PK-8 Weekly Update

"Joy as an act of resistance" is a phrase, popularized by Black poet Toi Derricotte, that encapsulates the intentional cultivation of happiness and celebration in the face of systemic oppression and dehumanization. It is not about ignoring pain or practicing toxic positivity, but rather about asserting one's humanity and preserving the energy needed for continued activism and survival.

The idea of REAL, DEEP JOY right now feels like a challenge... BUT, many of us love a good challenge!! We challenge you to spend time this weekend doing things that bring you joy, with people who bring you joy. And do it with the knowledge that joy is helping to feed your soul for the continued advocating that you do for our students.

Perla, Robin, Bao, and Chris

1. Elementary - Upload EL/LAS Schedules to folder by November 14th

2. All: Review your sub plans to make sure they are aligned with new contract language by Nov 14th

Elementary Assistant Principals - Please plan to be in your schools on Monday afternoon. We are encouraging all assistant principals to take advantage of the BSD Leading Forward sessions directly following the Superintendent Leadership meetings.

Middle Assistant Principals - Please plan on joining high school assistant principals in Klamath 1 & 2 at the DSC on Monday afternoon (1pm-3pm). Topics include Special Education presented by Rachel Jury and Cell Phone/Device policy work.

Superintendent Balderas approved $200,000 to be used to seed school-based food pantries at every school site, including CTP, FLEX Online and Early College. Your school/program portion will be determined using the same SAM-based formula that the Business Office uses to determine winter break gift card distribution.

We understand that there's a sense of urgency. As our families' greatest needs are going to be over the next 3-4 weeks as they wait for partial SNAP payments.

What is being asked of building leaders:

• Please identify a space in your building where you could run a pantry. It may be an empty classroom; it may be a large closet. Please take into account its proximity to your entrance and how you might manage parent visits.

• If you have an existing internal school-based pantry, you can just add these items to that pantry and continue to operate as normal.

• If you have an Oregon Food Bank or Urban Gleaners market, it's recommended that you keep these items separate. Those markets are typically outside and open to the public. If you're so inclined, you could offer your families the opportunity to visit your pantry before or after their market visit.

• Please identify who on your staff will manage the pantry. It could be a social worker, counselor or office assistant. It could be you.

• Please identify a process for distribution. How much are you going to allow families to take each visit? Are you only going to allow one family at a time for privacy reasons? Will kids be able to take home food in their backpacks? Can you source grocery bags to make the shopping easier for parents?

• Please promote, as appropriate. Will you advertise the pantry to your whole community, recognizing that you may not know every family's need? Or will you identify and invite selected families?

These pantries are temporary—think of them as a pop-up— to address an urgent need. You could choose to continue the pantry. However, beyond this initial investment, you'd need to supply the pantry from donations that you solicit from your families or your community partners.

Additionally, we created a Q&A that folks can contribute questions (and answers) to. Feel free to add questions and we will lean on leaders with experience to fill in answers. We also added a document for you to "trade" food items with one another. (See links below)

As you establish a system to distribute food to families, please be mindful of how families can access the resources available at your school. Some families may be experiencing physical or emotional safety concerns that make it difficult for them to come to campus. Additionally, if your school chooses to deliver food (which is not required), please remain aware of the surroundings and prioritize the safety of your staff.

UPDATE on the Delivery of Food Items

Deliveries will begin on Monday afternoon. CCI will give you a call a day in advance of your delivery date. The goal is that everyone will get their food delivered by next Friday afternoon.

Q&A's pop up pantry

Food Pantry Trading Doc

BEA has requested a copy of school's sub plans so we need to make sure that they are aligned with the new contract language.

By Friday 11/14, please take a moment to review the new contract language found below and make sure that your school's plan is aligned. We will share them with BEA Monday 11/17.

Link to contract language - Article 17, I(Page 52 of the PDF)

As a reminder, some school based staff will attend district level PD on the Nov. 10th PD day. Please ensure your staff in these groups have registered in KickUp. Here are the details:

Elementary:

All elementary PE and Music specialists will attend district level PD with TOSAs. All other staff will be at their school sites.

Middle School:

All core classroom teachers, PE teachers, and LAS/ELD teachers will attend school based PD at the school sites. The following groups will attend district level PD with TOSAs: music and arts (Band, Choir, Visual, Drama), World Language, BH&W staff (Counselors, Social Workers, SBS). For Leadership and Design teachers, please provide time for these groups to collaborate at a school site.

Special Education: See LINK.

If there are questions about plans for these days, please email the K-8 exec team or Lori Krumm.

Attached is a schedule that highlights the PD that we will provide to our elementary and middle school coaches each month. The coaching PD will be delivered via zoom by Elena Aguilar and her colleague Becky Barstein. We will share the zoom links with school leaders in case you want to join us. The schedule also lists the topics that will be covered each month. Reach out to your exec with any questions.

Transformative Coaching PD Opportunities

Based on the discussion at the level meeting on Wednesday, elementary schools can proceed with 5th grade end of year events at school sites or off site. Please remind PTOs who may be helping to support these events that these are not graduation events.

As a final reminder, please make sure your 1st grade teachers have registered for the 1st grade decodables PD. Here are the details:

Full-Day Required PD, Choose 1 of the 2 days:

• November 12, from 8:30-3:30 - Wallowa Room at the DSC (16550 SW Merlo Rd)

Please register in KickUp - November 12

OR

• November 17 from 8:30-3:30 - Wallowa Room at the DSC (16550 SW Merlo Rd)

Please register in KickUp - November 17.

Please use this sub-code: 1126056

We have received several inquiries from schools eager to begin the MTSS/Assessment Literacy professional development with their teachers. We completed a portion of this during the ORF/Running Record PD in September. Please note that T&L will be providing additional MTSS/assessment literacy PD to coaches prior to winter break. Please wait to deliver the second part of this CLSD grant-funded PD until after it is delivered to coaches. Training dates will be provided soon.

Please review the link below regarding use of the CLSD grant for in building assessment literacy PD and assessment PLCS. Contact Robin if you have questions.

1) LAS and SLGG's - If your LAS would prefer to use the rubric that is for Building TOSA that is fine. SLGG's should be meaningful to the teacher, so it is perfectly fine for them to use the rubric that works best for them.

2) ELPA testing - We have been asked by a couple of schools if their LAS can support ELPA testing. As a reminder, we bargained with BEA about the LAS position, and we were clear that this was one of the tasks that we were "taking off their plates". AND... more importantly, we can NOT have students and teachers not being supported for weeks and weeks.

That said, if your LAS is requesting to support testing, and if they can assure us that NO GROUPS WILL BE CANCELLED, then please email Perla and Toshiko and we are happy to discuss. Next year we will have a tighter coaching framework so I'm not sure this will be an option after this year.

3) Schedules - Please review the email Perla sent about your EL/LAS schedules and reach out with questions. They are due by Friday, Nov 14th.

4) ELD Consult - Perla, Toshiko and MLD TOSA's are available to meet with you and your school ELD teams. We can support with anything that is coming up with your teams! Feel free to select a date and time and we will follow up with a calendar invite. ELD Consult

We are looking for two MS assistant principals who would be interested in joining the HS assistant principal steering committee in the planning of the AP meetings. We know that you hold the best ideas and thinking in what is most meaningful for your meeting time. Please email your exec if you are interested in this leadership opportunity.

Preparing for the ELPA Summative - Need School Information

This year we want to minimize how much time your instructional staff will spend on administering the test. Please complete this survey so the MLD can determine how many ELPA Test Administrator subs your school will need and if you have regular substitutes you would like the MLD to hire to be Test Administrators at your school.

EL Student Shadowing

This is a heads up that the MLD team will be shadowing students again this year similar to last year. We have a list of students we would like to shadow at each school (between 1-2 students). We will check in at the front office and then head to classrooms. There is no preparation needed by teachers or administrators. We are simply there to shadow students to gain a better understanding of how they are accessing the learning. We will do our best to give administrators a heads up prior to these visits.

8th Grade STAMP/ALTA Language Testing on 1/26/26

• This year’s test will be Monday 1/26/26 Grading Day. The MLD is managing registration and the entire event.

• On Monday 10/27 a ParentSquare message was sent to all 8th grade parents that indicated a language other than English is spoken at home. The message directed them to the website, which answers most questions and contains the link to register students.

• Please share these multilingual promotional flyers with counselors (these were also shared in the MLD Weekly Newsletter for ELD teachers the week of 10/27).

Middle School: Communicating ELD Progress to Families

This week the MLD is sending this ParentSquare message to the parents of middle school students that receive EL services within their Language Arts class (so those not receiving ELD in WIN). The message clarifies that parents will get specific information on their child’s English learning progress via the annual report they receive after their child takes the ELPA in the spring.

As we work to improve student attendance, we recognize the critical role data plays to identify systems of improvement necessary to support our students to attend school regularly. For the purpose of estimating the Regular Attenders percentage calculated by the state for accountability, please use Synergy. Attendance data found in EduCLIMBER is useful for the MTSS process, but not for the accountability purpose.

This is a reminder that the counselors, social workers, substance use specialists, district nurses, CEYP staff, and Bilingual Facilitators will participate in the MAC survey on one day during the week of Nov. 10 - 14. Some participants have not completed their required training, which means they are not able to take the survey. Training must be completed one day prior to the survey. Depending on the survey date (the state will tell us the actual survey date one day in advance), they may still have time to complete the training. Thank you in advance for your support by encouraging your staff to complete the training and survey. Our goal is to raise $1M this year through MAC.

As CCI and BEF partner to fundraise to support our students over winter break through the Feed My Body, Feed My Brain, please identify a contact person from your building. This person will be the liaison between CCI and your building to coordinate the distribution of the gift cards. What you will see on the list below is the name of the contact person from last year. Thank you in advance for updating this list by the end of the day, Monday, Nov. 10. If you have any questions, please reach out to Chistina Mackin in CCI.

Contacts: 2025 winter break gift cards

Most of you share the Substance Use Specialists in your building. Thank you for working together to support their success while they navigate working in multiple buildings. Please let Sho know which school leaders will be responsible for their evaluation this year.

Thank you to those of you who attended or sent your team to attend the 2-day Restorative Practice for Educators training earlier this month. The slidedeck used at the training, along with what training participants are doing to implement RP in their classroom/building, has been shared with all participants. Please know the training was NOT a train-the-trainer session, hence there is no expectation for them to train your staff. I do, however, encourage them to share their key learning with their colleagues as it aligns with your school’s Tier 1 effort to increase a sense of belonging for all students. Feel free to reach out if you need a thought partner on how to infuse RP into your Tier 1 work.

• November 10 PD Day!

• November 11. VETERAN'S DAY

• November 13 @ DSC Superintendent's Leadership Mtg

• November 18 ELEMENTARY Coaches in AM, MIDDLE Coaches in PM
• November 18 5:30-8:05pm BSD School Showcase for identified schools
• November 20 @ DSC All Leadership Mtg
• November 24-28 FALL BREAK