Morning Minute for January 18th

 I know some of you have been without power for extended periods of time. We fared well here, but the ice is still in full force and doesn't seem to be melting. East County always gets hit hard with the ice and this is no exception. I don't see it really melting until tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed. 

• There is a meeting @ 5:30 to go over plans for tomorrow. My feeling is best case scenario will be a late start. I will update as soon as I can. Hopefully some of the information here will help you determine next steps for the end of the term.

• The culture book study is scheduled for 8:00 tomorrow. Dan will update on this. 

• It was shared with principals that we would need to reschedule conferences to be completed by the end of the Semester. As soon as I received this information I reached out to Harrison Park PAT reps.  We will hold in person  conferences next Tuesday, the 23rd,  from 4:30-7:30 and the online conferences will be held on Monday the 29th from 4:30-7:30. Please note Monday is a grading/work day and you do not have students. We will maintain the same appointment times for both nights. 

• The crunch for wrapping up the end of the quarter has tightened even more. We will be making every effort to keep students in class and avoid pulling kids out as much as possible. We do need to center wrapping up MAP testing as well. There is approximately 41 8th graders, 28 7th graders and  19 6th graders. Here is the list by 4th period. Friday we will utilize the schedule below:

Periods 1st-3rd  8th graders needing to finish will be in library.

Periods 3rd-4th  7th graders will report. We may hold on to some of the 8th graders as well.  

Periods 6th-7th  6th graders will report. 

We will also add have students who tested earlier but didn't finish join in during 6th and 7th. This will ensure they all get a few periods off and a lunch break. Not testing 5th period will allow for us to use the library for 6th grade lunch as well. 

Our hope is we can wrap up testing for most kids this way and lessen impacts next week. 

• Theresa emailed out there will be no PLCs today. Also, all PLCs will meet on Monday or Tuesday next week. Reach out with any questions. 

• As of right now there is still late arrival next Thursday the 25th. Students will arrive at 11:15 and we will have an assembly in the afternoon from approximately 2:45-3:45. Students in band, choir and dance classes will need time to practice for their performance that afternoon and evening. We will be coming up with a solidified plan to utilize this day for WIN time to allow students to get support for any assignments/tests they need to get turned in etc. More detailed information will be available next week. We just want to make sure we share this in advance for planning purposes. 

• Grades are due by January 30th. Our hope would be to submit grades by the morning of January 30th so we can get to work on schedule adjustments for the new semester. We worked together at the end of last term to help make this doable and hope to do the same this time. We are canceling PLCs for the remainder of this week. Next week there is one meeting (8th Grade meeting Wednesday morning) we cannot clear, but we will be able to clear all other required meetings. We will need PLCs to meet in order to discuss student moves based on interventions. This still leaves PAT members with 585 minutes of potential planning/grading time (Morning 45X5=225, Planning=225, PLC Time=3X45=135 with one day for PLC and one for Advisory prep). 8th grade teachers this will give you 540, or 9 hours. If you feel you will need additional time outside of the above, and the work day on the 29th, to complete grading please reach out to me so we can help to find some solutions.