Longhorn News
Week of 9/30/19
Miller's Message/Note
Happy Fall!
Take note of the following information:
- All professional staff are expected to report to work by 7:45 AM
- Staff assigned to duty are expected to be at your duty station by 7:45 AM.
- All emails/phone calls should be returned within 24 hours
- Classroom educators are expected to take attendance each period
- Students are not allowed to leave your class during the first or last 10 minutes.
- Anytime a student leaves your class they must have a pass.
- All educators shall be at their door during the passing period.
- All students must have their ID on and visible before entering your class.
- Do not leave your class unattended.
PLC Guidleines
- PLC's are to take place each day.
- No PLC's can be canceled without Miller's approval.
- Bring Curriculum Guidelines
- At the beginning of each unit, Essential TEKS must be completed and submitted in the appropriate folder
- Place PLC agenda in the shared folder each day
Copy info from Central Administration
As public school employees we have a responsibility to our families and taxpayers to look for ways to be fiscally responsible while maintaining the high quality education we provide our scholars. A recent report on current district copy machine usage among staff has prompted the district Executive Leadership Team to share expectations and clarification as it relates to copy machine usage.
Did You Know?
● CHISD contracts with Datamax for our copy machines and pays for 15 million copies per year. When that number is met, the district is charged an overage fee of $.0056 per copy.
● Each campus is allotted a certain amount of copies per year based off the number of staff members and students. The district administration building also receives an allotment of copies per fiscal year.
● Building principals and district department leaders receive a monthly report to help inform them of their current usage numbers.
● If needed, building principals and district department leaders may contact Neil Bolton (Executive Director of Technology) to request additional copies be added toward their allotment.
We know that providing scholars and families with copies of assessments, assignments and other educational information is an important part of school business, and
we will always make sure our staff has the necessary resources to support our students. However, each Longhorn staff member can help us be responsible when it comes to printing; please remember this rule: “Think before you print”. Ask yourself:
● Do I really have to print that?
● Have all edits been made?
● Is the formatting correct?
If you have questions about your usage, talk to your principal or supervisor. The district IT department works closely with each campus and department to address any concerns or questions related to copier usage.
Sincerely,
Kellie Spencer
CHISD Deputy Superintendent
Discretionary vs Non-discretionary Leave
Non-discretionary. Leave taken for personal or family illness, family emergency, a death in the family, or active military service is considered nondiscretionary leave. Reasons for this type of leave allows very little, if any advanced planning. Nondiscretionary leave may be used in the same manner as state sick leave.
Discretionary. Leave taken at an employee’s discretion that can be scheduled in advance is
considered discretionary leave. An employee wishing to take discretionary personal leave must submit a request to his or her principal or supervisor at least five days in advance of the
anticipated absence. The effect of the employee’s absence on the educational program or
department operations, as well as the availability of substitutes, will be considered by the
principal or supervisor. Discretionary personal leave will be granted on a first-come, first-
served basis and will be subject to the following limitations:
● A maximum of 10 percent of campus employees in each job category will be permitted
to take discretionary personal leave at the same time.
● Discretionary leave may not last more than three consecutive workdays.
● Discretionary leave may not be taken on the following days:
- Any day during the five consecutive workdays immediately before or after the first instructional day of the school year;
- The day immediately before or after Thanksgiving break, winter break, spring break, a student holiday, or a scheduled three-day weekend;
- The day of an open house at a school to which the employee is assigned;
- Any in-service or staff development day applicable to the employee;
- The days on which local end of semester examinations or state-mandated assessments, including end-of-course assessments, are administered on a campus to which the employee is assigned, as well as any day during the five consecutive workdays immediately before the test date and the day immediately following the test date, regardless of the grade level being tested; or
- Any day for which the employee’s administrative supervisor has reason to believe that more than five percent of the campus or departments’ staff is expected to be absent or assigned to an off-campus activity.
News from the Curriculum Department
Big Shout out to the ELAR Department!!
During the curriculum walks, 100% of the English II teachers were aligned!
If an ELAR teacher was on a waiver last year, they cannot be the teacher of record for an ESL students this year. All ELAR teachers MUST have their ESL certification this school year.
New teachers must have their ESL Certification by June 1. HR is monitoring the completion for new teachers. Teachers that were hired prior to this school year, will have until April 2020 to complete the process. The next test prep is October 5, 2019.
Grading Guidelines
SECONDARY GRADING GUIDELINES
A minimum of 12 grades per six weeks are required, to include at least 2 major grades (i.e. tests, projects, labs) every reporting period. Students are expected to complete all assignments for all classes. Assignments turned in late will not receive a full grade. There should be a minimum of two test grades during each six-week grading period. No grade over 100 may be recorded on the report card or on the academic achievement record. Grades cannot be lowered for non-academic reasons including, but not limited to, the following: no name on paper, no header on paper, date missing, etc. Regular attendance is an academically related factor that can affect the determination of a student's grade. Students shall be permitted to make up assignments and tests after absences according to board policy and the district grading policy. Students shall receive credit for satisfactory makeup work after an absence and may receive a zero for any assignment or test not made up within the allotted time. There are no grade penalties for makeup work after a suspension. Grading guidelines do not affect work turned in late because of an absence. The district expects students to turn in assignments at the appropriate time. Grades in Cedar Hill ISD are based on mastery of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). The responsibility for making up work lies with the student. Upon return to school after an absence, the student shall be responsible for obtaining and completing the makeup work.
RETEACHING/REGRADING GUIDELINES
Reteaching is defined as another presentation of content, usually to provide an additional opportunity for a student to learn. Reteaching may vary from subject to subject or from class to class, even from student to student. It may be as simple as repeating the concept. If the student still does not understand the concept, the teacher might use different materials to present the concept again. For example, if the initial instruction was primarily visual, the reteach activity might be more auditory. A student who earns below 70 on a test, with the exception of nine weeks or semester exams, shall be given an opportunity to be assessed after participating in a reteaching process within 7 to 14 days of the original date of the assessment.
Teachers are reminded that they have the responsibility and authority to delete the grades
for any assignment. Grades may reveal that the assignment was inadequate. If a substantial
percentage of the students in a class failed to pass, the whole class should be retaught and
the new test or assignment grade should be recorded.
This policy does not apply to the STAAR tests or other standardized tests.
PROCEDURES
(ALL GRADE LEVELS):
1. When a student earns below 70 on any test, the teacher has the responsibility to reteach
the essential knowledge and skills not mastered.
2. Reteaching and reassessment may be of a formal or informal nature and should be an
ongoing process during the direct instruction and guided practice portions of any lesson.
Students must be given the opportunity to retest in either the original or a rewritten
format. A student will be permitted to make up tests and to turn in projects due in any class missed because of absence. Long-term projects are due upon the student's return to class.
Parent Communication:
Teachers shall contact the parent/guardian of any scholar that is in danger of failing.
Jean Monday's
T-TESS and etc...
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”
Are you the Lion or Gazelle?
It is not about talent...It is about effort!
-Eric Thompson
“The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams, who want to do things. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft."
- Will Smith
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
-W.B. Yeats
Faculty Meeting
PD over Creating Assessments
Thursday, Oct 3, 2019, 04:00 PM
Cedar Hill High School, Longhorn Boulevard, Cedar Hill, TX, USA
Homecoming Week
Here are the details for Homecoming Week / Dance.
Homecoming Spirit Days:
Monday: Meme Day (dress as your favorite social media meme)
Tuesday: Jump Into Character (dress as your favorite movie/book/show character)
Wednesday: Time Flies (dress as your elderly self)
Thursday: #ThrowbackThursday (dress up in show your favorite decade)
Friday: It's a Great Day To Be a Longhorn (dress in Longhorn Pride)
Homecoming Game: Friday, Oct. 11th.