Staff Bulletin
Week of March 23-27, 2020
A Message from Lisa
I hope you are all doing well and adjusting to our new normal. I want to start by thanking you for your hard work this week. I am excited to send out your instructional plans to parents on Monday!
Good News! On Tuesday, the CISD Board approved the teacher hiring schedule. The new pay structure had a 3% raise for all teachers (about $1800) and a certain group had a balancing amount added as well. New teacher pay is now at $57,000. Great news for CISD teachers!!! We will know more about para-professionals and administrators later but looks like it would be about 3% on the midpoint.
Please read through the topics below thoroughly. We have developed a temporary chart for who to go to for various needs. The chart does not encompass everything. Your questions can be directed to your team leader first and then to the person in charge based on the chart below. We have also updated the Powell Calendar to reflect our current situation. I will include all dates each week in the Bulletin too. My goal is to get us on some form of a routine:)
Make plans to meet us for a Zoom Faculty Meeting on Wednesday, March 25 at 3:00 PM. If you are using your cell phone, download the Zoom App. If you are using a laptop or desktop, just click on the link within the email you receive inviting you to the meeting. The invitation email will come from Becky next week.
As of Monday morning, we are "open". I plan to limit the number of people in the building. Please be on call from 8:00-3:00 each day and be prepared to come in should the need arise. We will have staff working remotely to answer the phone, check the mail, receive questions from parents, order, handle payroll, and other essential functions.
If you go up to campus, you should use your scan card to get into the building. PLEASE practice social distancing! Contact Sarah if your scan card does not work.
At some point next week, we will be expected to register new students. If we place someone new in your class, we will let the team leader and teacher know so that you can begin corresponding with those parents.
Your main job at this point is to be as creative as you can to teach your students. Think out of the box and I know you will do amazing things! Communicate regularly with your students and parents. Becky can help team leaders with zoom, seesaw, flipgrid, and Adobe Spark Video.
The CISD Salute to Education has been canceled, however, we will find a way to honor our Teacher of the Year, Humanitarian of the Year, and Rising Star! The CISD Job Fair has been postponed until further notice.
Enjoy the weekend!
Lisa
Who to Call
LISA
ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO STAFF AND PARENTS
SCHEDULING MEETINGS
INTRA AND INTER DISTRICT TRANSFERS
SPECIAL ED AND PRE-K TEACHERS
PLANNING FOR NEXT YEAR
SARAH
STUDENT PAPER COPIES
BUILDING OPERATIONS, SCHOOL MAIL
CALENDAR
APPRAISALS AND SUMMATIVE CONFERENCES
ESL/GT
K-2 TEACHERS
ERIN
INSTRUCTIONAL INFORMATION FOR PUBLISHER
504/DYSLEXIA
3-4 TEACHERS
BECKY
TECH SUPPORT FOR TEACHERS
INSTRUCTIONAL INFORMATION FOR PUBLISHER
ELIZABETH
TECH SUPPORT
WEBSITE
SHAWN
PLACEMENT FOR 2020-2021
LUPITA
ABSENCES
PAYROLL
ORDERING
MICHELLE
REGISTRATION
MAINTAINING STUDENT INFORMATION
TEAM LEADERS
COMMUNICATION WITH TEAMS
COORDINATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL PLANS WITH TEAM
Working Hours and Locations
Beginning Monday, March 23, 2020, the District will return to limited operations and all District employees will return to work by working remotely, unless given permission or required by their supervisor to work from a District facility.
To assure compliance with state and federal laws and District policies and procedures, effective immediately, all employees are directed, when entering any District facility, to swipe in at the entrance with his/her badge. In addition, non-exempt (hourly) employees should record their time in Kronos while working on site. All staff members will be paid according to their standard hours/pay during our limited operations. Non-exempt employees are directed not to work any hours beyond their standard hours, regardless of whether the employee is working from home or at a District facility. For example, a non-exempt full-time employee can work no more than 37.5 hours per week. Similarly, a non-exempt employee who is scheduled to work 4 hours per day, cannot work more than 4 hours on any day during a work week. This directive does not apply to any non-exempt employee who has written permission from his or her supervisor to work more than the employee’s standard number of hours.
These directives remain in effect until further notice.
Digital Learning Survey Results
On Monday, classroom teachers will receive the results of the technology survey that was sent to parents earlier this week. At this point, we are up to 653 responses! Most likely, you will have a few parents who have not completed the survey. Please call those parents in your class that did not complete the survey. Click on the link below to open the survey, ask parents the questions, and fill in the survey for them so that we have documentation of their responses.
STAAR
STAAR Grades 3–8 Assessments
All State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) administrations scheduled for April, May, and June 2020 are cancelled. Student Success Initiative promotion/retention requirements found in the Texas Education Code (TEC), §28.0211 are waived for the 2019– 2020 school year. Districts will have local discretion on whether students in grades 5 and 8 should advance to the next grade, just like students in all other grades. In alignment with TEC, §28.021, criteria that should be considered include the following:
- The recommendation of the student's teacher,
- The student's grade in each subject or course, and
- Any other necessary academic information, as determined by the district.
TELPAS
The district has been given the option to cancel TELPAS for this school year. When we return to school, our focus will be to make sure the kids have the instruction they need to be successful the following school year and not focus on assessment. We have completed the Listening/ Speaking and Reading online testing, and you all have submitted your writing samples for verification. I will hold onto the writing samples and place them in the student LPAC folders. Thank you for all of your hard work to help our English Learners!
ESL Students
All of our ESL students have been given free access to Imagine Learning! This is a great online resource for our students to use from home to help with language and literacy development. All teachers who have ESL students have been granted access. Instructions to this site will be posted to the teacher site today. Please reach out to Sarah Radford if you have any questions. Students will have confidential login information that will need to be shared with their parents. Students who are currently on Imagine Learning can continue to use their login information through the SSO CISD App.
Our district coaches are working to help provide creative ways to scaffold learning for our English learners. There is a cross-curricular EL friendly strategy that will be highlighted each week in the teacher site under the EL button. There is a description and examples of how teachers can use the strategy in LA, Math, Science and Social Studies. It can be used at any grade level and to make any content more comprehensible. These strategies are great for all learners, so please take advantage of them. The coaches are also providing additional resources in both English and Spanish to teach the essential skills each week in language arts. Next week, there will be information in the parent site for simple ways on how to practice English at home when there is no internet or online access available.
Report Cards
3/23- Report card grades pulled by district starting at 5:00 PM
3/25 - 3/26- Teachers review grades in TAC and send email to Michelle Lutes approving grades by Thursday at 5:00 PM
4/1- PAC open to parents
Contact Aimee Irby if you have any questions.
Substitutes During School Closure
Week of March 16-20
All long-term substitutes who were assigned to absences during the week of March 16-20 will be paid. All employees who had absences in the system for this week to which long-term substitutes were assigned will have those absences coded to closure days so that they do not count against the employees' available leave. All other absences to which long-term substitutes were not assigned for this week will be removed from the system. All long-term substitutes in the system for this week, regardless of whether they were assigned to an absent employee or to a vacancy, will remain in the system to be paid at their regular, long-term rate.
Week of March 23-27
Employees are expected to be working as of Monday, March 23, although many of them will be working remotely. For that reason, HR will not remove any absences currently entered in Absence Management; however, all absences that are not long-term will be changed to "no sub required", and any subs currently assigned to those absences will be notified and removed from the jobs.
Absences (Not Long-Term): If an employee has entered an absence for the week of March 23-27 and no longer needs to take that absence, the employee must log into Absence Management and delete the absence. For example, if a staff development has been canceled, an employee who entered an absence for school business: staff development for the week of March 23-27 should cancel that absence. However, if an employee will not be working remotely one day, that employee should have an absence entered into Absence Management for that day.
Absences (Long-Term) - not including Long-Term Tutors: If a long-term absence has a substitute currently assigned to it, the long-term sub will be paid, and they are expected to work every day, albeit remotely. The assignment should remain in Absence Management.
Long-Term - Tutors: Lisa will contact you to notify you as to what your assignment will look like moving forward.
GT Maintenance Hours
It is required that each school year you maintain your GT certification with 6 maintenance hours. Please see the following GT workshop opportunities.
TAGT Flier with the new registration code is attached. This is an online option to earn up to 6 hours of GT credit.
🎂 Happy Happy Birthday to You!
March 20 Kelsey Mathis (Tadlock!)
March 22 Kristi Berryman
March 24 Megan Peck
March 30 Sarah Radford
CISD Non-Discrimination statement
The Conroe Independent School District (District) as an equal opportunity educational provider and employer does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, or disability in educational programs or activities that it operates or in employment matters. The District is required by Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as Board policy not to discriminate in such a manner.
For information about Title IX rights or Section 504/ADA rights, contact the Title IX Coordinator or the Section 504/ADA coordinator at 3205 W. Davis, Conroe, TX 77304; (936) 709-7752.