Staff Spotlight

Thank you to all staff who were able to join us for Tuesday's Welcome Back event! We are grateful for the opportunity to have shared our thoughts and hopes for the year ahead, celebrate with you our amazing Excellence in Education finalists, and honor employees marking their 20-year, 25-year and 30-year anniversaries with Bend-La Pine Schools. Congratulations again!

This year's program was packed with uplifting messages and fun stuff. If you missed it or want to revisit any parts, WATCH THE REPLAY HERE.

Recently we published a new page on the Staff Portal where employees can find resources supporting our commitment to equity, inclusion, and belonging. We invite you to explore the new page here.

You will find:

• Our Equity Stance and supporting policies
• Bias Incident Reporting
• Upcoming events and ways to get involved
• Professional learning and classroom resources
• Advisory and partnership groups
• Employee programs and resources

In Bend-La Pine Schools we strive to create a culture of safety that provides safe learning environments for all students, staff, and community members. Our district’s safety philosophy is centered around a comprehensive approach to safety hazards that is modeled on the five phases of emergency management: prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

There is no one answer or solution to maintaining safety in our schools and facilities. Our goal with our safety programs is to create an environment where all individuals feel empowered to make decisions for their own safety and the safety of those around them.

Keeping our schools and community safe is a collaborative effort that requires trust and consistency in behavior. Sometimes our programs and protocols can cause inconveniences in the way we operate daily in our schools. For example, signing in visitors and staff through our visitor management system, or keeping exterior doors locked and secure and only using main entrances or supervised entrances, can cause additional steps in our daily routines. We recognize that some of these safety measures can cause inconvenience, but when they are layered together with all of our safety programs and protocols within our district, they provide us with a strong and resilient method of maintaining a safe environment.

As we heard Dr. Cook speak during the staff welcome back celebration, he talked about “co-creating a community that nourishes staff and student sense of well-being and belonging…and if we are going to create communities of belonging in our schools, it starts with every member of that community feeling a sense of safety, feeling welcomed, and feeling like they belong.”

Creating that sense of safety and belonging starts with building trust within our culture of safety and requires collaboration, transparency, and vulnerability as we work together to keep our schools and communities safe.

The safety department will partner with our communications team this year to bring safety updates in the staff and family newsletters. Our team encourages open dialogue with staff and students who have safety concerns or who are looking for information on our district safety programs. We will also continue to update the staff portal safety page throughout the year with current safety related information.

Welcome back and thank you for all that you do to help keep our schools safe!

As a reminder to our staff, access to Safe School compliance videos and professional development workshops are only accessible through UKG’s Learning module. Some tips:

1. UKG’s login page is https://bls.fyi/ukg (please bookmark this on your devices)

2. As you login to UKG, it will automatically grab your BLS username/password through single-sign on (SSO) credentials. Note: If you haven’t signed into your BLS account, you may be prompted for your multi-factor authentication (MFA) verification

3. Once you successfully logged into UKG, you can access the Learning module by going to My Info>My Career>My Learning>Access Learning

On Friday, August 25, we mass enrolled everyone in the Safe Schools training; unfortunately, an email was sent out with a link that doesn’t work. Please never sign into UKG when you see the accompanying login screen. Instead follow the instruction above.

An email was sent to all-BLS staff on August 4th with the following resources to orient yourself to the Learning module:

• Video Overview of the Learning Module

• Video Overview For Safe Schools Access

• Google Doc of Learning Module Tips

All certified, classified and BLAST evaluations will be completed through UKG’s Performance module. Here is the anticipated timeline:

• October 1 - Certified goal setting/SLGG go live

• December 1 - BLAST goal setting go live

• February 1 - Classified goal setting go live

• May/June - Summative evaluation completion

More information regarding how to navigate through the evaluation process in Performance will be shared in the coming months.

Bend-La Pine Schools follows the Oregon Health Authority/Oregon Department of Education's Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools. This guidance covers when an individual should be excluded from attending school on site, including any school-related activities such as clubs and sports.

For information on symptom-based exclusion guidelines, see page 8 of the Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools.

• Fever - An individual must be fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications.
• Diarrhea/vomiting - Must be 48 hours since last episode.

COVID-19 is no longer an excludable disease (unless symptoms of fever, vomiting, and/or diarrhea are present). Parents/guardians/staff are no longer required to report positive cases of COVID-19 to the schools. COVID-19 test kits and medical grade face masks are available to students and staff upon request. Check with your school nurse about how to obtain a supply for your school.

You may also refer staff to the Health and Wellness section on our Bend-La Pine Schools website for more information about when to stay home.

For any additional questions/information, please contact the Bend-La Pine Schools Human Resources Department directly.

We have adopted SchooLinks as our comprehensive Life and Career Readiness platform as we prepare students for what comes after graduation. SchooLinks helps students discover their interests and strengths, explore colleges and careers, and create a personal graduation plan that best reflects their post-secondary goals.

SchooLinks is accessible in grades 6-12 by students and their parents/caregivers. Our counselors are being trained in how to use this platform. To learn more: English and Spanish.

We deeply appreciate the way you support the students and families of Bend-La Pine Schools. But we realize when it’s you or one of your family members who need support, it might be hard to know where to turn. In an effort to ease the burden of finding the mental health and substance use services you need, we’ve partnered with Care Solace, your new central hub of care.

With a network of over 380,000 providers and services, Care Solace will help you find the right help at the right time, 24/7/365. Care Solace’s services are available at no cost to you — and all of your information is kept completely confidential.

If you would like to use Care Solace to help you find a provider:

• Call 888-515-0595 available 24/7/365 in any language.
• Visit Care Solace and either search on your own OR click “Book Appointment” for assistance by video chat, email, or phone.

Our high schools will no longer charge for a parking permit. After discussion and reflection, our team determined this was an inequitable practice that unfairly impacted our students furthest from justice. Schools are working to refund families that have already paid for a permit and notifications of this change will be sent in the coming weeks.

Congratulations to Alisa Betz, the Media Manager at North Star Elementary School, for being named Classified Library Staff of the Year by the Oregon Association of School Libraries.

Betz was recognized for her tireless efforts to promote reading and reading culture, collaborate with teachers, curate resources with attention to diversity and inclusion, create a welcoming space for all, and much more. She will receive her award at the organization’s fall conference in Lincoln City. This is her fifth year in our school district and at North Star.

“I love introducing kids to new and different characters and their stories,” Betz said. “Helping students to see themselves in book characters helps them feel connected. Introducing kids to new and different characters helps them build empathy for others. I love helping kids fall in love with reading!”

Congratulations to Mountain View High School art teacher Ally Stermer and Assistant Principal Monica Hanson on their July weddings!

The Bend-La Pine Education Foundation is pleased to announce that our Fall 2023 Classroom Grant cycle opened this week. Classroom grants are a great way to bring your creative, innovative, fun ideas to life in your educational setting.

If you are an educator in the Bend-La Pine district (classroom teacher, media center manager, specials teacher, counselor, psychologist, specialist) you can apply for a grant. Each grant can be for up to $2,000 for you to use with your students! Applications are open now through September 30, and early bird applicants get a chance at an additional $500 for their project.

Key dates:

• Sept 16: Early bird deadline - a chance to win an additional $500 grant!
• Sept 30: Fall grant cycle closes (application deadline)
  
• Oct 24: Fall grant recipients notified

For additional information on the classroom grant program, help on types of grants offered, how to work together as a team for a larger award, which cycle to apply to or any other questions please contact the foundation staff at classroomgrants@blpedfoundation.org.

Do you know of a staff member, student or community member who has gone above and beyond to lift up others and improve our school communities? We would love to consider them for our monthly Champion for Students Award presented by Superintendent Cook and our Board of Directors.

Submit a nomination at bls.fyi/championforstudents

Here are our Champions from the 2022-23 school year:

JUNE - Marley Foster-Wexler, Garrett Hohengarten and Ella Hough, Bend Senior High School students who made an educational video on the dangers of fentanyl.

MAY - Amanda Johnston, Title 1 Educational Assistant at Rosland Elementary School, who forms relationships with virtually every student in school, asks them questions about their lives, and actively looks for ways to support them.

APRIL - Neve Gerard, a junior at Bend Senior High School, who works tirelessly as part of the Design Justice class to improve Bend High and the school community for students.

MARCH - Lindsay Korstad, Student Success Coordinator at Jewell Elementary School, who builds relationships with students and provides a safe space where they feel loved and accepted for who they are.

JANUARY - Madeline Ranstrom, Spanish teacher who splits her time between Cascade and Pacific Crest middle schools, known for her kindness and enthusiasm, and who successfully used the Heimlich maneuver with a choking student.

DECEMBER - Mike Bailey, volunteer at Elk Meadow Elementary School, who brings humor and joy to the community and shares his happiness and kindness with all around him.

NOVEMBER - Master Gunnery Sergeant Don Wilborn, or Master Gunns as he’s often called, who has supported the ROTC program at La Pine High School for 17 years.

OCTOBER - Lindsey Corley, office manager at Mountain View High School, whose warmth, kindness and good humor permeate through the office and through the school.

SEPTEMBER - Building engineers Michelle Ferk from Bear Creek Elementary, and Tom Meyer from Amity Creek and the Education Center, both known for their dedication and heart.

Smoke from regional wildfires can affect outdoor activities for students, from sports practices to P.E. classes and recess. We monitor the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Quality Index when smoke is present in the Bend, La Pine and Sunriver areas. If the air outside is listed as Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups, Unhealthy or Very Unhealthy/Hazardous, we notify our school administrators.

We follow the Air Quality Guidelines of the Oregon School Activities Association to determine when outdoor activities should be canceled or moved indoors. Athletic and activities directors, coaches and support staff will communicate with families of students participating in OSAA regarding these health guidelines. Coaches will notify families if changes are made to games or practice times and schedules.

In addition, windows and doors in schools will remain closed and air handlers, with MERV-13 (medical grade) filters, will operate during notable smoke events.

The Board of Directors for Bend-La Pine Schools will hold its next business meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 5:30 p.m. at the Education Center, 520 NW Wall St.

For information about board members, meetings and agendas, please visit our School Board page.