and SEL. I’ll share those out as soon as they’re done. In the meantime, all staff need to complete their self-reflection (classified staff) or self-assessment (certified staff) in Talent Ed, if you haven’t already done that. As of this afternoon, 19 out of 24 licensed
      
• Professional Development Calendar: Linked here is the 2022-23 Professional Development Calendar for certified staff. This lays out all the district-led PD for teachers this school year.
• Equity Learning Opportunity We are excited to share the link for the viewing of I’m Not Racist…Am I? 

   

  Password is: E4J2scrn%106!

  It is available until 4pm on Saturday, 10/8

  We also want to make it clear that the purpose of this film is to facilitate dialogue and discussions between parents and families at home. We are not expecting teachers to facilitate or have discussions in their classrooms regarding this film. 

  For anyone who is unable to watch the staff viewing or attend the screening in person, there will be a virtual screening offered on 10/21 from 5:30-7  with a Q&A and talkback with the creators of the film from 7-8:30. 

  
            

• Save Our Schools Opt Out Form: A heads up there’s a Save Our Schools Opt-Out Form circulating online and in our community made by Heritage America. If you receive this form, simply thank the parent or guardian and let them know you’ll give it your principal. The form cites OARs with a loose interpretation of them, but don’t engage in a discussion about the opt-out form or any actions you’ll take regarding the form. 
   

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION

Looking Ahead:

Have a wonderful week!

Peter and Gina

Dear Madison Staff,

What an amazing couple of weeks! Classes are rolling, kids seem pretty happy to be back, and there doesn’t seem to be quite the trauma and extreme behaviors that there were already by this time last year.

You are all doing an amazing job supporting kids with the transition to laptops. We know that there have been some challenges. Please continue to let us know if there are roadblocks with the technology use.

Here’s what’s happening next week.

MADISON INFORMATION         

• River Walk Assembly on Monday – We will call classes down right after the announcements, and we’ll be using the same seating chart as last time.
    
  
• Wednesday Grade Level Meeting: In GLT, next week, teams will be planning their group presentation for our Back to School night on the 29th, and also learning about the process for weekly grade/assignment checks in Focus, from your Justice League rep.
        

DISTRICT INFORMATION                   

• Friday District PD: This week’s PD is centered around content areas. Please review the list of sessions and be ready for your session. Many of the sessions are on Zoom, but some are in person.
       
• EEA Collective Bargaining Agreement: The new collective bargaining agreement is now up on the 4J website. 
      
• High Holy Days: Here is some important information about the High Holy Days. We cannot hold events on these days and must provide students time to make up missed work if they are out for religious reasons. 
  1. Rosh Hashanah – Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset on Sunday, September 25, 2022. Rosh Hashanah ends at nightfall on Tuesday, September 27, 2022. Most observant families will be in services on Monday.  Some will go on Tuesday.
  2. Yom Kippur – Yom Kippur begins at sunset on Tuesday, October 4, 2022 and ends at nightfall on Wednesday, October 5, 2022. Many families will be in services and/or out of school on Wednesday.
          
• Using Synergy to Email Families: The director of technology, Steve Menachemson, shared that adding large files to emails sent from Synergy slows Synergy down district-wide. If you need to attach anything larger than a small PDF file (like a one-page handout), load it into your Google Drive, set permissions to “Anyone with the link can view”, and share the link in your Synergy email instead.
              

Looking Ahead:

Have a wonderful week!

Gina and Peter

Dear Madison Staff,

As we embark on this new year, we just want to start with my gratitude for who you are and what you do each day. Madison is the special place it is because of you. Thank you for being here, for doing what you do to help grow future generations, and leaning into challenging situations and enjoying fun times. We are heading into this year with optimism of what’s to come. Here we go, Monarchs!

MADISON INFORMATION         

• Things to have on your calendar:
  • First Fire Drill @9:15 on Thursday 9/15
  • River Walk Assembly 9/26 during Focus
  • Parent Night 9/27 @6:30pm
  • River Walk 10/7

• Backpacks – Starting Focus on Monday, you should not see backpacks in your classroom.  If they come with their backpacks, please have them take out what they need for class and send them to their locker.  If they need locker help – please acknowledge that and try to get them help.

• Focus Content Calendar – Beth has set up an awesome calendar to organize the daily content for Focus class. Please bookmark this page as you’ll need to access it nearly every day.

• Classified Staff Trade or Comp Time Documentation: If you are a classified staff member and work past your scheduled hours at my request or with my prior approval or at the request or approval of another district administrator, please let me know. Please see the descriptions below for the difference between trade time and comp time. If you have any questions, please let me know.
  
  • Comp Time: Compensatory Time Off. In lieu of overtime pay and with the approval of the administrator or supervisor, or if budgeted funds are not available for the payment of overtime, an employee will receive compensatory time off at the rate of one and one-half (1-1/2) times the number of overtime hours worked. Maximum accumulated compensatory time shall be sixty (60) hours for full-time employees, and thirty (30) for part-time employees. An employee who has accumulated the maximum compensatory time shall be paid for any additional overtime worked in the next regular pay period. Compensatory time will be recorded daily and/or weekly on a form that is readily accessible to the employee, supervisor and HR. 
    • Available days for Comp Time for the first half of the year:
      • Thursday, November 10
      • Thursday, December 1
      • Friday, December 2
           
  • Trade Time: Trade time is equal time exchanged within the same workweek. Trade time is available by mutual agreement of the supervisor or building administrator and the employee. Employees who are scheduled to take trade time but are unable to do so must notify their supervisor by the next business day and record the actual hours worked on a timesheet. 
        
• Meeting Schedules: For consistency, please plan on having regular meetings using the following schedule. Building team meetings and staff meetings will run from 2:45-3:30. We will be using the Zimbra calendar attached to your email for our building calendar. If you haven’t received an invitation to that calendar, please let me know.
  • Content Team Planning (Wednesday): 
  • Grade Level Teams (Wednesday): 
  • Professional Development and Staff Meetings(Fridays): Please plan to be with the staff from 2:45 – 4 every Friday.   
• Building Access & Sign In/Out: If you are in the building outside of regular hours (7:00-8:30) you MUST sign in and out on the clipboard in the hallway near the alarm pad.  This helps whoever else is or might be in the building so they don’t set the alarm on you.
     
  
  • Alarm System: If you enter or leave the building outside our regular hours you may need to turn off or turn on the alarm. Check the sign in sheet to make sure you’re not setting the alarm on someone else. Please let me know if you need a training session.
    • There are 4 separate alarmed areas. The office is armed by the keypad in the office. The gyms are alarmed separately using a keypad on the wall between the two gyms. The kitchen/cafeteria also has its own alarm system. If you need to go into the kitchen you’ll need to disarm the alarm which is all the way in the back of the kitchen. The forth and probably most used is in the academic hallway near the drinking fountain by the 8th grade commons.
          
• Laptops for Classified Staff: Please connect with me if you are a classified staff member and need a laptop to complete your job duties. We will also have technology available for staff to check emails.
        
  

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DISTRICT INFORMATION                   

• Check your Paycheck: The finance department is transitioning to a new system, so there’s a possibility for errors on your paycheck, either under or overypaying. I noticed a significant reduction in how much is being taken out for federal taxes. They told me the new system has a better tax calculator. I’m redoing some paperwork to fix that, so take a look and make sure it seems similar to your past checks.
       
• Insurance Open Enrollment Deadline, Sept. 15: A reminder that you need to choose your insurance plan by September 15th or you will lose your benefits. Enrollment this year is mandatory. Check out the 4J Insurance page for more details.
             
• 4J Tech Subscriptions: Linked here are the current 4J Technology Subscriptions. There’s no BrainPop or Mystery Science this year, but let me know if there are subscriptions we could consider purchasing as a building or writing grants for.
       
• Medication Lock Boxes Available: 4J schools are receiving 5-6 medication lockboxes (that look like cash boxes) to hand out to families that would like to securely store medication. See the Medication Lockboxes email for details, which also contains info about obtaining free gun lockboxes as well. Let Megan Newell know if you know a family in need of one.
       
• ALL STAFF – Absences Must Be Entered In Absence Management: Even if you don’t need a sub, all absences for all staff members must be entered into our absence management system.
     
  
  • Requesting Subs: All teaching and EA staff must request a sub for the absences if you are absent on a school day. Please be sure the “Sub Required” button is toggled on. You must also change the times to reflect your specific start and end times. If you have questions, please check in with a colleague or ask me.
       
    
    • Classified Staff: Please use the quick guide to enter your start and ends time into Aesop so you never have to worry about them. If you have a lunch break, you must enter your time as AM and PM shifts. Example: If you work from 8-2:30 with a lunch from 11:30-12:00, you’d enter your shift as 8:00-11:30 in the AM section and 12:00-2:30 in the PM section. Otherwise the sub gets paid for lunch, which is supposed to be unpaid AND they’ll deduct that 30 minutes from your sick leave. 
       
  • Enter absences by 6am: If you cannot enter your absence by 6am to request a sub, please text admin and Mary so we can enter it for you.
       
  • Communicate your absence: Please communicate your absence with your team or cooperating teacher and admin, especially if it’s an unplanned absence so we can ensure your role is covered.
     
  • How to enter an absence: The quick sheet linked here provides a visual guide of entering an absence.
        
  • How to use the absence management system: This district page has videos and Q&A about our absence management system. Note it hasn’t been updated to reflect that all EAs are now able to get a sub on day 1 of their absence (old practice required some EAs to wait until day 4 of an absence before they were allowed a sub).
       
• Absences: Please refer to your contract for more information on leave provisions and the district Administrative Rule on Attendance. I am happy to answer questions as best I can, however, I cannot make special deals with staff members. If you have a special event you’d like to take leave for or a special situation, please reach out to Human Resources at hr_leaves@4j.lane.edu for guidance. 
  • Sick Leave
    • For Licensed Staff: 8.1.4 “Sick leave” means absence from duty because of illness or injury. “Sick leave” also means absence from duty because of a serious health condition which prevents the unit member from working. (See Section 9.4.1 for eligibility for additional leave.)
      • a. Up to 40 hours sick leave per year may be used to care for an ill or injured family member, regardless of whether such leave is covered by OFLA and/or FMLA. 
    • For Classified Staff: 13.1.4 Definition and Uses. Sick leave means absence from duty because of the employee’s illness, injury, medical appointments, or serious health condition.
      • a) Up to 40 hours sick leave per year may be used to care for an ill or injured family member, regardless of whether such leave is covered by OFLA and/or FMLA. Sick leave may be used for personal illness up to the total hours accumulated.
      • 13.1.5 Proof of Illness. An employee who is absent five (5) consecutive days on sick leave may be required to furnish a statement from his/her attending physician that illness, injury or serious health condition prevents the employee from working. The District may also require medical certification in cases of suspected misuse or to determine if the leave is FMLA/OFLA protected. The District will reimburse the employee for the cost of any medical certification not covered by insurance.
        
  • Personal Leave:
    • For Licensed Staff: 8.3 PERSONAL LEAVE: Unit members may take three (3) days of personal leave per year with pay.
      • 8.3 .1 This leave is accumulative under the terms of Section 8.3.5.
      • 8.3.2 This leave must be scheduled with the unit member’s supervisor twenty-four (24) hours in advance unless the incident giving rise to the need for the leave is of such emergency nature that advance scheduling is not feasible.
      • 8.3.3 Personal leave may be used on a day adjacent to a holiday or vacation if the leave is otherwise permitted under this provision. However, in no case may personal leave be taken on a day adjacent to a holiday or vacation for the purpose of extending the activities of the holiday or vacation.
      • 8.3.4 Unit members returning to work following a holiday or vacation period who have had their travel curtailed due to a strike, cancellation, or hazardous weather conditions may use personal leave.
      • 8.3.5 Unit members may carry over unused personal leave days up to the total of three (3) accumulated personal leave days. All provisions of Section 8.3 related to the use of personal leave apply to the use of such accumulated leave, except that members taking leave of more than five (5) consecutive days shall complete a leave request form available from Human Resources.
    • For Classified Staff: Personal Days. An employee shall be granted up to two (2) days of paid personal leave during each fiscal year. The leave may be taken in hourly segments.
      • Personal days can be used for any reason except may not be taken to extend school holidays or vacation periods unless approved in writing by the Human Resources Director or designee based on exceptional circumstances.
      • The leave must be scheduled with the employee’s supervisor at least twenty-four (24) hours in advance except for unavoidable emergencies.
      • The administrator/supervisor shall approve the leave unless the leave will interfere with the effective and efficient delivery of the educational program and related support services. Examples include: when a substitute is not available or two or more employees in the same building request leave on the same day and the school cannot reasonably reallocate critical duties.
      • Concerns about use of leave may be appealed to the Human Resources Director or designee. Upon termination unused days are not compensated.
              
  • Unpaid Leave: If you need to take leave that isn’t covered above, you’ll need to complete a Request for Unpaid Leave form and submit it to me and HR for prior approval. This form covers leave for 5 or fewer days where sick or personal leave wouldn’t apply. This includes wanting to extend a holiday for a vacation or trip. It’s also when you need to take more personal days but don’t have any left. If you need more than 5 unpaid days, for a non-medical reason you’ll have to complete a regular leave form.
  • ALL STAFF – Absences Must Be Entered In Absence Management: Even if you don’t need a sub, all absences for all staff members must be entered into our absence management system.
    • Requesting Subs: All teaching and EA staff must request a sub for the absences if you are absent on a school day. Please be sure the “Sub Required” button is toggled on. You must also change the times to reflect your specific start and end times. If you have questions, please check in with a colleague or ask me.
    • Enter absences by 6am: If you cannot enter your absence by 6am to request a sub, please text me or Tasha so we can enter it for you.
    • Communicate your absence: Please communicate your absence with your team or cooperating teacher and me, especially if it’s an unplanned absence so we can ensure your role is covered.
    • How to enter an absence: The quick sheet linked here provides a visual guide of entering an absence.
    • How to use the absence management system: This district page has videos and Q&A about our absence management system. Note it hasn’t been updated to reflect that all EAs are now able to get a sub on day 1 of their absence (old practice required some EAs to wait until day 4 of an absence before they were allowed a sub).

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION

• Cookie Monster Practices Self-Regulation: This video from NPR helps students learn about self-regulation from Cookie Monster who thinks he has great self-control until presented with a plate of cookies. It’s a great introduction for kids of what self-regulation is and is a great conversation starter about what it means to wait to do the things we might want to do instead of what’s being asked of us.
       
• Introducing the Zones of Regulation: This blog post from Teaching Expertise has some really great activities for introducing students to the Zones of Regulation and learning more about the Zones. Activities include identifying emotions using video clips from favorite movies, developing strategies for what to when you’re in different zones, and games to recognize emotions.
       

Looking Ahead:

Here we go!

Peter and Gina

Hi Madison Family,

10 more kid days to go! While the end is in sight, it’s still important to maintain as much routine and normalcy as possible. Keep your expectations high and the work going even though I know we all are really looking forward to June 17. It’ll help the next few weeks continue to run smoothly. Here are this week’s updates:

MADISON INFORMATION                  

• Focus Slides: Unfortunately, we didn’t get to the slides this week. So, for Monday, please use your professional judgement about whterh your fFocus class would best benefit from an additional day of easyCBM testing, Grade Checks, or a fun game day. Thank you for your patience. We will work to create content for the rest of the week and have it ready to go by Monday afternoon.
• Staffing Update: We are scheduling counselor interviews next week. I am excited to announce Ruth Mountainspring just accepted the 8th grade math position.  She is currently teaching Lane School.  
• Activity Afternoon: Thank you for all signing up.   Here is the LINK if you forgot what you signed up for 🙂        
• Staff Check Out: I will share our staff check out sheet early next week after Justyne and Rechelle approve it.  The sheet includes things like clearing off the tops of bookshelves, moving furniture, and preparing your room to be cleaned. As a side note, at this time I have 2 full days of training at the district office on June 20 and 21, so I unfortunately won’t be in the building that day. Come check out with me on June 17 and then finish up any unfinished items by June 21.
      
• Friends/Family Allowed to Help with End of Year Packing: For the last week of school AND when students are not present, downtown is allowing friends and family of staff members to be “essential visitors” to help with end of year packing. The only requirement is they check-in at the Raptor Kiosk in the office (on weekdays) and limit their movement in the building.
           

End of Year and Next Year Information

• Juneteenth: The last day of work for most certified staff is Monday, June 20. Now that June 19th or Juneteenth is a federal holiday and falls on a Sunday, it is recognized on Monday, June 20. Certified staff can choose from the following options to observe Juneteenth:
  • Take June 20 off and work June 21
  • Work 8 additional hours the week of June 13-17 and take June 20 off
  • Work on June 20
        
• 2022-23 Report Dates: Teachers’ official report back date is Tuesday, August 30, however there is ELA training planned for Friday, August 26 and Monday, August 29. Teachers will be paid for these days, however they are not required since the district did not announce the dates before Spring Break. If you haven’t already planned a vacation for these dates, I highly recommend attending – I am sure it will be good stuff.

Next Week at a Glance:

We hope you have a great week!

Gina and Peter

Hi Madison Family,

Here are this week’s updates:

MADISON INFORMATION                       

• Focus Slides: Here are next week’s slides. They are still under construction, but will be featuring some student-suggested content, which is exciting.

• EasyCBM Assessments: We will be doing easyCBM assessments in Focus class during the short week of 5/31-6/2. Please start with math and then have kids move on to reading. Dorothy will get out any additional links or details before Friday of next week.
         
      
• Activity Afternoon Event: If you haven’t yet had a chance to sign up for our Activity Day festivities, please take a peek and add your name to the list. On Thursday, June 9th, we will be running a Friday schedule, in order to create an activity hour from 2:35-3:35. 

• No Place for Hate Leadership Training – will be an all-day training with a professional trainer for the anti-defamation league for selected students. 6th and 7th grade reps will be meeting in the foods room and the 8th grade reps will be going to LCC campus to attend the training with their high school teams. Click here for the list of student leaders invited to participate.
       

DISTRICT INFORMATION                                              

• iPad Collection: We will be checking in all iPads at the end of the year, most likely on Monday June 13th. Watch for additional details to come.
  

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION       

• Moments of Zen: If you and/or your students need a little Zen in your lives these days, here are some live streams that might help:
  • Monteray Bay Aquarium Sea Otters
  • All of Monteray Bay Aquarium’s Live Cams
  • Multiple live cams of different areas in an African nature reserves (when I clicked on one it was a mama elephant and her baby)
  • San Diego Zoos Live Cams
  • Smithsonian Zoo Live Cams
  • Aquarium of the Pacific Live Cams

Next Week at a Glance:

We hope you have a great week!

Gina and Peter