Sunday, October 2, 2016

LS Weekly Memo
Week 9, October 3-7, 2016
October it is. Thank you PE team for organizing another great WFF. What a gift to be able to start the day with some good spirited exercise on a sunny track with so many smiling faces.  This week we have an optional faculty meeting on Monday to discuss fine tuning transitions and schedule items.  Wednesday Chris, Kirstin and I are hosting a group of Lewis and Clark education school students who will be visiting classes and discussing their observations. Thursday a group of educators from the American Academy of Casablanca are coming on tour. Thursday night is the first of six community conversations about diversity and inclusion, Exploring Belonging, in LS Library. I would like us to have a strong showing in support of Dori and her good work.
Building Updates
Building Issues
Jon and I did our walk through Monday afternoon. See Building Issues for next steps.
Daily Operations
  • All windows need to be fully operable to support cooling of the building.
  • All blinds and shades need to be fully operable for safety
  • The exposed concrete plays a critical role in heating and cooling the building
  • Limit the electricity demands you are adding to the building
Window Warning
We had the first window injury of the year when a student tried to stand up under one. Remind your students to be careful around the open windows.
COMMUNITY
Faculty Updates
Kiah is home with her family and Kingston’s health is improving. Kiah will return once Kingston is stabilized and well on the road to recovery. See Heather’s Meal Support Offer for Kiah and her family.
Rachel had successful surgery and results have come back indicating a non-cancerous growth.  She will be out for at least a week recovering from surgery.
Community Conversations
Dori has received a grant supporting six speakers coming to campus to speak about diversity,  inclusion and community. See Community Partnership webpage for details. The first presentation is Thursday night, 6-8 in the LS Library. Kirstin and Chris will be hosting an LS gathering at a local establishment for those who want a bit of sustenance before going to the lecture (David will be in the Administrative Team meeting). Look for details this week.

 Chapel This Week
Tuesday's Chapel honors St. Francis, the patron saint of animals, with a Blessing of Stuffed Animals. Children may bring their loved stuffed animal, no bigger than their cubby, to school on Tuesday. Chapel begins with each classroom placing their stuffed animal at the altar for a blessing. Animals will go home with them at the end of the school day. If you have questions, contact Chaplain Heather (wenrickh@oes.edu).
Gatherings
Friday, 10/7    Grade Level Gatherings (Grades 3&4 Hearing Screenings)
Gatherings have been added to the Faculty Calendar, designating the type of gathering each week. To see a calendar of all gatherings (tab 1), listings of gatherings by type (tab 2) and a list of dates we’ve scheduled planning time for Affinity Commons gatherings during Mon. or Thurs. faculty meetings (tab 3), visit this Gatherings document. Please contact Kirstin with any questions or changes.
SST Agenda
The SST (Student Support Team) has been working to clarify its goals and procedures.  We wanted to make you are aware of one recent change in practice.  In the past we’ve added some students of concern to the Weekly Memo, but instead have decided to make the ongoing SST Agenda transparent to all of you. Here are the features of this document:
  • One document with all students who are discussed at SST so you know if/when your students have come up in conversation. We’ve chosen a spreadsheet format so you can sort by date, homeroom, or student.
  • Notes to let you know basic information (what action is in progress or has been taken, a point person to talk to with further questions/info).
  • A tab for student conversations that impact recess, lunch or other duties so you can be informed about students you see in these contexts.
  • A box to let you know if the SST site has been updated. Most confidential information is placed into the SST document and not the agenda, though we do ask you treat the agenda confidentially, as well.
We hope this document demystifies some of the SST practice, as well as holds the welfare of all children in equal measure. It is not our desire to alarm anyone by placing their student on a list, but rather to help us all utilize the multiple viewpoints/resources available for children needing support at any given point in time. If you have any questions about this document or have students you would like entered into SST dialogue, please let your Assistant Head, Ari or Melanie know.
SST meets on Monday mornings with the following support staff:  Elaine, Heather, Melanie, Ari, Kirstin, Chris, David.  SST meetings are also available on Thursdays from 3:15-4:00 for anyone who would like a whole team approach to supporting a student or students. Please contact your Assistant Head to request a Thursday afternoon SST. Also let us know who you’d like to request to attend.
Buddies
Thanks for submitting your buddy survey! We hope these partnerships are fruitful and expand your students’ sense of community.  Topics are listed to help you identify other buddy sets with similar interests, but experiences are planned by buddy partners and are not necessarily limited to your focus area. Visit tab 2 of the gatherings document for a list of buddy gathering dates, but of course feel free to meet together outside of these designated times.


Outdoor Focus
Beth and Tracy - K,4
Alysa and Jackie - 5,2
Doug and Rachel - 1,4
Service Focus
Claire and Tina - 1,5
Deborah and Natalie - K,2
Music and Integration Focus
Asha and Colesie/Lauren - PK,4
Decide together on focus (or mixed):
Katherine and Erin - 1,3
Carole and Tonya - K,3
Chris O and Kiah - P,3
Janet and Tasha - 2,5
Food Service Update
LS Dining Commons
Kelly is now planning on serving 15-20 adults in the Lower School Dining Common each day. Check the LS Dining Commons menu to see what is offered. Menu is greatly simplified compared to what is served in the Dining Hall.
Main Dining Hall
Kelly will have self service foods; soup, sandwich bar, salad bar,  available in the US Dining Hall starting at 10:50.  The Dining Hall opens for full service at 11:00, so please do not ask Bon Appetite for help until after 11:00.  Kelly is fine with you rapping on the door to get in before 11:00.
Cheese
We have clarified our cheese order so students will have cheese at least two times a week. Shirley will deliver these approximate amounts of cheese each week:
PK - P - 200 pieces
1st and 2nd - 250 pieces
5th - 150 pieces
3rd,4th - 250 pieces
Be sure to refrigerate the cheese each day so it does not go to waste.
Photographers on Campus Monday
Marketing and communications has hired professional photographers to come on campus Monday.  Let Karen Crandal know if you have a particularly photo worthy happening in your class.

 Flu Shots
If you are interested in receiving your flu vaccine on campus, please remember to wear your short sleeve shirt and meet at the Head’s Conference room on October 5th from 11:00-1:00. The local pharmacists from Fred Meyer will be here to administer them. Please fill out the forms Elaine sent via email to bring with you. If you have Providence insurance the fee will be covered. If not, Elaine will find out the cash price.
If you have 1-2 lunch duty…
Here are some clarifications:
  • When you arrive, please place a stack of 6 cups on the table and a pitcher of either milk or water.  You will need to switch the pitchers or pour for kids until they have what they need. At the end of lunch please return the pitchers to the cart so they can be reused at PreK-K-P lunch.
  • Children seemed calmer with the lights off on Friday, so let’s try that again.
  • It’s helpful to have an adult on duty help with the cold options when kids come through with their trays (fruit, lunch meat, etc.)
  • Please walk around and monitor when you are on duty. Children should be seated unless they are headed to their seat, clearing, or have been excused by a teacher.


Upper School Student Help
Beginning Thursday, September 22,  Robin will have a new team of Upper School students available to perform all types of on-campus service:
Every Wednesday, 10:20-10:50 (note that this is only half an hour & adjust your expectations accordingly!)
Every Thursday, 10:50-11:50
They’ll do anything—indoors, outdoors, office work, classroom work, you name it.
See Robin Schauffler’ semail fro details.at I can. Email me, and I'll let students know of your request and have them contact you directly.


Playground Design
Faculty Design Team met with playground designer Michelle Mathis last Wednesday to begin the process and clarify the role of Student Design Team.  Two students from each 4th and 5th grade class will form a Student Design Committee that will meet Thursday mornings to discuss, plan and create a plan for the playground. Students will learn design and drawing techniques as well as lead experiences with the rest of the student population and the community. These events have been added to the Faculty Calendar for 10/21 and 10/22.
Faculty Design Team - David, Kirstin, Chris T, Asha, Tina, Laura F-F
Student Design Team - TBD : 2 members from each 4th and 5th grade class
Library mindfulness
The library is open for 2-5 recess on F and D Days and we will be offering an opportunity for our students to practice mindfulness for about 15 minutes.  Please let Lara know if you have any questions/suggestions.
Library Resource
The New York Times just published an article titled: Children’s Books That Tackle Race and Ethnicity. The library has copies of most of these titles. See Lara for more information.
Educational Support for Students
See Ari to review files of students with known learning differences.
Say Hey Event
Make sure nothing is put on the calendar, for any room in your division on Thursday, November 17, 2016 after 3:30 pm.  The Say Hey event is scheduled to begin at 5:00 pm and we will have 500 visitors on campus.
Patty Walhood, retired LS Librarian, Memorial
The service for the Walhoods will be November 12 at 3PM at Grace Memorial Church in NE Portland. There will be a reception at the Holliday Park Plaza from 5:30- 8pm.

 Important Links
For easy access to some of the important documents we've generated over the last few weeks, please note that the BY and IY Odds and Ends are now tabbed at the top of the weekly memo and there is a new category on the sidebar on the right of the Weekly Memo for important links.




PROGRAM
I am starting to get PGD requests for national or multi-day conferences and workshops.  In an effort to make more intentional decision about PGD, rather than first come first serve,  please enter your PGD requests above.   In the near future John Holloran will be sharing a new PGD site where folk can log conferences and workshops attended, and write-ups of their experience.
October 14 PGD Day -
Only 7 LS Teachers have indicated plans. Please follow this link  October 14th - PGD Day Commitments to record your plans.
If you plan to attend the NWAIS Fall Educators' Conference, please notify Jean Verheggen by September 25, as Jean has kindly volunteered to register all OES attendees.


PGD Opportunities
A terrific Executive Functioning workshop that Ari was able to attend last year. Sarah Ward returns to Portland, OR, by popular request to present two Executive Function Seminars at the DoubleTree/Hilton. November 1, 2016 - From School to Home and Back Again: Executive Function Skills Across the Day
Volunteer Needs
Next step will be for your room parent to contact you and coordinate a time to meet, discuss and plan your volunteer needs.
Extention
Kati Stenstrom has created a detailed Extension description and FAQ.  Please review.
Faculty Meetings  - Faculty Meeting Schedule, Faculty Meeting Agenda
Monday, 10/3 Optional LS Faculty Meeting -  Fine Tuning Operations
Please review the linked document as we provided several clarifications to procedures.  You are welcome to use the time to meet with a teacher or two to clarify your own item or join us in the library.
Thursday, 10/6    BY/IY Meeting

OPERATIONS
 
Attendance
Teachers and Assistant Teachers –
This is a reminder the accurate method of taking students’ attendance. The only attendance you can report in PCR are:
·         PRESENT
·         ABSENT UNEXCUSED – even if you know that your students are late or absent excused, they need to be marked UNEXCUSED because we want to hear from the parents directly through lsattend@oes.edu for safety and accountability of each student
If you received plan changes from parents directly, advise them to email ALL after school changes to lsattend@oes.edu BEFORE 2:00 pm. Do NOT write in the PCR attendance about after school plan changes. We only want to know if your student is PRESENT or ABSENT UNEXCUSED.
Thank you for your understanding!
Transitions and Duties
Chris Thompson made a great screencast of the process of creating a "My Duties" calendar. If you need help doing this let Chris or Jeffrey know and you can walk through it together.
With the large playground spaces, every duty matters.  It is part of your schedule and responsibility to find coverage for your duties. Make sure someone is there before you drop your kids.
We added more duties to help keep kids safe. Please review the document and add a comment to sign up for one more duty. We only need 5 spots filled! I added tallies to the end of the document and we all appreciate your help.
Please find a replacement if you have a duty conflict--Tonya and Chris are working on a system to reduce emails.
Please note there is a separate morning duty schedule for Late Start Thursdays. Assistant teachers staff the before school duties on Thursdays so we can meet.


Recess Reminders
During all recesses, duty teachers can help students maintain their equipment by following these steps:
  • Keep grade level equipment bins out for specific grade level recesses and put them away when recess is over.
    • Color and Grade Level reminders are hung in the shed
  • Encourage and remind students to put materials away
    • Sweeper duty teacher should help round up students as well as look ut for equipment students have forgotten--a reminder to kids that their equipment is on the field is helpful!
  • Equipment put in lost and found is not available to students for two weeks.
  • If students are playing without conflict, let them play. It may not look “fair” to us nor the rules standard but many times students do know that a team of 6 vs. a team of 4 is fair. Students should be focused on fun and enjoyment.
    • Duty teacher step in and help when there is conflict that students cannot navigate independently.
Recess Equipment Reminder
What color of equipment should my students be using on recess?
5th- Red
4th- Purple
3rd- Orange
2nd- Blue
1st- Green
Primary- Neon Green
Yellow- before school recess- all grades share (also available for K if teachers decide they want to manage equipment on their recesses)
  • Each grade has 8 pieces of equipment - 2 bouncey balls, 2 soccer, 2 football, 2 basketball
  • Ball equipment left out and not cleaned up by students at end of recess is held as consequence (placed in extra bin in shed, not their class color bin). We return all equipment every 2 weeks.
  • No students should be going into the shed unaccompanied.
  • Shed will be moved soon, to the cement area between ACP and new bike racks.
  • If you are the first to unlock the equipment shed (CAT 15 key), please lock the padlock onto the hole so we don't lose it again, door can just be shut between recesses.
  • At least 1 PE Coach (Scott, Stephanie, & Jessica) will always be on field for lunch recesses and can sweep the field and put ball bins away.
  • Afternoon recess please communicate with your duty team to figure out who can put the ball bins away in shed. If left out, things seem to walk away or be used by others and not accounted for.
Lincoln Logs
Supervise carefully. Nurse Laura reports 2-3 injuries per day, primarily of 1st and 2nd graders
We have had many injuries due to gravity and falling logs
2 children are required to move extra long logs
If children are inside or under parts of the structure, no child can be on top
Forts will be periodically dismantled
Epi pens are no longer kept in the first aid kits for walks to the wetlands or for field trips.
  • important to always gather any student prescribed epi pens for your outing
  • two stock epis are in the small project kitchen-soon to be moved to the kitchen when a cabinet is installed.
New Substitute Procedures 2016-2017
  • We are no longer using the substitute cell phone number-do not call or text
  • Do email requests to lssub@oes.edu
  • Send an email to lssub@oes.edu when you need a substitute
  • Kathy will check this email box at 6:00pm and 6:00am. You may send the email as soon as you know you need a sub.
  • Kathy will email teachers and subs as soon as the assignment is made.
  • Only for morning of emergency on the way to work needs-after 6:30am. Send a text to Kathy Finn-Brennan at 503-989- 3737
You can access a Google Doc of this information here if you’d like to add a copy to your Drive.


Automated Substitute Finder System
We are pursuing an automated substitute finder system.  Details still emerging.  We are targeting 2nd semester fro a roll out.
Food from Home
We are fortunate to have a food service that is so committed to tending to the dietary needs of our students.  Rarely, we find ourselves in a situation where a student needs to bring food from home rather than use the school’s food service. We will consider this option only we have done the following:
  • Worked in partnership with the parents and Bon Appetite to test in-school options
  • Had a parent meeting including a Bon Appetite representative and the OES Nurse
  • Received doctor’s statement about the medical issue and proposed interventions
Maintenance Requests
Rod would like us all to return to the usual maintrequest@oes.edu protocol for maintenance requests.  The Maintenance Log will become a view only document.
Your Announcements
Send any announcements you have for faculty to Kirstin, Chris or David 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 maximize our time to collaborate during meetings.
Archive
Utilize the archive for previous Weekly Memo.

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