Cheetah Chat #2

This week was so much fun!!! There were so many happy kids and parents (and only a few that cried non-stop...literally).

Thank you for taking the time to work on our routines and expectations this week. The time you put on the front end, paired with consistency, will pay off as the year goes on!

I am going to try to send as few emails as possible. I am including Marilyn's bulletin below so the emails aren't redundant.

Teachers, please send me your PE schedules when you have them so we can add to the Master Schedule.

District info will be a the bottom of this newsletter so you have everything in one place. Open to feedback, keep me posted!

Here is the BULLETIN for next week from Marilyn!

• The DASHBOARD is your resource for EVERYTHING. Thank you Ms. Wooten for your work on this! Check here often as items will be updated frequently.

As LVJUSD continues to open Wellness Centers, it is with great joy to announce that Leo R. Croce will be opening their first Wellness Center in the next few months. A Wellness Center is a safe and confidential space students can access throughout the school day to self-regulate or “reset” with the support of our new Wellness Center School Counselor, Ms. Medina.

In the Wellness Center students learn about mental health, emotion recognition and management, coping skills, building healthy boundaries and relationships with peers. Students who access the Wellness Center will receive support with a focus in skill acquisition, to help students become self-advocates and achieve self-regulation. SEL tools that support relaxation, mindfulness, and mediation are available in the Wellness Center for students to utilize. Additionally, Ms. Medina will work with students and their families to ensure students are receiving the correct support and access to information regarding mental health.

SUPERINTENDENT

• Congrats on a Great First Week! Reports from this week have been overwhelmingly positive- keep up the great work! Thanks to those who could attend our staff social “kick off”- it was great to connect with so many of you in person. Look for a survey shortly which seeks your feedback for our future planning of back to school events so we can continue to improve and reimagine ways to kick off the year!
  

• 2024-25 LVJUSD Core Values & Areas of Focus: As we embark on a new school year, we want to do so with common language around the core values and areas of focus that will inform our decision-making and guide us in our work for this year.

Our leadership team worked together in an all-day process to collaborate on what those core values and areas of focus should be. Please see the attached document which provides a visual representation of what those are. Many of you have already been introduced to this document and have engaged in discussions with your leaders and teams around this. It will be something all staff members refer to often- no matter our roles or work sites.

BUSINESS SERVICES

• LVJUSD Contract Policy All contracts (any document that obligates the District to payment) must follow the guidelines and be signed by those authorized by the Board. - details attached in the folder.

• LVJUSD is partnering with Lakeshore Learning in a shopping event at the Lakeshore Learning Outlet in San Leandro! The event is exclusive for LVJUSD staff on September 7th 8am-10am before the store opens to the public. Lakeshore will be providing refreshments, prizes, and swag bags. The outlet location has items 20-40-60% off and any regular-priced items will receive a 5% discount. RSVP by August 28th via the link on the attached flyer. Contact Purchasing with questions.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

• Find Previously Sent Messages Up to a Year Old in Message Tracking- To those that use Finalsite for messaging, you may have noticed that your miscellaneous folder under saved messages was reset and only allows you to see messages sent for this school year. If you have older messages that you would like to refer to, go to Messages > Message Tracking and select a date range up to 365 days ago to review messages.

• SAVE THE DATE! Livermore Learns “Cultivating Friendships in Elementary-Age Students” - Tuesday, August 27 from 7-8pm: The first Livermore Learns of the school year will explore the typical stages of friendship development for elementary students and the vital connections between SEL skills and friendships. Practical strategies to help students build healthy, lasting relationships will also be discussed.

• Oakland Roots Soccer Club- Union Night: Special ticket packages available for union members for the August 24th, 7:00 p.m. game of the Oakland Roots SC vs. Memphis 901 FC. Game is at CSU, East Bay’s Pioneer Stadium. Click the link for details. Questions: cobo@rootssc.com

CURRICULUM

• TVTIP Newsletter: Our first TVTIP newsletter is here! Although this first installment is primarily links and resources for new teachers, check it out monthly for strategies and tips that can help support ALL teachers!

• BeGLAD Training - Professional Development - LVJUSD is excited to offer BeGLAD training to teachers this fall 2024. This will be an in-person 6-day training session at no cost to participants and within their workday.

  
  

  Training will begin with a 2 full-day workshop series (10/9 and 10/10), followed by 4 demonstration days (10/15,10/16, 10/17, and 10/18) at Lawrence Elementary School. These demo days will include morning classroom observations facilitated by trainers using BeGLAD strategies and time in the afternoon to debrief and begin to incorporate the strategies into lessons.

  
  Please be aware that space is limited to 25 total participants. So, sign up if you are interested in participating in the training by completing the BeGLAD Teacher Training Fall 2024-Interest Form. If you have any questions, feel free to email Carla Estrada-Hidalgo at cestrada@lvjusd.org. Thank you.

• As a reminder, ALL EL students must have daily Designated ELD (D-ELD) instruction that is part of their Tier I instruction. For elementary schools, this is 30 minutes per day.

• This is year two of our contract with Lexia English that is to be used as supplemental curriculum. Students and teachers may access the web-based platform via Classlink. Students are automatically rostered into the program through PowerSchool once they are designated as EL Students. To help you and your students get started on using Lexia English, use the LVJUSD Implementation Pacing Guide (Months 1-3) as a resource.

• Please take into account, that students who are listed as “TBD” in PowerSchool, must wait until they are determined to be an EL student based on the Initial ELPAC results before gaining access to Lexia English.

• Please note that students in TK will not be taking the “Initial ELPAC” this school year. The CA Governor has signed into law exempting TK students from taking the Initial ELPAC. However, once these students enter Kindergarten, they will be required to take the Initial ELPAC. This means that teachers can, intentionally focus on TBD students to help them further develop their listening and speaking skills since these skill areas are 90% of the Initial ELPAC assessment for TK/K students. Thus, teachers can think of this school year as an opportunity to help potential EL students and have them score high enough to be Initially Fluent English Proficient (IFEP) when they do take the Initial ELPAC as Kindergarteners.

HUMAN RESOURCES

• Check out the 2024-2025 Employee Newsletter by clicking here. Inside, you'll find important information regarding the benefits available during the 2024-2025 open enrollment period.

• Open enrollment is August 10th - September 10th.

  During open enrollment, you can add eligible dependents, change plan selection, and/or drop any dependents who no longer need to be covered.

• Changes made during open enrollment become effective October 1, 2024.

• There is no need to submit a new benefit application to maintain current benefits.

• Benefit Fair/Open House (flyer is linked): On August 28, 2024, we will host California’s Valued Trust (CVT), health benefit vendors, and offer biometric screenings (flyer is linked).
  

• Please keep in mind that in order to be eligible for the free biometric screening, you must be enrolled in medical coverage through CVT.

• Sign-up for a meeting with American Fidelity by clicking here.
  

• LEA MEMBERS with an American Fidelity account must schedule an appointment to update benefit rates from 11-month to 10-month deductions.

• Pre-taxing your health benefits

• CDPH Updates and COVID Protocols for Staff: On January 9, 2024, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) updated its COVID-19 Isolation Guidance, COVID-19 Testing Guidance, and State Public Health Officer Order. We continue to follow CDPH guidelines and have updated our COVID Protocols for Staff, linked here.
  

• We must notify “close contacts”, individuals who may have come into contact with COVID-19 in the workplace, in a timely manner. Therefore, we need employees to report all positive COVID cases to the District’s COVID Liaison, Mary Aguirre, at hr-benefits@lvjusd.org. We ask that you submit a picture of a positive COVID test result via email, which will replace a doctor’s note for absences longer than three days.




• The District continues to provide face coverings and test kits. These are available at your school site or the District Office.

• Workplace Violence Protection Plan: As a result of California Senate Bill 553 (SB 553), LVJUSD is required to establish, implement, and maintain an effective, written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (WVPP) no later than July 1, 2024. Our WVPP, which is modeled after CalOSHA's template, is attached.
  

• Our WVPP is available to all staff via the Intranet and the District Website. Staff will receive annual training via Keenan on Workplace Violence Awareness and Prevention and training on how to access and utilize our WVPP (which will be a video from HR). Per this Senate Bill, LVJUSD will record all reported workplace violence threats, incidents, and post-incident responses that meet the definition of workplace violence, per SB 553.
• Employees are to report a workplace safety concern or violence incident to Human Resources via the Violent Safety Concern/Incident Log, which is also available on the Intranet and Website with our WVPP.
• CSEA Job Experience Program: Please share with our CSEA Staff. Classified staff members have an opportunity to apply to long-term substitute positions as part of the Job Experience Program, per Article 19.5 of the CBA. CSEA Staff can sign an interest form indicating their interest in participating should openings come available. Please see the letter in the attachments file. There is a link to sign up at the bottom of the letter. Thank you!

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• INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - Contact: Cara Thompson

  • Need IT help? Submit a help desk ticket!

  • Why use a ticket? Tickets keep us organized.

  • Prevents problems from being missed.

  • Creates a record of your request.

  • Duo: If you get a new phone, notify IT to reset your Duo enrollment.

  • Student Password: For security reasons, students in middle and high school (or younger if there are concerns) should change their default password.

  • Please use this link for help: Password Changes for Students

  Directions can also be found on the Intranet - User Guides & How-Tos.

  • Windows 10 will be at the end of its life soon, we have started pushing out the update to Windows 11 to Windows devices. You will notice immediately that the Windows start button is in the middle of the taskbar, here are instructions to move it to the left, should you prefer that.

  • ClassLink- our District’s Single Sign-on Portal, make your life easy by using ClassLink! Instructions for set up.

  • BYOD devices cannot access PowerSchool as a security precaution while on our network. We will continue to enhance security so that LVJUSD devices must be used to access District resources to increase our security measures against the ever-increasing Cyber threats. They can still use a Chromebook to access PowerSchool.