Harrison Park Post

 I hate being out of the building, but I especially hate missing events. I will say that Leadership had learning of value today so there is that. I planned to return, but with traffic I would have arrived at 3:35 and had to leave for a personal appointment by 4:00 today. I will be in around 2:30 tomorrow.  A reminder that tomorrow morning students may be a bit late to 1st period. Ironically, we have been asking them to be on time this week. People will be distributing wristbands for the Spring Fling and sending kids to class. If they have a band I suppose this should be seen as their excuse. We certainly would love to have any support tomorrow to help our kids celebrate. If you stay we are offering an hour of extended pay. Please see Dan for how you can support.  Tomorrow is formal day. I expect to see some suits! Tomorrow is also Friday....whew. 

Tomorrow we will be on PM Assembly schedule. As a reminder students should attend the assembly with their 7th period teacher. We ask students tp leave backpacks and personal items in their lockers or 7th period class and that they do not bring them to the assembly. We will try to have the assembly end by 3:40 to allow for students to return to grab their items. Students will not be allowed into the assembly without their teacher.  I will be out at Leadership tomorrow. Depending on the agenda I may return for the assembly. Fingers crossed.  7th period teachers tomorrow we need your help. Please be sure to pass out permission forms for the Spring Fling. We will not be allowing students to email, text or have parents call to give permission at the last minute. Students will receive bracelets for entry on Friday morning only. We will not be giving out additional bracelets throughout the day as forms trickle in. We are aware that parents will likely drop forms off. Those late for...

Thank you for your presence at staff meeting. A lot of different pieces coming together, but we needed some time to get out some general communication around various things. Let me know if you have thoughts or questions as you process . As always, please reach out to your ILT team to provide feedback and input as well. A reminder to have kids wait until after the bell rings to go get drinks etc. Triangulation is a real thing. They come up with some great ways to get a few extra minutes of freedom.  This is a link for student nominations. It was sent out in Teacher Connect, but I wanted to link it here as well. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ATSs1ES-vOIGtbMRv2LQz9Es6TQBYp3LbdrTyhrB07g/edit Some people asked about Summer School. Here is some information. Summer Acceleration Academy 2024 Once again, PPS plans to offer Summer Acceleration Academy to support students with academic learning gaps. Student Dates: July 1st to August 1st Staff Dates: June 24th to August 2nd Where: 8-11 ...

 Where did the day go? I left around 5:45, went grocery shopping and just sat down and realized I had not sent out the Morning Message.  A reminder tomorrow is PJ Day! We do have staff meeting tomorrow in the library. Please be sure to bring your devices.  I have a lot of emails to catch up on. If you have sent one and are waiting for a response I promise I will get to it.  The focus last week was the conference staffing. Staffing was finalized today after some last minute issues. Next up is evaluations as probationary evaluations are due Friday. That being said, things will settle down soon. Thank you for your patience.  From Lindsay and our ASERT team: Please update your advisory slides before presenting on Tuesday, there was a last minute addition about new attendance incentives we are rolling out.  Dental sealants are running late at the other school.  They are saying they will be here Thursday and will need 10 days here.  The new plan is...

Monday the 26th SIT @ 11:00 Tuesday the 27th- PJ Day Staff Meeting @ 4:00 Wednesday the 28th- Jersey Day 6th Grade Kid Chat Thursday the 29th- Grade Colors (9th Red, 7th Black, 6th Blue) Midterms Due ILT @ 8:00 PM Assembly Schedule Friday the 1st- Formal Day Spring Fling @ 4:00  I am excited to return tomorrow. The conference was well worth attending. There were some great sessions (crowded...I got to sit on the floor a few times) and I look forward to sharing more out in coming weeks. I will definitely have some catching up to do this week. It will be a busy one with the finalization of staffing tomorrow and probationary evaluations due on Friday. To top it off, I am out at Leadership on Thursday and will be out for the majority of Friday for some appointments I scheduled way back. Life I tell ya! Thank you to all the staff that pitched in this past week. We appreciate you.  Dental Sealants will take place all week in the library. Chances are they won't take all week, but the...

HAPPY FRIDAY! I hope you all have a wonderful and uneventful day.  A little bird told me tonight was positive. Thank you to the staff who stayed to support. I know off the top of my head Mr.Benson, Ms.Bee, Lindsay, and Dani all attended.  Please be sure to check your attendance tomorrow for students marked HLT (I said HEX because if I am remembering correctly that was a thing at one point). If they are marked out with this code they need to be sent to the office immediately.  I will be back Monday! Whew. I have had a few great sessions and a few meh ones. It has been nice to work on staffing in a quiet hotel room with no interruptions. 

 Whew it was a long day. We were in sessions until 6:30 and then had a working dinner. I am just getting back to the room to catch up for the day.  Tomorrow night is our SUN Family Night. If anyone is interested in supporting the event let me know. There will be Zumba, Bingo and more! This will be extended pay from 5:00 until the end of the event.  I apologize for failing to put in info about Exclusion Day last night. Totally spaced it. Please be sure to send any kids with a HEX (Health Exclusion) to the office in the vent they show up to your class. 

 Welcome again to Gustavo Vaz, our new ESL teacher. Gustavo will be in and out of rooms getting to know students and working to determine the next steps in supports for both students and staff. If you have a specific need such as a graphic organizer or specific translations etc. for your content area he does have some time in his schedule for this work. We will communicate a more solid schedule after he gets to know our community. He will be teaching 2nd period daily in Natalia's current room.  We did ask for some additional FTE and it was shared today that we will not be receiving it. As I shared there are some cuts and this request would have allowed us to avoid even more. I know this sounds vague, but until I submit staffing on Monday things can always shift a bit. I will share more specifics once this is completed.  I landed around 6:00 and am checked in. Excited for the learning to commence tomorrow. Also it is raining here. 

Superintendent Husk was in the building for about 45 minutes this morning. I am not one for cameras and fanfare so was thankful the media wasn't here...PPS Communications was. I found her to be very approachable and engaged. She sent her regards to everyone and wishes she could have gotten into every classroom. It was great to have some face time to discuss some specific Harrison Park plans! I am going to the California Association of Bilngual Educators Conference. This was a last minute offer and I need to take advantage . an opportunity to learn about additional ways to support our MIP and ESL programs, students and you all. I will be here in the morning, but will head out around 1:15. I return late Friday night. I will be available by phone (503.545.9463...text is best) and email throughout the trip. You are in good hands with Spencer, Regina and the rest of our support team.  Chukwu is BACK. I failed to mention this yesterday because I didn't want to curse anything! Welcome...

Monday the 19th- President's Day Superintendent Dr.Husk's Visit @ 9:45 Tuesday the 20th ASERT Meeting @ 10:15 NO Staff Meeting PTA Meeting @ 6:00 Wednesday the 21st Exclusion Day- Please be on the lookout for those marked out for health exclusion Thursday the 22nd ILT @ 8:00 SUN Family Night @ 6:00 Friday the 23rd Interim Superintendent Dr. Sandy Husk will be visiting Harrison Park tomorrow, Monday the 19th around 9:45. She is scheduled to be here for approximately an hour. We are honored to host her. Please about business as usual. We will visit some classrooms and allow her to lead the visit.  I met with several ESL Department members last week and discussed the need for additional support for our Newcomers. We are proposing the possibility of becoming a Newcomer Hub for the district next year. This is a large discussion, and we will absolutely be sharing more information with everyone when we can all be together. Unfortunately, we do not have a staff meeting this week so it...

We are not making any more schedule changes for students at this time. We are two weeks into the term and the dust has settled. As always there are some exceptions (Intervention, SPED, ESL,), however, students simply wanting to change classes is not one of them.  Our new Interim Superintendent  Dr. Husk will be visiting Harrison Park on Monday morning. Just an FYI.  Teachers who have 8th graders 1st Period. Please send them to the auditorium after you take attendance. If you only have 8th graders we ask that you remain with them. If you have a split grade level class please send your 8th graders only. The good news is our attendance has improved this year. However, we had an office meeting and there are some areas we have to get better at. Any teacher who has a rostered class list needs to take attendance each period they teach. In the past, we asked for people to take it in the first ten minutes. If you are taking it at this time you need to be sure to go back and chang...

We were given permission to share the above pictures of Claire Flanagan's beautiful daughter. I can see why she is still at home! Shannon placed stickers in boxes for students who do not have their lanyards on. I might suggest giving out Panther Pay randomly to kids that have their ID in your 1st period and other classes to increase the wearing of ID. The drawing box for Blazer tickets is in the lobby now. Let students know.  Thank you to Zach, Dan, Brenda, Regina, Herk,  Lilly and the Sun Team for their help on our fire evacuation today. The good news is we do not have to do a drill in February now! This was due to construction. Everyone did a good job evacuating and I am happy to say it got people out of here early on Valentines.  I was a little disappointed by the lack of romantic middle school gestures today. I was proposed to at lunch...

Thank you for your presence at Staff Meeting. I know it is tough to hear of impending cuts. I have been anxious about staffing for the last month and right now all  I want to do is lock myself in a room and not come out until it is done. Every year I tell myself I need to get it and then go to the beach and sit in a hotel room by myself to focus. Please reach out if you have questions. Again, we will begin checking in with people as we can have specifics. 8th Grade Kid Chat in Benson's Room @ 8:20 Tomorrow will be our first Valentine's Day as a true middle school. Be prepared for some squeals, tears, and hilarious antics of our students who are just being middle schoolers. I personally can not wait to watch the day unfold.  I meant to share this in Staff Meeting today, but got sidetracked. Conni is working with Elin to translate some of the Advisory sheets i.e. SMART goals, GPA calculations, etc into different languages. As they are completed, the forms can be found in the HP...

Thank you for your presence in the halls. We were short a few staff yesterday who help cover spots and when you know things may be "up" it is always best to have more coverage. We have some student conflicts and feelings are being harbored. It will take time to repair these relationships and move forward. We will be meeting tomorrow at 4:00 in the library to go over staffing.   From the counselors: As a reminder we have McDaniel visiting tomorrow. Students should be sent from their  4th period class to the auditorium 5 minutes before the passing period for McDaniel Forecasting    Please DO NOT send kids who are not on the list. If any kids on the list say that they are not going to McDaniel, please still send them. Any student on this list was included intentionally.  

Monday the 12th Tuesday the 13th Staff Meeting @ 4:00  Wednesday the 14th Valentines Day 8th Grade Kid Chat @ 8:20 Thursday the 15th ILT @ 8:00 Friday the 16th Safety Team Meeting @ 8:20 Parent Coffee @ 9:30 It is a quiet Sunday morning at my house. I am hoping to get some things done before heading out to our annual Superbowl/Baseball Family Reunion. I know many people had New Year plans and others were gearing up for the Superbowl. I hope your festivities are full of good food and laughter  I was able to watch our 8th graders perform at Woodstock for a large Lunar New Year celebration and fundraiser on Friday night. They were excited to see Kojo! One of the students said, "We are soaking in nostalgia." Kids, I tell ya.  This week we don't have assembly planned or anything that disrupts the schedule however, I do anticipate Wednesday will provide us with many displays of middle school romantic rituals. I have to sigh and chuckle. Most of what we will see is developmental...