Saturday, September 30, 2017

Weekly Memo
WM  8, October 2-6, 2017-18

Congratulations on a great first month of school. What a difference another year in the same building makes. Welcome to October and our 5th week of school. Last week ended on such a positive note with the Walk for Fun and Aardy’s inspirational video. On we go to  flu shot Thursday and OES Spirit Day and Homecoming Friday.   

LS Faculty Norms
  • Do what is best for the students
  • Assume we are all doing our best at the moment and our intentions are positive
  • Be present, participate, contribute, include many voices
  • Create a safe space that encourages sharing different opinions, ideas, perspectives
  • Seek understanding, be curious about what others think
  • Express gratitude, joy and encouragement
  • Communicate with compassion, clarity and effectiveness
  • Demonstrate respect
We continue our new Weekly Memo format with repeat items in blue and new items in black.


COMMUNITY

Lower School Picture Retake Day, Wednesday, October 4

 Homecoming, Friday, October 6
Homecoming is a uniform optional day and an OES Spiritwear day. Wear your aardvarks proudly.

Email Reminder
Double check the recipient before sending your emails, especially when sending confidential student information! We have a few tricky email addresses to remember:
Suzanne Lee’s email address is leesu@oes.edu, a MS student has the email address lees@oes.edu!
Also Chris OT and Chris T continue to get each other’s emails!

Walk for Fun and Fitness- Friday, September 29
Thanks PE Team for a great fitness filled day

Aardy’s Inspirational Run
In case you need a little motivational video, here is Aardy’s Inspirational Run

Jump Roping Assembly
Reminder that Monday we have our guest, Rene Bibaud, here to perform and inspire all our students! Starting with the assembly at 8:10. We will have the bleachers pulled out, and sitting by class/grade level, oldest on top row.
1st, 3rd, and 5th grade teachers- We do not have your classes for PE on this day, so if you haven't done so already, please take a look at the open time slots available to come join us and have some extra time with our guest. If the open time slots do not fit your schedule and would still really like to participate, then please talk to us ASAP, we may be able to have you join another grades PE time, but please talk with us first.

Equifax Data Breach and You
Gretchen checked with some of our financial advisors
1. They are not aware of any history of identity theft in retirement accounts
2. There is a whole section in our agreement with VALIC dedicated to data security, and Multnomah Group also has cyber security policies and trains its consultants.   
3.Helpful website from the Oregon Department of Justice.  https://www.doj.state.or.us/media-home/news-media-releases/equifax-data-breach-need-know/

Gathering and Chapel - Please be seated and ready at 8:10
Chapel and Gathering are required
Lower School Gathering: Friday 8:10 - 8:30 Our weekly goal will be to start at 8:10 am sharp.
Lower School Chapel: Tuesday, 8:10 - 8:40 Our weekly goal will be to start at 8:10 am sharp.
For those of you who like to plan ahead, here are links to LS Chapel Resources:
2.  Lower School Chapel Schedule for 2017-2018 (Always a draft / living document).
Diwali in LS Chapel on Tuesday, October 24th
Ash Wednesday Chapel on Wednesday, February 14th.  
LS Gathering is moving permanently to the Dining Commons, Fridays, 8:10 - 8:30
US Helpers on Wednesday, October 25, 8:00 - 12:30
  • Seniors and freshmen have a half day Service Day on Wednesday, October 25 from 8:00-12:30
  • Would any of you be interested in having US students work with your children that day?
  • Kara’s only request is that they connect with children that day.
  • Let Kara Tambelini know how many students you want and what you want them to do?
Upper School Helpers Every Wednesday and Thursday
  • Wednesday’s from 10:15 to 10:45 and Thursday’s from 10:50 to 11:45.  
  • Request to include the type of activity, number of students needed, day(s) that you need help We will fill as many requests as we can each week.
  • Send “help” requests to Sandi Lillevik (lilleviks@oes.edu), copy Ashley (scatesa@go.oes.edu)

Employee Giving to the OES Fund: A Community Endeavor
It is that time of year to consider making a gift to the OES fund. Please know that a gift of any amount is truly valuable as a statement of your support for this school, these students, and this community.  Strong participation in annual giving inspires others to join in, and together we can make a significant investment in the work of OES.
As a new feature this year, you can designate your gift to a specific area, including Financial Aid, Athletics, Arts and Literature, Science and Technology, or Service and Community. If there is a particular focus that is dear to your heart, consider donating a gift to that program area.


The form is entirely online this year. Follow the link below to access it:
Again, your gift of any amount is valued and valuable. Please consider joining in giving to the OES Fund: A Community Endeavor. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you!
Kristen, your OES Fund LS representative this year
PROGRAM
Faculty Meetings
Monday, 10/2, 3:15 - 4:45 - EC3 Design Center experience. Meet in the Chapel at 3:15.
Thursday, 10/5, 7:35 - 8:35 - Team & Specialist meetings
PK - PK Room
K-2 - FLex Classroom
3-5 - Moulton Classroom
Specialists - Performance Commons
Safe Schools Video
Monday, you will receive a message from the SafeSchools system with all the information you need to access this year’s required trainings:
  1. Child Abuse Mandatory Reporter - Oregon Full Course -  Approx. 30 minutes
  2. Sexual Misconduct Staff to Student -  Approx. 30 minutes
  3. Sexual Harassment - Staff to Staff - Approx. 15
New this year: All courses are available in English and Spanish, you will be able to select your preferred language once logged into the system.
You may use any of three open faculty meeting times, 10/12, 10/30, 11/6 to complete the videos or choose to watch the videos on your own time.
PGD Day, Friday October 13
This day is intended to be a day for professional growth and development, different from a planning day.

24 faculty have completed the form. All who asked to go to NWAIS are registered.
14 faculty - No plan indicated. Complete the form.
  • Option A: Attend NWAIS (or another off-campus)
  • Option B: Attend ICC training on campus in the morning and division-specific training in the afternoon.
  • Option C: other professional development plans
Below is information on the NWAIS conference and the ICC training provided by the ICC Team. More Information:
  • ICC Training Information: The ICC facilitators will facilitate employees in equity-informed dialogues. The equity-informed dialogue workshops will build on and complement the "Days 1 and 2" ICC training that many have received. The goal of this work is to further OES's organizational cultural competence and is based on best-practices in the field.
  • BY Professional Development on 10/13: Specialists Welcome The plan for Beginning Years on 10/13 is available here: Specialists are welcome to join, as the topics should cross grade-levels and curricular areas. Please contact Kirstin with questions. Please note there is a short article to read and some work to do in advance of the PD Day to maximize the impact of our time together.


Fountas and Pinnell Trainings
Thank you Ari, Kirstin and Chris for supporting this training. K-5 will spend Thursday’s faculty meeting doing more follow up on the Lower School literacy program.

 Contracted Services FAQ
We've developed a new guide to contracted services like tutoring, speech and language services and OT. Its purpose is to answer some basic parent questions about how contracted services at OES, but we thought it might be useful to you, too.

Renee Watson Visit
You have three opportunities to engage with Renee Watson,author of Piecing Me Together
  • 9:00 - 10:30 Book discussion
  • 3:00 - 5:00 Social Justice Framework
  • 7:00 - 8:00 In conversation with Renee Watson

4th Grade Field Studies--Chaperones needed
Please consider joining the 4th grade for December 5, 6 & 7 at Mazama Lodge on Mt. Hood! Chaperones will be required to attend an evening training at OES this fall with the Mazama team (date TBD) and to do some teaching with small 'inquiry groups' on the trip.  We just secured these dates and have not yet informed 4th grade parents of the plans.  Please give us a chance to do this before discussing the trip with families. Sign up here!  Thanks for considering!

Workshop Organization
As many of you solidify your routines for Readers’, Writers’, Math and Story Workshops, you might find this brief blog post by Nancie Atwell about workshop organization inspiring.

The Confluence
The Confluence has been updated with an invitation for parents to consider some of the questions raised in Creating Cultures of Thinking, setting the groundwork for a context in which to place future posts.

Library
As we move forward with temporary help in the Lower School Library (while we search for Heidi's replacement), please keep these few things in mind.
  • Austin will help with morning recess from 7:30-8:30.
  • Michael Gundle will be in the library from 9:30-2:00.
Please accompany your students to the library between 8:30-9:30 and after 2:00 pm. We have already had students in the space unsupervised or needing help when Lara is teaching.  Whenever you send students, please remind them to check to see if there is a faculty or staff person in the space and to return to the classroom if the space is unsupervised. We do have parents who may be shelving during the day, but they are not expected to assist students.
Lara hopes to keep the level of service high.
Once we hire someone permanently for the position, the hours will be from 7:30-2:00.  
Email Lara if you have questions.

OPERATIONS
Time Sheet Approval
A friendly reminder to those who took a personal, sick, medical/dental, bereavement or jury duty during the month of September, please approve your timesheet in ADP by  September 30th. Guide to ADP login is on the Weekly Memo sidebar. If you have questions regarding your September time sheet, contact Lyn.

Trips around and off campus
Taking a walk around OES campus, take:
·         Red fanny pack
·         Epipen for student/s who has bug/bee sting adverse reaction

Trips off campus, take:
·         Green or blue first aid kit bag
·         Trip binder
·         All prescribed medications including Epipen


Note: Teachers or Assistant Teachers will need to return and file the prescribed medications back to the meds file cabinet after the class walk or field trips. Please don’t ask a student to take the medications, trip binder and first aid kit back to the office.

 Disease Prevention
We are having several early illnesses making their way through LS.
The health department is predicting an early  and heavy influenza outbreak
  • Wash hands
  • Get your flu shot
  • Stay home if you are sick
  • Send your students to the office if they are sick.

PreK-K-P Lunch
Shirley has some requests of anyone on PreK-K-P Lunch Duty: they are detailed in the BY Odds and Ends.
SmartFind Express Reminders
  • The system starts calling at 5:00pm each day
  • You may request a long term sub by submitting an absence with no sub needed. Then discuss with David
  • You may request sub through Smartfinder, but you may not get that sub
  • Lyn and Kathy check for unfilled sub assignments by 6:45 each morning
  • If you forget your Access ID or PIN, please contact Lyn or Kathy.

Sub Utilization
I am working on managing our substitute budget more closely
  • We will not be offering subs to cover assessments. Classroom teachers will work with teaching assistants to cover class while teachers assess.
  • In special situations we will be offering limited substitutes for additional team planning

Field Trip Budgets
In an effort to manage budget increases, field trip budgets are the same as last year, $1500 per grade.

Bon Appetite Congratulations
Once again, thanks to hard work and persistence on the part of our Facilities and Dining staffs, the OES kitchen has received a perfect (100) score on our health inspection by the Washington County Health and Human Services Department.   Thanks, team!

Ordering Update
  • We have sorted out Amazon ordering issues
  • Return what do not want. See Kathy for mailing label.
  • Let Kathy know if you are still missing supplies
  • We are looking into a better solution for supply ordering for next year

Food Service Reminders
A reminder from the Business Office
  • OES provides one meal per day to every employee who works at OES.  (Employee Handbook 8.11).
  • Dinner is by 24 hr reservation with an email to Kelly Cowing at cowingk@oes.edu, and is $7 most nights, or $9 on formal/family nights.  
  • Guests may eat lunch or other meals in the dining hall - again - please use the keypad to sign them in
  • Reminder - this applies to coffee/tea and snacks.  Those are generally available in the divisions and/or offices.  We ask that you don't visit or take food or beverages from the dining hall other than at mealtimes.

Food From Home
Just a reminder that all food for students is provided by OES in order to support our efforts to be an allergy-aware campus.  Any families hoping to send food for snacks or lunches from home with their child must have approval from the nurse or your Assistant Head.  Please make sure you have obtained such approval before encouraging anyone to bring food from home.

TIME SHEET
  • Time sheet is required for nonexempt employee. Fill out your timesheet digitally in ADP and approve it twice a month: 15th and the 30th
  • Enter your absences in your digital time sheet – this also means these absences were reported in the Smartfinder.
  • If a teacher asks that you work beyond your approved work hours, you need to notify Kirstin (PK – 1 AT) or Chris (2nd – 5thAT) about the request. Kirstin or Chris will submit the Lead teacher request to David for approval. Your division Assistant Head will email you and copy Lyn once the lead teacher request has been approved. The Assistant Heads’ email is Lyn's record on file as a proof for the overtime hours she is going to submit for payment to HR.
  • If you were a Lead Sub Teacher – you will need to check in and check out in the Sub time sheet binder in the office.
LUNCH and BREAKS:
  • All nonexempt employees working 6 continuous hours or more in a day are required to take a 30-minute unpaid meal, preferably in the middle of a shift – page 17 in the Employee Handbook
  • All nonexempt employees receive a 10-minute paid rest break for each 4 hours of work time… Break periods may not be used or skipped to extend a lunch period. Work overtime, arrive late
  • 1.0 FTE AT  – may take two 10-minute break: one in mid-morning and one in mid-afternoon
  • .75 FTE AT may take one 10-minute break either in the morning or afternoon.
Your Announcements
Send any announcements you have for faculty to Kirstin, Chris or David by Thursday each week August-June 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.
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