Weekly Forecast for September 19th-23rd

 Monday the 19th

Fall Benchmarking Window Opens

Tuesday the 20th

Staff Meeting 3-5 for PAT Members

Wednesday the 21st

Garden- Vane, Schulze, DaRosa, Novick, Metcalf

Thursday the 22nd

Leah & Shannon out AM for Title Work 

Friday the 23rd

No Students

Lunch Service-Shulze, Flanagan, DaRosa

• Thank you to everyone who came to our Open House and helped make it a smooth event. We did not know how many people to expect as this was our first real in person event since the pandemic began. We were pleased with the turnout. I had a parent coffee on Friday and received some feedback around the announcements, the schedule etc. If you have input please send it my way.

• Over the weekend I brought my pet goats in to help with some clean up in the Science courtyard. I will be seeing how they do and keeping a close on on how this might disrupt any classrooms lining the courtyard. To be honest, I am not sure how much they will help with the clean up, but if my "jungle" at home is any indication they will definitely exceed this benchmark. The goats are friendly and vaccinated, but we will not be taking classes out to pet them etc. I will go into classrooms directly impacted. I am guessing they will be here through the week and will head back home next weekend. I have asked the district several times to send a crew out to help with cleanup and maintenance in front of the building and on the playgrounds. The district does not maintain courtyards and since we did not participate in community care day our three courtyards are out of control! The only way these will be cleaned and maintained if through volunteers or in this case goats. Please talk to me directly if you have concerns. 

• Here is a link to our Lunch Service schedule for the year. Sessions are three weeks long. In the event you are on a field trip or have any other reason your class can not attend to service please be sure to find someone to cover for you. Students in grades 4-8 will participate. We will ask our 3rd grade students to cover shifts at the very end of the year.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rc261QNvFKEuixkqJAJsIykk8SrlYoc9WFTiD8tr6TM/edit?usp=sharing

• Be on the lookout for emails letting you know of mandatory trainings you have not completed. I have one or two I haven't finished and got one today (Friday). As a reminder all trainings must be completed by October 31st. We will have one more Tuesday for mandatory trainings before that deadline. PFSP staff were given time prior to the start of school for this purpose. 

• As a reminder Nutrition Services offers snacks for our students daily. You can determine when students eat this snack in your individual classroom. I know middle school works together so all students have a snack available. At some point during the day. Snacks need to be picked up daily after 10:30 in the morning. Please send a student to the cafeteria for pickup. 

• A few people have asked if the building will be open on Friday. The answer is yes. Staff may enter the building as normal. Emily has several offsite meetings and will not be coming to the building. I have meetings scheduled offsite until at least noon (and anticipate more to come), but will be in. 
• I am going to be sending invites to our "duty teams" throughout this week and next to see how things are going and if we need to make any shifts. For those of you on duties before school, after school and during lunches/recess please be thinking of things that are going well and things that may need tweeking.

• I will also be scheduling short check in meetings with all staff in the next 2-3 weeks. I may send an invite or in some cases it may happen organically. 

• On that note, one of my meetings is to tour Creative Science/Clark with a team from the district. The purpose of this tour is to begin looking at needs for next year. K-5 teachers/staff if you have any input you would like to share with me please feel free to. 

• This month is Hispanic Heritage Month. I will be doing two announcements a week highlighting famous Latinx people and contributions. I may be asking students to help me in this endeavor. If you are doing anything you would like to highlight in your classroom let me know. 

• Our new Qualified Mental Healthcare Professional Audra Mahoney is asking for any old magazines people may have on hand for some collage work she plans to do with students. Her office is located near the counselors, our school psychologist and social worker. You can also put thing them in her mailbox.

• Shannon got the bulk orders from the beginning of the school year in. She will begin placing orders on Fridays from this point on. If you are anticipating any needs please keep this in mind. As a reminder all classroom teachers will have $75 for supplies needed in their rooms. These supplies should be for direct student use. PAT members will also receive $100 in their September check. 

Problem of Practice

I am going to begin including a problem of practice occasionally. The goal is not to call out anyone, but rather to take a situation and learn from it. I know there was a particulate family last year that taught me A LOT. Some of these problems will be school specific and others will be from other sources. 

   As you know our cell phone policy is off and away for the day. Cell phones have created the ability for parents to have contact with their kids at all times. While there are some benefits to this, there are also drawbacks. We have already had several situations where students have had something happen, or are upset, and they want to call their parent. We can not deny students a phone call to their parents. In the event you have a student who makes this request please do not withhold this from them. The bottom line is if we do not allow them to call it almost always creates a much bigger issue in the end. I would ask you to talk to the student about why they want to call and then allow them to come to the office to make the call. Having them call in the middle of your class, where others can listen, can be disruptive and this will alleviate that distraction. Additionally, if you are able call the office and let them know you have a student coming up to use the phone and provide any other details do so. If you can not that is okay. I know this may seem small, but in a few situations already this year we have had parents call very upset that their child was not allowed to call them. 
    I will give you an example: Student has issue involving other students. Student asks to call parent. Student is told to wait. Student gets worked up. Student is sent to office to make call. Staff (me) is able to facilitate the call to the student's parent. Student relays the issue to the parent. Staff talks to the parent and lets them know we are aware of the situation and will be dealing with it. Situation is dealt with and student moves forward. A different student is not allowed to make a call home. Parent calls and is irate. Parent says their child will have their phone on them at all times and will be allowed to record if they so chose.  After speaking with Emily for an extensive amount of time I follow up and reiterate that they students are absolutely not allowed to record and our policy is phones are off and away for the day. 
    This is a larger issue created by the advent of immediate communication we have come to expect. I don't have answers, but know we can still follow our own protocols around student phones (off and away for the day). If a student has the need to call their parent we should allow that to happen. So, to some things up if a student needs to make a call they will be allowed to so so in the office. 

I know your job is difficult and you make hundreds of decisions every hour. I also know we have to take things on a case by case basis and just when we think we have things figured out something shifts. Keep up the good work.