CHS Staff Bulletin
9/10/18
Early Bulletin
I hope you all have a very enjoyable weekend. This is a first for me. I usually draft the bulletin during the week and then wait to send it out on Sunday. Well, we now have early release on Fridays and my bulletin is ready to go so, what do you know, you're getting it now.
I look forward to a restful weekend with a BBQ at a friends house tonight, Maybe a workout on Saturday (note - 'maybe'), a few household chores, with some luck a trip to the river to catch some fish, and a Ultimate Frisbee game on Sunday (one of my all time favorite games).
We had a really strong start to the school year and I am excited to watch our students grow. I am also excited to learn our new students names and get to know them as well. I was fortunate enough to have time to get into almost every single teachers classroom for a brief moment this week. I missed five and hope to get into those next week.
In The Know
TalentEd - We will be setting appointments to meet with teachers to review Student Learning Growth Goals after September 17th. Please be sure to work on your goals and submit them in advance of your meeting. The sooner you send them in the sooner we can provide feedback. Thank you so much for your attention to this.
Syllabi - If you have not yet sent me a copy of your course syllabus please send it to me at your earliest convenience. I do read these over. It has come in very handy when parents come in and question a course or its practices. I am able to speak on your behalf and the intent of the course as a means of protecting your time. I am keeping a list so after this announcement I will only pester individual teachers. :) Thank you for your understanding and flexibility with this request.
Classroom Visitors - We have heard the concerns regarding classroom visitors and the new requirement for background checks. I would like to extend a huge thank you to Ian Ogden and Randy Bernstein who consulted with HR and shared the following:
Rationale: There are many instances where our programs or curriculum ask for guest speakers, typically those who come in for a single class period to present career information. For example, a veterinarian or a judge or a small business owner might come in to talk with a classroom of student, supervised by their classroom teacher, about what their job entails, what sort of career pathway there is, etc. Similarly, we sometimes have college counselors or admissions officers come to talk with a classroom in this same kind of format. There is no 1:1 contact with any students, and the students' teacher is always supervising the presentation. I have heard the concern expressed by many that this would be an unnecessary burden placed on the process of coordinating such presentations. Of course, we understand the concern for student safety, but we don't require this of these same people when we take the students on visits to a college or a job location for field trip, and if anything, that is a less controlled situation than having them come to our own classrooms.
Conclusion: After conferring with personnel in Human Resources we have established that a one time visitor/guest speaker who is supervised at all times will not be require to go through the volunteer/independent contractor process. We do ask that they sign in/out of the building as a visitor per normal protocol. I hope this helps clarify and simplify your work to bring guests into your classrooms for the benefit of increased learning.
Synergy - Due to a change in meeting days in Synergy (which has no impact on our schedule) your seating charts in Synergy may change over the weekend. Please be aware and prepared for this.
Need to Meet - Please be sure to respond to Need to Meet evites, and Zimbra emails asking for responses (Need to Meet linkhttp://www.needtomeet.com/meeting?id=3oaigm8tV). We are in desperate need of a Regular Ed Teacher, in attendance, for multiple IEP meetings. I realize utilizing CMA's is a new system/concept for all staff at Churchill High. We are a student focused school. Please be sure to provide support by responding and attending IEP's as possible.
Safe Spaces - Please be sure to encourage students to introduce themselves with their preferred pronouns or introducing yourselves with your preferred pronouns! This creates a safe and comfortable environment for trans or non-binary students, who otherwise end up being put on the spot when they’re the only people introducing themselves with pronouns. Part of our inclusive work is to champion a significantly more safe environment for queer students here at Churchill, and throughout 4j School District.
Attendance - How to Keep it Simple!
- All instructors are responsible for the first 10 minutes. After 10 minutes students are responsible to come to class with a late slip (Krista will be changing the attendance).
- Think about having a blocked out space on your white board for students to write their names in when they arrive late (Teachers should not stop teaching due to a students tardy, the student should be responsible).
- When you have time during the day you can go back and change the attendance preferably before the next class begins but definitely needs to be changed before the end of the day.
Looking Forward
Monday, 9/10
7:45 am — FOG Mtg
3:45 pm — Fall Play Auditions (see Mr. Patton in room H8 for details)
Tuesday, 9/11
7:30 am — Data Team
3:45 pm — Curriculum Council
6:00 pm — Volunteer Orientation
Wednesday, 9/12
10:00 am — Volunteer Orientation
3:45 pm — Operations
Thursday, 9/13
6:30 pm — Navigating High School
6:30 pm — Senior Welcome Night
Friday, 9/14
ADVISORY SCHEDULE
0 7:32 AM – 8:25 AM
1st 8:30 AM – 9:23 AM
2nd 9:28 AM – 10:21 AM
Advisory 10:28 AM – 10:58 AM
3rd 11:03 AM – 11:59 AM
Lunch 12:04 PM – 12:34 PM
4th 12:39 PM – 1:32 PM
5th 1:37 PM – 2:30 PM
9:00 am–3:00 pm — Field Trip: AVID 9 Ropes Course
2:45 pm — Department Collaboration
Next Week...
9/18 — ALL-SCHOOL ASSEMBLY
9/20, 4:00 pm — Site Council
9/21 — WELCOME ASSEMBLY (May be combined with Tuesday - pending Operations approval)
9/21, 2:45 pm — Staff Meeting
Kudos
Kudos to Jake Reents. I (Matt Myers) have made about 19 separate requests for tech support in the last couple weeks and his average response time is about 2 minutes. Jake you are a rad dude!!!
Kudos to the 9th grade advisory team. Working with this group has greatly reduced my (Matt Myers) beginning of the year anxiety. Great ideas, flexibility, professionalism, and extreme work ethic are the words to describe this team!
Kevin Summerfield - Thank you for breaking bread with me and sharing your curry dish. It was wonderful and a heartfelt gesture. I definitely enjoyed it, but I appreciate your pure heart more than anything.
Churchill High School
Website: https://chs.4j.lane.edu/
Location: 1850 Bailey Hill Road, Eugene, OR, USA
Phone: 541-790-5100
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChurchillHighSchool
Twitter: @CHSLancers