Weekly Forecast for September 26-30

 Monday the 26th

Tuesday the 27th

Attendance Team Meeting @ 8:00

Bus Drill  @ 9:45-10:05 (see below)

PAT Cadres

Wednesday the 28th

Safety Team Meeting @ 8:00 (Conference Room)

ILCT @ 3:30

Garden- Newton, Jenness, Yin, Gevurtz, Foreman

Thursday the 29th

Friday the 30th

Optional Evaluation Meeting @ 8:00

Middle School Mid-Term Grades Due

Lunch Service- Schulze, Flanagan, DaRosa/Kempster

I hope Friday was full of learning, or was used for an extended weekend. I started some check ins this week and will continue to schedule them as much as possible. With 86+ adults in the building on any given day there is never enough time. Sigh.

• We will hold our Bus Safety Drill on Tuesday. Please note buses will arrive between 9:45-10:05. We do not have an exact time they will be ready for us. This drill will require teachers to be listening carefully for their phones and for the announcements. We do not know how many buses will be here to support our drills. For that reason we will be flexible and do our best to have the least amount of impact as possible to your schedule. We anticipate this will impact 4th/5th and 2nd/3rd Specials to some extent. Drill Instructions- We will provide you with a list of your students on the day of the drill. Please be sure to take attendance on this sheet so we can make note of any students who were not present for the drill. When it is your classes turn to board buses please take students through either the doors nearest the small playground, or the cafeteria doors (headed into the parking lot). Once you arrive at the doors please wait for someone to give you directions. Our goal is to have all students with their teacher on the same bus, but some classes may be split up.  Please have your students remain in line and assist them in boarding the bus. All support staff (EAs, Paras, etc.) should support the class they are in at the time of the drill. Once your class has completed the drill, you are free to return to class. Please show the following videos to your homeroom classes tomorrow or Tuesday morning.  Bus Safety- Click HERE for video 1 (School Bus Evacuation) and HERE  for video 2 (School Bus Safety for Kids). We will be looking for classes that are following expectations! 

• Champions is back in full swing. I am fairly certain that classroom teachers of students who access Champions are aware of this, but I wanted to share out to everyone. If you hear of any families struggling with childcare please let me, or someone in the office know so we can share information with them. 

• We are still in a holding pattern with SUN. I was supposed to sit in an interview last week, but the candidate took another position. I know many of our community partners, such as IRCO, are struggling with hiring. If you know of anyone who would potentially interested in heading up our SUN program please let me know and I can help facilitate a conversation with the SUN program. 

• On the topic of hiring, we will be conducting interviews for our Restorative Justice Coordinator position this week. I anticipate submitting paperwork for our additional 2nd grade EA tomorrow. Our original placement has resigned from the district. We will be determining next steps for our counseling vacancy this week. Finally, the district has put the onus of hiring our additional SE Classroom para educator back on us instead of filling from the pool. I am absolutely okay with this and will begin that process ASAP.

• Our first Safety Team meeting is this Wednesday at 8:00 in the conference room. If you are interested in joining this team please feel free to come. This committee meets once a month and will have a few safety walks scheduled throughout the year. They are responsible for reporting potential hazards, safety concerns, helping oversee drills, etc. 

• Emily and I were able to finalize the calendar on Friday. We had a solid rough draft, but wanted to take some time to solidify things. During the course of the week it is rare we get an opportunity to sit down focus on this kind of work. Friday allowed for this to happen. We will update the Canvas Calendar and our activities calendar this week so everyone has access to it.

• I attended a tour and talk at Creative Science/Clark on Friday. The purpose of this meeting was to begin looking at facilities shifts that may need to happen for next year, needs we have, etc. I am happy to begin working on things now. At first glance there are some great spaces in the building! I love the wooden risers in the library and the stage in the cafeteria as well as the school garden that is at the heart of the building. They also have a great blacktop area for students. There are of course some concerns. Buses will be a challenge (they do not have buses currently) and while there is an  EXTENSIVE playground, it is WAY to big for solid supervision to take place. We will begin looking for solutions to needs and planning as much as possible for this move. On that note, I did ask to schedule a time for me and a representative from each grade level K-5 to take a tour soon. I will keep you posted on this. 

• Our attendance team has tried to meet during the day for the last two weeks to no avail. We will meet this Tuesday at 8:00. This team will consist of: Kelly McKnight, Lindsay Alex, Natalie Bottolfson, and me. If anyone else is interested in joining this team please let me know. Our primary focus will be reviewing attendance, looking for ways to improve attendance, track attendance, etc. We will be working closely with the district's attendance team as well. This team will meet twice a month on Friday mornings. 

• We have had several inquiries in regards to our Student Intervention Team (SIT). They will hold their first meeting on October 3rd, after school.  This team will twice a month either before school or after school. We will offer extended pay for after school meetings. Here are the dates of the next few meetings: October 3rd @ 3:30, October 17th @ 7:55, November 7th @ 3:30 and November 21st TBD. Please let me know if you are interested in joining this team. 

• Ron Huff asked about Apple Harvest this year. For those of you new to Harrison Park, this has been a long standing tradition at HP. In years past we have (well Ron has) brought in apples and students help to make apple cider during the day. We also have held a night time event for families. At staff meeting I imparted that while I had a tentative date scheduled, I was trying to be mindful of asking staff to help with this event. Our is to make sure we are doing our best to ensure you are given as much time as possible to plan and collaborate with your PLCs. Knowing the stress the last two years has brought, and the new challenges we are facing with new curriculum, social emotional needs etc. I hesitate to put something more on your plates. I also am aware of my own capacity to execute events at this time. That being said, I want you to know I am in full support of this event taking place. We do have some funding available to help support it. 

• On that note, we will be sending out a sign up for our other night events this year. Per the contract, PAT members can be asked to attend and support at  up to three night events per year. This does not include conferences. Back to School Night was our first event. Some events are more specific to various groups. For example,  we will  hold a DLI Family Night, AVID Night, Kinder Connect events etc. For these events, extended pay is typically offered. School wide events are the ones we ask for staff to attend in order to help with serving food, clean up, set up, etc. These events will be: Multicultural Night on March 23rd and 8th Grade Promotion on June 12th. I am also in discussion with our PTA about a LARGE farewell bash for our school and community sometime in May or June. Now that we have solid dates in place we will put out a sign up for PAT staff members. PFSP members, your always welcome at these events and in some cases extended pay will be offered for your attendance.