SBAC testing - Oregon was not granted a testing waiver from the federal government so we will need to do state testing this spring, but there will be fewer tests per grade and the tests will be shorter.  We will follow the same testing plans as BSD which is to test on Wednesdays in May and June for all families who do not opt out.

ELPA testing - This summative assessment for English Learners is still required and will begin next week.  We have about 45 students who are eligible, but they may not all choose to take the test.  If families do not have their children take the test, they will remain in the ELD program next year.

Conferences - we will do conferences by invitation only on April 23.  There will be no school for students on April 19 so teachers can prepare.

Summer school - I put out a request to see who is interested in coordinating or teaching summer school and got four responses. This will not be enough to allow us to offer as robust of a program as I’d hoped.  I’ll meet with interested staff next week and talk about how this would be structured.  Summer school would be by invitation only and would be free to families.  The funding will come from a combination of state and federal money.

Return to school - things have gone well so far.  We’ve had to work out a few glitches, but things are mostly going as planned.  

Staff completed all required safety trainings during our prep week from Mar. 29 - April 2.  We needed every minute of that week to get ready, so it was nice that we got an extension for our opening date.

Assistant Director interviews - we will interview 4 applicants next week.  We only had 5 total, which is disappointing, but hopefully we’ll find someone who is a good fit.  If not, we’ll reopen the job posting.

Staffing - we have 6 confirmed vacancies for next year and 5 more that are possibilities.  I attended a virtual job fair last week and found 1-2 possible candidates for an ELA position, but no one who seemed strong enough for a homeroom position. 

County metrics for reopening - as long as Washington County stays below 200 cases/100K for the week of April 5, we can keep the current spacing for middle school, which is slightly less than 6 feet.  Making the change allowed us to have a more efficient schedule.  The rules allow you to open with 3 feet between students as long as your county met the metrics two weeks prior to opening. Update - I checked today and we are at 123 cases per 100K, so we are good!

Retirement - I am officially giving my notice that I plan to retire at the end of the 21-22 school year.  I’ll send this in a separate email as well, but I wanted to tell everyone now as we prepare for the assistant director interviews.  I am very open to staying on in a part time capacity if needed. I have some ideas for projects.

Calendar - I’ve attached a draft based on our schedule this year. I shared this with staff as well to get their feedback and received no comments. It is comparable to the BSD calendar, but I added an extra staff development day in January.  We’ve had two more staff development days than BSD in our calendar for the last two years, but I reduced it to one for next year to try and balance the need for staff training with the need for instructional time. I also added two conference days in the Fall and one in the Spring, which is what we’ve done for the past few years.  Here is the BSD calendar for comparison.

Student Investment Account (SIA) - Tonya updated our original proposal with the new budget amounts for 2021 - 2023.  We did not make any changes to our plan because we were not able to fully implement the new programs when the money first became available.  We need to send this to BSD as soon as it is approved by the Arco board.

Onsite COVID testing - we would like to offer rapid onsite testing for any staff or students who become symptomatic at school. This is a free resource and Cyndi and Perla are already trained to administer it.  I wrote to PACE for an opinion on legal liability and this is what I got back: