Friday, August 5, 2016



LS Weekly Memo
Week 1, August 8-12, 2016

You have received the letter from Mo. Seems only right that the first Weekly Memo should follow close behind.  Chris, Kirstin and I are here. Lyn returns on Monday. You all will have access to teh new building on Tuesday.

I hope you are enjoying your summer. Read this when you are ready or by 8/22.


CONSTRUCTION UPDATES

The building is almost complete and looks great.  The finishing touches help bring it to life.
  • The Move-in Plan -
    • Tuesday, August 9 - teachers may begin to move in. See details below.
      • Access to the building will begin on Tuesday, August 9
      • Think safety first as some construction is ongoing. Hard hats not required.
      • Enter only through the main entrance to the building
      • Building will be open from 7:00am - 3:00pm on weekdays until further notice. Eventually your keycard will provide access.
      • For this week you may work in your classroom and must keep all materials in the classroom.  Do not put extra stuff in the commons.
      • If you have excess furniture or materials, Purple Sticker it for the Swap Meet on 8/12 but keep it in your room for now
      • The new “Room 10”storage area is not available at this time
      • Jon von Behren, Rod Maynard and his crew are scrambling to get us moved in and our former spaces cleaned out.  Please do not contact them with requests.  Please do add your request to the New LS Building Maintenance Request Log
      • Some furniture orders have arrived, some still to come.  All current furniture will be moved by Tuesday.
      • We will have a building use/operation training during opening faculty meetings
      • Lighting - the new lights are energy efficient, daylight harvesting and adjustable. Please work with the new lights before installing area lights.
      • If you need extensions cords, put it on the Maintenance Request Log
      • Hanging things - We will need to develop guidelines and be aware of basic safety issues
        • No hung fabric - fire hazard
        • Sprinklers must remain free of obstacles
        • Use ladder to hang materials from ceiling trusses

    • August 12 - furniture swap begins in each of current LS Building Common areas
    • August 22nd -  the official move-in week with the LS Cafe open each morning
    • September 9 - Community Building Tours, 8:30 - 10:30am
  • LS Office - We will begin setting up the LS Office on Monday, 8/8. At this time we are office-less and phone-less.


Room Assignments:
As you look to reconnect with colleagues or return things that made their way to the wrong room, we thought you’d like to know where everyone is!

First Floor, West Wing:
Room 10: Science Classroom, Jane Kenney-Norberg
Room 11: Kindergarten: Carole Burton
Room 12: Kindergarten: Deborah Bridgnell
Room 13: Kindergarten: Beth Breiten and Megan Graham
Room 14: PreK: Colesie Tharp and Lauren Endicott
Room 15: Primary: Chris O’Toole and Shelley Weiller
Production Room: EC Office, Shelley Weiller’s desk, Kelola and Alfredo’s offices, Kirstin’s office, copy machine
Room 16:  Art Studio:  Laura Foster-Flynn

Second Floor, West Wing:
Lower School Office: Lyn Zenicek, Kathy Finn-Brennan, David Lowell
Room 20: 2nd Grade, Natalie Simms
Room 21: 1st Grade, Katherine McCall Petke and Julie Mulley
Room 22: 1st Grade, Doug Whitmore and Juidi Alongi
Room 23: 1st Grade, Claire Kucera and Donna Komitor
Room 24: 2nd Grade, Jackie Blake
Room 25: 2nd Grade, Janet Schilling
Room 26: Spanish Room, Alfredo Peche and Kelola McCrary

Second Floor, East Wing:
Room 27: 5th Grade, Alysa Williams
Room 28: 5th Grade, Tina Akehurst
Room 29: 5th Grade, Natasha Busick
Technology Office: Jeffrey Sprague and Debra Thomas
Library: Lara Ingham and Heidi Hackenjos

Third Floor:
Room 30: 4th Grade, Asha Sathyaraj
Room 31: 4th Grade, Tracy Arensberg
Room 32: 3rd Grade, Erin Moulton
Room 33: 3rd Grade, Kiah Johnson Mounsey
Room 34: 3rd Grade, Tonya Griffin
Room 35: 4th Grade, Rachel Taylor
Student Support Bank: Chris Thompson, Ari Sternberg, Melanie Clark, Chaplain

Alternate Spaces:
Art Room in the US:  Art, Margaret Synan Russell
Rooms 35 and 36 in the former LS : Music, Amy Rhinegans and Kristen Haferbecker
Gym: PE, Scott Corris, Stephanie Rankin and Jessica Wolfram

If you’re new or just need a review of the many people who work at OES, including the all-important custodial and maintenance staff helping us get everything ready for the start of school, try this trick:
At the bottom of the page, click “Administration & Staff” under the “Employees” heading.
In the right sidebar, click “Employee Photos.” Voilá!


COMMUNITY

Chaplain Search
The Lower School Chaplain search is still in progress.  Stay tuned!

Sub Hiring
We are starting to look for substitute teachers for the upcoming year. If you know of someone who you think would be a good addition to our sub team, please invite them to send their resume to lsteacher@oes.edu .

New Employees to Lower School
Please welcome:
Katherine McCall Petke - 1st Grade:  mccallpetkek@oes.edu
Natalie Simms - 2nd Grade:  simmsn@oes.edu
Kathy Finn-Brennan - Lower School Office

Assistant Teachers
Many assistant teacher assignments are still pending--some of the steps involved with their contracts require approval from people who are still on vacation. Check with Kirstin or Chris if you have questions about assistant teacher status at your grade level.


PROGRAM

Opening Faculty Meetings
Just a note that because of the change to a new space, new schedule and so many new teams, we have a lot to work out together. The more classroom setup/prep you can do before our meetings begin on 8/30, the better focus and productivity we may have together as we work out these important details.
Tuesday - 8/30 - All School am, Classroom Set-up pm
Wednesday - 8/31 - LS Faculty Meeting,  8:00 - 4:00 (note the longer time)
Thursday - 9/1 - LS Team Meetings/ Department Meetings, 8:00 -12:00 pm, Classroom Set-Up or grade level meetings 12-3
Friday - 9/2 - Faculty work day (anticipate work with your team on schedule, shared spaces and logistics)

Calendar Event Updates
Please add all important dates for your class/team (learning celebrations, field trips, etc.) to the LS Faculty Calendar before August 25th. Thank you!

New Lower School Schedule
The next WM will contain the updated schedules, general notes on the schedule and digital tools for putting the schedule in your calendar.

Playground Design
We met again with Michelle Mathis of Learning Landscapes about playground design opportunities with students and our greater community. We are exploring the idea of having a small group of students serve as student leaders to run workshops with classes and gather data for the playground architects.  Jon continues to explore what our funding and timeline will look like.

Summer Stipends
Please inform DAvid and your Assistant Head about any remaining dates you will be meeting for your summer stipends. When your stipend has concluded, submit your Summer Stipend Completion Forms and Stipend Follow-Up Reports to Lyn.

Class Placement
We will be finalizing class lists this week. They will be sent out to teachers on 8/19 and will be released to families on 8/26. Mailing labels should be available by 8/26; please send out your welcome letters to families by Tuesday, August 30th (but not before 8/26).

OPERATIONS

LS Office
We will be unpacking and setting up this week.

2016-17 Calendar
OES All School Calendar is updated.  
Please submit changes to the LS Faculty Calendar by 8/25.

Your Announcements
Send any announcements you have for faculty to Kirstin, 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 maximize our time to collaborate during meetings.

Sunday, June 19, 2016




LS Weekly Memo
Week 42, June 20-24, 2016


Congratulations on a great 2015-16. Best of luck finishing up reports.  On to launching our new year on Tuesday and celebrating the year as a whole school on Wednesday.


CONSTRUCTION UPDATES


  • Packing Up Boxes - Pack them up and keep them in your classroom.  Movers want to go from room to room. Common spaces and offices, keep boxes there
  • Furniture - initial order is in.  There will be more orders in our future.  I would rather start a little lean on furnishings, find out what we really need and want before purchasing more.
  • June 30 deadline for packing rooms
    • Rod has packing materials. Here is the plan, The Big Re-Move. Contact Rod for labels and boxes. Confirm your new room number.
    • Put full boxes in closets until school is out.
  • The Plan - subject to change
    • August 1st - teachers move in
    • August 8 - furniture swap begins in each of current LS Common areas
    • August 22nd -  the official move in week with the LS Cafe open each morning
    • August 22nd - MS/ US faculty moving help day




US Student Moving Help - Thanks you Austin for coordinating.
There are still opportunities. The link to the volunteer spreadsheet:
1) Please click on the tab for the day(s) that you would like packing help. If you would like help on a day not listed, please click on the tab marked, "Other."
2) Please input your name, room number, and desired time(s) for the given day. Please note that the, "Time(s) Needed," column is intentionally short, so that each subsequent time period will wrap around and be easier for me to see. Please input the time as: #:##-#:##
3) All student volunteers will email Austin their availability. He will then input them depending on the schedule. Though he will mostly put them in on a first come, first serve basis, Austin’s goal is to get everyone at least one student helper if possible.
4) Please feel free to check on the schedule regularly. Austin will try to send an email the night before to let you know who to expect.


MS and US Faculty Help with Moving
MS and US faculty are eager to know how they can help with our move.  I am going to offer August 22nd as help day.  

COMMUNITY


New Teachers to Lower School
With contracts signed and returned I can announce our new teachers.
Katherine McCall Petke - 1st Grade
Natalie Simms - 2nd Grade
Look for their bios in August.


Chaplain Search
We begin the Chaplain search on Monday.


Students not Returning in 2016-17
The following students will not be returning to OES next year.  Treat this information confidentially, as we do not know which students have been told nor how comfortable they are with the decision.
Students Not Returning 2016-17 as of 6/16/16
1st
Scarlet Ganes - relocation
Brooke Gilson
Rebecca Laakman - relo
Elsa Swanson - relo
2nd
Sadie Walsh
Lucca Lyon - relo
Mako Jindai - relo
Kianna Meyer
3rd
Ben Blumenthal - relo
Lincoln Weiler
4th
Zorian Chakraborty - relo
Hanako Jindai - relo
5th
Simon Walsh
Andrew Reveno - relo
6th
Andrew Kashiwagi
Will Owen
Ashley Schroeder
Hannah Swanson - relo

PROGRAM


Promotion Ceremony
Thank you Alysa, Tina and Tasha for your student’s reflections.  What an inspiring way to end the year.  


Closing Faculty Meetings
  • Friday, June 19 - Monday, June 20 - report writing and proofing, lunch available on Friday and Monday, if you are on campus
  • Tuesday, June 21
    • 8:00am - Reports Due in PCR, Continental Breakfast at 8am
    • 8:30am - 12:00pm - Looking ahead to 2016-17
    • 2:00 - 5:00pm, LS Building Tours
  • Wednesday, June 22, 9:00 - 1:00 pm - Closing AS Meeting, Recognitions, Lunch


We will spend digging into the schedules at the closing meeting.


Sign Up for a Tour of the New Lower School
David and Jon will take three 45-minute tours. Click on the link to sign up!


Playground Design
We had our first exploratory conversation with Michelle Mathis of Learning Landscapes about playground design.  On to budget discussions with Jon to see what our funding looks like.


Progress Report Timeline
  • Friday, June 17th Complete half of your reports, pass along to your proofreader
  • Monday, June 20th Complete last half of your reports, pass along to your proofreader
  • Tuesday, June 21st Upload all to PCR by 8:00am, before our LS Faculty Meeting
  • David to read Jane’s Reports
  • Chris to read Kelola’s Spanish and Margaret’s Art
  • Kelola reads Alfredo’s reports


Jeffrey and others will review all reports on PCR. Lyn will send out an email to parents notifying them when reports are available on PCR. Our aim is to go out some time on Friday, June 24th.  Jeffrey will let us know when that can realistically be done. Beginning School will send out their reports as PDF via email simultaneously, coordinated with the rest of the Lower School.


Artifacts to Pass Along to Next Year’s Teachers, Pre-K Through Fourth Grades
As in the past, please gather the following items and place them (well labeled  and alphabetized)  in a boxes in Ari’s office before you leave.
  • DRA or F & P Reading Assessments
  • Copy of Final Math Assessment(s)
  • Student’s Letter of Introduction to Next Year’s Teacher


Summer Stipends
Stipends have been sent out.  See David if you have questions.


Class Placement
The spring sessions are for the most part complete. We will do one final check of First Grade next week.  One final check in August to go.

OPERATIONS


LS Office
We are closing at the end of this week to begin packing.  We will let you know one we are open in our new space come August.


2016-17 Calendar
OES All School Calendar and it is updated.  
We will begin drafting the 2016-17 LS Faculty Calendar at the closing faculty meeting


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.