Betsy's Bits
July 29, 2019
In Case You Missed It:
As I am writing this, my husband is driving us our last 300 miles of the 2200 mi trip to Cody, Wy. I am in awe in the beauty of our country and blessed to be able to take this journey with my favorite person in the world! We will stay in Cody until Friday, Aug 1 and then head to Sturgis, SD for the 79th annual Bike Rally. We have been talking about this trip since the 75th annual rally. I am so excited to see our hard work and planning come to fruition. I hope you all have also been able to take time with your loved ones doing something you enjoy doing this summer. I'm excited to hear all about what you've done and where you've been when we return in a couple of weeks. If you need anything while I'm away, please feel free to email me. I will be checking it periodically and will be working in the car on Friday when we head to Sturgis and then again when we head back to NC at the end of the following week. Evan will be in the office through Wednesday this week and Joanna starts back on Thursday.
Our custodians have completed 6th and 7th grade hallways and are about half way done on 8th grade hallway. As always our school has housed many guests this summer and our custodian team have chipped right along with waxing and cleaning around those using the building. Our newest custodian, Sonja has jumped right in and been doing a deep clean in rooms preparing for everyone's return. Ms. Alice had another surgery on her arm last week and is currently out. Her doctors are hoping to get her full range of motion without pain again. This is something she's been without since a fall last summer while cleaning in the cafeteria. Please keep her in your prayers.
Since last Bits, Zack Groves, 7th grade Social Studies teacher took a position with Johnston County schools. He and his wife just completed building a new home that is 15 minutes away from his new school. Gabriel Moore will be taking his place in August. Gabriel has been a teacher's assistant in an EC classroom in Moore County for a few years. He will be completing his educational credits through St Andrews.
Currently, we are fully staffed except for the cafeteria assistant position that has been open since last summer. This position is hired through our Central Office Director. They are also hiring for W.B. Wicker and other spots across the district. I certainly hope we will have it filled before we begin in August.
We lost a teacher assistant position in EC due to our ratio allocations. Libby Washington will be going to work at W.B Wicker Elementary this year. I know I speak for all when I say how much we will miss Libby's sweet disposition and caring "whatever it takes" attitude. I know she will serve her new school family well.
Right now we do not have enough certified staff that are licensed bus drivers to drive the buses we have allotted for our students. I have notified the bus garage and Central Office of this issue. They are working on a plan to support us until new certified staff obtain the required bus license. This usually take 4-6 months.
Congratulations to Casey Gimabalvo for becoming an AVID Certified Teacher. She has over 12 hours of AVID certified training. I expect to have a few others after the the next two AVID trainings (Aug 2 and August 12). If you did not fill out the form for AVID training and are interested in participating let me know. I am unable to pay a stipend but you can receive Literacy CEU's, AVID certification hours, and I'm willing to trade a workday out with you. August 2 is Beyond Marking the Text and WICOR to Raise the Rigor (brand new APLW's) and August 12 is all about Interactive Notebooks. Both days are 8-3 with a lunch on your own. I must know by Wednesday, July 31 if you want to attend the August 2 training and by Thursday, August 8 if you would like to attend the August 12 training. This is to ensure we are prepared with enough handouts and materials.
Thank you to our 2019-20 Leadership Team and 2018-19 AVID Site Team for filling out the survey for when to meet for our planning session. Fifty-two percent of this group wanted to meet in the morning on Friday, August 16. So that group that I emailed with the form needs to put this on your calendars.
Joanna Perkins and Vincent Pienaar are busy planning our Stallion New Teacher Boot Camp. Joanna will meet with new teachers in the morning on Tuesday, August 13 to introduce those new to our building to the "How to's" of SanLee. Vincent plans to meet with our new staff in the morning on Wednesday, August 13 to help get them up to speed with AVID at SanLee. Staff members that started after the school year began last year will also be invited, but are not required to attend.
Lee County Schools has a new Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction, Dr. Chris Dossenbach, former SLHS principal. Mr. Conway is on extended leave but is still working with Human Resources. Mr. Gary Jackson, retired principal and current LCS Athletic Director, is also helping with the day-to-day operations in HR. Principals met with Dr. Dossenbach this month to discuss literacy. We were challenged to come up with goals and plans for our building. The middle school principals have been meeting weekly this summer to collaborate, plan and learn from each other (our own PLC). We put together a middle school plan. Please take a look at this and reflect on how you can and will support this middle school and district initiative. I want to point out that AVID and WICOR still remain the focus at our school. This plan just pushes us to the next level with writing and feedback, an area we need to improve upon. Everyone, including myself, will need to tie one of your Professional Development Plan goals to this initiative. Our Leadership Team will also use this plan to write school-wide goals for our School Improvement Plan.
Shannon and I have worked out a plan for student devices. She has already started delivering. This is not much change from what we had last year. You can take a look at it here. It is imperative for teacher teams to work together to and communicate needs daily. Everyone must be flexible and must create a plan for ensuring student devices are monitored for damages, accounted for, and plugged up after each class.
Agendas have been ordered and should be here hopefully by day one.We will continue to give all students one and will collect $5 from any student that brings it. Tina will give us more direction on how to collect and receipt this money. I also have allocated money for the continued use of Abe Scholar Chip for referrals, Formative, and 30 additional "yellow" calculators. I asked Dr. Dossenbach to continue all online access programs that the district has purchased previously (Discovery TechBook, IXL, Flocabulary, etc)
If you are looking for April Woody this year, she will be moving to 812 (old ISS) to give her more room for students in her resource math classes. Ms. Davis in ISS will be in 130 B (old ESL). ESL, with our new teacher Diana Minotti, will be in 701 (Woody's old room). Diana will be on the same schedule as exploratory classes and A/B schedule for most students except new comers which will have her every day for the first semester. Mary Berlauk (129) and Drew Lyerly(806) will be flipping rooms to give Drew more room for his health science modules.
We will have an administrative intern joining us for the first semester. Her name is Sherrell Stevenson. Sherrell has been a teacher for over 20 years; most of that in Lee County Schools. She was teaching third grade at Ingram Elementary. Her office will be located in room 131 (old speech). Sherrell will be helping our Admin Team support 8th grade while she is here. She will be off campus on Wednesdays to fulfill requirements for her program. Mrs. Brown was a contracted person for speech and will not be with us this year. Helen Conaty is a LCS Speech-Language Pathologist and will be located in 130C when she is here. We also will have a Hearing Impaired Teacher, Christina Coston, at our school. She will also utilize 130 C as will the school psychologist.
I have shared the athletic duty and SanLee Middle School calendars with everyone via email. Please make sure to add these to your Google calendars so you are able to know what is going on in the building. Click here for this year's Athletic Duty Schedule in a spreadsheet version, so you are able to mark your personal calendar for game duty dates.
Thank you to Allison Hickman. She's agreed to stay on the Leadership Team and represent the Exploratory Team for an additional year since Cole Merricks will not be returning to SLMS.
Coming Up:
Mark Your Calendars
Sixth Grade Leadership Academy: August 5-9 @SanLee - 6th grade hallway (contracts already completed)
New Teacher Induction: August 5-9 @SanLee - media center, cafeteria, and few classrooms on main hallway
Workdays August 13 - 23
- Tuesday, August 13 - Optional Workday - SLMS New Teacher Induction in media center 8-11
- Wednesday, August 14 - Optional Workday - SLMS New Teacher AVID Boot Camp in media center or room 128 (8-11)
- Thursday, August 15 - Required Workday - Opening Meeting for SLMS @8:00-noon - catered breakfast (REQUIRED for everyone)
- Friday, August 16 - Required Workday - SLMS 2019-20 Leadership Team 2018-19 AVID Site Team Planning Session 8-11, Grade level meeting @1pm
- Monday, August 19 - Work in rooms - EC teachers ECATS Training all day
- Tuesday, August 20 - LCS Convocation @Southern Lee HS and Director's Day, Math teachers that DID NOT participate in SI this summer are required to attend 10:30-12 @Southern Lee High School room 609 (at this time, this is the only Director's Day requirements I have heard)
- Wednesday, August 21 - 8:30 Team meetings, and grade level PLC's (math and ELA 10:30/Sc and SS @1:30)
- Thursday, August 22 - Open House 4-7pm (REQUIRED for everyone)
- Friday, August 23 - work in rooms
*All staff will have 3 hour flex time because of Open House. You can come in late or leave early up to 3 hours. Please make sure to schedule this around times you do not have a required meeting.