Do you know 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 Champion for Students Award presented by Superintendent Cook and our Board of Directors.

The start of the school year can bring us excitement, joy, and maybe a little anxiety, as we welcome back our students, staff, and family members to our schools. The safety department was able to visit many schools during the first week of classes and we were excited to see so much positive energy at each school that we visited.

We feel very fortunate to be able to visit schools and witness first-hand the safe learning environments that staff are creating for our students, family members, and one another. Some of the safety related highlights we were able to be a part of:

• Teaching our new office managers and front office staff how to use our visitor and volunteer management systems.
• Watching staff interact with students and parents in their common areas and front of schools while maintaining eyes on supervision.
• Witnessing our staff develop new safety day training programs and preparing students for emergency drills.

It would be remiss of us to not mention the incident that took place at Summit High School. We first want to take a moment to thank the staff of Summit High for working through a stressful situation that developed quickly and continued to develop overnight after we made the decision to cancel school for the day.

When we receive information that we may have a potential safety issue at one of our schools, it is usually a very fluid situation and decisions must be made in a quick manner, with the information we have at that time. We recognize that these incidents bring us all to a heightened sense of fear and uncertainty. No two emergency incidents ever unfold in the same manner, so the response from our safety teams and community partners may look slightly different for each incident. At the forefront of our decision making process on how to handle each safety incident, is keeping our students and staff safe.

Please remember, that if you’d like to receive information regarding safety incidents at your school, or at schools across the district, you can SIGN UP HERE for the BLConnect text messages that are pushed out from our communications team.

Bend-La Pine Schools follows the Oregon Health Authority/Oregon Department of Education's Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools. This guidance includes when an individual should be excluded from attending school (in-person) or 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 at least 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.

We are working to improve the workplace experiences and sense of belonging of our employees. One of the many ways we are doing this is through co-designed systems of support and networking called Employee Resource Groups. See details HERE.

Last year, a few ERGs (groups for employees of color, female leaders, and LGBTQ+ staff, with allies in each) met throughout the year, with awesome facilitators and lots of fun activities. Thanks to everyone who joined these groups. We are re-launching the groups for this year and would like to invite you.

If you are interested in learning more about our ERGs, signing up to participate in an existing group, or suggesting a new group, please fill out the interest form available on Page 2 of the link above. We’ll reach out in early October to those who indicate interest by Wednesday, Sept. 27.

Information on our Employee Resource Groups can always be found on the staff Portal’s new Equity page, under Employee Resources and Programs.

Dr. Cook is back with his Supe's On! Podcast, kicking off this season with a visit to Bend Tech Academy to discuss the high school's recent name change and emphasis on career-technical education and preparing students for college and careers. Our new BTA Principal, Dr. LaKisha Clark, and BTA parent Sharon Miller, a member of the school’s Site Council, discuss what makes BTA an exciting high school option for students in Bend-La Pine Schools.

LISTEN TO IT HERE

Have you applied for your $2,000 classroom grant yet? The deadline is less than two weeks away!

The Bend-La Pine Education Foundation presents this grant program for educators with Bend-La Pine Schools. These classroom grants are a great way to bring your creative, innovative, fun ideas to life in your educational setting.

If you are a teacher, media center manager, specials teacher, counselor, psychologist or specialist, you can apply for this grant. Each grant can be for up to $2,000 to use with your students. Applications are due September 30. Grant recipients will be notified Oct 24.

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, contact the foundation staff at classroomgrants@blpedfoundation.org.

There are several ways to communicate with your Bend-La Pine Schools Information Technology support staff. The most is the webhelpdesk ticket.

If you have a quick question, call the help desk at 355-1200, or shoot an email to your Client Service Representative. But if you have an expectation, or a request that will require action, you should ONLY use the web help desk ticket system. Why?

• A web help desk ticket will direct your request to one of 30 IT staff that is best suited to answer your question.

• It is the only communication method that will alert IT support if it remains unanswered.

• It tracks common issues that could be addressed to benefit all BLS users.

Your IT team looks forward to serving you this school year!

A back-to-school night for those who work in education: Central Oregon teachers, administrators, educational assistants, content specialists and all others who work with students are invited to network with community organizations to support and enhance this school year. Includes demonstrations and take-home resources. Food and beverages provided. Event sponsored by MidOregon Credit Union.

WHEN: Thursday, Sept. 21, 6-8 p.m. (Doors opens at 5:30 p.m.)

WHERE: High Desert Museum, 59800 U.S. 97, Bend

FREE, but please register to attend HERE.

Brad Henry, Chief Operations and Financial Officer for the District, provided the Board of Directors an update on enrollment at the Sept. 12 monthly board meeting. As of that date, total enrollment was 17,157 students. That is a decrease of 162 students from the same point one year ago. It’s also about 200 students below the projected enrollment for Oct. 1, the official date for reporting numbers to the state.

Elementary students represent about half of the 200-student difference between actual and projected enrollment, with a large part of that in kindergarten – the most difficult grade level to project. Our middle school enrollment, on the other hand, is slightly above projections, Brad informed board members.

If actual enrollment remains around the current level this year “this will have an impact on our funding,” he said.

The Sept. 12 enrollment report is available HERE.

Middle and high school math teachers may register for a one-day professional development seminar introducing them to mathematically productive teaching habits, routines and actions.

This seminar will be held in the Wall Street Lab at the Education Center on Tuesday, Oct. 3, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Substitute costs will be paid by the Teaching and Learning Department. Register in UKG. For more information, contact Linda Adams, Secondary Math Coach, at linda.adams@bend.k12.or.us.

When educators promote and engage students using Mathematical Habits of Mind & Interaction, using high-level tasks while asking genuine questions, students develop these habits and will justify and generalize about the mathematics.

In this seminar, teachers will develop our understanding of what student engagement in these habits looks like and sounds like, and will investigate what we can do to engage students in the Math Habits.

Looking for some Canvas help? Resources for student services? Office staff essentials? You can find a host of handy tools, tips and resources at the bottom of our Staff Portal website. There's so much to explore... check it out!

Recognizing when people in our lives are struggling with emotional pain and helping them feel comfortable to talk about it can help prevent mental health crises, including suicide. Learning the warning signs, knowing how to start a conversation, and knowing where to get professional help can make a powerful, life-changing difference.

KNOW THE SIGNS

Warning signs of suicidal thoughts indicate that someone might be in acute danger and urgently need help, and they can vary by age, gender, sexuality & cultural identity.

• Talking about wanting to die or to kill oneself
• Looking for a way to kill oneself
• Talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose
• Talking about feeling trapped or being in unbearable pain, wanting it to end or not wanting to wake up
• Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
• Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs
• Acting anxious, agitated, or reckless
• Sleeping too little or too much
• Withdrawing or feeling isolated
• Talking about being a burden to others
• Displaying extreme mood swings

Learn more about:

• Youth warning signs
• Risk & protective factors
• LGBTQI+ warning signs

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 your information is kept confidential. To use Care Solace to help 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.

The Board of Directors for Bend-La Pine Schools will hold its next business meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 10, at 5:30 p.m. at La Pine High School, 51633 Coach Rd.

The next work session will be Tuesday, Sept. 26, at 5:30 p.m. at the Education Center, Room 314.

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