Weekly Memo
Week 23, January 23-27, 2017
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It feels good to be back at school and out of the cycle of uncertainty about just when our next day of school would be. Get ready for a full 5 days of school this week. Thank you to all, both for your willingness to jump into exploring remote learning days in Lower School and for your flexibility in dealing with our flood challenged Wednesday.
Many thanks to Chris O’Toole, Claire Kucera, and particularly to Beth, Carole and Deborah for their participation in the Primary-First Grade conferences and coffee this week. Parents were grateful for your passion for our students and for your thoughtful guidance through the decision making process.
COMMUNITY
Professional Plans for 2017-18
Hiring season is upon us. Please let David know if you are considering other professional plans for the 2017-18 school year or if you are interested in changing grade levels.
Lower School Parent Coffees
Thank you to Kirstin for organizing an inspiring coffee about our Primary program. I wish you all could have been there to hear Chris O’Toole speak so passionately about her program and to hear testimonies from former Primary students and parents of Primarians about the positive impact Primary has had on them.
Primary and 1st Grade Coffee, Monday, 1/23
Main Topic: Growth Mindset, Assessments, Progress Reports
2nd and 3rd Grade Coffee, Monday, 1/30
Main Topic: Primary Sources Research and Home Support
4th and 5th Grade Coffee, Monday, February 2/6
Main Topic: ERB’s, Executive Function
Giving Chapel Reflections
Please take a few moments to fill out this short survey reflecting on our efforts to deepen student connections during the Giving Chapel season. I understand some of your classroom connections and conversations may have been cut short because of snow days, or it may be hard to recall at this later date and during this busy season. I thank you in advance for your willingness to take time to reflect. If you prefer to have a conversation in person, I am happy to oblige. Thanks! Kristen
Re-enrollment Contracts out on 1/23. Due back on 2/7
Kiah Job Share
We are so close...
Employment Searches
We have several long term substitute positions to fill. Let me know if you have any recommendations.
Long Term PE Sub - for Jessica’s maternity leave
Long Term 3rd Grade sub - for Tonya’s maternity leave
Long Term 5th Grade sub - for Alysa’s sabbatical
LS Religion Teacher, 2nd semester
2017-18 Hires
LS Chaplain
Associate Head Candidates
All candidates have visited. Please send your feedback to AHOSfeedback@oes.edu. Very few faculty have provided feedback this far. The search committee is looking to make a recommendation to Mo this week.
Admissions Visitors
Admissions is working hard to reschedule visitors. I appreciate your understanding
Specialists, you offer a unique perspective on our admissions visitors. Please take the time to complete a Feedback Form for each visitor you teach. Thanks.
Upper School Helpers - See Robin Schauffler’s email
Student Support Team
This is a great time of the year to dig back into all our students who may need a little extra support throughout the day.
1. Check SST Agenda tab in weekly memo
2. If you have contact time with one of the students mentioned - Check SST site if it is noted as updated
3. If a student you have wonderings about but are not listed - contact the relevant person in SST
Recess Alerts
Sun coming
Library Open 7:30 - 7:50 Each Day
Assistant Teacher Meeting this Friday, 1/27, 12:30-1:15 in the Performance Commons
Topics: Do's and don'ts of changing your timecard; Growth Mindset and Cognitive Load
Please add any additional needed agenda items to the Google Doc.
Assistant Teacher Meeting this Friday, 1/27, 12:30-1:15 in the Performance Commons
Topics: Do's and don'ts of changing your timecard; Growth Mindset and Cognitive Load
Please add any additional needed agenda items to the Google Doc.
PROGRAM
Extra School Days
The Administrative Team have reclaimed 5 days. We are still exploring how to reclaim more if needed; extended school year, remote learning days, experiential days. A few faculty have come forward with creative ideas.
State of the School, Monday, 3:15, Dining Hall
Once a year Mo comes before us to address the start of the school. It is a required All School Meeting. Let me know if you are unable to attend.
- Monday, 1/23 - State of School
- Wednesday, 1/25 - Playground Plan
- Thursday, 1/26 - BY/IY - Remote Learning Agreements, All LS - Playground Plan
Playground Design Team
Based on Wednesday’s adult meeting, I will hopefully be calling a Friday student meeting during the 3-5 recess and lunch block. In this meeting, students will review final design and budget. Then they will help create a plan to share out the design process and construction plan to faculty and students during the following week.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Events
The community art squares have been pouring into my mailbox and they look GREAT! Keep dropping them off. Laura, Margaret and I hope to start assembling the collective art piece at the end of the week, so we would love to have all the squares by Wednesday. Thanks!
The slideshows are still available this slideshow for 1st/2nd and this slideshow for 3rd/4th/5th. Claire, Kiah and Chris are available to share more of our experiences with your class, especially in the Lodge classrooms.
The LS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Team will be meeting Tuesday, at our usual A day 10:50 meeting, to make plans for a whole school assembly. You are always welcome to join.
SST meetings are 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.
OPERATIONS
Dismissal Duties
Many thanks for the smooth operations of our daily dismissal duties. We had several systems to adopt and fine-tune this year, and they are going smoothly thanks to your efforts to be on duty on time and to get classes out in a timely manner.
Building Issues
David met with Jon von Behren to discuss the following building issues:
- Drinking fountains on 2nd, 3rd floors
- They cannot be adjusted to change angle of water flow
- Jon is looking into installing bottle fillers above the fountains
- Tackable surface on cabinet doors in performance commons, David’s Office
- Tackable surface backordered. Awaiting arrival
- Sound proofing for front entrance
- Jon is looking into solution similar to soundproofing of Band and Choir Rooms
- Anti-slip treatment on outside East stairs
- Treatment on stairs is up to code. Good traction on each step, but the lip of the stair can get slippery. Place foot firmly on step
- Dog House fix
- SKANSKA will be testing a fix for the dirt and snow issue on the natural vents, starting with screening. This should reduce debris and snow getting into shaft.
- Playground Budget
- Jon is finalizing his maintenance budget and was cautiously optimistic we would have additional funds for the playground.
Early Dismissal Plan/ Emergency Dismissal Plan
In the future all employees will be expected to remain for at least 30 minutes after the scheduled dismissal time to help with student management. We will plan for the dismissal of faculty after assessing how many students we have remaining.
Employee Resources
A helpful tool is created in the OES website for employees to save time searching different sites when you need to access the basic forms like check request, catering, maintenance requests and other resources. Check out this link:
Lock Out Drill - See Emergency procedures flipchart
The main objective is to secure the perimeter of the building.
- Lock all exterior doors
- Pull blinds on all exterior windows
- Continue learning activities in the classroom
- Report attendance to division office by email or phone
How to reserve a room on the LS Faculty calendar
Did you know you can reserve rooms like the Performance Commons and Flex Classroom through Google calendar? You add a new event, and where you would normally invite guests you click the word 'rooms.' If the the name of the room is visible on the list, it's available and you can click on it to reserve it. It will then appear in your 'location' box. If you don't see the room on the list, it's because it's already reserved. If you really need it (for a performance, for example) and are wondering if you can work out a deal with the person who has reserved it, Jeffrey and Debra have access to the room calendars. There is no need to use the Faculty calendar for the reservation unless it’s an event that needs to be listed on that calendar.
ADP Tutorial
For help on any ADP related matters: login or registration, password retrieval, or time card approval process, please view this beautiful presentation that Ed Cecere put together. This is a helpful guide and should answer your ADP related questions. If you still have problems after using Ed’s helpful guide, please let Veena: iyengarve@oes.edu know. There is a plan to put the ADP resource link in the LS Employee Resource page for future reference. Stay tune.
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.
