Nightly News for August 29th

 What a day! I made it around to all middle school CORE teacher's classrooms and 1st-5th grade classrooms this afternoon. I will make it around to everyone else's spaces tomorrow. I know several of you still need to check in. I wish I had the ability to sit down with each of you and answer questions, assuage anxiety and such....it will happen in due time. Please find a moment to reflect on what part of your job brings you joy tonight. Try to get a good night's rest! The kids come tomorrow and I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM!

Morning Plan

Middle School- Counselors and several support staff members will be outside at 8:35 to begin handing out schedules. We will open the doors for students to enter at 8:38. Classroom teachers please be outside your classroom doors to great students. Please note parents may come in to walk their students to class. We will be pushing them out of the building by 8:50. They SHOULD not be going into areas beyond the middle school hallway. 

Busers- All staff on bus duty will be ready to roll. We will have extra staff members to support getting students who are dropped off by bus to their appropriate classes.

1st-3rd- Will enter through gym doors. I am emailing people who will support tomorrow in this area with specific info. We will have two staff members helping students determine who their classroom teachers are as well. Classroom teachers should report outside no later than 8:52. We will be allowing parents into the building with their students. Please be aware this will create some backlogs etc. We will work to direct classes into the building. Parents will be asked to exit the building by 9:15 at the latest. Kara has made signs for teachers to hold. We will be utilizing some cones down here as well to help line kids up. 

1st/2nd DLI, 4th and 5th- Again, we will have additional staff out to let students know who their teachers are and support with traffic, etc. Teachers should be outside no later than 8:52 and ready to enter the building shortly before 9:00. 

End of Day

Please pay attention to the announcements. We will use the intercom system to release students. 1st-5th grade teachers please plan on walking your students outside. Take a few minutes to check in with your students about how they will be getting home, who will be picking them up, etc. This may take a couple of days, or a week to nail down. We do ask you walk your students out and remain with them until 3:22. 

• Please determine if you will be comfortable taking your class outside during your Structured Recess time. At this time I will let teachers make this call individually. Our hope is to have kids outside for their recess. If it is too warm we will have them use the gyms. This will be announced if that is the case. 

• I did share with parents to send kids with refillable water bottles tomorrow. Please make sure kids are hydrated and you call Kelly, our School Health Assistant, if you have concerns about specific students and the heat. 

• We will not be using lockers in grades 4th-8th this year. With about half of lockers dials working they are just not worth the effort at this point in time. I sent out an email to K-3rd teachers (and 4th grade Immersion) last night. These teachers may opt to use them. Please send me your decision by Wednesday and we will assign lockers to you. 

• Lunch Service begins tomorrow. Ms.Jarvis, Mr.Benson and Ms.Kempster you have lunch service for the next three weeks. I will send you information directly. Please note I will not send out this schedule until next week. We want to make sure we don't have to make any adjustments etc. 

• K-5 ESL will not begin this week. Our teachers are tasked with ELPA screeners etc. and will be working to complete these. They will be checking in with the teachers they will be working with and plan on joining you in your room. There seems to be a little of confusion. This was mentioned in one of our PD days, but definitely bears repeating. Our ESL teachers will be coming into classrooms during ELA time to support classroom teachers with Wit & Wisdom. They will not be teaching Science, Health, etc. this year. This may look like working with a small group within your classroom, scaffolding information for ESL students that is connected to the lessons, etc. 

• As was in the Weekly Forecast 1st-5th grade Specials/Electives begin Wednesday. There are no specials tomorrow for 1st-5th grade, but there will be the rest of the week. 

• The office did get moved today. Thank you everyone for your patience with this process. There are still things that need to be unpacked, but they are in...sort of. 

• We will work on unpacking the Schoolhouse Supplies for students tomorrow. We will get a schedule or distribution plan together with hopes of getting these out on Wednesday and Thursday. 

• Please take a moment to review drop off and pickup times for lunch and recess. We know in the first few days you will be gauging how long it takes to get from your room to the cafeteria etc. The first few days may be a little hairy, but after that we should have things down. I have added five minutes to the 30 minute duty free lunch to ensure you have minutes on each end to get to your lunch on time and back to pick up students on time.  

• A reminder that we will use general funds for each classroom teacher to purchase $75 worth of student facing supplies. The easiest way to do this is to have Shannon order. If you choose to purchase your own items please submit your receipt to her. We will only reimburse up to $75. This should be consumable supplies you plan on using in your classroom for direct student use.  Also remember there is an additional $100 in your September paycheck for classroom supplies/items.  

• Please remember to share your ECPP (classroom management plan) with Leah and Emily.  Thank you to those of you who have already done this. Time was provided to ensure this district expected task was completed by tomorrow. 

• We would like to welcome our new Occupational Therapist Dana Yanouch. Dana was in the building today to check in. When she is in the building she will be sharing a space with Mary Watkins. 

• Welcome to Akiko Revay who will be our Learning Acceleration Specialist working with our 3rd grade teams around ELA. Joe Ferguson also joins us supporting our 5th grade students and teachers in math. We will let you know once our two middle school members are online. 

• Another welcome to Heather Cooper our new 6th and 7th grade Language Arts teacher. Heather signed her final paperwork today and came straight to the building. She will be starting with student's tomorrow. THANK you for being a flexible team player Heather. 

• Hiring Update- We expect our 504 EA, 2nd Grade EA (Novick), Art teacher and Middle School EA to begin within this week. We only have three open positions at this time. We will be interviewing another counseling candidate Wednesday. We have a .25 Spanish position posted and are looking to round out our SE Classroom team with one final para. If you know anyone who is interested in para work let me know...if they get hired I believe you get a bonus.