LS Weekly Memo LS Weekly Memo Week 19, January 4-8, 2016

Congratulations on a successful conclusion to 2015, including many exciting and special events. I hope you have enjoyed a restful and renewing Winter Break. On to 2016 and all the that January and February have to offer, including report writing, conferences and admissions. Check out the LS Faculty Calendar for details.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATES

• Construction of the Covered Area has begun. Skanska has created a large safety zone around the site as they erect the structure.  ACP will be significantly smaller until the structure is complete. Projected completion date, 1/13/16.
• The building continues to be on budget and under time with a projected completion date of mid-January.
• Let me know if you and your class are doing any interesting construction work.  We are exploring a possible article in the OES Magazine.

COMMUNITY

Welcome Kellan Hvizdak

Please join me in welcoming Kellan Hvizdak (boy) into Deborah’s Kindergarten on Monday, Jan 4. Kellen’s family is returning to PDX from Colorado.

Congratulations Jessica Wolfram

She has accepted our offer of the permanent Lower School PE position.

Plans for Next Year

January begins the hiring season.  Let me know by January 15 if you are thinking about different professional plans for the 2016-17 school year.

Sugar Council

Representatives from 4th and 5th grade met with MS and US students to discuss reducing the amount of sugar offered at lunch.  I asked them to make a proposal for reducing sugar by 33%.  After discussions during council, conversations with students across the grades and with Kitchen Staff and LS teachers, the council proposed removing chocolate milk from the menu.  Chocolate milk has 25 grams of sugar per 8 ounce glass.  Kelly and I have accepted their proposal.

Time for Giving

Giving to Those in Need

Thanks to all who participated in the All School Giving Tree and Giving Chapel!

Giving within our LS Community

Our thanks to Chris Thompson, Tina, Claire,  Lyn and Miriam for organizing our holiday Giving events.  It is such a joy to be a part of this community.

Admissions

• Admissions Information Night - 1/06

We have Information Night on January 6, 2016.  It will be up in the Great Hall as we have no LS space large enough to host the gathering.  Sarah Ross-Bailey has contacted those we hope to be in attendance (a small group).

• Admissions Season

Sarah has a limited number of days to schedule classroom visits, so thank you for your flexibility.  Specialists, please take 2-3  minutes out of your day to provide feedback on visitors. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

• Friendly Reminder: Send Admissions Visitors to the Office at 2:00

Send two buddies (with an Assistant for First and Second Grades) at 2:00. We want our guests to avoid the traffic congestion at the end of the day.

• Save the Date- Pre-K Admissions Visit, Saturday, 2/06

Sarah will be in touch with participants  after we return in January.  As you know, we all need to share our time and talents to find the very best candidates for our program.

Students of Concern

• HB - K- CB
• Has difficulty keeping up with the flow of things, can be disruptive.  Let Carole and Chris know if he is having difficulties. We want to be consistent in our support.
• OB-K-CB
• Mourning the loss of her father, hasn’t wanted to be at school, has strayed away from the class, needs to be shadowed
• Giving her lots of love and support
• She is doing much better. Had a shortened day, but is not trying two full days, Tuesday and Thursday before break.
• Please keep Carole and Chris in the loop if challenging behavior arises again

• SG - 2 JB

Doing much better these days, but still can have his moments, so keep us

informed.

• Working on first time listening, being respectful to adults and students, doing his best, being a flexible thinker, see his plan sent last week.
• Let Jackie or Chris know if he is having difficulty in your class
• If he gets stuck and disrupts the class, let Chris know- call the office
• Chris is sending out his intervention plan to specialists
• Specialists, please keep Jackie informed

• Fourth Grade World Cup Soccer Games
• I met with Fourth Grade boys. They made a plan:

-Gather at the beginning to organize teams.  They will divide into two mixed ability groups with one soccer goal OR play one large game of soccer using two goals

• Second Grade Boys Pretend Play on the Field
• Second Grade boys are fascinated with pretend games that involve play fighting. We would like to give them alternatives, like the Yoga Calm “Peaceful Warrior” in which students play fight but do not make physical contact and no violent scenarios. We hope to come up with some agreed upon alternatives. We will continue this conversation when we return.

Major Rules - If a student violates a major rule, Chris and David need to know and need to be part of the determination of consequences and reparations.

• Verbal abuse, physical abuse, bullying, or inappropriate physical touch.
• Lying, deceit, or other dishonest conduct
• Destruction of property belonging to the School, its personnel or another student
• Stealing
• Inappropriate language
• Possession or use of weapons or any object that is used in a threatening manner

PROGRAM

Progress Reports

Report writing season begins! Jeffrey Sprague will provide some timely instruction and reminders for how to properly format and input comments and marks for the Lower School over the next week. If you are interested in getting a head start, please contact Jeffrey directly to schedule some time to meet and discuss. A quick meeting will help save you time fixing things after the fact.  All Teachers will get a refresher from Jeffrey and Debra on 1/7 during the 2nd half of the faculty meeting.

Conferences - 2/11 and 2/12

• Parents need to request permission from David to schedule conferences on a different day
• LS employees with LS students will be given 1st opportunity to sign up for conferences. See Miriam
• OES employees will receive sign-up on 1/11
• Parents with more than one child at OES will receive sign-up on 1/13
• Open sign-ups begin 1/15

LS Diversity Offering

Our thanks to Lara for putting together this learning experience. All who attended came away .with new insights on primary sources.  Look for future Lunch and Learn opportunities

Google Expedition, 1/06

Several classes took advantage of the offer from Anna Rozzi to have Google Expeditions come to campus.  I look forward to learning about the experience.

Scheduling Task Force - 1/7 @ 3:20 in Tina’s Room

• Review feedback from specialists, classroom `teachers, committee members
• Identify themes, questions
• Discuss schools to visit/ outside experts to bring in

Reading Assessments

Our thanks to Ari for arranging these first two reps. As you know, Ari continues to see out other assessments systems and will line up meetings in the new year.

Faculty Meetings

Thursday, Jan. 7th - PLATT

7:35 Classroom Teachers- Schedule Feedback

              8:10 - All Meet with Tech to Review Comment Writing

Monday, Jan. 11th, 3:15-4:30 Scope and Sequence Work: Enter your second Social Studies  UbD into the Scope and Sequence document

Thursday, Jan. 14th, Second UbD Review,  in Grade Level Teams

Summer Programs - contact Kati with your ideas

OPERATIONS

Start the New Year Off Right!

• Remind Students in the New Year- Walk Around the Building

On rainy days students try to walk through the building. Please remind them to walk around the back of the building to get to the upper wing and Scott House.

• Duty Coverage - be sure to get coverage if you cannot make you duty.  We had a duty teacher free lunch room before the break
• Volunteer Check-in - help us ensure volunteers are checked in. Ask if they have done so if they are not wearing a pass or an OES Volunteer name badge

•Students Arrive at Covered Walkway and Loop Rd. Pick Up by  2:55

A plea to you, teachers...please get children out to dismissal areas on time. Car pick up is especially difficult when drivers clog up the dismissal line waiting  for late arriving students.

Friendly Reminder About Sub Requests

Miriam continues to get requests late at night. Please do not text Miriam after 7pm. Contact her:

Evening: Sunday through Thursday 5:00-7:00pm

Morning: Monday through Friday 6-6:15am

Early Morning Duties When There is a Delayed Opening

If there is a delayed opening due to wintry weather,  you will need to be at school 30 minutes before the opening of school.

New Substitute Feedback

A number of you have shared feedback on our new subs. Thanks. We appreciate hearing how they are doing and want to help them get off to a great start.  If you could take a minute to stop by Miriam or Chris’ desk or send an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Loop Rd Dismissal Duty

Please bring your cell phones to this duty. Call Miriam if you have questions concerning a student’s after school plans.

Pick Up Aardvark Community Park After Every Recess

All equipment should be collected at the end of each recess and returned to the shed or the area in front of the shed.  When equipment isn’t collected it tends to disappear.  Classroom teachers, please remind students.

Mesh Equipment Bags

A duty teacher or student(s) should return the mesh bags to the shed. It is fine to have students drop bags at the intersection of the paths if an adult takes the time to return them to the shed. They have been left out a number of times in the past few weeks.

Evening Events in the Lower School Library

If you hold an evening event in the Lower School library, please be sure to tidy up, return the tables and chairs to their proper places and clear all catering.  Heidi and Laura and the Beginning School Assistants provide before school care in this space first thing in the morning.

Parking in the Main Lot

Parking continues to be a challenge for many Pre-K families who need to park and sign out children at pick up time.  Please park in the lot behind the gym whenever possible.  

Parent Volunteers Must Sign In at the LS Office When They Volunteer

Please remind parents in your next communication about the importance of signing in at the office. This is critical for two reasons:

•For security, our community expects visitors to wear visitor badges (BS lunch helpers

will wear an OES sticker)

•In the event of an emergency- fire, earthquake, lockdown, we need to know who was

in the building.

Please don’t let parents in the building without a pass. Remind them politely that they need to check in at the office.

Sugar Council

The 4th and 5th grade delegates , after working with US Policy Board, proposed that the LS no longer serve chocolate milk during lunch.  This proposal will reduce by 33% the amount of sugar

served to LS Students in the Dining Hall. Thank your delegates and 4th, 5th teachers for guiding your students through this process.

Calendar Updates- Specifically for January, February

Please be sure to enter your big events- plays, field trips, learning celebrations posted on the faculty event calendar and Anne’s All School calendar.  Remember, if an event impacts parents and families, you must get that on the AS web calendar. This is really important! Sarah is scheduling student visits in the coming weeks and doesn’t want to book students on days when special events occur.

We suggest each team designate one “calendar person.” Several teams do this and it is super efficient way of keeping calendars up to date.

Your Announcements

Send any announcements you have for faculty to Chris or me by Thursday each week and we will include them in the Weekly Memo.  This should help reduce the number of emails we are receiving, and to maximize our time to collaborate during meetings.