Black Bob Staff Memo
Week of March 21-25, 2016
Upcoming Events
Monday March 21 -Staff Professional Day
AM Educator Prep/ flex time/ Grades due to Terry by Tuesday 8:00 am.
PM 12:30-4:00 Building Professional development
Tuesday March 22 C Day
Wednesday March 23 D Day
Grill Day
8:30-9:30 Kindergarten B.R.E.A.K.
ELL testing in flex lab
Thursday March 24 E day
9:00-12:00 Trisha at Elementary Principal's
Friday March 25 A day
Report Cards go home
8:30-1:00 Trisha out of the building
BRAG rewards
Next week:
Happy Para Educators week!
Monday March 28 B day
Collaboration Meeting Day
10:30 3rd Grade PLC
Tuesday March 29 C Day
Happy Birthday Amy F. and Sheila P.
7:00 District Site Council at OSHS
Wednesday March 30 D Day
9:30 4th Grade PLC
12:30 2nd Grade PLC
2:30 1st Grade PLC
3:30 STUCO
Thursday March 31 E Day
1:30 5th Grade PLC
2:30 Kindergarten PLC
Friday April 1 A Day
BRAG rewards
Volunteer Appreciation
VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION Event: The annual Volunteer Appreciation event to celebrate our community volunteers (Youth Mentors, Senior Serving Schools and Adopt-A-School partners) will be TUESDAY, April 19th at 4 pm at Olathe Northwest High School. Save the date to have a few school representatives be on hand to sit with volunteers. For more information, contact Pam Wolfe at pwolfenlsc@olatheschools.org
If you have a volunteer that falls into these categories and would like to go, please let me know.
Olathe's Got Talent
Olathe's Got Talent show to be held at the Bell Cultural Events Center on April 16, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. Our very own Ella Bently was chosen!
This is a Scholarship Competition and over $6,750 will be awarded in scholarships at the conclusion of the evening. We appreciate the wealth of talent that our students have and want to support them in their performing and visual arts education. Monies will also be dedicated to performing arts at one of our schools to help alleviate cuts in funding as a part of this program.
Tickets will be on purchase (on-line) or at the Box Office of the Bell Center soon. $8.00 adults - $7.00 students and senior citizens - Children 5 and under free.
We invite you to join us for a special evening and if possible share this in your newsletters to invite parents and students to attend.
Olathe's Got Talent 2016
Bell Cultural Events Center
Saturday, April 16, 2016 - 7:00-9:30 p.m.
Ruth Nelson, Chair
Externships
Teacher Externships: Are you interested in working outside of education this summer expanding your knowledge and skills about businesses and organizations? Why not consider applying for a summer externship. Typically the experiences are for 1-2 weeks during June or July. A stipend of $ is provided to educators involved in a teacher externship. Past participates rave about the experience and the impact it has on their teaching/classroom! Packet with more information attached. Also check here for more information: http://departments.olatheschools.com/externships/
More information needed? Contact Jim Bradford at jbradfordec@olatheschools.org.
Technology
The following two applications have reached an unsupportable/end-of-life status.
· Inspiration 8
- Not being replaced
· A to ZAP
- Will be replaced with Red Fish Soup – as a similar alternative.
These two applications will NOT be available for use beginning with the 2016/17 school year.
Welcome
New Director of Assessment & Data
At the March BOE meeting, the Board approved our recommendation to hire Mr. Rich Wilson as our new Director of Assessment & Data, beginning July 1, 2016. Rich is currently serving in the capacity of the Secondary Math Curriculum Coordinator in the Blue Valley School District. Before serving on the Blue Valley Education Services Support Team, Rich served students and teachers as a math teacher and math department chair for over 25 years. Rich’s mathematical educational background includes an emphasis in statistics, and he has taught nearly every math class possible: Algebra, Continuing Algebra, Geometry, Honors Geometry, Algebra II, Algebra 2, Trigonometry, Honors Pre-Calculus, and AP Calculus AB and BC. Beyond the high school math classroom, Rich has served as an AVID teacher and also taught classes at the post-secondary level. Additionally, Rich is a veteran Cross Country Coach who has twice been named Kansas 5A Cross Country Coach of the year (2012 & 2015). This fall, both his Boys and Girls Cross Country Teams at Blue Valley Southwest High School finished 2nd in the State. Rich is a friend to education and is excited to join our team. Please help in welcoming Rich Wilson to Olathe!
Assessment updates and repeat information
Scoring the MDPT on the Assessment Scoring Day – April 15
· On the district-wide assessment scoring day all elementary teachers (except those in grade 2), all social studies teachers, all science teachers, and all middle-school ELA teachers will score the MDPT.
· These teachers need to have an account at the Educator Portal (CETE). The Assessment department has created accounts for most teachers. The department is still working adding kindergarten teachers, first grade teachers, elementary resource teachers, and ELL teachers, Title I teachers. In the next couple of weeks, those teachers will be sent an email about activating their account.
· Details on how to score the MDPT have not been released by KSDE. We will forward them to schools when we receive them.
General Testing Log-on
· If a computer workstation or laptop is going to be used for KS Assessment testing, the building’s CLA and / or other designated staff member must first log on to computer using the buildings testing logon credentials. That username and password should never be used for a non-testing purpose. These credentials should be shared with the smallest group of staff members possible. Students should never have access to this information.
· Username: testingxx (xx should be replaced with your school initials –ex. Arbor Creek will be testingac; Chisholm Trail will be testingcst)
· Password: Fall2015
Student Reactivations
· If you need to have a student reactivated, call or email Nicole Atencio with the test name, test part, the student’s first and last name, their grade level, and the reason for the reactivation.
· Students must be logged out of KITE in order for a reactivation to occur.
SCRIBBLE
Upcoming Events
March 23 Kindergarten BREAK 8:30-9:30
March 28-31 Para Educator Week
March 29 District Site Council Meeting
April 5 Pizza Street Limo Ride
April 8 Lyric Opera-
April 15 No School/ Staff Professional Day
April 18-22 National School Volunteer week
April 19 Learning Fair 6:00/ Fine Arts Concert 7:00
April 22 2nd and 3rd Grade Earth Day Musical
April 26 5th Grade Musical
May 6 Field Day
May 9 Fifth Grade Celebration
May 16 Writing Celebration