CSD Staff Scoop
CSD's Internal Employee Newsletter
Friday, October 30, 2020 Edition
Table of Contents:
- Message from Dr. Dude
- Staff Support: Benefits enrollment, flue clinic, accommodations, EAP
- CSD Accreditation review
- Operations: school improvements and staff spotlight
- Research and Analytics: Revised Assessment Calendar and GADOE feedback
- Information Services: Mass Communications improvements, Re-meet Meet, G Suite updates, other project updates
- Curriculum and Instruction: Resources on the Virtual Learning site to assist with Concurrent teaching
- District Pods Update
- Take Action Thursdays
Playground policy - Anniversary Pins
School News and Shout outs
- Important Dates
- About the Staff Scoop
A Message from Dr. Dude
Dear CSD Staff,
As we continue to confront the challenges of this pandemic, I would like to let you--our teachers, principals, and other staff--know how much I appreciate your hard work, flexibility, and patience. You have tirelessly supported our students. A great deal of planning and effort has gone into virtual learning, and I am proud of your efforts. You are doing a heroic job.
A top priority for all of us is protecting the health and well-being of the CSD community. We know many students are struggling, and we will continue the multitude of efforts to support them academically and social-emotionally. We all recognize that at some point all students will return to in-person instruction. I’m confident that most of us would agree with the American Association of Pediatrics “that children learn best when physically present in the classroom,” “that children get much more than academics at school,” and that “returning to school is important for the healthy development and well-being of our students.” This is why district and school leaders continue to develop multiple ways to move toward a safe and healthy in-person instructional model and work environment. It is critical we ensure our school buildings, as well as our virtual classrooms, are safe, supportive, and inviting environments for our staff, students, and families. One way we are progressing toward this goal is the formation of the COVID-19 Stakeholder Planning Committee (CSPC).
The CSPC capitalizes on the enormous talent and expertise in the Decatur community. While we tried this approach early on in the pandemic, we received very little response from volunteers. However, that has changed considerably and we now have many dozens of experts willing to share their time and talents with us. We met for the first time Wednesday night and the discussions were excellent. Through this committee we will narrow the data we rely upon while developing a decision-making approach to reopening in person that is easy to understand and predictable. The CSPC will advise the school district on its response and plans related to COVID-19. We’ve set up a web page at https://www.csdecatur.net/CSPC where we will post information and work products from the CSPC and its subcommittees, including minutes, reports, and research.
Please continue monitoring district and school communications to ensure you are informed of plans, opportunities to provide input, decision-making processes, and what you can expect as we manage this ongoing, ever-changing health crisis.
Thank you for rising to the occasion, for your patience, and for your dedication to our kids and each other. We will get through this together!
Sincerely,
David
Staff Support:
Benefits enrollment information
Reminder: Open Enrollment ends on Friday, November 6.
Important Reminders:
• Plan Year: January 1, 2021 - December 31, 2021.
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs): Must be re-elected each plan year.
• Medical FSA participants must re-elect to access any carryover funds.
• There will be no onsite enrollments this year. Campus Benefits enrollment can be completed online or by scheduling an appointment with the Call Center.
How do I Enroll?
Campus Benefits enrollment can be done online. Click here for Online Enrollment / FAQs - Campus Benefits.
To schedule a phone appointment, use this link: Schedule Call Center Appointment - Campus Benefits. The call center will be available from 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.
State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP) Open Enrollment
SHBP Open Enrollment is a separate enrollment from Campus Benefits. Enrollment Dates are October 19 - November 6th. There are two ways to enroll.
Enroll Online here SHBP Login - Enrollment 10/19 - 11/6/20 or contact SHBP at 1-800-610-1863.
Currently enrolled SHBP members will remain in the same plan/tier if no action is taken. Also, if a tobacco surcharge was added, it will continue to apply.
Click here to view the SHBP Member Decision Guide.
Where Can I find additional information?
If you need any assistance with your enrollment for the 2021 plan year, please contact Benefits Specialist Jenny Wynne at jwynne@csdecatur.net or 404-371-3601 x1020.
Teachers Retirement System of Georgia Beneficiary Designation:
For those of you enrolled in TRS, have you designated a TRS beneficiary? Have you checked your account lately to see if it's up-to-date?
Be sure you are leaving any remaining benefits to the right people. As required by Georgia law, TRS must pay the remaining benefits at the time you pass away based on the latest designation in your TRS file. Wills, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, life insurance policies, or other documents cannot be used to determine your beneficiary, so be sure you've made your TRS designation.
It's easy – register or login to your TRS account at www.trsga.com! Don't delay, designate today!!
Off-Contract Days for CSD Staff 2020-2021
Are you curious as to which days are off-contract for the upcoming year? Please see this document, which is available via the CSD Staff Forms and Referents shared drive or by visiting the calendar page under the staff tab of the website. Please note, to see the staff tab you must be signed in under your CSD G Suite account. The sign-in link can be found on the bottom left corner of any CSD webpage. This calendar is subject to change as we finalize plans for in-person and virtual learning moving forward. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask your principal or Staff Support.
Flu Clinics in November:
We will provide Flu shot clinics for staff and their families. Flu clinics will be held outside. Please park and walk up, bring your ID and insurance card.
Kaiser Not permitted.
Wilson Center: November 4, 1-3 p.m.
Oakhurst Elementary: November 10, 3-5 p.m.
Renfroe Middle School: November 18, 1-3 p.m.
Look for more information via email about any other upcoming flu clinics.Accommodations for staff
On a final note, staff support wants to thank our staff for working with us during the accommodation process. Our goal is to make sure you feel safe and supported in both in-person and virtual working environments. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we all work through this difficult time.
If you believe that you will need an accommodation, as a result of your own underlying health condition or age, we ask you to complete the CSD Interactive Accommodation Request Process Packet, as soon as possible in order to provide the necessary time for consideration of the request and appropriate implementation of the accommodation. Please submit this packet to Staff Support by Friday, November 20.
Teacher and Staff Support via the Employee Assistance Plan
Teacher and Staff Support via the Employee Assistance Plan
Our staff is an essential part of the community, and we want to support you the best we can during this difficult time. As a reminder, the Employee Assistance Program is available for all employees. It offers you many benefits, including:
Confidential emotional support
Work-life solutions
Legal guidance
Financial resources
GuidanceResources Online (more information below; to register, use Web ID: ONEAMERICA6)
For more details, please view the Employee Assistance Program flyer here. Specifically, we want to point out the GuidanceResources Online tool, a library of useful articles you can access at any time.
Please take care of yourselves as you navigate through this difficult time, and let us know what we can do to meet your support needs. As the quote pictured here says, “Take care of yourself first or you will have nothing left to give others. Self-care isn’t selfishness; it is necessity. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.”
Here is one example of the type of articles you can find on our GuidanceResources Online page entitled, “Techniques to Relax and Reduce Stress.” We have listed a copy of this article on our staff site for easy reference.
CSD Accreditation Review
Every five years, we undergo an accreditation review. Our last accreditation was completed in 2016, which means it is time for another review. The timing is challenging, and we’re not permitted to delay this process. We will lean into this review and use the information gleaned from it to celebrate our work and set priorities for improvement.
The accreditation process is an opportunity to validate the great work we do against industry standards. Using research-based standards and evidence-based criteria, we will deeply examine policies, programs, and practices to determine how well various aspects of the district work together to meet our vision and the needs of every student.
A few things have changed since our last accreditation. The most noticeable is that the organization managing our accreditation has changed: AdvancED (SACS) and Measured Progress merged to form Cognia. The process has not fundamentally changed: it still involves system and school teams gathering data and self-assessing our performance against standards. Cognia has three main standards (leading, learning, and resources) as well as seven quality factors (clear direction, healthy culture, high expectations, impact of instruction, resource management, efficacy of engagement, and implementation capacity) in lieu of the five standards used by AdvancED. Also, Cognia calls the accreditation visit an “engagement review.” Due to COVID-19, the engagement review will be held entirely virtual for our K-12 schools. Additionally, the engagement review will not include any classroom observations for K-12. College Heights is also completing their accreditation this year, but there will be a few in-person visits for College Heights.
Throughout November, school and district teams will train on the processes and procedures for the engagement review. Starting in November and wrapping up by mid-December, stakeholders will complete surveys on culture, climate, and engagement. Throughout November and continuing into January, school and district teams will gather evidence and summarize their findings. By mid-February, our completed work will be submitted to Cognia. In March, we will finalize the engagement review schedule and select stakeholders to participate in focus group interviews. Cognia will conduct our engagement review in the last week of March. We expect to receive the final accreditation report by the end of April.
Additionally, over the next few weeks principals will begin creating school accreditation teams, consisting of staff, SLT members, and other stakeholders. Wilson Center and other administrative staff will likewise be tapped to support this important work. Stay tuned for additional information from your principal or supervisor on training and readiness for your role in supporting the accreditation review. As a result of the accreditation process, we will celebrate our areas of excellence and identify targeted priorities to guide our improvement efforts.
Operations and Maintenance
School Improvements:
Once we return to our school buildings, you may find that our buildings have undergone some significant improvements. Facilities and maintenance has been busy these last few months working to make these upgrades at each of our school buildings. Thank you all for your patience over the summer and into this fall as we completed the following Facilities projects:
Clairemont Elementary
Installation of LED lights in classrooms
Replacement of FFE cafeteria tables furniture
Decatur High School
Decatur Student Center Interior Renovation
ECLC
Renovation of front playground surfacing
Installation of new learning cottages
Fifth Avenue Upper Elementary
Installation of the sound wall (trailers side)
Oakhurst Elementary
Replace two energy recovery units (HVAC equipment)
Installation of the sound acoustic wall (trailers side)
Talley Street Upper Elementary
Installation of 56 solar panels 21 Kwh on the school roof
Winnona Park Elementary
Installation of LED lights in classrooms and hallways
Replacement of interior Blinds
Replacement of plumbing fixtures
All schools
Installation of GPS air purification system ionizers in all schools. For more about this system, please visit https://www.csdecatur.net/CSDCOVIDoperations.
Operations Staff spotlight:
Tim Lockhart, Skilled Trade Supervisor, Facilities Maintenance Department
Tim has gone above and beyond over the past several months. In addition to his supervisory duties, Tim has also filled the role of the department’s HVAC technician. I would like to thank Tim for going the extra mile to deliver service to our schools.
Recently, we have filled the HVAC technician positions with Dwayne Wooley and Oscar Maddox. We have also promoted William Hughley to the position of General Maintenance Technician. I would like to welcome them all to the team.
Research and Analytics
Revised Assessment Calendar
The 2020-2021 Assessment Calendar has been revised, to reflect state policy changes and local schedule to return to in-person learning. Highlights of the revisions are:
PSAT will be given to 10th and 11th graders on January 26
CogAT will be administered on January 27, 28, and 29.
MAP will be given in March grades K-10
GMAS End of Grade has been moved a week later in the Spring (April 26)
The STAMP test for World Language Proficiency will not be administered this year.
MAP and CogAT will only be given in person. Please review the revised assessment calendar to keep up with when tests will be administered. Future revisions may occur as state policy and local plans may change. Heidi Whatley can answer any questions regarding assessment for the 2020 school year.
At the October 1 State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting, Superintendent Woods recommended that the Georgia Milestones EOC percentage weight to be included in a student’s final grade be reduced from 20% to 0.01%. The SBOE did not approve this recommendation and instead proposed reducing the EOC percentage weight from 20% to 10%. This proposal (10%) has been posted for public comment; click here to provide feedback. The SBOE is expected to consider this proposal at their November 19 meeting.
Information Services:
Mass Communications Improvements for Staff who are also Parents
We’re now able to better route mass communications sent via Blackboard Messenger to CSD employees who are also CSD parents. Your parent-related messages sent via Blackboard (e.g. school newsletters and teacher messages) can be sent to a personal address while your employee-related messages (like this newsletter) get routed to your work account. Messages sent to employees and parents alike (such as the District Dispatch) will go to both addresses.
Some action is required of you to make this work. If you are a CSD parent-employee, please log into the Infinite Campus Parent Portal and verify your contact information as follows (and as demonstrated in this video):
If you want parent-related messages to go to a personal account, provide a personal email address as the secondary address. Ensure the primary email address is your CSD email.
If you want parent-related messages to go to your work account, ensure your CSD email address is listed in both email fields.
Employees’ first email address in Infinite Campus should always be their @csdecatur.net email address.
On or about November 9, we will reach out to parent-employees for whom we do not have a secondary email address in Infinite Campus. On November 13, we will adjust Infinite Campus to omit sending Blackboard our employee-parents’ primary (i.e. work) email address as part of the parent data export; secondary email addresses (whether they are personal addresses or their CSD account) for employee-parents will be sent to Blackboard as the preferred parent contact. In the future, we will adopt this sync with other processes, such as sending Classroom Guardian information.
If you are a teacher who’d like to learn more about the Blackboard mass communications tool, please contact your school’s webmaster (usually the media specialist).
Re-meet Meet
Considering the continuation of virtual learning, we created this video covering features added to Meet over the last couple of months, along with pro tips and reminders of best practices. It covers a lot of ground, so below and in the first minute of the video itself there are time codes for anyone who might be curious about a particular feature. This video is also on the Virtual Learning website under the Educators ⇒ G Suite Updates section.
1:15 Blur background, live streams, captions
3:20 Reporting problems, feature requests, and abuse
4:50 Troubleshooting help and tips
6:20 Video and audio tweaks
7:50 Knowing who will be the moderator
9:20 Nod and other extensions
10:40 Host controls: toggles for “quick access,” screen sharing, and chat
13:10 Tips for presenting sound and video content
14:30 Changing tile layout
16:10 Jamboard integration
18:10 Dealing with the “I can’t join the Meet” issue
19:10 Q&A
21:25 Polls
24:40 Breakout rooms
28:30 Helpful way to end a Meet
30:20 Meet quality feedback data dashboard
32:30 Attendance, Q&A, and poll email summaries
35:00 Sincerely gushing gratitude
G Suite updates and tech tips for staff
In addition to the “Tech Help” button at the top of the Virtual Learning site for families, we have two technology resources just for staff under the Educators menu. G Suite Updates hosts the video above, has information on the Meet Early Access Program to try new features early, Google Certified Educator voucher information, and a running list of all the education-affecting changes to Meet, Drive, and the other tools. Tech Tips and Help mirrors some of the information from the family Tech Help page, and adds staff-specific items, and reframes some issues and solutions from an educator’s point of view.
Other Information Services project updates:
Your Information Services team has been progressing on other projects, and we’d like to report out on some of them.
For a couple of weekends earlier this fall, we applied firmware/security updates to all of the switches and routers throughout the district (about 120 of them). These gizmos sit behind unnumbered doors in your schools, and every network-connected device passes its network traffic through them.
College Heights, the lower elementaries, Fifth Avenue Upper Elementary, and Talley Street Maintenance received the same advanced telephone system we installed last year at Talley Street Upper Elementary. This system has much higher reliability and brings important quality of life improvements to key users. We’re particularly happy that it includes an e911 system, which immediately texts and emails building and district leaders with critical information when a 911 call is placed.
We’re testing an enhanced content filter, and we’re grateful to the lower elementary teachers whose students have given us valuable initial data.
In anticipation of concurrent learning, we’ve begun the process of doubling our bandwidth. Additionally, we’ll soon install a new central networking core in the Wilson Center to support an increased load. All our network traffic gets routed through a very slender piece of fiber optic cable in the Wilson Center, and we’re making every effort to eliminate any performance bottlenecks between user devices and the outside world.
We’re also continuing with LaunchPad, a single site for staff and students to access our licensed learning tools and internal resources. We’re grateful to the upper elementary users piloting this tool. LaunchPad will also lay the groundwork to significantly diminish the number of separate usernames and passwords we and our students are tasked with remembering.
We’ve made significant improvements to data syncing and automation. For example, we no longer manually create G Suite accounts for students and employees; instead, they’re created when folks are enrolled in Infinite Campus or set as a new employee in the SmartFusion HR database. Most updates are similarly synced. For staff in particular, this means that when you have an update in status -- last name, job title, work site, and retirement, to name a few. -- once that update gets recorded by Staff Support, the next day it will be reflected in your G Suite account. Our next big push will be supporting the Research and Analytics team to expand SmartFusion-to-Infinite-Campus syncing.
We created new Wi-Fi networks for all the sites hosting learning pods so participants can get online.
Curriculum and Instruction:
Support for online instructional tools
To provide additional support in the virtual environment, we will continue to post videos on the Virtual Learning site. If you still have not yet mastered Nearpod, here is a helpful video created by Westchester’s Sarah Chandler. Big thanks to Sarah and our other teachers who’ve created staff tutorials!
Planning for concurrent learning
We continue to look for ways to support schools in preparing for concurrent teaching. We have a team of teachers and administrators that observed elementary and secondary concurrent classrooms in other local districts. We have prepared presentations, model classrooms, simulations, and collected articles to help drive our work. Here are some articles you may find of interest, and you’ll continue to find resources on the Virtual Learning website under Educators => Concurrent Learning.
Combatting the Challenges of the Concurrent Classroom with the Station Rotation Model |
Optimizing Concurrent Classrooms: Teaching Students in the Room and Online Simultaneously
How to Make Lessons Cohesive When Teaching Both Remote and In-Person Classes
School Reentry Considerations: K-12 Physical Education, Health Education, and Physical Activity
Other District Updates:
District Pod Update:
District Pods Update
The purpose of district pods is to provide vital child care supervision for staff and families during virtual learning. We have made progress in implementing district pods and have successfully opened two pods. While learning in the time of COVID-19 looks and feels different than what we are used to, our pod program offers a win-win situation for qualified individuals looking for work (20+ new pod facilitators in the onboarding process), and families seeking the child care they need (over 340 requests so far!).This is also a unique opportunity for current staff to exchange their time and talent for a little extra treasure. Or for staff who are willing and able to chip in an hour here and there. Please use this Pod Facilitator Recruiting Input Form to communicate your interest in directly supporting our district pods.
Take Action Tuesday
Take Action Tuesday is a new weekly spotlight where we will highlight our students for their good deeds in the community. Our kids are truly making the world a better place in so many ways and being the change they want to see, and we want to salute them for their fantastic work!
Do you have a suggestion for a student working to make the world a better place in small or big ways? Complete this form, and they may be highlighted next! Please be sure to include a photo!
All of our playgrounds received the sign pictured here. This sign aims to discourage others from playing on our playgrounds during and after school hours, so we have less sanitizing of our equipment. Thank you!
Anniversary Pins
Anniversary pins are being delivered to staff mailboxes at your school or building; next time you are in your building, please be sure to pick yours up if you had an anniversary this month. Whether you’ve been here for two months or two decades, thank you to all our staff for being a part of the CSD family!
Here’s the presentation of our 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25-year CSD anniversaries. Please congratulate your colleagues on their work anniversaries!
School News and Shout Outs
Clairemont
Clairemont is participating in Situated to Read, an opportunity for students to read as many minutes as they can from October 26-30. This read-a-thon campaign helps foster reading with our students, and it has become a healthy competition between classes and grade levels. Students can read to themselves or have someone read to them. When students have read their minutes for the day, they log them on their own created page. Last year, we read over 75,000 minutes last year.
Monday Winners
Kindergarten; Mrs. Belcore's Crew
First Grade: Mrs. Lilywala's Crew
Second Grade: Mrs. Sadler's Crew
Tuesday Winners
Kindergarten: Mrs. Belcore's Crew
First Grade: Mrs. Lilywala's Crew
Second Grade: Mrs. Needham's Crew
Why? Because reading is so much fun and can take your imagination to far off places and worlds. Also, we should mention that classes are working together to read the most minutes every day. That's right, this campaign is also a competition. Every morning, the minutes from the day before will be counted, and the class from each grade that reads the most minutes is the winner! Teachers will even earn the honor of wearing the special reading hero cape! Photos below capture the Read My Shirt Day and Cozy Up With a Book Day, all a part of the situated to read day.
During the Situated to Read week, each day has a theme that centers around encouraging reading. Our students are having a blast showing how they are participating each day.
Monday: Read My Shirt Day
Students wore a shirt that had to be read.
Tuesday: Cozy Up With a Book Day
Students took a picture of them wearing their pajamas and reading their favorite book.
Wednesday: Author Visit Day
We had Mr. John Patrick Green give a fantastic presentation on his new graphic novel, Investigators Take the Plunge.Glennwood Spirit Week, Teacher Flash Mob, and New Staff
Glennwood PTA hosted Virtual Spirit Week October 19-23 with a fun daily theme such as Pajama Day and Favorite Emoji Day. As a culminating event to spirit week, PTA hosted a virtual dance party on October 22 for the whole school with DJ Willy Wow.
Glennwood Staff created a special (socially distanced) flash mob surprise to share with students during Community Circle on October 23. This was a super fun collaboration by staff, and students loved seeing their teachers put on their best spooky dance moves. You can watch the video HERE.
Glennwood welcomed these new staff members during the 2020-2021 school year:
Westchester:
Congratulations to the Westchester Wolves for pulling off our first and very successful Move a Thon! They moved non stop, and with all their energy and love of their school, raised over $8000 and collectively moved 36,560 minutes!
MOVE-A-Thon Class Winners!
First Place Kindergarten - Mr. Wagner’s class with 3,079 minutes
First Place First Grade - Ms. Querubin’s class with 4,891 minutes
First Place Second Grade - Ms. Duszak’s class with 6,690 minutes
CSD Staff SHOUT OUTS!
Congrats College Heights Pre-K!
Congrats to all our Pre-K teachers and administrators at College Heights! Bright from the Start recently announced that ECLC's Pre-K virtual learning model will be the model for virtual preschools across the State. Congrats on your fantastic job working with some of our youngest students in this new platform!
DHS Shout outs!
Decatur High School nominates students and staff each month who are exemplary members of our P.A.C.K.! For the month of September, Dr. Duncan was our Staff Member of the Month for being PURPOSEFUL, and Mr. Champion was our Staff Member of the Month for October for being ACCOUNTABLE. Congratulations to both of them! Pictured left, Mr. Champion, DHS Staff Member of the month.
Our DHS Students of the Month for the month of October who demonstrated being PURPOSEFUL are:
Tyra Brown
Evan Frilingos
John (Jack) Gregory
Miles Havard
Kailyn McArthur
Spencer Mullen
Georgia Williams
Keon Sandavandi
Zach Borowski
Clinton Shaeffer
Kai Solivan
Thanks to the Virtual Vanguard Team!
The Virtual Vanguard team laid the groundwork for a successful virtual experience for students, and they continue to support their colleagues in refining our virtual practices. Big shout-out to Cynthia Aldridge, Alyson Barrera, Kristy Beam, Carrie Beauchamp, Corrie Bounds, Sarah Chandler, John Chesnut, Karen Collins, Frank Defilippo, Jillian Farley, Wes Hatfield, Kimberly Jones, Beth Kostka, Tyler Mangascle, Eston Melton, Julie McFaddin, Lyndsei Pacini, Graham Pereira, Emily Rubin, Maima Simmons, Corinne Smith, Charchelle Sudan, Kelly Stopp, Dawn Stephen, Robyn Tibbetts, Jason Wade, Kathryn Van Duzer, and Sarah Yoo.
Congrats to RMS’s Orchestra Director, Dr. McCranie!
Congratulations to Heston McCranie, RMS's Orchestra Director. She just completed her doctorate, and she is now officially Dr. McCranie. The title of her dissertation is "Investigating the Use of Social Media in Undergraduate and Graduate University Music Students' Practice Routines." She essentially looked at the intersection of what happens when students share their practice online and how it affects their ability to enter the process of self-regulation. This research started long before the pandemic ... but is rather timely!
Did you just complete a training or program, have some exciting news to share, or want to give a shout out to a fellow colleague? Send that over to sjones1@csdecatur.net and you will see that in this section in future newsletters.
Important Dates:
Tuesday, November 3: Election Day
November 23-27: Thanksgiving Break
December 15, 2020 - January 5, 2021: Holiday Break
About the CSD Staff Scoop
If you would like to submit some good news, a shout out or a student or staff recognition, please feel free to submit it here or by emailing Sarah Jones, Communications and PR specialist at sjones1@csdecatur.net. Also we love photos! Please share your photos with us and we will share them with the district here and on CSD’s social media pages.
PDFs of these newsletters will be saved under the staff section of the website for future review.
Wilson School Support Center
Email: sjones1@csdecatur.net
Website: csdecatur.net
Location: 125 Electric Avenue, Decatur, GA, USA
Phone: 404-371-3601
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cityschoolsofdecatur