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PCOE & PUSD - Summer Newsletter, Staff edition
Summer 2020, Weekly Communication
Board Updates/Superintendent
PCOE and PUSD develop the Schedule of Regular Board Meeting at the annual organizational meeting each December. At this time, the Board meets on the second Wednesday of each month with some exceptions. This schedule is posted on our PCOE website under About/Plumas Governing Board. These agendas require 72 hour notice prior to the meeting date/time.
A Special Meeting may be called at any time, and require 24 hour notice prior to the meeting date/time.
An Emergency Meeting is allowed in the case of an emergency situation involving matters that require prompt action due to the disruption or threatened disruption of public facilities and services. Attempts must be made to notify the media by telephone at least one hour in advance, unless the phones are not working.
Youth Sports Update from the Superintendent
Last week I was asked to explain the planning we engaged in regarding athletics. This topic began with our Return to School Advisory Committee on May 21st which after the first meeting we realized this topic, due to the questions and considerations, would require significant amount of time and discussion. An Athletic Sub Committee was formed and had their first meeting on June 1st with high school principals, athletic directors from all four high schools, a board member, Portola JS High School student and HR representation. They met multiple times with the outcome being a well-structured plan which was forwarded to our health department for their review on June 24th. Feedback was received, revisions were made in a timely manner and on July 2nd we received the following from Jerry Sipe, Environmental Health Department:
I’ve spoken with many of you regarding the hopeful restart of organized youth sports in Plumas County. As you probably know, California is experiencing increasing cases of COVID-19 and young people are increasingly being affected by this virus. Just as important, Plumas County is also seeing a dramatic increase in recent cases. This puts Plumas County very near the threshold for which our reopening progress must be reversed. It is critical that Plumas County not exceed this threshold. Therefore, Plumas County is maintaining the status quo and not authorizing any additional activities or openings that could increase our risk of COVID-19 transmission. We will reevaluate in the coming weeks but youth sports, distanced drills and conditioning are not authorized in Plumas County at this time.
On Monday, July 20th we received the following information below:
CIF-NS Fall Athletics Implementation
Chico, Calif. – July 20, 2020 – Many students are primarily motivated to succeed in school by the opportunity to participate in extra-curricular activities, most specifically interscholastic athletics. The CIF-Northern Section met on Friday to consider the re-opening of member schools and the effects of the pandemic on member school athletics. After considering multiple factors influencing any decision to re-start athletic participation in member schools in a safe and consistent manner, and more specifically the impacts on eventual CIF-NS playoffs and CIF State championship playoffs, the following decisions were made:
CIF-NS member school teams will begin league play when the member school districts’ County Health officers approve the implementation of youth sports, including high school athletics
This decision could result in the removal of some sports from CIF State Championship-level playoffs
CIF-NS member school teams may have the opportunity to compete outside league play when the member school districts’ County Health officers approve the implementation of youth sports, including high school athletics
This decision could result in teams in one county playing teams outside their league in another county.
It is still the intent of the CIF-NS to host a Section playoff for Fall sports using a modified playoff structure.
20-21 Enrollment Options
Plumas County Office of Education/Plumas Unified School District is committed to reopening school safely. In order to meet social distancing guidelines, all students will be engaged in some level of distance learning. Each family will have the opportunity to make decisions about school that will work best for their home/work/school life, and will also be most supportive of learning for their child or children.
In order to acknowledge the diversity of our families' needs, PCOE/PUSD is able to offer three return to school options for students and families:
1. AM/PM Blended Learning,
2. Plumas Digital Classroom (100% online)
3. Independent Study
The information below describes each option in additional detail.
To assist us in planning for a start date of August 24th, please complete this form and submit your response by July 26th.
Thank you in advance for your participation.
Department Updates
Business Office
Please see the email from Keenan Safe Schools for recommended online training pertaining to Coronavirus. If you didn’t receive the link in your email, you can access it at https://www.pcoe.k12.ca.us/ under “Staff Resources”
Human Resources
Check out our vacant positions!
Want to know what's covered under your medical insurance plan or need to know how much you have paid towards your deductible?
Make an account with your medical provider to get lots of useful information about your coverage.
Certificated Employees: Blue Shield- https://www.blueshieldca.com/
Classified Employees: Blue Cross- https://www.anthem.com/ca/register/
All Covered Employees: Dental-https://www.deltadental.com/
Vision- https://www.vsp.com/
Student Services
I hope everyone is having a restful and rejuvenating break during this most unusual summer! Recognizing the challenges teachers have always faced (stress, burnout, long hours) put into laser focus by the pandemic, I wanted to highlight the Resilient Educator Website, in particular, this Article on Educator Wellness. Although many of the strategies listed are of the tried-and -true variety, such as exercise and breathing techniques, it’s still worth the short read!
A word about Masks. Here is a blog post from School Health about using masks with special education students, as well as a tip for getting them used to the idea!
Canvas Resources
7/2/20
In order to help you plan your utilization of Canvas for next year, please use this checklist for essential, best practices and exemplary elements.
Canvas recordings
6/25/20
Thank you to everyone for your hard work and dedication to Canvas training. There has been a lot to learn with this new LMS! If you'd like to access the training course and your Canvas course over the summer, all log ins and training courses will remain active. In addition, with Canvas having so many users in our state and across our country, I found the following social media resources to have some great tips and ideas, from Canvas and directly from users just like you. Check them out if you'd like!Facebook- Several Canvas groups are on Facebook. Several that I follow are:
- Teachers Using Canvas (3.1k members)
- Canvas for Elementary (6.1k members) So many great examples from teachers using Canvas!
- @CanvasLMS (39.7k followers)- links to some great live sessions
YouTube
- Canvas for Littles - Making Canvas Cute (video posted June 23, 2020) Creating a Button Based Homepage
- CanvasLMS (13.4k subscribers)
From our Instructional Coaches, Susan and Yvonne
Yvonne and I wanted to communicate to you that should you choose to learn more about Canvas and setting up your courses over the summer, we now have access to multiple resources which you will find to be helpful.
First of all, here is a Canvas course checklist to help guide your course development. Several of you have asked to see a document which lists the Canvas implementation components for the 20-21 school year. We hope that you find this to be a useful document as you prepare your courses.
Next, we now can open up the Training Services Portal. When you open up your Canvas account, find the Help question mark (?) on the bottom of the blue strip to the left of your screen (otherwise known as the Global Navigation menu). Click on the question mark, and the Training Services Link will be to the right of the question mark. If a Training Portal window pops up requesting access to your account, click authorize. Once you are in the Portal, you will see a brief tutorial. Next, you have options to take courses, watch video tutorials, and enroll in live trainings. One of the courses we recommend is K-12 First Day Ready.
We would also like you to know that many courses are available for you to adopt from Kern County Office of Education. You may search in the Commons for California Distance Learning Consortium and explore. When you go to your dashboard, you will want to create a blank course separate from your assigned course(s) or class(es). You need to import the Commons course first in order to be able to see all of it and utilize the built in videos, etc.
Here are the steps:
- Select "start a new course" in the dashboard and name it
- Select "import from Commons"
- Search "California Distance Learning Consortium" in the Commons
- Choose a course and import to your newly created course (do not download the course)
In this way, you can pick and choose any components that you may wish to add into your personal courses/classes without adopting the entire Kern course.
Another excellent resource that we just learned about is the FaceBook page Teachers Using Canvas. The tips are outstanding. Some experienced Canvas teachers are also offering to do Zoom sessions with teachers who are new to the system. Ideas presented cover
K-12. Another Facebook page specifically for K-6 teachers is Canvas for Elementary Teachers.
Finally, the Canvas live trainings that we had during the first two weeks of June are now available in Announcements in the training course that we provided to you. The session Power Points are available there as well.
Susan and Yvonne
Elementary Workbooks- Journeys and Eureka Math
Local information
Certificated and Classified Surveys
Official Information from County and State Departments
Plumas Unified School District
Website: www.pcoe.k12.ca.us
Location: 50 Church Street, Quincy, CA, USA
Phone: (530)283-6500
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlumasUnified
Twitter: @PlumasUSD