Nightly News for November 16th

• Some of you may have been visited by the district TSEL team today. Originally, we were one of many schools working with the district around social emotional learning. As the commitment to this cohort became more clear I made the decision to put this work on hold for the year. Much of this decision was made because I did not want to add additional work to anyone this year and as we make shifts next year some of this work may be abandoned based on leadership. I had the walk through date on our calendar for some time and when I officially backed out two weeks ago was under the assumption this would not take place and that today would be a fairly informal visit.That being said, the entire team showed up and we welcomed them. Emily and I met with the team prior to their classroom visits and met again when they were done for a few minutes.They visited seven classrooms total today.  Please know this work is not evaluative and feedback given will not be  identified by classroom or teacher. A rubric was used and the focus was around classroom climate and practices. If anyone would like a copy of the rubric I can share it out. Emily and I met with the team today prior to their classroom visits and met again when they were done for a few minutes. They will be sending me observations and feedback in the next two weeks and I will share out with staff.  

• We had a lot going on this afternoon in the middle school. I could feel the odd energy and knew things were up. At the end of the day we had 3 separate situations involving many different students. I did send out a text to alert people to keep their eyes peeled. Thank you to those of you who were on high alert. We were able to begin dealing with the various situations and will continue wrapping things up tomorrow. Dan and Emily will communicate out needed information. 

• I will be out tomorrow for Leadership. I am available by email or text. I did not get to emails today so will make an effort to catch up tomorrow. 

• From Shannon: Staff that turn in extended hours and IEP extended hours PLEASE, PLEASE turn in weekly like the statement indicated at the top of the IEP extended hour form.  Month after month we have staff wait until the last day to turn in all their extended hours for the month. Shout out to Nathan for always having his hours turned in weekly or bi-weekly. 

Payroll is a very time consuming job and has a system that gets bogged down and freezes up the last day or two of the pay period with every school trying to enter hours into the system.  I find myself working really late hours with the overwhelming amount of extended hours for the month being turned in the last day!  I know you all are so busy as well. Thank you for your support and cooperation. 

• On that note I will make the commitment to send out a reminder once a week. Shannon cannot continue to work countless unpaid hours at home in the evenings and on weekends. 

• I would like to share with staff, with their permission, that Gladis DaRosa will be out on family medical leave through mid January. Maria Chinakos and Darrel Gilbert will be filling in as much as possible during this time. Please keep Gladis, and her husband in your thoughts. 

• Kim from Grand Canyon is going to visit us on Wednesday, Dec. 7th and bring lunch for staff in our staff lounge.  She will be here to talk to staff about continuing education options at Grand Canyon University. You can visit her and pick up lunch.