LS Weekly Memo Week 1: August 19-23

Welcome back.  Pace yourself as there is a lot here.  And look for more next week.

LS Weekly Memo Blog

Just to remind you, the Weekly Memo is regularly updated on the LS Weekly Memo Blog. The blog contains the Weekly Memo, the LS Faculty Calendar and several more useful resources.  The LS Faculty Calendar will be updated by August 23.  If you have changed significant dates during your work this summer, be sure you have entered the changes into the calendar by the end of the day August 22.

Room Access

With tremendous appreciation to the custodial crew for all their work in the rooms, and great thanks to Joan Lowe for ending the summer programs in Lower School early, classroom teachers have access to their rooms as of today, August 16.  Specialist Teachers, check in with Bill Peoples about when your room will be camp free and clean.

Calendars

We are making a renewed effort to ensure that the calendars you rely on are accurate and up to date.  Lyn will be responsible for maintaining the accuracy of the OES School Calendar, the all school parent calendar located on the OES Website. Chris O’Toole will be overseeing the LS Faculty Calendar, the Google calendar that is on each classroom teacher’s website and in the Weekly Memo Blog.  Grade level teams and specialists are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of their events on both calendars.

New Faculty Orientation Week - August 19-21

See communications from Karen Seder for details.

Opening of School Calendar

See 8/16 email from Mo Copeland for details.

Additional Information Coming

Lyn will be sending out an email with the following information attached:

• Schedules
• Duty schedule
• Class lists

COMMUNITY

New Faculty and Staff

Please welcome our new Spanish teacher, Lisset O’Neill. Lisset comes to us from the Bay area with experience teaching Spanish and art from Kindergarten through 8th grade. She is thrilled to be taking on this new teaching challenge. Look for a new Spanish Galleria in the Lower School.

Meredith Kruse joins the Beginning School team as Colesie and Lauren’s Assistant Teacher. Pre-Kindergarten enrollment is up by one this year. With a class of 19 students we have hired a full-time assistant teacher to support Colesie and Lauren.  Meredith is passionate about science and art education and is looking forward to working with our dynamic Pre-K duo.

Donna Komitor is the new Assistant Teacher in Deborah’s Kindergarten classroom.  Donna has a background in early childhood education with a specialization in Special Education.  Donna and Deborah are already getting in synch for the new year.  

Additional Faculty and Staff News

Kiah Johnson Mounsey

As you may have heard, Kiah and AJ welcomed baby Kingston into their family in July.  Kathie Kimmy will step in as a long-term sub for the first semester. Kiah returns in January, after the close of the first semester.

Kristen Haferbecker

Kristen will go on her maternity leave this fall. Dave Hall, former Music Together teacher and Assistant Teacher extraordinaire, will fill in for Kristen while she is away.

Angela Hancock

Angela is back from her sabbatical resuming her Technology Coordination responsibilities.

Jenny Futrell

Jenny has changed her name to Jenny Futrell.  Students will refer to her as Ms. Futrell.

PROGRAM

Opening Faculty Meetings

I am still working on the agenda of our LS opening meetings on August 28 and 29.  We will spend some time sharing about professional growth and development experiences and renewing our commitment to the 1st Six Weeks of School program (so take a moment to review the book and your practices). We will also have a 2 hour session with THA and the Building Committee to learn about progress on the Lower School Building design.

Classroom Schedules (see email from Lyn)

David made a few revisions to the schedule, based on requests. The main revision is the removal of passing time between specialist classes, lunch, recess and Chapel.   Special classes are now in 30, 45 and 60-minute blocks.  Specialists and classroom teachers will need to work on punctual drop off and pick up routines.

Before making any changes to the classroom schedules talk with David and then report the changes to Lyn. Only Lyn will make changes to the schedule to ensure we can accurately account for everyone during the school day.

Duty Schedule (See email from Lyn)

Chris made very few revisions to the duty schedule.  She attempted to honor people’s preferences, coordinate duties with teaching schedules and provide collaborative team time during lunch, while at the same time ensuring equitable distribution of duties.  

Before making any changes to the duty schedules talk with Chris and then report the changes to Lyn. Only Lyn will make changes to the schedule to ensure we can accurately account for everyone during the school day.

Class Lists and Letters to Families

As usual, we had changes to class lists  over the summer.  If you have any questions about changes please let us know.  Families will receive class lists the afternoon of Friday, August 23rd.  

Student Letters

You can send out letters to students and families after next Friday. If you send a letter via the mail, please be sure to send out communication no later than Wednesday, August 28th. We want to be sure students and their families receive their letters before the holiday weekend. Jenny will have mailing labels in your boxes by the afternoon of Tuesday, August 27th. It is really helpful to have grade level teams send out all communication at the same time to prevent student and parent worry.