Principal's Newsletter
September 1st, 2017
WOWs
WOW to Heather Persons for helping a student learn a new dismissal routine. I appreciate your patience and willingness to help. We've got this, Heather!--Linda Appelbaum
Brandy Leffeler and Hayleigh Carr, welcome to 2nd grade team. Both of you are awesome and appreciated. So thankful for the chance to work with you ladies! Of course, I continue to be thankful for opportunity to work with Becca, Susan, and Lisa. I appreciate all of you! -Kim Whitworth
WOW to Jane and Tessa. Jane has a scary-good ability to multitask and get things done despite being short handed.--Tracy Lloyd
WOW to the eclipse task force for such a well planned day. --Tracy Lloyd
Thank you to the teachers for being willing to stop drop and dance and conga with their students to celebrate attendance!! Linda Murphy
WOW to Haleigh Carr, Lindsey Crawford and Shelly Gotsch for working super diligently and thinking outside of the box when brainstorming for students!! Linda Murphy
WOW to Greg Vest for his pep talks and for his calm demeanor. -Linda Murphy
WOW to Rob for finding one of my students lunch boxes in the trash and bringing it to him in the classroom! ~Lindsey Crawford
WOW to Stefanie McCoy, Kristy Giacomarra, Linda Murphy, Sherry Reagan, LaTonya Foster, my team and many others for helping my class and me these first few weeks! It does take a village!! ~Lindsey Crawford
WOW to Jodi Fitzgerald for helping step up the first 20 days in my classroom. It has really helped in getting a good routine during readers workshop. --Drew Moersch
WOW to Mr. Mack for being a great DC. His leadership and positive attitude has helped flex grouping and Lucy writing go smoothly. --Drew Moersch
WOW to Dr. OH for creating the data breakdown for us. It is going to be really helpful in making sure we understand what our students need the most help in. --Drew Moersch
WOW to Kelly Harris for all her hard work and dedication in helping me learn my new job. She has been very helpful, patient, caring and knowledgeable. She can answer almost any question I have and if not, she is quick to find the answer for me. I would be completely lost without her!! I am so fortunate to have such an awesome team mate!!-Kristy
WOW to Stefanie McCoy for all of her flexibility and kindness. She has helped show me the ropes in my new job. She is always willing to do anything she is asked to do and she does it with a smile. She is a wonderful asset to the ESOL team!!--Kristy
WOW to the kindergarten team! It amazes me how the first day it looks like they are trying to herd popcorn through the school and how far those little guys come in just a few weeks.--Sherry
WOW to Laura Gierer for brainstorming ideas and sharing materials with me so I can better assist my kids with visual impairments!--Julie Elder
WOW to Kelly and Kristy for their awesome ELL newsletter and for putting together all the translation resources. You ladies rock!!--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Jennifer Dillion for staying so sweet and positive when a few parents were frustrated for having to show their ID.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Kristen Schrameyer for continuing to search for and experiment with new ideas to help her little friend who is having a hard time adjusting to school life. Anne Behrens
WOW to Jodi and the 5th grade team for taking their lunch time to watch a Lucy Calkins video and learn about implementation. Love this kind of dedication.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Team Torie Lee. Thanks for all that you have done to change her life and to make her a better person.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Mr. Beer and Mrs. Kelly, you are doing great at running the new set up for our friends. Megan Brown
WOW to Mrs. Lewis, you problem solved so nicely with our shared friend. And thank you to your team teacher Mrs. McCauley for helping with your class while you were with that student. Megan Brown
WOW to Maggie McCarthy for buying some additional resources for her refocus area to make it more welcoming for kids!--Dr. OH
WOW to Jodi Fitzgerald for helping me put resources together for a team on short notice!--Dr. OH
WOW to Katie for getting everything together and organized for our first Friday assembly!--Dr. OH
WOW to Lindsey Crawford for opening her room to a variety of adults to help out with student who need some extra support!--Dr. OH
WOW to the counseling team for being flexible as roles and responsibilities shift to meet our building needs!--Dr. OH
WOW to SpEd for taking some time to take a deep dive into data!--Dr. OH
WOW to everyone for conquering the BOY data! After looking at the protocols and minutes it looks like there have been some awesome conversations around student needs, standard, and instruction!--Dr. OH
WOW to all of our SpEd paras, paras, and interventionists for being flexible and going where you’re needed at a moment’s notice!--Dr. OH
WOW to our office staff – we are a full team again! Thanks Jane and Tessa for helping get Jennifer acclimated and showing her the ropes!--Dr. OH
WOW to Vacation Station staff for sharing information about students and strategies that are working for them while they’re with you!--Dr. OH
WOW to our reading teaming for getting the AIMS Web data to teams, joining PLCs , and supporting our intervention program! You all have shared some great strategies and insight about students with teachers that are greatly appreciated!--Dr. OH
Meeting Minutes
FHEA
Sanctuary Team
Reminders
When you are on bus duty and taking tickets from students please make sure you are checking the ticket to ensure that the student is getting on the right bus.
IEP Testing Accommodations
It is the classroom teachers responsibility to know what the testing accommodations are for a student in your classroom who has an IEP. You can access that information in Tienet. Please make sure you know what student's get accommodations and on which assessments. If you need help knowing where to find that information you can reach out to an administrator or the SPED case manager of the student.
Personal Devices
Per the district staff members should not be asking or placing technology work orders for personal devices. The district tech staff is not responsible for providing services on devices that belong to individual staff members.
Counseling Lessons
All classroom counseling lessons will take place in the classroom this year. As part of the SIP teachers are expected to remain in the classroom for the lesson. This is to ensure that we are building universal language with students and should provide classroom teachers with more tools and resources for helping students.
Schedule Changes
Just like last year, please make sure you are communicating major schedule changes to administration and to the SPED team. We understand that there are times where you may need to flip subjects around a bit, however it is helpful for administration to have that communication in case we were planning to drop by for an observation and planning to see a particular subject. It is vital that you communicate those changes to the SPED team as well. For instance, if you have a student is going to be pulled from math during the independent work time and you switch the subjects that impacts that child's instruction as that child will now miss other learning.
Harvey's Helpers
Committees and Task Forces
Veteran's Day Task Force
K- Gotsch
2nd- Carr
3rd- Pryor and Arnold
4th- Baeten
5th- Beerman
Anderson
Parent Communication for Interventions
As we talked about in our back to school faculty meeting we want to make sure we are communicating with parents regarding a child's placement in a reading intervention. Below are some letters that were prepared by Melinda for staff to use. While I would highly encourage verbal communication with parents for reading interventions, you may use the letters if you would like. Verbal communication just allows for parents to be heard and to ask any questions that they may have. You can use the letters as they are written or tweak them to fit your needs. They are just a resource to help you provide communication to parents. If you need any help on what to say to a parent about interventions please reach out to an administrator for support.
Dismissal Letter
Initial Placement Letter
Progress Monitoring Letter
Staffing Update
At this time we have re-opened the interventionist positions last week and the SPED para positions.
Oops Box
Faculty Meeting Reminder
Office Referrals/Triggers
We continue to get questions about whether to write a particular behavior as a major or minor which is fantastic. We are excited that you are working collaboratively with us to problem solve what is appropriate for that student. Keep the questions and problem solving coming! We are happy to help any way that we can.
All office referrals whether major or minor are counted in the data. Some students do have specific plans regarding refferals and that will be communicated on a need to know basis. If a refferal is submitted and it is not written correctly or if it should be a minor instead of a major an administrator will communicate that information to the referring teacher. Remember we are only using the paper copy this year. There is not a google form for minors and majors. This caused confusion last year.
At this time none of the refferals that we have received have been entered into SWIS. Jennifer Dillion, our Site Secretary will do that data entry as soon as she is trained on Thursday. Our plan is to get all the referrals that have been submitted entered this weekend.
Behavior Steering Team will have their first meeting on Wednesday at 8:00. We will have a BST meeting every Wednesday before school so that special area, reading teachers, or any other staff member who works with a particular child can attend the meeting too. We will send the schedule out the week beforehand so please check that schedule. If you have a student who is triggered into the meeting then you will be assigned a 10 minute slot to attend the meeting to share and to get the intervention plan for your student. If you need to switch a time with another teacher based on your availability just let Natalie or Angeline know and we will get it worked out.
The data triggers have not changed from last year. Below is a link to the behavior trigger sheet.
Thanks for all your doing to work together to solve problems with behavior. I have seen an incredible amount of teamwork and collaboration take place in the last few weeks. Also, a huge kuddos for taking time to reteach and help students problem solve situations. Remember what Heather Forbes told us, "Discipline=Teaching." Keep up the great work! Remember it is still very early in the year and kids are still figuring out if we are going to have their backs!
Math Tutoring
FHSD is reinstituting the tutoring funds at the elementary level for the 17-18 school year. We will be utilizing these funds to support 3rd-5th graders who are identified as having skill deficits in the area of Math. We are looking for certified staff to fulfill the tutoring roles for 2nd and 3rd quarter. There will be a weekly tutoring session for each grade level. If you are interested in one of these positions, please email Angeline. If you have any questions or concerns please contact an administrator. We are excited about to have this opportunity to support our students this year. Thank you for considering this position.
Oops Box Clarification
Intervention Progress Monitoring Meetings
These days have already been put into AESOP and some of them have already been secured with a sub. If you see that your absence is unfilled and have a teacher in mind just let Jane know and she can edit the absence for you. I will send out calendar invites this weekend too so that you have these on your outlook calendar.
5th Grade AM
4th Grade PM
Tuesday, November 14th
3rd Grade AM
2nd Grade PM
Wednesday, November 15th
1st Grade AM
Kindergarten PM
Thursday, February 8th
5th Grade AM
4th Grade PM
Monday, February 12th
3rd Grade AM
2nd Grade PM
Thursday, February 15th
1st Grade AM
Kindergarten PM
Reminder
Please take a minute and make sure you understand Regulation 4220CR below. This regulation is in regards to leaving during the school day.
Regulation 4220CR
Hours of Employment
Hours of employment shall be thirty (30) minutes before the first class begins and extend until after the buses have departed in the afternoon. Any deviation from these hours of employment for alternative education and/or early childhood programs must be approved in advance by the Superintendent of Schools. If a teacher finds it necessary to leave school premises during the school day, prior authorization must be obtained from a principal. Except in unusual circumstances, a teacher shall not be required to be at school prior to the thirty (30) minutes before the first class. This restriction does not affect faculty, department or grade level meetings.
One School One Team
This week I have felt proud and hopeful for our building. There has been an incredible amount of productive collaboration and problem solving to help students. I have been proud to see all the new learning about behavior and new tools being implemented. I have been proud of PLC conversations. Day by day students are having more success because of this work.
As the year marches on remember to continue to lean on each other. You are all experts at something and you all have something to offer one another to help a student. The work you do each day is challenging and can often times be overwhelming, but together we can overcome those challenges. Continue to laugh when you want to cry, find a solution when you want to complain, and reach out when you need help. It is never a failure to seek help, ask questions, or find advice. It is only a failure to try to do things alone.
Thanks for all that you have done this first few weeks to build relationships with your students, parents, and with each other. Together we are continuing to do great work for kids and for that you should all be proud!