As we progress into Fall and cooler, wetter weather, I want to encourage families to keep moving and get outdoors as a part of your daily school schedule. Spending time outside as a family is a great way to re-energize and reduce stress.

Picture Day on Tuesday, October 6th and Wednesday, October 7th

https://www.smore.com/8d031

No School on Friday, October 9th

On October 9th there is no school for students. For 6th-12th grade students, Wednesday, October 7th will be an A-Day and Thursday, October 8th will be a B-Day. Students can still access Canvas and the curriculum and are welcome to keep working.

We have elementary and secondary online back to school nights coming soon! Elementary will include live teacher presentations. Secondary (grade 6th-12th) will be pre-recorded videos and information for families. Details are below.

Elementary (K - 5th grades): October 12th, 5:00 - 6:30pm (recordings will be available for viewing anytime)

• 5:00 - 5:15pm: Pre-recorded principal’s message will be available for viewing

• 5:15 - 5:40pm: Teachers will introduce themselves and talk about their class. Then, they will have 15 minutes of question and answer time.

• 5:40 - 5:45 Break

• 5:45 - 6:20pm: Teachers will repeat the earlier session for those with siblings or who couldn’t make the earlier time

Secondary (6th - 12th grades): Available starting October 13th

Along with a principal’s message, teachers will have prerecorded video presentations with information about them and how their class works. We will also be providing self-paced information for students and families.

BSD will be promoting its first Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Awareness Week (October 12th - 16th) to spread awareness of actions that we can all take to prevent suicide and reduce the stigma related to mental health concerns. As part of this important campaign, students at FLEX Online School will receive a lesson to promote positive mental health, recognize the warning signs for suicide risk and encourage help-seeking behaviors. Parents and guardians play a critical role in preventing youth suicide. Please see the resource below to learn more information about suicide prevention and steps that you can take to protect yourself, your community, and your children.

https://afsp.org/teens-and-suicide-what-parents-should-know

Teens and suicide: What parents should know | AFSP

Suicide is in the news and in popular entertainment now more than ever, especially in regard to teens. You can play a role in building up your child’s mental health simply by becoming aware of the risk factors and warning signs that can lead to suicide, making yourself available to your child, knowing how to practice having a caring conversation, and being aware that help is always available.

Every year students are considered for Talented and Gifted services in the Beaverton School District. These services are provided by your child's classroom teacher(s). Oregon law and District policy define gifted students as those who score at or above the 97th percentile on a standardized, nationally normed test of mental ability and/or academic achievement in reading and/or math. Behavioral, learning, and/or performance information is also considered before a student is identified for TAG services.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and our current reality of Comprehensive Distance Learning, our evaluation process will look different this year. We will administer in-person TAG testing after January 11, 2021. Until then, teachers will collect evidence on how your student responds to differentiation within their distance learning classroom. This evaluation may include: file reviews, teacher and student observations, a collection of work samples, and/or individual or group assessments. This process may take some time, but every effort will be made to complete the evaluation in a timely manner. Parents will be notified of their school’s in-person testing dates in January.

If you think your child might qualify for TAG services, you may wish to complete the Parent Information Form that is available on our district's website. Completing this form gives our school TAG Committee more information about your child, but it is not required. All qualified students will be considered regardless of the form’s completion. Please complete and return the Parent Information Form to your child's teacher.

We now have some clubs starting! Thank you to everyone who has submitted requests. We are working on getting the requests aligned with supervising teachers and then will communicate how to sign up through your homeroom or advisory teacher as soon as possible.

You’ve created an at-home workspace - Great Job! Now is a great time to re-evaluate if it’s working and functional.

• Is it free of distractions?

• Are your needed supplies accessible?

• Study guides

• Pens / pencils

• Electrical outlet

• ___________

Finding the ideal workspace is a work in progress, be open minded and willing to change. Consider creating a “Calm Down” Box to keep nearby the study space to help students regulate and refocus if needed.

We appreciate the critical feedback we have gotten on attendance. We understand this has been frustrating and we are working on a consistent system. Every 6th-12th grade course will include an attendance button/link for students. We expect this to be fully in place by Thursday, October 8th.

If you need to report an absence, please call our main number: (503) 356 - 3720. You can then press “1” for attendance and leave a message or press “0” to reach the office.

Elementary (Kinder - 5th) Attendance

To be marked present, students must do at least one of the following every day (including Wednesdays):

• Take part in a live video session with the instructor

• Log in to Canvas and fill in the attendance form

• Send your teacher a message in the Canvas Inbox

• Submit an assignment or make progress in the curriculum
  
  

Secondary (6th - 12th Grade) Attendance

To be marked present, students must do at least one of the interactions listed below for every class that has office hours that day (A or B day). On Wednesdays, students only need to interact with their Advisory Canvas course.

• Take part in a live video session with the instructor

• Log in to Canvas and fill in the attendance form *New - these are being created for all classes. We are working on a single location and look for consistency.

• Send your teacher a message in the Canvas Inbox

• Submit an assignment or make progress in the curriculum (Apex, FLVS)

We appreciate the feedback about difficulty finding what is due and when. We are working on a consistent process and format that will make it easier to find the information you need. Students should check with their teachers and look in Canvas to find out when live sessions will take place. We have added the full A/B day schedule to our website.

• Art, Business, Technology and Psychology are considered elective courses for the office hour schedule.

• All other courses, even if taken as elective credit, fall in their content area block for office hours.

We are pleased to welcome our new Art and Spanish Specials for grades 1-5!

• Jocelyn’s Art Welcome Letter

• Maestra Jani’s Spanish Welcome Letter

You can adjust your notification settings to get what you want, when you want it in Canvas. The parent video on the district web page has information on how to do this. Scan forward to minute 24:34 to hear an intro and then at minute 28:18, the nuts and bolts of notifications are explained.

If you have technical issues or questions, use the contact information below.

• Digital Permissions need to be signed to access tools and systems required for FLEX Online School. The district Digital Resources page has the forms you need to fill in and return.

• For device or login problems, contact the Student Help Desk.

• For questions or problems with Apex or Florida Virtual, email flex-support@beaverton.k12.or.us

• For questions about Canvas, please contact your teacher. If they can’t help, they will contact someone on our team who can.

Thanks for reading!

Paul Ottum

Principal FLEX Online School