Trojan Hub

November 18th 

Oak Ridge Foundation Survey (Possible $)

The Foundation's CCRC loves celebrating teachers and getting you the supplies that you need.  They want to make sure they are meeting your needs.  So they are asking teachers to take a survey evaluating how they are doing.  And they will randomly pick two people who complete the survey to get a $50 gift card.  

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScqHV2ZS4wqgJbMas86nSu6XZf3cTcF0_uQBio32ueBVRN-SA/viewform

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone the very best for Thanksgiving.  I hope everyone has a restful week off.  I want to share that I am thankful this year for my health,  my family, and friends.  I am also immensely thankful that our job is once again focused on teaching and learning.  It has made school a dream this year.  I am grateful for all of you and the work we do every day for young people.  

November 16th

February Staff Meeting Moved

We have had to move the February after school staff meeting from February 6th to 13th.  I have made the adjustment to the Meetings at a Glance form as well.  Thank you for adjusting this on your calendar.  

Stranger on Campus

We recently became aware of a white male in his early 40s attending Oak Ridge events.  At one of our football games, this person displayed some odd social behaviors and we had our SRO interview him.   Over the course of the last few days, calls have been coming in from around the community and other schools about this gentlemen and his odd behaviors.   We found dozens and dozens of videos this man has taken at OR that were odd and concerning to me.  

We asked law enforcement to again assist us with this man.  During their interaction with this man, he was arrested yesterday.   However, the reason for the arrest was not because he was a threat to our school.  We have put a no-trespassing order in place to prevent him from coming on campus.  We are also getting a restraining order against him at the behest of law enforcement.  At this time we don't see him as a threat.  We just don't believe he should be around children or speaking with children.  Please reach out to me if you have any questions. 

November 14th

PLC Course Team Facilitators 

The district has created a new position with a stipend to support our PLC teams.   The details and expectations of the position can be found here.   We are starting the process of getting the Course Team Facilitators chosen and in place.   Please look at the list below to see what courses will have these Team Facilitators.  

• Math: Algebra Foundations, Algebra 1, Geometry

• English: English 1, Advanced English 1, English 2, Advanced English 2

• Science:  Earth and Space, Biology

• World Language: Spanish 1, Spanish 2

• Social Science: World History

However, if a course is not on this list, and would like to have a Team Facilitator, the school can fund that.  Please route this request through your Department Chair.

If you are interested in this position, please submit a short letter or email of interest to Aaron by this Friday at the end of the work day.   You must teach at least one section of the course you are facilitating.  These will be reviewed by the Principal and Department Chair who will then approve a Facilitator for each course listed. 

Finals and Make-Ups

I want to send out a reminder about finals.  With finals happening so close to the Holidays this year I fear we are going to get a lot of students trying to start vacation early.  I have started sending Parent Square messages out to families letting them know that vacation is not an acceptable reason to miss finals, and that vacations are not excused absences.   

I want to remind everyone that you do not need to allow a student to take a final early if you don't want to.  If a student has a legitimate reason to miss a final (excused absence) you can allow them to make it up.  We will have a final make-up day during the winter break.  It will be on Thursday. January 5th from 9:00 to 11:00.   I am looking for someone to host this for pay in their classroom.  If you are interested please email me.   I will follow up with the details on how to utilize this as we get closer to the date.  Thank you.

Bell Schedule Survey Results

I want to share the results of the bell schedule survey Leadership put out.   We had 78 people respond.  We will take these results back to Leadership to discuss.  I want to thank everyone for taking the time to fill it out. 

November  9th

California Healthy Kids Survey Schedule Change

Leadership has looked at the requirements for the Healthy Kids survey.  We need to give this to every freshman and junior.  We will use Flex time to give it.  But it will take a little longer than 30 minutes.   So we have made a slight adjustment to the bell schedule on November 30th.  Please go to the bell schedule page to see the schedule for November 30th. 

Scantron Machine

Before COVID we discussed that we could not afford to maintain both GradeCam and Scantrons as assessment tools.  Through Leadership we choose GradeCam.   However, we kept the Scantron machine in the copy room until the contract ran out.  Well, the contract has run out.  So the machine will stay on campus, but the next time it breaks it is done because it is out of contract.  We are not getting another one or repairing it.  It will stay on campus as long as it is working.  So anyone who still uses scantrons needs to migrate to  GradeCam as soon as possible.  If you need to be trained on GradeCam let me know and I will get that for you.

Dogs on Campus

We have a process in place if you need to have a dog on campus.  We can only have therapy or service dogs in a classroom with kids.  Without completing this process, you cannot have a dog in a classroom with kids for any reason.   

UDL PD Reminder 

EDCOE is offering the Year 1 UDL Institute beginning on November 30!  More details and a registration link can be found on the EDCOE Professional Learning Center registration site if you are interested.

November 9th

Friendsgiving Dessert

We have dessert planned for everyone on Monday, November 14th.   We hope everyone can come down and get some holiday pie.  After school on Monday come by the cafeteria and grab a dessert and a beverage (3:00 - 3:30).  Sit and enjoy with others or take it to your WASC focus group (3:30 to 4:15). 

(Reminder) Bulletin is a Must Do

One of the few ways we have to communicate with students is through the weekly bulletin.  The bulletin that Quinn Linkhart sends out is something that all faculty must share every Tuesday during Flex time.  Thank you.

November 2nd

Disruption in Manufacturing/Auto

Yesterday there was a small explosion behind manufacturing.  From what we have determined, a student filled a latex glove with gas and used a piece of paper as a fuse, and left the scene.  There were no damages and no one was harmed.  This obviously caused a loud noise and scared a lot of people.  

We saw this as a very serious threat and started an investigation.  We also called law enforcement to assist us.  We are currently interviewing students and reviewing video footage.  We do not know if the student responsible was a member of one of these classes or not.  I will update you if anything new comes out. 

October 31st

Bulletin is a Must Do

One of the few ways we have to communicate with students is through the weekly bulletin.  The bulletin that Quinn Linkhart sends out is something that all faculty must share every Tuesday during Flex time.  Thank you.

Bell Schedule Survey

We promised that at some point we would revisit the "new" bell schedule to see if we need to make any adjustments.  The Leadership Team wants to start by gathering your input on potential changes with this survey. There is an additional question regarding Back to School Night that the team wants to run by you as well.  This is just the beginning of what could be a long process if we decide to make any changes.  

It is very important that we get everyone to take this survey. Please read each part carefully.  We need everyone to complete the survey by Wednesday.

 Happy Halloween from CCRC  

The Foundation's CCRC brought us all really nice treats for Halloween.   We are so lucky to have so many parents that support us and treat us so well.  The CCRC folks put a ton of hours into putting this together for us.

Services for Diego Demetre

Diego was in the class of 2018 and still has a younger sibling at OR.  His service and burial will be Wednesday 11/2 at 10AM at the Sunset Lawn Chapel of the Chimes at 4701 Marysville Blvd, Sacramento, CA, 95838.

October 28th

Change to Pledge Time

The Leadership Team would like to move the pledge from starting 5 minutes into Flex to 1 minute into Flex.   I appreciate their willingness to continue to refine our practices and look for ways to make them better.  Starting on Tuesday, the pledge will take place one minute into Flex.  

El Dorado County Parks and Trails Master Plan Feedback

The county has asked that we share their survey on the future of parks and trails in El Dorado County.  They would like to get as much feedback as possible for the new master plan.  If you are interested you can take the survey here.

October 26th

Welcome Back Sarah!

We are welcoming Sarah back today after her maternity leave.  It is really great to have her back.  I know we all look forward to seeing her again and catching up. 

October 20th

Services for Bryce Bazor

The Bazor family will have a service and celebration of life for Bryce next week for those who are interested.  

Thursday, October 27

• 2 PM Memorial Service at Vintage Grace

• 4 PM Celebration of Life at Jeff Mitchell Baseball Field

WASC Chair Visiting Monday

This will not impact most people, but the chair for the WASC Committee visiting our school later this year will be on campus all day on Monday.  She will visit with our Management Team and sit in on our Leadership Meeting,  She may walk through a few classes with one of us but I doubt it.  

October 18th 

Lost an Alumni

Oak Ridge lost an alumnus over the weekend to a vehicle crash.  Diego Demetre was a graduate of the class of 2018.  He has a younger sister, Danika, who is currently a sophomore at Oak Ridge.  We are reaching out to her teachers today.  Diego went into the Navy after high school.  He will be missed greatly.

Foundation Birthday Celebrations

The Foundation's Campus Community Relations Committee wants to celebrate your birthday again like they did last year.  They leave something nice in your box during your birthday month. Please sign up here to get a treat during your birthday month.

October 17th

One Green Step

The first phase of the grass being replaced with bark around the H building is complete.  The club was able to complete the work over the weekend.   The last phase of the project will be planting drought resistant plants.  I am impressed with the work they have done so far. 

Universal Design for Learning

We just found out that the County is offering UDL training for teachers.  If you are interested and would like to learn more or attend please go here.   As a school, we would cover any costs associated with it.   Unfortunately, the first class is just 3 days away so check it out now if you are interested.  

Homecoming Thank You

We need to thank many people for a great Homecoming.  First, Jen Slinger and her students pulled off a massively successful week.  Planning Homecoming is like planning a wedding.  It is not easy, and it went really well.  Next, thank you to Football for inviting and paying for all staff to attend the game and eat.  It was very much appreciated.  And a big thank you to Athletics and Steve White and his team for a fun Homecoming football game.  I know the students enjoyed it all.  It was also great to see so many alumni at the game.

October 13th

Rally Supervision Friday

I wanted to remind faculty that you need to be with your class in the rally and supervising them.  Our rallies need to be safe and appropriate events where students are following the school rules. Thank you.

Canceled Faculty Meeting

The faculty meeting on 10/17 has been canceled and given back to departments as PLC time.

October 7th

Model Trojan Awards Today

Thank you to everyone who submitted a Model Trojan Award.  We filled the College and Career Center with families and students today.  We were able to break bread and celebrate the Oak Ridge Values the students modeled.  It is always a heart-warming time.  You can submit a student for an award at any time here. 

Management Responsibilities

I wanted to make sure that everyone had a copy of the Management Responsibilities.  I know things have changed a bit with the addition of the Dean.   

Reminders for Next Week

I don't think anyone needs to be reminded that Monday is a non-student day.   And I want to remind everyone that we will have a different bell schedule next week for Homecoming and PSAT testing.  

Homecoming

Here is some information for anyone who wants to take part in Homecoming next week.  The spirit days are:

• Tuesday: Family Day

• Wednesday: Celebrity Day

• Thursday: College Day

• Friday: Class Color Day (Wear anything Oak Ridge)

For the parade, we invite staff children to take part.  After school, we will have two trucks labeled Future Trojans.  Thank you to Natalie for organizing it. Kids ride in the back and toss candy out to the crowd.  My daughter is old enough now to play babysitter in the back. You are happy to join your kids as well.

Alison is still looking for volunteers to help chaperone the dance.  And the football game will be Friday night.  I always look forward to the floats in the new quad and at the game.

October 3rd

Student Project on Campus

We are working with the One Green Step club to update some of our landscaping.  They are working on removing grass and replacing it with landscaping that requires very little water.  It will save us both time and money to maintain when complete.   They are getting most of the project materials donated.  They are currently working on the grass behind the H building.  They have a few more projects in mind after this one.  I look forward to their progress.

Halloween Contest

The front office is really excited about the Halloween costume contest the student leaders are holding for the staff.  We just settled on our theme and let's just say we are pretty sure we are going to win! Just saying.

Golf Tournament

FYI- Our school Foundation has its golf tournament today.  We continue to be very thankful for this group and the funds they raise for the school.

September 27th

Women's Sports Win Commissioner Cup

Our Women’s Sports dominated the scene last year and all that hard work and high performance earned them the 2021-22  @cifsjs Commissioner’s Cup for Outstanding Girls Sports!  Great job to all our girl's sports teams. 

Power Outage Protocol

We have created a power outage protocol to help guide us the next time we have a significant outage.   The protocol went through the Management Team, Leadership Team, and Site Council.  There are always variables in an event like this that are impossible to plan for.   But we did our best to remove the gray areas where we could.  Please be aware of the protocol or have it accessible for an outage.  Thank you.

CAASPP Testing Schedule

The Feds are mandating that we test 50 seniors this year using their accountability test.  They provide us with the names of the seniors they want testing, and the exact date to do it.  This forced us to adjust our CAASPP testing schedule slightly.  We will now administer the 120-minute test the first week and the 70-minute test the second week. We are working on assemblies for the 120-minute periods again. This change was approved in our Leadership Meeting yesterday.  You can see the change updated on our school's bell schedule page tomorrow.  But I put the simple version below.

• Wed April 12th: 120 min Advisory for ELA PT Test/Science CAST Test

• Thurs April 13th: 120 min Advisory for Math PT Test/NAEP Test

• Tues April 18th: 70 min Advisory for Math CAT Test

• Wed April 19th: 70 min Advisory for ELA CAT Test

September 23rd

Another Staff Win

Math teacher Tony Diaz. English teacher Hugh Corkery, Social Science teachers Matt Doubek and Sean Moloney won the staff versus student obstacle course at the lunch rally today.   I know this brings us to 3 if not 4 wins in a row over the students.   It just shows that experience and cunning beat youth and vigor every time.  Great job team!

Rally Set Up

I have received some good questions on why the students leading the rallies are being released from class earlier than usual.  We are short members of our maintenance team lately for a variety of reasons.  We will be hiring to fill one of those spots soon.  In the meantime, the students are having to do all of the rally set up themselves.  Our goal is to have students miss as little class time as possible for these events.  And we anticipate getting back to the norm soon.  Thank you for your patience. 

September 22nd

Nominate Students for a Model Trojan Award

Now is the time to nominate a student for a Model Trojan Award.

October 10th Non-Workday

I want to remind everyone that there was a change to the district calendar a while back after the original came out.   The school non-work day was moved to October 10th from the 17th.   So we all work on the 17th and most staff have the 10th off.  Here is the link to the calendar. 

September 20th

Chamber of Commerce Supporting Students

Our Flex Time Committee was brainstorming how to encourage more students to sign up for flex on time.   The group landed on throwing the names of all the students who sign up on time each week into a proverbial bowl and drawing five names.   We will reward those students with gift cards provided by the Chamber of Commerce.   We are very fortunate to have a Chamber that recognizes the power of strong schools and supports us. They were able to garner the power of the local business community and make a commitment to support our Model Trojan program for all of the 2022-23 school year.  I appreciate them and our local businesses who support us. 

NAEP Test

Oak Ridge was chosen to give the Federal Governments' standardized test to 50 seniors this year.  The Federal Government in conjunction with the CDE tell us the day it must be given and they provide us with the names of the 50 students they need tested.   It is a two-hour exam which fortunately coincides with our CAASPP testing this year.   We will be sending out more testing details for all of these April tests soon.

September 14th

Appreciative

This was a really good week for Oak Ridge.   There is a lot to appreciate.  I am appreciative of ASB and the work they put into Be Change week and a great Club Day.  I am thankful for the rally that TPSM put on at lunch.   We had cross country and football with impressive victories.  I respected the courage of our students who shared their stories in Monday's meeting.  And I was able to get into a lot of classrooms this week and saw powerful teaching and learning.  Everyone is doing a great job, keep up the good work.

September 13th

Smoke Mitigation

We were able to get the N95 masks here in a hurry.   I am reserving them for days over an AQI of 150 only so we don't run out of them during a smoke event.   If the AQI is over 150 staff members can get an N95 from the AP Office.  I am working on getting a large enough quantity so students can have them on those days if they choose.

Cross Country Runner of the Week

Brooke Butler is a nominee for California MileSplit Girls runner of the week. Brooke had a terrific race at the Josh Ruff Memorial Invitational on Sept. 10th. She broke the school record by 9 seconds on the 3400-meter section course at Willow Hills and won her race by 29 seconds. Below is a link to vote for the California MileSplit Girls runner of the week. You have to register on California Mile Split to vote. Registration is free and simple. It would be great if this information were sent to the Oak Ridge High School community.  Check it out if you want to help Brooke win.

https://ca.milesplit.com/articles/320019/vote-ca-girls-cross-country-runner-of-the-week

Pass/Fail Policy Update

The board policy for a Pass/Fail has been updated so it is no longer open-ended.   Parents have eight weeks to request a Pass/Fail grade.  After that, it can only be done with an extenuating circumstance such as a last-minute medical issue.  This will stop last-minute requests for a pass/fail.

Board Regulation 5121: "With parent/guardian permission, a student may request to elect to earn a Pass or Fail grade instead of a letter grade for any course offered in the District for the first eight weeks of the semester." 

September 12th

Smoke Mitigation

As we know, some rooms had high AQI readings in their rooms.  The weather forecast for the next two days shows low levels of smoke.  But we don't know if the unhealthy levels will return again.   I have ordered N95 masks again that can be issued if the AQI gets over 150.   My goal will be to keep them in reserve for smoky days.  I will let you know when they arrive.

Josh Ruff Memorial Invitational 

The 17th Josh Ruff Memorial Cross Country Invitational/Trojan Invitational was a huge success on September 10th at the Willow Hills course behind Folsom High School.  Josh Ruff was a student and coach at Oak Ridge.  Every year this event causes me to pause and remember Josh.  I am grateful the event carries on every year in his name.   The girl's varsity team came in first behind Brooke Butler's record breaking run this year.

First Honor Bowl

The Honor Bowl eventually happened on Friday after quite a lengthy delay.  It was an emotional celebration at times as we remembered fallen heroes and raised much-needed funds to equip injured, ill and wounded veterans who may also suffer from PTS and TBI 

September 2nd

Thank You

As Max Foorman moves on today I wanted to thank him for the tireless hours he put into developing the Manufacturing program at Oak Ridge.  He has put his heart and soul into it.  He developed many relationships between industry and our program over the years.  He was able to find internships for students.  His classroom was home to countless students who loved what he had to offer.  We are going to miss Max and everything he brought to our school every day. 

Welcome

We are extremely fortunate to have found Stacy Nalepa to take over the manufacturing program.  She studied engineering at Cal Poly.  She spent over a decade in the manufacturing industry.   She is a welder.  And she has a computer science background as well.  She recently became a teacher and has a CTE credential.  Independence High School spoke fondly of the work she did there last year.  In her words, this is the opportunity she has been waiting for.   She is excited to be here, and we are excited to have her.  

September 1st

Bell Schedule Changes for Year

By popular demand, the Leadership Team with a great deal of help and time from Patrick Sanders approved all the bell schedule changes for the year.  We are starting to populate them into the website one at a time.  We are hopeful we can have them all updated by tomorrow. 

Updated Meetings at a Glance

Because of some of the changes made above to how we manage the bell schedule in odd weeks, some of our meeting times had to change.  Please view our Meetings at a Glance for the edits.  The changes are highlighted in yellow.  

Power Outage Protocol

As I shared in my email, we are working on a Power Outage Protocol.  It is close enough to being done that I can share it now in case we lose power again with the elevated temperatures this week and next.  

August 29th

Central Copy Clerk Service

I wanted to share the form for getting copies from the district's central copy service.  This is a good way to get your copies.  I will add the form under resources.  Central Copy Service Form

Model Trojan Awards

Thank you for the staff and student Model Trojan nominations coming in.  We are closing in on our first student recognition ceremony.  I would love to have as many students awarded as possible.  If you have students who are really modeling the Oak Ridge Way, please send their name in for an award here.  They will be honored in front of their parents at a luncheon.  If you nominate someone you can come and enjoy the ceremony and lunch as well.  Or you can stay anonymous as well.

August 26th 

Faculty Site Council Rep Election

Faculty, we have three spots up for Site Council.  And we have three faculty members who have stepped forward.  To be true to the process, can you please take a minute to vote for your Site Council Representatives.  Thank you.

August 25th

Power Outage Debrief

We have created a form for gathering anything people want to share with us about the power outage.   Please click here if you wish to access that form.

August 24th

Sad News

Vicki Seich was our school Athletic Secretary for 18 years until her retirement.  She also worked in special education before that.  Sadly, we found out that she passed away over the summer.   Her final wishes were to not share the news of her passing.   So we honored her wishes.   But I feel enough time has passed now that I can share the news without violating her wishes.  Vicki was extremely dedicated to Oak Ridge.  Her work ethic was second to none.  She was tough when she needed to be but equally kind and caring to all.  She will be missed.

Join CEDAR

If any staff members are interested in joining CEDAR we would welcome the additional team members. We want to make sure that everyone who feels passionate about creating a safe place for all students knows they are welcome.   Feel free to drop by Wednesdays after school in O-2.  Or you can email me with questions.  

Power Outage

I really appreciate everyone's professionalism in the power outage today.  It was definitely a unique situation having the whole county out.   If nothing else, it gave us a chance to test our backup power systems today.   With the power out, the only way to get information disseminated effectively was with Parent Square.  We were sending text and email messages to the staff using Parent Square.  We are going to send out directions to those who choose to opt into Parent Square to get future messages.   

August 23rd

Faculty Site Reps for Site Council

At the start of each new year we look for faculty members to sit on our Site Council for the year.   The school Site Council is either an elected or selected group of parents, students and faculty members.  The Site Council meets to approve the schools categorical budget expenditures, help form school goals and provide input for the schools LCAP (local funding) report.  The group meets at 3:45 on the first Wednesday of each month.  If you are interested, please nominate yourself here.  Thank you.

Thank You/Welcome Back Lunch Thursday

A local company called Revel Folsom wants to say thank you to educators for all we do.  They are bringing lunch in for everyone on Thursday.  It will be a grab and go from the staff lounge.  They won't be selling anything, it will strictly be a thank you.  So come on down and enjoy.  

August 18th

Foundation CCRC Welcome Back Luncheon **Reminder**

Like I shared previously, the Foundation CCRC parent group is putting on a luncheon for us tomorrow, August 19th.  Click here for the details.  I appreciate having a community who supports us.

On top of that, parent donations are starting to show up from Amazon.  It always amazes me how many parents are helping to keep us well supplied. 

Commissioner Cup

Each year the league Commissioner for athletics picks an outstanding program to recognize.  The Commissioner has picked the girls athletic program at Oak Ridge for last years Commissioner Cup.  It was based on their success in our section.  It is a huge accomplishment for our athletes, coaches and Athletic Director.  

Model Trojan Awards

Remember, if you know a student or staff member going above and beyond, give them a Model Trojan award.   We want to reward people who are modeling the Trojan Way. You can be anonymous or share who you are.  We recognize staff in our meetings and kids at a special ceremony.  Follow this link to the Trojan Hub page where you can nominate people.  

Bell to Bell

The number of students out before the bell has drastically improved.  I greatly appreciate the help and the unified message as a staff.  I have only had to go out and talk with a few people.  

August 16th

Tardy Policy

After yesterdays meeting I wanted to share the tardy policy verbiage for everyone.   I have cut and pasted it below.  

Tardy Policy

To maximize the opportunity for learning, students are expected to report to all classes on time.  Students who are late to class will be issued consequences.  The first 3 tardies will be handled between teachers, students, and parents.  Once a student has been tardy to a class for the 4th time, a referral to the Assistant Principal’s office will be made by the teacher,  The following disciplinary consequences will be issued by the Office of the Assistant Principals:

The following guidelines are for the total number of tardies in a class, per semester:

• 4th Unexcused Tardy:         1 hour of detention

• 5th Unexcused Tardy:         1 hour of detention

• 6th Unexcused Tardy:         2 hours of detention

• 7th Unexcused Tardy:         3 hours of detention

• 8th Unexcused Tardy:         Saturday Study Session

• 9th Unexcused Tardy;         2 Saturday Study Sessions

• 10+ Unexcused Tardy:       In-House Suspension + Social Probation

August 15th

Community Clean Up

As you walk around the campus today you will see a lot of beautification that happened over the weekend.   Members of the Foundation and  Boys League Charity did over 300+ hours of work this weekend.   This in conjunction with the work our maintenance team did over the summer has the campus looking great.  

I wanted to share that there is some dead grass in the quad.  A water line collapsed somewhere under the quad and it is difficult to find.  While trying to do that, we are also contemplating if we want to do something more water friendly with that space. 

Student Interns

Max Foorman in Manufacturing has secured some internship slots for a few of his students each year at a local EDH manufacturer.   Internships are an incredibly powerful experience for students.  I wanted to share one of our Oak Ridge internship success stories with you.   ORHS Internship Video

Mon August 22nd School Wide Collaboration Meeting Change

Next Monday is scheduled to be a School Wide Collaboration meeting for the faculty.  But it is my goal this year to give as many of these back to your department as possible so you can work on your department and course PLCs.   So I will leave how your time on Monday morning is set up to your Department Chair.  

August 12th

Thank You

I want to thank everyone for a great opening week.  I was really impressed.  I appreciate how hard everyone worked and the amount of time that was put into preparing for a great launch.  I know it was tiring going from 0 to 60 with a full week of work.  I was dragging come Wednesday.  But I think I have my stamina built up now. 

Numbers

Our final enrollment numbers for the week after dropping the no shows and adding all the new students came in at 2510.  So we are down a little from last year where we averaged around 2535.  

August 10th

Pledge of Allegiance

Throwing some discussions with our Leadership team over email we are going to adjust when the pledge is done.   We are going to do it four times a week at the start of Flex time.  We are going to do it one minute in instead of waiting five like we have been.  I appreciate the suggestions that came in about this.

Changed Meeting Dates

Some changes were made to the meeting schedule for the year over the summer.  I want to make sure that everyone has the changes on their calendar.  When you visit the Meetings at a Glance for the year, you will see the changes highlighted in yellow.

Foundation CCRC Welcome Back Luncheon

Like I shared in my email, the Foundation CCRC parent group is putting on a luncheon for us next Friday, August 19th.  Click here for the details.  I appreciate having a community with so much support in it for what we do.  They are currently getting donations from the community to help us with supplies again this year as well.  We remember last year, when hundreds of parents brought in supplies for us.

August 8th

Great First Day

I want to thank everyone for the great first day.  The morning went as smoothly as I have seen in many years.  This doesn't happen without the whole team playing their part.   So thank you to everyone for your help today.  It was a great first day!

First Day Reminders

Teachers, thank you for not letting students into your class unless they are on the roster.  We will continue to do this.  Students need to attend the class on their schedule until Counseling can help them.  

Like we stated in the meeting on Friday.  We have a lot of freshmen who are hurting because of the loss of their friend Sophia Torres over the summer.  We have offered her core group of friends grief counseling through the Wellness Center.   Please let us know if you find anyone struggling with her loss who needs help.

Communication 

Parent Square has not been operating as it should unfortunately. It would appear that they changed how they pull data from our database.  So we ended up having a large number of families not getting any communication from us over the summer.  It was not until last week when we got panicked phone calls that we looked deeper into the Parent Square data and figured out what was happening.  District IT, and members of our team worked with Parent Square last Thursday and Friday on this.   We were able to get most of the contacts activated again for our messages that went out Friday.  We are still working today to get the final 4% of accounts working.   This is beyond frustrating for all of us who had no idea the system was not working correctly.

June 9th

New Assistant Principal

I am happy to announce that we have hired Carrie Foster as our new Assistant Principal.  Carrie went through a three tier process.  She met with a panel of staff members, then a parent and student focus group.  She also interviewed with Dr. Carruth and the Assistant Superintendents.  

Carrie has 25 years of experience in education.  She started as a Physical Education teacher.  She has also taught science.  For the last six years she has been the Assistant Principal at Argonaut High School in Jackson.  As the only Assistant Principal at the school, she has a wealth of experience and skills.  She was the AVID and MTSS coordinator for her school and has been trained in both.  And as a teacher she was a BTSA provider.  I look forward to welcoming her to Oak Ridge.  

New Position

Each of the four comprehensive schools in our district will be adding a Dean of Students position.   This will be an administrative position.  This job will be in addition to the four Assistant Principals we have.  This position will focus a lot on referrals and student discipline.  But it will also focus on developing restorative practices and building positive student culture.  We will be interviewing for this position at the end of the month.   This position is going to bring a lot of additional support to our school.  

May 27th

We Made It!

We have gotten to the end of the hardest year in the history of education.  The hardships we went through this year were not for the light of heart.  I am amazed at the quality work everyone did under such difficult circumstances.  My only hope for the summer is that everyone is truly able to rest and renew our love for teaching and learning.  I need to thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you did this year.  The student need was intense, and you were there for them.   You have all truly made a difference in student lives this year.

I believe that next year will be very close to what we are normally accustomed to.  The good news is that we will have plenty of resources at our disposal for at least one more year.  The increases we are seeing in education funding at the state level are unprecedented.   We are on course for a year of opportunities!  I think our ability to help students become the best version of themselves has never been brighter.  Thank you and lets have a great Graduation tonight!

Important Information for Next Year

I wanted to make sure I passed on key pieces of information you will need for next year.  I will be getting this information and more out to you this summer in our mailer.  

• Meetings at a Glance  2022-23 

• New Anti-Discrimination Policy (developed in the new committee)

• Start of School Dates and Times

  • OR New Teacher Orientation - Mon August 1 @ 2:00

  • OR Start of Year Leadership Meeting- Tues August 2 @ 8:30

  • First Teacher Work Days - Wed August 3 & 4 

    • PLC Training Agenda/Times (English, Life Fitness, Math, Science, Social Science, World Language, VAPA & Sped Departments)

    • Capturing Kids Hearts - More Info to Come (Business Department)

• OR Welcome Back

  • Fri Aug 5th, 8:30-9:30 in the MPR

• First Day of School Mon August 8th

Nice to Know Information for Next Year

• New Student Orientation 

  • Wed Aug 3rd 8:30 to 12:30 (Last Name A-L)

  • Thurs Aug 4th 8:30 to 12:30 (Last Name M-Z)

• New Parent Orientation - Wed Aug 3rd @ 6:00PM in Large Gym

May 23rd

Final Make-Up Times For Quarantined/Ill Students

We are set for final make-ups.  I had hoped we wouldn't need it this year.  But we are starting to get quarantined students again and there is a head cold going around.  it will work just like the last one.  

If a student needs to make-up your final next week please follow these steps.

1. Send the family this form (https://forms.gle/fqkRH6xDPzERFXSV8) to choose when they want to make up their final.

a. If they are quarantined beyond these dates, there are instructions on the form for them to contact me for an appointment.  

2. Send the final for the student to Sarah Phillips.  If it is computer based send a short explanation/instructions for the proctor.  

3. Look for the final to be returned to you immediately after its completion.

4. Reminder, you will be paid to grade any final you receive from the make-up sessions in order for us to get the grades in and finalized next week.  You will be paid a minimum of one hour.  If you have multiple finals and feel that you will need more than an hour, please contact me in advance.  You will need to submit a timesheet to my office next week for this.  

Staff Changes

I wanted to share some more staffing updates for next year.  As you heard this morning, Kim May will be moving on to Union Mine High School.  We wish her all the best.  As you heard this morning, she is loved by all and an incredible teacher.  

I also want to note that Connie Cady, who was a temporary science teacher this year, will be staying on with us next year as a permanent employee.  We look forward to continuing to have Connie on campus next year.  Her students love being in her class.

Wednesday End of Year Celebration Reminder

I want to remind everyone that our End of Year Celebration will be in the Cafeteria after school on Wednesday.  We look forward to celebrating those who are moving on, good food, and good company.  

May 20th

Meeting Reminder

I want to remind everyone that Monday's meeting will start at 8:25 in the MPR.  This meeting is mandatory for all faculty.

Keeping Students in Class

Again, the number of students out of class has become a problem. I will be speaking with folks who are letting multiple students out of class at one time to use the restroom.  There is no reason why more than one student at a time should be out of class unless a student goes AWOL.  And please make sure that if you let small groups go outside to work, that you are supervising them and being responsible for their behavior. 

Discriminatory Language Signage

I want to share two things about this.  One, we are going to class to class to make sure these signs are up.  If you need a new one, please let Sarah know.  Two, we do have a policy in our handbook that says how we hold students accountable.  There is a spectrum based on the severity of the offense.  Our community/staff group  (the group has a new name, CEDAR, which stands for Community for Equity, Diversity, Accountability and Responsibility) meeting after school have updated our policy and discipline guidelines.  I need to take this new policy through the process of getting it approved.  I will be sharing it soon. 

COVID Testing Kits

We have another set of COVID test kits we need to get out.  We are putting one in every staff members box.  We are going to pass them out at lunch today to students.  If you need additional tests come to the office and ask for them.  We are also going to let parents know they can come to the office to pick some up.  

May 17th 

Monday's Faculty Meeting

We have a meeting scheduled for after school on Monday to discuss and review graduation.  However, with the new finals bell schedule we would not be able to meet until 3:45.  This is not desirable for anyone.  So I reached out to the Leadership Team with some options.  They have decided that we will meet in the morning instead.  

But since our meeting is only about graduation it won't take the whole time.  We would also like to leave some time for departments to meet if they need to for any last minute issues.  So we will Monday morning at 8:25 in the MPR.

May 13th

Meeting Reminder

I wanted to remind everyone that we have a meeting Monday morning at 7:45 in the MPR with Dr. Carruth and Chris Moore presenting.  

May 6th

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's out there. I think we all owe our Mom's a huge debt of gratitude.  Mom's sacrifice so much for their kids.  I hope all of the Mom's out there can be spoiled this weekend.

Staff End of Year Luncheon

After finals on Wednesday May 25th we will have our End of Year Celebration in the Cafeteria at 12:50.  Please join us while we have lunch, enjoy each others company and honor those who are moving on.  

Cultural Awareness Committee

Our group met again yesterday and we are making good progress.  One action step was creating signage with a statement that Oak Ridge will not stand for intolerant acts.  We are having signs made for outdoors.  And soon you will get some signage to hang in your room.  

The group is also working on policy changes, what consequences/restorative practices look like for students who violate our policies.  We are looking at what data we need to collect on these issues.  We are going to explore how the student voice can support this cause and what can be done on the education front.  

Added More Amazing Teachers

We are extremely fortunate that we can confirm two more great hires.  In Culinary, we were able to hire Diane Goldman.  Diane is one of the best Culinary teachers in the area and we were lucky to win her away from Cordova.   

We also hired Sarah Fitzhugh Cannedy from the Rescue district.  We are excited about her experience and passion for teaching science.  

 We are also hiring Quinn Linkhart who is currently a long term sub in Art.  Quinn will be staying with us permanently.  We are really excited for what Quinn brings to the team. 

Two Meetings Left

Please go to the meeting tab above and make sure the final two meetings of the year are in your calendar.  I have attached the agendas in the meeting tab above as well.  

May 4th

Goodbyes

The exciting part about this time of year is hiring great new people to join our team.  But the sad part is that we also having staff who are moving on to other schools or places for a variety of reasons.  Some folks are transferring, some are just stepping away for a year and one is retiring.   We will appropriately celebrate all of these folks later.  But I wanted to give everyone an update in advance of that.

First, I want to thank each of these people from the bottom of my heart for their service to Oak Ridge and their dedication to students and teaching.  We were so lucky to teach and learn with you.  Please help me thank these great educators.

• Sharon Varozza (Culinary)

• Kristen Bowyer (English)

• Kevin Placek (Special Education)

• Alicia Gray (Math)

• Jason Stevens (Spanish)

• Lauren Handler (English)

• Brooke Rhyan (English)

• Nawal Angelo (CTE-Business)

Student Achievement Awards After School

I wanted to share that Student Achievement Awards are happening after school (3:30) in the MPR.  Historically we have held these at night.  For those new this year, each department nominates a student who embodied excellence in their subject area.  This year we chose to celebrate these students after school.  All our welcome to attend.   

May 3rd

Speech and Debate Team Going to Nationals

A lot of congratulations to our Speech and Debate team.  Recently they competed in the State finals and many of the students are heading on to Nationals.  First, a big thank you to Hugh Corkery who has coached this amazing team.  We know a teams success is largely built on great coaching.  Hugh has given a lot of time and passion to these students.  

I also want to thank Eric Larsen who has always been in the background supporting this group as the former coach.  And he is still a part of the larger Speech and Debate organization.  He has agreed to help chaperone the trip this year.  

Here are the names of the students who will be going off and competing soon.  If you see them around campus congratulate them on qualifying for this honor.  

Adding to Our English Team

We are very fortunate that we have added another great teacher to our English department.  Please welcome Kayla White.  Kayla White is an Oak Ridge alumni who has been doing long term subbing in English this year.  She has been coaching for us as well.  So we are very familiar with Kayla and already know how great she is.  We are really excited to have her on the team permanently. 

May 2nd

No Pledge Over PA for 2 Weeks

As part of the process of setting up a testing environment for AP, we have silenced the bells and will also not do the pledge over the loud speaker for 2 weeks.  Please do the pledge with your students in class for the next 2 weeks.  

April 29th

Exciting New Hires

We are in the process of hiring new folks for next year.  I am really excited about who we can confirm so far.  We still have a few positions we are working on.  But so far, we have hired a group of outstanding teachers I can't wait for everyone to meet.

English

• Tim Brown from Union Mine

• Nick Fischer (Student Teacher from Union Mine)

• Brian Hofland (20+ year veteran from Woodland)

Math

• Pari Goode from Pacific Crest Academy in our District

Social Science

• Sean Maloney from Union Mine

Science

• Jennifer Watson from Vista Del Lago

Foundation New Parent Welcome

We had a fantastic night greeting incoming 9th grade parents last night.  The Foundation sponsored the event.  All of the parent booster groups were present along with LeeAnn and Sherry from Counseling, the Wellness Center, myself and a lot of food and beverages.  It was a good time for new parents to meet, mingle and learn how they can get plugged into Oak Ridge.  

Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week Reminder

Don't forget that next week is your week.  We have all of these events planned for you.  We really hope you can take advantage of them all.  The Foundation also wanted me to share their flyer with you for lunch on Tuesday. I hope it is a special week for everyone.  I will see you there.

Prism

And if you have the time, don't forget to attend Prism.  This is an Oak Ridge tradition and a very special way to experience music.  If you haven't seen Prism before, it is a unique experience you will never forget.  It plays tonight, and there are two shows tomorrow.

April 28th

FCCLA Winners

Sharon Varozza and her FCCLA students continue to amaze.  I can't thank Sharon for the commitment and work she puts into her students success.   It takes her countless hours to have the students competition ready.  She had three students (Emily Ho, Heaven McGee and Kamaile Curley ) qualify for the FCCLA 2022 State Leadership conference and competition down in Riverside.  By the end of conference, Kamaile Curley was a silver medalist in Culinary Art Display and Heaven McGee was a bronze medalist in Culinary Arts. Please congratulate these students when you see them and congratulate Sharon on another great year.

Cultural Awareness Committee

The group of staff, parents and students met again yesterday.  Many very emotional stories are coming out of the meetings.  And we are working towards putting a plan together.  It is a really good group of people that I appreciate.  I am very happy to be working with this team of people.    

April 27th

Oak Ridge Teacher of the Year

I wanted to send a big congratulations to Brittany Lansford who has been selected as the Oak Ridge High School Teacher of the Year.  She will be recognized by the district at a celebration later today.  Brittany has been instrumental over the years with our Challenge Success/student social emotional health work.  She is the backbone of our flex time period and has always been willing to step up and train all of us on the newest technologies available.  On top of all that, she is an incredible teacher.  Please help us congratulate Brittany Lansford. 

Rotary High School Teacher of the Year

Our partners in Rotary have chosen their High School Teacher of the Year.   They have chosen Jen Slinger for all of the hats she wears at our school and for the great teacher she is.   Jen is our Activities Director, Leadership Teacher, English Co-Department Chair and Yearbook teacher.  I wish I had half of our energy.   She will be honored at an upcoming meeting.  Please congratulate Jen Slinger when you see her.  

Administrative Assistance Day

Today is Administrative Assistance Day.  In the offices we are celebrating those who support all of us, so teaching and learning can happen.  When you swing by the office thank our great staff on the work they do.  Schools cannot function without the work they do.  Our students are lucky to have such great people in the offices supporting them.

Donut Dash for Kindness

Over the next two days the Trojan Pride Sports Marketing club will be randomly passing out donuts to staff as a random act of kindness.  So don't be surprised if students roll into your flex time and offer you a donut.  It is legit and a gift of kindness. 

April 25th

Teacher & Staff Appreciation Week

We wanted to make this years Teacher and Staff Appreciation extra special.  So on top of the Yoga we have happening two days a week before school, we will also have lunch provided on Tuesday, Coffee and Donuts on Thursday morning and a variety of your favorite coffee drinks made by baristas on Friday morning with light breakfast options like donuts and croissants.  The Friday option will be by maintenance so we can fit their coffee truck.  When we reached out to the community for help on this they jumped at the opportunity.  This community loves all that we do for kids and are stepping up next week to show it.  

Don't forget Yoga tomorrow morning in the large gym from 7:40 to 8:10.  You can use the locker rooms afterwards if you need to.

STEM Science Fair

First, I want to thank Paul Kuzmich and his STEM club for hosting a STEM Science Fair.  The projects were amazing.  I really appreciate them having a Middle School category as well.  Like was stated earlier in email, Sonya Alexis came up with a swaddle blanket you put on a baby that can tell you instantly if they stop breathing. She created a flexible substance out of graphene and some other other ingredients that fit into the swaddle and can detect if a child stops breathing.  It was a pretty remarkable concept.  She had a working model on display as well.  We have so many students like Sonya that are beyond impressive and going to make the world a better place.

Forward with the Foundation

On Wednesday night at 6PM the Oak Ridge Foundation will be doing a meet and greet with the community at Vintage Grace church.  They are especially inviting incoming 9th grade parents to learn about the Foundation and how they can volunteer as parents.  They will be serving light food and drinks.  All are invited and it is open to the public.  I am so thankful to this group for the work they do on supporting our school.  This large group of parents gives up a lot of personal time to make sure we have the resources we need.  Feel free to stop by and visit if you want and grab something to eat. 

April 22nd

WASC Meeting on Monday

I want to remind everyone that we have a staff meeting after school on Monday.   Due to the nature of the work we will meet in the MPR as a whole group and then break into our smaller WASC groups.   We will address the culture questions that come with WASC.  With the last couple of years, these questions are going to be more important than ever.  

Bike Rack

I found it to be good news that our bike racks are filled every day.   This means that more kids are exercising and getting themselves to school.  So we have added a bike rack by the band room.  I want to thank Rob Slinger, Travis and his crew for doing a great job of installing it.  

Thank You

I want to take a moment and make sure I thank everyone for the last two weeks.  If you were facilitating testing, thank you.  I know it is not easy to figure out the CAASPP rules and system.  For the teachers that took kids to the assemblies thank you.  Again, it is not always fun being mixed in with the kids.  But these have been the most well behaved assemblies I can remember in a long time.  Our speakers even commented on how great our kids were.   And the classified staff was working fast and furious to make sure the testing and assemblies were supported.  We could not have done it without them being behind the scenes setting us up for success. The whole staff came together and we pulled off a monumental task.  It is not easy doing all of this with a campus as large as us.  I am very proud of this team.  

April 20th 

Thursdays Testing Schedule and Assemblies

Congratulations, Thursday is the last day of testing.  I wanted to give everyone a friendly reminder about what role we  each play during testing on Thursday.  It will be a lot like Wednesday for everyone but the seniors. 

9th Grade Advisory Teachers: 

• You will meet your class in their Advisory and take attendance.  You will then go directly to the first assembly.  Please sit with your class based on this seating chart.  If we moved you to the O-Zone today then have your students return to the O-Zone on Thursday.  When that assembly ends you will return to Advisory to finish out the testing block.

10th Grade Advisory Teachers: 

• You will have your Advisory class with you in class for the first block.  At 10:40 you will begin to make your way down to the assembly.  Please sit with your class based on this seating chart.  If we moved you to the O-Zone today then have your students return to the O-Zone on Thursday.  Your students will be released to break from the assembly. 

11th Grade Advisory: 

• You will be administering the CAASPP English (PT) Performance Assessment.  

12th Grade Advisory: 

• All seniors will be taking the Science Test (CAST) in their senior Advisory class.  You will likely need every minute of time so please be as efficient as possible.  

April 19th 

Wednesdays Testing Schedule and Assemblies

I wanted to give everyone a friendly reminder about what role we play during testing tomorrow.  

9th Grade Advisory Teachers: 

• You will meet your class in their Advisory and take attendance.  You will then go directly to the first assembly.  Please sit with your class based on this seating chart.  This will be the same seating chart for tomorrow as well.  When that assembly ends you will return to Advisory to finish out the testing block.

10th Grade Advisory Teachers: 

• You will have your Advisory class with you in class for the first block.  At 10:40 you will begin to make your way down to the assembly.  Please sit with your class based on this seating chart.  This will be the seating chart for tomorrow as well.  Your students will be released to break from the assembly. 

11th Grade Advisory: 

• You will be administering the CAASPP Math Performance Assessment.  

12th Grade Advisory: 

• 2/3rds of our seniors will spend the whole Advisory in their Advisory class.  However, 1/3rd of them will attend the theater for the 1 Degree of Separation assembly.  You can check here (bottom of document) to see what senior Advisory teachers have the assembly.  Those students will receive a Parent Square from us tonight reminding them to go directly to their Advisory.  The will walk to the assembly as a class.  They will be shown this diagram about where to sit.  Thank you for sitting with your class.

Yoga

Don't forget we have free yoga before school starts every Tuesday and Wednesday  in the large gym from 7:40 to 8:10.  The next class is tomorrow morning.  We will open the lockers for those who need to change afterwards.  

April 7th

Graffiti

To help battle our latest round of bathroom graffiti we will be posting a reward upon our return from Spring Break.  The last time we had vandalism the reward helped us catch a student.  Once we caught someone, the problem slowed down.  I am hoping for the same outcome this time.

Cultural Awareness

Our committee of teachers, parents and students for our Cultural Awareness Committee is in place.  The group will meet the week we return from spring break.  The goal of the group will be to put an action plan in place to develop cultural awareness on our campus.   And all of the things I mentioned in my last update on this still hold true.  

Facility Updates

As many of you have seen, a new scoreboard is being put in at the stadium.  The old one had slowly died on us.  This project is being completely funded by athletics.  

A new student mural will also be going in on the side of the English textbook room.  This mural was approved by our staff mural committee and by the Leadership team.  ASB is helping the student cover the costs.  It will be fun to watch the artistic process as it goes in.   

On another note I want to specifically thank Michelle Kite for beautifying our campus over the last several weeks.   I don't know about everyone else, but the art around campus really lifted my spirits. 

Kindness Campaign

The Kindness Campaign has been an ongoing effort by student groups.  Today you can see messages of kindness around campus.  The Trojan Sports Marketing Club used Flex Time to put messages of kindness on cars in the parking lot today.  So students will be surprised with a message of kindness as they head into spring break.  I want to thank TPSM and ASB for their continued work on student culture.  I appreciate them greatly.  

Spring Break

I want to  thank everyone for their part in the first half of CAASPP testing.  Whether it has been working with an advisory, getting your students to an assembly or proctoring the test, everyone has been working hard.  This will be a well deserved spring break.  It has been rough holding out for it longer than normal.   But now that it is here, I hope everyone can get some rest for the last push to finish out the year.   I think everyone can agree that this year has been the hardest in all of our careers.  These breaks are the best way to recharge and reframe as we finish out the year.   I appreciate all of you for keeping the education of students at the forefront.  And I can't think of another group of people that deserve this break more than school staff.  Enjoy!

April 5th

Assembly Issue

Today's assembly was about depression and was put on by comedians.  They start with comedy and then end on a serious note.  During today's assembly one of the speakers was making a joke about how she was biracial, both Indian and Haitian.  Right after that, a student made a loud noise that is hard to explain.  But it was not appropriate and felt racially insensitive.  The student has been suspended for the rest of the week.

Yoga Classes Set Up

I have free Yoga classes set up in the large gym on Tuesdays and Wednesday from 7:40 to 8:10AM.  We will open up the locker rooms afterwards so people can change clothes before classes start at 8:30.  You can go to as many as you like or as few as you like.  You will need to bring your own yoga mat.  Both people are certified yoga instructors.  This will start the week following spring break and be in place every week until the end of the year.   I hope this is helpful.  Remember, this is open to all employees.

·         Tuesdays: Laurie Stone

·         Wednesday: Neha Patel

April 1st

Cancel Monday's Meeting

In an effort to provide teachers with more time we are canceling Monday mornings meeting .  We had it scheduled as a CAASPP follow up, but we don't need that after last weeks training.  There is more we could be working on but I think people need time right now more than anything.

Our remaining meetings will focus on WASC (visit is next year) and our final meeting of the year on graduation.  

Women's and Black History Month

I want to thank Matt Hodgins for his work on putting together our door art that celebrated Women's and Black History Months.   And the nice flyers we had in our windows.  It was a remarkable project we all enjoyed.  Congratulate the following students who won first and second place in the contest when you see them.

• 1st Place - Summer Dixon, Dae Larkin,  Joe Hargon & Audrey Ewing 

• 2nd Place - Carmen Martin, Peter Davies, & Sydney Gallo

Yoga

Wow, you guys really like Yoga.  We received a huge response from my email.   So I am going to work on putting this together to the best of my ability.  But I do believe this is something we can do this year.  But let me start working on the logistics.  

Progress on Cultural Awareness

I will be giving our community an update on our progress since the Buchanan game on Sunday.  But I wanted to follow up with staff as well.  So far we have the bulk of our committee together on planning how to bring more cultural awareness to our students.  I just need one or two more parents and I would like one more student.  We have a game management training set up for our game supervisors.  And we have identified a bias awareness training for the adults working in/with athletics.  We are also reaching out and getting recommendations on cultural awareness assemblies.  Folsom High School has one coming up where they break the school into groups of 300 to take part over the course of many days.  We will observe this one and see how it works.  

March 31st

Graffiti Update

Sadly we have been getting a great deal of racist and sexually degrading graffiti recently.  It had been contained to the bathrooms, but now is showing up outside as well.  The graffiti all appears to be in the same handwriting.  So we believe it is one person.  They typically reference the n word and rape.  They are extremely disgusting.  Unfortunately, they appear to be done with an ordinary sharpie which makes it harder to catch.  We are stepping up our measures to narrow time a timeframe when these things happen so we can locate the individual.  The campus monitors are working hard constantly checking the campus so we can identify when each event happens.  We will work until we catch this individual.   This is just another reason why our new committee is so important.  

Pledge Update

I know I have shared this in various settings but wanted to  make sure that I shared this with everyone.  The board has a policy that states the pledge of allegiance will be done every day.  A parent complained that we were not in compliance.  So we had to get into compliance immediately.  And I actually support the policy as well, so it was important for me to get this in place.   All of the other sites were doing it over the PA at the start of school.  So I followed their lead with our implementation.  By design it should be the first 30 seconds of each day.

March 25th

CAASPP Bell Schedule

We made a one page CAASPP schedule teachers can put on their wall.  You can also see the schedules we posted on the website here broken out by week.

Power Outage

The power outage yesterday was caused by an electrical box on our campus blowing its lid and catching fire yesterday.  It was up against the sidewalk on Harvard Way right next to the administration parking lot exit.  There was no one harmed and no permanent damage done.  Luckily PG&E was able to fix it in time so the play could still happen last night.

Faculty Meeting Monday

The faculty meeting on Monday is after school and being moved to B-3 for training purposes.  We will be training Junior and Senior Advisory teachers on how to administer the CAASPP test.  We will also have a handful of faculty substitutes there.    This will start at 3:15.

All Freshmen and Sophomore Advisory teachers not involved in the CAASPP training will meet in the MPR at 3:15 to review the logistics that will be necessary on testing days for assemblies, etc.  

CIF Response

The CIF has sanctioned OR for what took place during the girls soccer game.  In summary, our school is on athletic probation until the end of the next school year.   Any future games with Buchanan High School while we are on probation must be played at Buchanan.  All Oak Ridge administrators, coaches and students must have some form of cultural awareness training.  They provided examples of free courses for adults and assembly models for students.  All administrators must attend a game management training.   Our school is encouraged to build a positive relationship with Buchanan.   We will begin to work on all of these as soon as possible.  

March 23rd

Bell Schedule Update

At our last Leadership Meeting we had discussed schedule options and bringing some of those options to the faculty to vote on.  At the meeting on Monday there were some legitimate concerns that were brought forward.  My gut instinct said if there is any confusion then the process needs to slow down.

The issue was brought back to the Leadership Team today.  We discussed the schedule and the best way forward.  After much discussion, the Leadership Team decided that there are too many variables and not enough time to do this correctly.  We still want to address people's concerns, but put those concerns through more of a process and form a committee to look at it like last time.  The committee would be given parameters to work within.  They could only look into where the short period goes, where collaboration time goes and where flex time fits in the schedule.  

So for next year, we will continue with the same schedule we have this year.  And any changes that could come from the to be determined committee will not take effect until the 2023-24 school year.  

Essay Contest Winners

Can we all please congratulate students Kien Vu and Summer Dixon who won 1st and 2nd place respectively in the Fred Winn Democratic Party Essay Contest in El Dorado County.   And I need to thank all of the teachers who have ever worked with these students.  We know that students don't find this level of success on their own.  They get there when they have great teachers.   

March 21st

CAASPP Testing Bell Schedule

In previous updates we have put the confirmed testing days out and the bell schedule.  But we have not put it all together in one place for you.  I wanted to give you a detailed spreadsheet with the bell schedule for all two weeks of testing that includes the instructional minute count.  We took some feedback from what we had previously released and tightened up 7th period so the minutes were even more equitable across periods.  So thank you to those who provided that feedback.  I will get everyone nice one pager you can hang on your wall soon.  

CAASPP 2022 Bell Schedule

CAASPP 2022 Testing Schedule

March 18th

Staff Meeting Monday 

Monday mornings meeting will be at 7:45 AM in the MPR.  It is a very full agenda with important items because we canceled some of our last meetings to give people more time.  Please see the agenda at the meeting tab above.  We really need everyone to be there at 7:45 because we will be starting right on time.  

Bell Schedule

In Monday mornings staff meeting we will discuss proposes changes to the bell schedule.   We will have time to discuss the options as a faculty in the meeting.  The plan is to hold the vote on this late next week.  We need to have this dialed in before we can complete our master schedule planning.   We analyzed the data from the survey in Leadership.  The data showed that 80% of people wanted to keep flex time.  Most people want the morning meetings moved to after school.  But there is a split about when the short period should be (end or start of the day.)  So we will spend time discussing this issue on Monday.  

Proposal #1: This is our current schedule but it moves all meetings/collaborations from Monday mornings to Monday after school.  This also ends the school day earlier on Monday.

Proposal #2: This moves the short period to the start of the day which moves around some other things like where Flex and Nutrition Break land and the time of lunch.  It does the same things as proposal 1 for Mondays. 

Follow up on Issues of Race

We have our faculty set for our group that will discuss how our campus moves forward after the Buchanan event.  We are almost set with our students and parents as well.   We have finished providing all information to the CIF that they have requested on this incident, and wait to see if they give our athletic program any consequences.  

March 11th

Bell Schedule Update

The Leadership Team has looked at the results of the bell schedule survey that was done.  We have discussed two possible schedules for next year.  One being very similar to what we currently have (just moving all meetings to the afternoon.)  On our March 21st morning meeting we are going to come together and as a faculty to discuss the pros and cons of each schedule proposal.  We will then schedule a vote sometime in the days following that meeting.  I don't want this vote to feel as rushed as the last one.  I will also be sending you the two schedules in advance of the meeting.

Racist Incident at Game

I know I have been including staff in the Parent Square messages home.  But I wanted to summarize where we are with last Saturdays incident and where I would like to go from here.  In summary,  we did identify the student.  We have given them consequences.  I have wrote apologies letters to Buchanan High School, their women's soccer team and the community on Monday.  I also sent an apology letter to the impacted Buchanan player on Monday and spoke to her family by phone.  I have written up our report and provided it to the CIF per their request.  I have spoken multiple times with their Athletic Director and Principal.  And I spoke with the Buchanan women's soccer coach by phone as well.  

Our women's soccer team started to receive a lot of negativity online and in person.  There were a lot of people who must have only read the headline and saw the pictures and assumed the racist comment came from one of our players.  It has been painful to watch our soccer team go through this.  What should be a joyous time for them has been destroyed by the events of that night and the criticism they received this week.  We have been working to try and set the record straight. 

How We Proceed After Saturday's Game

I do want to focus on how we improve our student's cultural awareness.  I understand that this was one individual who did this on Saturday.   But in the wake of this incident, I have also heard from many of our minority students this week that racist comments and ignorance is not an uncommon experience for them at Oak Ridge.  That breaks my heart and can't stand.  After the McClatchy event we put forth a lot of action steps to address this issue.  The one thing we did not do is bring more cultural awareness education to our students.  So I would like to ask for people who are interested, to volunteer to be part of a group that looks at how to build this into our curriculum in a systemic way.   I will also bring some students into this group as well.   I see this group meeting after school to determine the best way to build this into our school.  

If you are interested in joining this group please sign up here.

Master Schedule Process/Staffing

We received our final set of numbers for sections and staffing from the district yesterday.  Jon and I finished putting it all together today.  We are getting the section allocation out to each department chair before the end of the day.  We are projected to go from the 2535 students this year to 2560 next year.   If you are interested, the demographic study projects we will drop almost 100 students in 2023-24.   This year we have 436 on -ratio sections of instruction.  Next year they are providing us with 440 which is an increase of 4 sections for next year.  

WASC

As I shared a long time ago we pushed WASC back a year.  So February of 2023 will be our visit.  We will need to pick up where we left off and continue the self-evaluation process soon to finish everything on time.  

March 4th

Monday Meeting Canceled

Monday's meeting was set to be a safety presentation by the department of Emergency Services.  They have put together a new presentation and have been struggling to get it approved by their superiors.  So the presentation will need to be delayed again.  This leaves us needing to cancel Monday mornings meeting.  I will get them in to speak to us just as soon as they are ready.

Rotary Speech Contest

As we do every year, we had students compete in the Rotary Speech Contest.  The speeches were marvelous.  They are a real testament to how well we prepare our students.  However, I do need to thank two people by name.  Alyce Rogers works diligently to coordinate this event for our students.  And Hugh Corkery runs are fabulous Speech and Debate team where these students fine tune their skills.  Please congratulate these students if you have them in class.

• 1st - Kien Vu - 11th grade

• 2nd - Mahee Haswani - 10th grade

• 3rd - Navy Morrison - 10th grade

• 4th - Andrew Buu - 11th grade

Girls Soccer and Basketball Roll On

Our girls Soccer and Basketball teams are having banner years.  They have both won the section and now the first rounds of the NorCal Playoffs.  Both will continue their runs in NorCals this Saturday.  Soccer will be playing at home at 5:00 and Basketball will be on the road again.

March 2nd

Girls Soccer and Basketball

The Oak Ridge girls soccer team won their first game in the NorCal playoffs last night decisively.  MaxPreps has the girls ranked as #3 in the nation.  Please congratulate all involved when you see them.  The coaches have done and incredible job.   The players are working hard. 

The Oak Ridge girls basketball team has their first game of the NorCal playoffs in the Bay Area tonight.  I know we wish them all luck.  The girls are having an incredible run which includes defeating Folsom at Golden One for the Section Championship last Saturday.  Again, the players and coaches should be congratulated for this.  I also want to thank Steve White and Amber Heinlein in the Athletic Office.  Without them, sports simply wouldn't happen for our kids.  

CAASPP Testing Schedule

The Leadership Team decided to use Flex Time to our advantage and leverage it for CAASPP testing.  If we remember, CAASPP testing has been a 2+ week process that has a large impact on teaching time in many classes.  It also robs precious time from AP classes right before testing.

Using Flex Time we can avoid a lot of that.  In this model, we will get the testing done in 4 days.  The juniors take 4 tests.  They will do all of these in their junior Advisory class.  Seniors take one test.  They will do it in their senior Advisory class.  The Junior and Senior Advisors will need to proctor these tests.  We will hold the proctor training in our March 28th meeting.  

The freshmen and sophomores will also be in their Advisories (not testing) while these tests are happening.  Two of these tests will require a 70 minute Advisory.  Two others will require a 120 minute Advisory.  We will hold a one hour assembly during these 120 minute Advisories to occupy students.  Freshmen will attend the first hour assembly and sophomores the second hour assembly.   This document explains the plan in greater detail.  

We do have one potential change that might need to happen.  On the last day of testing we are supposed to hold the junior and senior test at the same time.  We are concerned that our network won't support it.  If we start to see bandwidth/wifi issues on the first day of testing we will need to make adjustments.  We will break out the science test to a 5th day of testing.  The link  above shows the optional date that would happen on.  We don't believe this will be necessary, but the Leadership Team felt that we needed a back up plan just in case.  

Master Schedule

It is master schedule time again.  We are in the very early stages of this process.  We are in the process of taking students schedule requests and entering them in the computer.  Next, we need to track down those who did not submit a schedule.  Once we this is complete, we will have a better picture of how many sections need to be dedicated to each department.  

February 25th

Air Purifiers

We have been able to successfully get an air purifier to everyone who requested one.  At this time I am shutting down the form.  However, if you still want one you can submit a work order to Travis. 

All State Honor Band

Paul Varoff has done it again.  He has two students who have made the California All-State Honor Band.  Please congratulate Ellie Chen, Jiajin Huang and Paul when you see them.  It is very difficult to get chosen for this honor.  They obviously have a great teacher.  

February 23rd

Wifi Update

Over the course of the last few months we have received increased complaints about the wifi being too slow or not letting students connect.  I have experienced the frustration myself when subbing classes.  Our IT department was struggling to determine why this was happening.  They tried a dozen different solutions to no avail. 

Our team asked the district to bring in an IT expert to examine our network and they did.  This person has been able to detect a couple of serious issues we believe are causing the problem.  However, solving them might not be an easy matter.  He is working with our team on solutions.  I should get updated on the matter soon. 

CAASPP Testing Schedule

The CAASPP testing days have been on our Meetings at a Glance document since the summer.  When we started working within Leadership on what the bell schedule should look like, a lot of neat ideas came forward.  These questions got us to start rethinking how we schedule the CAASPP.  The outside the box thinking took longer than normal to resolve.  So I apologize for the delay.  We believe we have a draft that will get approval in Monday's Leadership Meeting.  What we have come up with is a plan that will utilize our flex time for testing.  It will take 4 days instead of 8.  And the impact to instructional minutes will be shared by all instead of just two departments.  The final details should follow Monday's meeting. 

February 17th

Face Covering Update

I apologize that the last minute decision on masks has left us building the plane while flying it.  But we have hammered out more of the details and have received additional direction below.

• The Board's stance is that all students should wear a mask, but we will not exclude them from class or punish them if they don't.  This essentially makes it the students choice. 

• If a student does not wear a mask, you can counsel them that we still want them to wear a mask or send them to the AP office for counseling.  The AP's will counsel them and then return them to class.

• You can only send a student down once to be counseled.   Not once daily, but once over all.  

• All students, whether masked or not, must be allowed in class.  We will not have unmasked students outside while masked students are inside.  There will be no exceptions to this.

• You can choose to teach your whole class outside.  I am comfortable with you as professionals picking the right outdoor venue for that.  

• I am comfortable with you being in control of your seating chart and deciding where masked and unmasked students sit in the class.

• We cannot tell students falsehoods about masking.  Here are examples of what I am talking about from yesterday.  We cannot tell them they can be suspended for not doing it or punished in any way.   They cannot be punished for defiance for not listening to your instructions on masking.  A students grade cannot be affected by whether they mask or not.  

• All students regardless of their masking choice, need to be treated with the same courtesy and respect that all students deserve.  I know this goes without saying and everyone is already doing this.  

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.  If I don't have the answer I will work diligently to find it for you.  

February 15th

Face Covering Update

I wanted to take a minute to follow up with the districts update they sent out this afternoon.  Here are some follow up points I anticipate you might have. 

1. Will this apply to staff as well?  

A. No, staff still need to wear a mask indoors. 

2. As a teacher, how do you handle what happened today?  

A. We are considering the students who left class or were asked to leave class as unexcused absences.  When a student has an unexcused absence, you do not need to accept their work from today.  

3.  What does this process look like moving forward?

A. As an Admin team we are wrestling with the right way to do this while still honoring the new district direction.  In the final analysis, we will offer teachers two options.  One, you can send these students down to the AP Office.  We will speak to them, advise them that they should wear a mask in class.  We will write their name down and then send them back to class.  But it will be their choice whether they wear a mask or not moving forward.   Depending on how many students there are, they might be back in 5 minutes, or it might be much longer.  Or option two, you can advise them that they should wear a mask.  And if they continue not to, you can decide to let them stay in class.  

4.  For teachers with who are verified as medical fragile or live with a medically verified fragile individual, HR will direct me to enforce the mask mandate in their rooms.  However, this might lead to schedule changes and students getting moved into your classes which we have not traditionally not done this late into the semester.   But we will need to protect medically fragile staff members.

I know these are extremely challenging times that are testing all of us.  I know that personally, the last few weeks have been some of the most challenging of my career.  The emotional ups and downs and changes are overwhelming.  My hope is that as a school site, we can find ways to help each other through this.  

February 10th

Clubs Reserving Rooms

Club Advisors, if your club is going to use a space other than your classroom, you need to reserve that space with Sarah.  We have clubs that are reserving rooms and getting bumped by clubs that get there first and didn't reserve the room.   Thank you.

Social Media Update

The social media allegations of sexual assault over the weekend by OR students is continuing to be investigated by the Sheriff's office.  They were on a campus for a good part of the day yesterday interviewing witnesses and getting statements.  The Sheriff's Office is taking the matter very seriously and working to get accountability.  We continue to assist them when asked. 

February 7th

Social Media Issue

Over the weekend, a student from another school accused an Oak Ridge student of sexual assault on social media.  Other people on social media commented about experiences they have had with different boys as well.   These posts went "viral" in our area and there was a lot concern about this today.  I am pretty sure you heard the kids talking about it today and wanted to pass along what we know.

1. The authorities have been called and they are actively investigating this.

2. These acts happened outside of school and school time.

3. The Oak Ridge boy originally accused is being threatened on social media and has had vandalism done to his car.  At this time he is afraid to come to school.

4. Until law enforcement can sort this out, it is our responsibility to make sure that everyone is safe at school.

5. There are some students who want to see the school take immediate action against the accused and don't understand the legal process. 

As a school, we all want to do our part to help develop good people that care for others.  Developing good citizens is a mix of holding people accountable when they do wrong and creating a culture that respects right and wrong.   To that end, we will continue to monitor the situation and do what we can to assist. 

February 4th

Monday's Meetings Canceled

We have canceled the two scheduled meetings on Monday.  We had one thing to discuss and a district presentation.  But neither would take a whole meeting.  So since the survey results said one of the main things people needed right now was time, we will combine those presentations into our March meeting and provide everyone with the gift of time Monday morning and afternoon.  

A-G Rate Update

I want to share data with everyone as it comes in and gets updated.  Below you will see our 2020-21 A-G Rate (minimum UC/CSU entrance requirement) for last year compared to our two closest comp schools.  A comp school is one that is very similar to our school in most ways.  They factor everything from school size, to number of students in poverty, demographics, etc.  However, all schools were in different phases of reopening last year with COVID, so the comps only work so well during COVID years. 

• Oak Ridge A-G Rate: 74%

• Rocklin A-G Rate: 68%

• Granite Bay A-G Rate: 73%

Welcome New Member to Art/Mural Committee

I want to welcome Toby McIntosh to the school's Art/Mural Committee.  As you saw in our email the committee approves permanent student art on campus.  The purpose is to beautify our campus and bring student voice into the campus.  We are excited to bring Toby into the team.   The team will soon be working with a student on a mural proposal.  

February 1st

CAASPP Testing Schedule Update

The CAASPP testing schedule we approved last year for 2021-22 had us testing like in years passed.  We were going to use every day Tuesday through Friday between April 6th and 29th testing students.  This has historically taken a great deal of instructional time from three courses.   

However, the school Leadership Team has decided (rightfully so in my opinion) to move in another direction and use Flex Time for CAASPP.    Using Flex Time provides our school several advantages.  

1. We cut the number of days needed for testing in about half.

2. We are all impacted equally.

3. These three classes are not losing days of instructional time. 

We are waiting for some feedback from one department in particular.  Once we have that (in about a week,) we will push out the detailed plan and bell schedules.  But for now, please remember that the testing window is in between April 6th and 27th.   

Combating Graffiti

As you have seen from the Assistant Principal's emails and Parent Square, we have a serious graffiti problem happening right now in the bathrooms.  The Assistant Principal's and Campus Monitors are working extremely hard to stop this trend.  I refuse to allow our school to look this way.    We are going to get this stopped.

We took the first steps in that direction today.  One, we caught a student responsible for a lot of the graffiti.  We have been tracking the damage, so this student will have to pay for every tag he has done.  On top of that, he will be suspended and cited by the Sheriff's Office.  And due to the reward we put forward, we have one more promising lead.   

How can you help?

1. If you see students "tagging" their work get a copy of it to the AP's so they can see if it matches any of our vandalism. 

2. If you see a student with a "tagging" pen please pass on their name to the AP's so they can look into it.   "Tagging" pens are paint pens.  Some of them look a lot like other markers.  They are paint based and some do have a unique look.  

Flex Time Videos

Thank you for playing the Kindness video in Advisory today.  And thank you in advance for playing tomorrows.  We are working really hard to combat student behavior in and out of class.  When we went to our student leaders and some of our student groups, the thought was having a campaign designed by kids for kids.

I think we can all acknowledge we need to do work to get the culture and student behavior back on track.  This is one of the ways we are working to do that.  I have been experiencing an improvement in student behavior out at break and lunch and when I sub.  I really want to keep the needle moving the right direction.  I believe students working to create the culture we want is a powerful strategy.  I appreciate you making sure your students see the video tomorrow during flex.

January 26th

Play Nice Campaign

A new student campaign is starting today to continue promoting kindness.  The kids are working really hard to re-establish the culture we want on campus.  Our hope is to reduce student discipline issues in and out of class and to define the culture that we expect from students.  We will start to push out this video to students promoting the next Kindness event.   Video

Staff Survey

I want to start by saying the last few weeks have been really hard.  I would go as far to say they sucked.  I keep going because I have a faith that everything will get better and because our numbers of  new COVID positive staff and students continues to decrease.  

In working with the school Leadership Team the survey indicated that our biggest stressors are helping quarantined students, student discipline and needing validation. Here is how we have begun to address these:

1. Our students are doing a great job of having kids asking kids to help build the culture we want.  Our hope is if we stay vigilant, enforce the rules and keep this campaign going (started in November) we will see changes in student discipline. 

2. We changed the verbiage in our message to quarantined families asking them to not email teachers, but to simply go to Google Classroom to get the work they need.  I also hope that the extra pay you can get for helping quarantined students eases the blow a little. 

3. And instead of waiting for the monthly staff meeting, we are getting out and acknowledging people in the moment for the work they are doing.    We are using the About Me form info to sweeten the acknowledgement as well.   So if you haven't completed that form yet, you can just email Sarah what your favorite school appropriate snack and beverage is.  

January 21st

Mondays Faculty Staff Meeting Moved Online

Due to the surge in COVID cases I think it would be unwise for us the whole group to meet in person on Monday.  So we are going to move the meeting to Zoom.  I will follow up with a link to the after school 3:15 meeting either later today or Monday.  However, the agenda will not change and this is still going to be an important meeting I need everyone engaged in.  

You will receive an active shooter training from OES (Office of Emergency Services.)  There will also be a training on the impact that tobacco and nicotine in vaping devices is having on teens and how that manifests itself in your classroom.  The agenda and time can be found in the meeting tab above. The link can be found here: 

Monday January 24th, 2022

Zoom @ 3:15

https://zoom.us/j/6169164639?pwd=VWNYdVNqRjVtb0RrRmx0YVp0OWRDdz09

Meeting ID: 616 916 4639

Passcode: tz3YPa

Elective Fair Schedule Change

Annually we hold an elective fair at lunch in February so students have the chance to learn what elective options are available to them.  They get to ask questions and learn about electives they might not have known about.  Each year we add 10 minutes to lunch for this event to happen.  

With Flex Time, the Leadership Team decided to remove Flex Time for the Elective Fair day on Wednesday, February 9th.  We will take 10 minutes from Flex and add it to lunch.  We will take the other 20 minutes and distribute it across the other four periods that day.  This will essentially put more instructional time into each period.  We will be posting the official version of this schedule in the next 24 - 48 hours.  

Quarantined Students

I want to thank everyone for the work they are doing to help quarantined students.  I know it is taking a lot of additional time.  I am grateful for your patience and strength during this time.

I also want to remind everyone, that we need to keep our Google Classroom up to date when we have a quarantined student.  We can't have these students fall a week behind in any of their classes.  Thank you.

COVID Update

We started to see a significant drop in the number of COVID positive students and staff members (new cases) Thursday.  However, that changed again today.   There still appears to be a significant drop off in new student cases.  Hopefully that holds true throughout the day today.  But the number of staff members out is at a high today.  A lot of staff are out because their kids are sick as well.  I suspect we will see the normal Monday uptick as well because we will get all the positives from the end of today and the weekend.  Tuesday will be a better indicator of what direction we are heading in. 

Faculty Staff Meeting Monday After School

I want to remind faculty that we have an after school meeting Monday.   You will receive an active shooter training from OES (Office of Emergency Services.)  There will also be a training on the impact that tobacco and nicotine in vaping devices is having on teens and how that manifests itself in your classroom.  The agenda and time can be found in the meeting tab above. 

Copiers

We are very grateful that the district has supplied us with new copiers that are quicker and won't break down as much.  However, these copiers use more power than the old copiers did.  The copy room does not have the electrical capacity to run all of these machines at the same time consistently.  So we are adding power to that room in order to handle the upgrade.  It needs to be done, we can't run on old machines forever.  And it appears that copiers today just need more juice than old ones.  So we are biting the bullet and making the upgrade now.  We are going to make this happen as quickly as possible.  You just can't dream this stuff up.  

January 14th

COVID Update

I wanted to follow up with everyone and share some updates pertaining to the current COVID surge.  We are monitoring the numbers and how we might need to adjust.  As an example, we canceled the in person component of Open House yesterday. But I wanted to address some other areas of concern as well.

• Question: Will we have to close down and go virtual?

  • It is highly unlikely that will happen.  I cannot see into the future, but it would be very unlikely. Unlike smaller schools, we do have a large administrative team that can cover absences.  It is not desirable for administrators to be subbing all day or for classified to be covering for each other, but it is possible in the short term to get through a surge.  However, the possibility could exist where one afternoon we discover we cannot cover enough of our staff absences the following day.  

• Question: In the unlikely event that we did need to close school for a day or two, what would we do?

  • We would move to asynchronous instruction.  We would ask each teacher to post work in Google Classroom for the students to do at home. We would ask teachers to be available via email for questions.  Unfortunately, it would be late afternoon until we knew if we had a staffing problem for the following day.  Right now, the absence situation is unpredictable.  It has less to do with how many people we have absent, and more to do with how many total absences are in the county and how many subs are subsequently available.  My goal would be to try and predict the need and give people as much advance notice as possible.  However, I again do not see this as a likely outcome.  

• Question: Will our next staff meeting be in person?

  • It is too soon to tell. First, our next staff meeting is a safety presentation from our SRO based on the learnings from the last school shooting.  I believe that holding this type of meeting in person is the most effective way to train people.  However, we need to be cognizant of the risk and keep an eye on the situation.  We are still two weeks away from the next staff meeting.  So as we get closer, I will make a call on what we will do.  We could either postpone it a week or try to hold it in the large gym where we are spaced out.  I will explore those options more between now and then.

• Question: If I am out with COVID, am I using my sick days?

  • It is critical that when you are ill, have had a positive COVID test or have symptoms that you stay home and contact the school nurse immediately.  The nurse decides if this is a COVID case.  Once the nurse indicates that you are out due to COVID, they will also provide you with a return to work date/protocol.  A work related COVID case is covered and does not come from your sick leave.  However, many of these scenarios are complicated and must be discussed with the school nurse.  Amber Uber: auber@eduhsd.net 

I want you to know that our team is constantly thinking about and looking at these issues. We are always trying to predict what will come and how to set our school up for success.  

January 13th

Contact Tracing Change

On Monday, the number of COVID positive cases surpassed our ability to do contact tracing.  The current guidelines say we must notify families that they have a student who was potentially exposed and explain what they need to do.  Since we don’t have the ability to get into each room and measure desks with case numbers this high, we are notifying the entire class that they have been exposed and what they need to do as a result.  

At this point it is apparent that these case numbers are not going to decrease to a level we can individually contact trace any time soon.  However, we do have the desire to return to that model when we can.  This means that you do not need to keep seating charts until this passes.  I do want to remind you that at any time we could go back to needing you to keep the seating charts.  But until the case numbers have a significant decrease, we can save you time and suspend the need for the seating charts for now.  We will continue to  keep you updated on this matter.   I want to remind you that district case rates can still be found on the district website.

Left Over Test Kits

I want to remind everyone to please bring down any left over test kits to the staff lounge.  We have a large number of students at home with symptoms who would like to pick up their test from the office today.  Thank you.

January 12th

Open House Update

As we know, Open House is a big night for our school.  Besides the traditional Open House, we also have 8th Grade Parent Night, AP Night, Senior Information Night and a Special Education Parent Night.  

Because of the COVID surge that we are experiencing we are going to do the following.  

• Parents Visiting Teachers: Canceled

  • Teachers will not have to be present for Open House and no parents will be on campus.  Teachers will also not have to do this virtually.   So faculty does not have any obligation for Open House now.  

• 8th Grade Parent Night: Transition to All Virtual

• AP Information Night: Transition to All Virtual

• Senior Information Night: Transition to All Virtual

• Special Education Information Night: Transition to All Virtual

We will be sharing this with families in the coming days.  

One Change with Home Test Kits Tomorrow

At the end of first period you will undoubtedly have extras due to absences.  We are experiencing an influx of students who are out but need those tests right now.  So we are going to need to get the extra test kits back to the office tomorrow.   We would greatly appreciate you bringing extras to the staff lounge tomorrow when you come up for your mail.  We will have a box on the table to collect them.  Thank you.

Snow Day Make Up

In the coming weeks you will hear that the schools up the hill that were impacted because of snow will need to make up a school day.  The process is happening now to determine what that day will be.  The good news is that we obviously do not need to make that day up.  So Oak Ridge and Ponderosa will be off on whatever day the schools up the hill choose for their snow day make up.  

Oak Ridge Student in the Community

Oak Ridge sophomore Shawn Varshney spoke at the EDH Rotary Club and shared the Financial Literacy for You club he is President.  This club reaches out to middle schools to provides practical life lessons on finance.  They also work to build financial awareness with our students.  His club has spread to 10 other schools and he has trained over 50 student trainers in their curriculum.  There is a lot of power in students teaching students.  I was very proud of him getting out in the community and seeking support so they can continue to grow.  

January 7th

Staff Meetings/Collaboration

We were fortunate to be able to cancel the last few meetings.  We took the contents of these meetings and combined them into these upcoming meetings.  So instead of holding a lot of little meetings.  We will hold our normal meetings for January on the morning of the 10th and after school on the 24th.  The agendas for those meetings are in the meeting tab above.

Quarantined Students

I want to clarify and hopefully try and simplify your role with quarantined students.   The office is issuing and collecting Independent Study Agreements with quarantined students.  These agreements should have no effect on you.  The state has identified this as the new way to take attendance and collect ADA for quarantined students.  So our office is managing that so we don't lose out on ADA.  

Your role is to make sure students have access to your content when they are quarantined.  Simply keeping the days work on Google Classroom suffices.   We changed the language in the quarantine message to families yesterday directing them to access their teachers Google Classroom and not to email their teacher asking for materials.  Hopefully this will cut down on the number of emails you are getting right now.  

Grade Distribution

For the most part our grade distribution for the semester was amazing.  We were on par with previous (Non-COVID) years.  Teacher grades are the best indicator of student success.  And according to the grades, students are learning at pre-COVID levels and being successful.  Again, I can never thank you enough for what you do.  

January 3rd

Welcome Back and Thank You

I wanted to welcome everyone back to 2022.  I hope that everyone had a great break and is well rested.  These two weeks were so needed before heading into the spring.  I know breaks never feel long enough but I am thankful for what we get.  Hopefully everyone is well, and I look forward to seeing everyone Tuesday.  Here are a few quick updates for everyone.

1. The COVID testing for staff (and family) today was temporarily canceled by the vendor.  But it is back on from 2:00 to 6:00 pm today.  Here is the link to sign up.  

2. Thank you for the great power roll back over break.  97% of our rooms were properly powered down and "unplugged."  Reducing our energy consumption is a win-win for everyone.   We continue to have the highest percentage of "rolled back" rooms in the district year after year.  Thank you!

Welcome back!

December 17th

Reminders

Here are just a few reminders for everyone before you leave for break today:

• Please get your final to Sarah if you have a student doing makeups on January 3rd.

• Please unplug all unnecessary equipment in your classroom to conserve power.  Even if you aren't using them, please unplug microwaves, refrigerators, etc. for the break. 

• Whenever a threat of violence towards school happens we always allow parents to excuse their kids from school.  So today will be an excused absences for anyone calling out because of the Tik Tok threat. 

Happy Holidays

Have a great holiday season and a Merry Christmas.  From the bottom of my heart, I wish you and your family the absolutely best holidays.  Please take time for yourself and relax and replenish yourself.  Working with students is a special job but a hard job.  Having the time to get away and refresh is key.  I hope to see everyone back and ready to make 2022 a great year!

December 16th

Tik Tok Safety Update

Sadly, we are aware that there is a nationwide threat of school shootings happening on Tik Tok.  Law Enforcement agencies across the country are looking into the matter.   There is no indication that these threats are directed to any one school.  And as of now, there is no indication of where they originated from.   We are in touch with law enforcement about this matter and Dr. Carruth is aware as well.  He will be sending a message out to our families.  Although the threat is nationwide and vague, we will remain vigilant tonight and tomorrow.

Reminder: Holiday Lunch Today After School

A reminder that today after school in the cafeteria at 12:45 will be the staff holiday lunch put on by ASB and Administration.  We look forward to serving you food and dessert.  Please come and hang out with your colleagues either in the cafeteria or the outside seating.  We hope everyone can break bread with their peers and enjoy the company and season.   See you there.

December 9th

Missing Student

Sadly, I have to report that we have a missing student who is believed to have runaway.   The student's name is Brylee Bansuelo, a freshmen.   We are working with the Sheriff's Office and Brylee's friends to try and locate  her.  A community alert is going around on social media right now.  

December 8th

Active Shooter in the News

Whenever news of a school shooting happens it is always unsettling.  The unfortunate event in Michigan is no exception.  I feel that as an institution education has gotten good at practicing what we do once an event begins. But we don't do a lot of training on how to avoid the incidents.  Our SRO has been attending a lot of trainings as of late.  I am going to have him come in and do a proactive training for us.  In many cases there were clues that people saw and didn't report.  

The SRO has some information he would like to train us on.  However, we also want to make sure the training fulfills your needs.  So I have a survey that will ask you what you would like to learn more about.  Deputy Scarr is very open to taking your desires in advance and working it into the presentation.   If you have questions about how we can be proactive when it comes to active shooters, please share those in this survey.  We will get this training on the books for one of our meetings asap.

Final Exams Make Ups

As we did last year,  we will have an opportunity for students  to make up a final (or other assessments you have) over break  so they do not need to take them with you during the school day.  I have attached the directions for you can do this here.  But in short, direct the student/parent to sign up for a time slot to retake the assessment here.  Make sure to get the assessment to Sarah before going to break.  The completed assessment will be in your box when you return.  This system worked really well fo rus last year.  Teacher Kate Brown (math) will be running it for us this year on:

Session 1: Mon Jan 3rd 9:00

Session 2: Mon Jan 3rd 11:00

December 3rd

Monday Morning Meeting Canceled

The Leadership Team will work through the survey results that everyone took last week and come up with next steps.  But one of the desired solutions was loud and clear. You would like us to consolidate meetings as much as possible. We had two things to go over Monday (Retired Teacher Presentation and finalize our norms.)  But I can delay that until we return in January.  So the meeting on Monday morning is canceled.  

Wrapping Up a Great Week

I am reminded of how enjoyable this week was.  It started with our Girls Varsity Cross Country Team Coming in Third and State.  Then Paul shared the wonderful climax of the Marching Band and all of their accomplishments this season.  And we are now ending a week that was filled with Kindness thanks to ASB.  And next week we get to have Festive Spirit Days.   Enjoy the Weekend.

Save the Date

Remember to save Thursday December 16th after school for a holiday celebration with food and dessert.  We will get you more information soon.

November 30th

Kindness All the Time

Schools all over the country are grabbling with student misbehavior and bullying.   I don't pretend to be a sociologist, but the last year and half has damaged young people.  The behavior of too many students is unacceptable, in and out of class.   I know that teachers are feeling it as much as administration is.  

The Management Team decided that the student culture was not going to fix itself.  We have to work to get the culture that we want.  So we have empowered several groups on campus to have an impact on rebuilding the culture we want.  I am a big believer that students (with adult help) are the only ones that can truly change student culture.  

ASB has put together a great Kindness campaign.  I can't thank them enough for all the work they have put into the coming days and weeks.  Other groups are also going to follow.  Our goal is to continue to spread this message and in different ways and work until we get the student culture we want.   I am hopeful that if we all stay the course and support his movement, we will start to see an improvement in student behavior.   

Big Student Accomplishments Over Break

We had some big student accomplishments over break.  As you saw earlier, Marching Band wrapped up the best season in the school's history.  Under Paul's leadership, the program continues to grow and improve.  His team has created an elite Marching Band program.  

The Girls Varsity Cross Country Team raced in the State Championships Saturday in Fresno for Division 1.  Our girls have raced at this event before but never  placed on the podium until now.  It was a magical event, when our girls finished third in State for Division 1.  A huge thank you to the Cross Country coaching staff which includes Oak Ridge teacher Rob Fairley in Independent Study.   I was honored to be there to witness it on Saturday.  

Interim Plant Supervisor

I can't thank John Dawson enough for his years of service to Oak Ridge.  John is transferring to Union Mine to be there with his kids.  We will miss him tremendously.  John is truly a kind soul that everyone loves to be around.  He is leaving big shoes to fill.  

Until a replacement can be hired, Travis Walker is the Interim Plant Supervisor.    He will be working on your tickets and any other needs that you have.  

Check In Results

Thank you to everyone who took park in the Check In Questionnaire to help assess where we are  as a school.  Classified still has one more day to complete there questionnaire.  I shared the Faculty results with the Leadership Team (Department Chairs, Management Team) yesterday.  Once everyone has had time to digest the information, we will come back as a Leadership Team and plan next steps from what we have learned.  I will also share the Classified results with the team when it is complete.   I want to thank those who took it.  The information that was gained is invaluable.  

November 19th

Thankful

I know we are far from normal and there is a lot of controversies in education right now.  However, I choose to focus on the good things that are happening every day as well.  We do have a lot to be thankful for.  There are teachers, staff and coaches leading kids to excellence every day.  The examples are all around us.  We had a magnificent school play, a girls Volleyball NorCal Championship game,  etc.  

I personally feel thankful to work with each and every one of you.  I enjoy coming to work each day to be with the people.  So thank you for making this a place I enjoy coming to every day.  I hope everyone has a great holiday.  We are on the final stretch, after break there are just a few weeks and then finals.  You all deserve the rest this week.

November 17th

Message Home

A message went home tonight to parents with a student getting 2 or more F's or D's.  The message instructed those parents on how to use Flex Time to best help their students.  We shared that Flex Time is a good time to check in with classes they are struggling. 

Teacher Work Load Survey

A message went out to teachers today surveying them on their workload.  Our goal is to attempt to measure the increase in teacher work load this year and to find solutions.  We are currently working on a survey for our classified staff as well.

November 10th

Monday (15th) School Wide Now a Department Collaboration

We have nothing pressing for a school wide collaboration at this time so we are giving the time back to departments.  Please collaborate as departments on Monday morning.  

Veteran's Day

I hope everyone can get some rest tomorrow with the day off.  I know this is a very important day for many families.  Don't forget to reach out to the Veterans in your life and thank them for their service. 

November 9th

New Bells/Clocks

Thankfully the time has come for the school to get a new bell system.  The bell system controls the clocks and intruder alarms.  A vendor will be popping into each room on campus today for a few minutes to understand where the clock/PA is located in each room.  They will do everything in their power to not disrupt your class.  The whole process will likely will take them all day to complete on the whole campus.   Thank you for your understanding .  

November 5th

Finals Bell Schedule Complete

The Leadership Team has settled on a bell schedule for finals week.  With input from teachers we decided to make 7th period a one time testing block instead of a small block all week like in past years.  You can see the schedule here.  

Les Miserables

I hope everyone can find some time to attend the show this week or next.  The kids (and adults) have put a ton of work into it.  The sets are amazing.  I can't wait to go.

Congratulations to Band

The Oak Ridge Band had a successful band review at Oak Ridge last night.  The marching bands from all four schools in our district came together and performed for each other and the parents.  This has become a yearly tradition at Oak Ridge that we look forward to and last night did not disappoint.  The Marching Band has put together a great show this year with the music from Zorro.  Check out one of their upcoming shows if you can.

October 29th

Happy Halloween

Swing by the Admin Office and Counseling today and try to find Waldo.  We are all in the Halloween spirit.  There is also Halloween candy for everyone to help themselves to in the lounge.  I hope you enjoy the day on Sunday.  I love taking my daughter trick or treating.  It is the highlight of my year.   Office Staff Halloween Picture

No Mask Mondays

Many of us received the email about No Mask Mondays.  This is a movement that is trying to get teachers and students to not wear masks in school on Mondays.  This does not seem to be a centralized movement, so there are many different versions of it.  It is something happening across California and to a lesser extent some other states.  Some of the movements want staff and students to be defiant and refuse to wear a mask and refuse to leave their class.  If this were to happen here, we would follow a version of what worked successfully at Pondo last week.

Non Compliant Staff Member: 

• They will be asked to report to the Principals Office.  Not complying with the mask mandate at work will lead to a suspension and other consequences.  

Non Compliant Student: 

• If this happens to you call the AP Office.  They will remove them until their parent can pick them up.  It would be marked as an unexcused absence and the student will get a consequence.

• If the student refuses to leave the room.  We will move the class to a different room and the student can sit their alone.  They would be suspended and not allowed to return to school for several days. 

Ultimately, these things never go exactly as planned, and we will likely need to adapt as the situation evolves.  But we did meet about this today as a team and are prepared for the possibility.  

This Years Struggles

I think it is safe to say that the world will never be the same after COVID.  But most of the world has found a new routine and their work life is not as disrupted as ours.  But education and government agencies continue to struggle greatly.

The stress and the increased work load is being felt by every single person on campus.  We have to try and find a way to reduce this.  After talking with various faculty members around campus, I would like to start with a brief survey to collect some data and make sure everyone can be heard. So you will see this come out soon in a separate email. 

I also want to use Mondays meeting to break into  cross departmental groups and give everyone a chance to share out and collaborate on Flex Time best practices.  We will use the time as efficiently as possible.  

October 22nd

Reminder

Don't forget the School Wide Collaboration Monday morning at 7:45 in the MPR.

October 18th

Absence Numbers Today

Our absence numbers were around 24% today.  On a normal day, we have about 3% of students absent.  In speaking with the other Principals in our district today, I would say our district average will likely end up being a 40%-50% absence rate district wide.  

Walk Out Questions

I had several questions today about the students who did not attend today.  I wanted to share the answers with everyone.  One, how is it being marked in attendance records.  If parents gave us one of the 6 excuses the state says a parent can use to have their kid excused from school today, then they will be marked excused.  When a student is marked excused they are allowed to make up the work.  They have he number of days they missed plus one to get that done.  If they told us it was to protest, then it was marked unexcused.  It is not necessary to let a student make up work for an unexcused absence.  

Two, can you give extra credit to a student for being present today.  A grade cannot be impacted simply by a student being or not being present.  The grade has to be calculated on something students do, such as turning in work, participated in a class discussion, etc.  But it would not be appropriate to give extra credit to everyone who showed up today.  And anyone marked excused today would get the chance to make up a legitimate extra credit assignment (did something or turned something in.)  

Finally, it is important to make sure you treat today's absences like you do any other absence.  You can't have one standard for the student's out today and a different standard for the rest of the year.  You need to be consistent with your precedent.    

Accessing Student Confidential Data

Here is the link to the document I sent out earlier in an email.  It explains how and who can access confidential student records.  Thank you again for becoming familiar with it.  

October 15th

Reminder: Staff Meeting Monday 3:15 In Theater

This will be an informative meeting.  We will have Dr. Carruth presenting.  And we will have updates on Flex Time and Student Success Data.  

Thank You

Thanks needs to be given to the wonderful things happening around campus.  I want to share how thankful I am to Jen and ASB for the fantastic Homecoming week they put on.  Alyce Rogers and the whole counseling department pulled off the PSAT again.  They make something very difficult look easy each year.  And a thank you to TPSM for the lunch time rallies they are putting on in support of athletics.  

Reminder of Faculty Sub Pay

This is a reminder that the sub pay increase for the Faculty will begin on Monday.

October 14th

Homecoming Thank You

I need to thank everyone who worked and helped with Homecoming.  It was a huge success for students and a community hungry for social interaction again.  Our record for Homecoming ticket sales was 1200.  Last week we sold a little over 1500 tickets setting a new record.  The game was filled with a lot of positive spirit and the parade and rally  were a huge success.   I also want to thank all of those who made Staff Appreciation happen at the game.  I guess the old adage that you don't know what you've got, until its gone is true.  

Bell to Bell Instruction and Safety

Colleagues, it is important to keep students in class until the bell rings.  One, bell to bell instruction matters.  It shows the students that academic time is important.  it also prevents your colleagues classes from being distracted by kids walking down the hall with instructional time still left.  Second, we do not have supervision in place until the bell rings.  We cannot have a large number of students out of class without supervision.   Click here for a picture taken of the cafeteria line one minute before the bell rings.  Please do not dismiss your classes early for any reason.  

Reminder/Update Student/Staff COVID Testing

Many Oak Ridge families/staff have been opting for a rapid test to prove they are COVID free when out with symptoms.  The rapid test allowed these students to be back at school as soon as their symptoms passed.  However, the County will no longer accept a rapid test for students or staff.  They must take a PCR test which can take up to three days.   However, last year we experienced huge delays with PCR tests as the cold season ramped up.  We are fearful students will miss more school as the cold/flu season ramps up and PCR testing gets overwhelmed.  I want to remind everyone, that you can be paid after hours for meeting with students online and assisting them with work.  You would submit a time sheet with a list of students helped.  Thank you.

October 7th 

Staff Appreciation/Homecoming Game

We have 50 people signed up for staff appreciation tomorrow night at the Homecoming Game.  We look forward to giving them free food and the fun of Homecoming.   And I am being told that Bryce Mefford, the Oak Ridge alumni who swam in the Olympics this year, will be there for the Homecoming game as well.

Homecoming Dance Numbers

After COVID the students continue to have a thirst for all school activities.  The number of students in the Ozone is huge, the number of students taking part in spirit days is more than I remember.   And now we are on track to break our Homecoming Dance attendance record.   It is great to see students so involved in this part of school.  They really have a hunger for it.   Our record for this dance is 1200 students.  I know I am looking forward to holding this fun event outside for the kids.

Copy Clerk TAs

I am going to have to rescind my offer to have TAs in the office make copies for the faculty.  I have received a cease and desist order from the CSEA.  They believe we don't have the grounds to replace an employee with a volunteer.   At this time the matter is in the hands of our Human Resources office.  I apologize to the faculty who found this helpful. 

Updated Meetings at a Glance

Our meeting schedule was set before the district changed our day off from October 4th to the 11th.   We forgot to revise our meeting calendar when that change was made.  So please check Meetings at a Glance because it has been updated to reflect the needed changes.

October 1st

Bell Schedule Changes

October and November have several weeks that require a modified schedule for holidays or tests.  We worked with leadership and came up with bell schedules to accommodate those weeks.  Please visit the school's bell schedule page to view these changes.  (You might need to refresh your browser.)

Governor's Announcement

Governor Newsom made an announcement today surrounding vaccines and schools.  As always, the new mandate is raising a great many questions about how it will be carried out.  As more details come out, I will share them with you.  But as of now, I only know what is being reported in the news.  I will actively try to find reliable sources of information on this to pass forward.  Here is one article on the announcement.  

• Fact Sheet

Staff Appreciation at Homecoming

As Steve White shared earlier, the Administration and Athletics would like to celebrate you at the Homecoming Football Game on October 8th.  It has been another year of extremely hard work.  We hope you can come out, relax, have your family enjoy a meal on us and enjoy the festivities and alumni that come back to visit.  RSVP Here

September 30th

Access Student Info in Flex Time

The Flex Time program is ready to go and we will be starting up flex time in a gradual way in the coming weeks.  When students start to travel you will likely encounter students you do not have in class during your "study hall" days.  In order to provide you the information you need on these students and comply with FERPA guidelines, the district has created a shared drive with the important documents that you might need about students, such as health alerts.  That drive will be online and shared with you prior to students being allowed to pick their flex time option.  Please read this important memo from Tony Deville explaining how this shared folder is to be used. 

Student Copy Clerks Ready

We have trained some TA's on how to make copies.  We also showed them how the process works.  So I am optimistically cautious that we are ready to start accepting your copy requests.  We have never tried this with students before so please be patient with us if we need to work out a few kinks.  The biggest unknown is how many orders they can fulfill in a period.  I am not sure how fast they will be out of the gate.  But I think they will improve with time.  So here is a reminder of how the process works.

Trojan in the News

Check out Cross Country athlete Kayla Rutz in the news. 

September 29th

Staff Restrooms

It has come to our attention that restrooms being full is becoming an issue for staff.  It was also shared that part of the issue might be the loss of staff restrooms in the cafeteria staff lounge when the nurses office had to be moved there in order to meet COVID guidelines for a health center.  However, Amber and Deanna are open to staff members coming in and using those restrooms if they like.  

Copies

I have a couple of updates related to copies and the copy room.  One, the district is creating one central copy room for all schools to use.  You can email your copy to this copy center and they will send it back to the site in the district mail.    This should hopefully be up in 2 to 3 weeks. 

Two, the Riso machines are no longer worth keeping around.  When they break they are difficult to repair.  So I am meeting our Canon rep on Thursday to replace them with two Canon copiers that are under a service contract.

Three, I am starting to train office TA's to make copies on campus.  When we have trained kids and it is ready to go we will let you know.   Obviously,  we can't use them to copy assessments.  And I still don't know what the turn around time will be for them.  We have never tried this before.

Rally Venue

The Homecoming Rally (10/8) will be outdoors in the stadium.   We will be publishing more details on the schedule soon.  Basically, we will lengthen the Advisory period.  Half the classes will go to the first rally, and half to the second rally.  Both will take place during Advisory Time.  Please accompany your class to the rally to help with supervision.  Stay tuned for more information on when your class will go. 

September 24th

"The Oak Ridge Way" Feedback

Thank you to everyone for your participation in Monday's staff meeting and the activity that revisited our school norms and how we work with each and treat one another.  I think norms are incredibly important for any group.  And I believe they are more important than ever right now.  I wanted to share a summary of the input that came out of the activity.  Please click here to see the summary that we will address at our next meeting.  

WIFI Upgrade

Good news, our upgraded WIFI equipment that we ordered in May finally arrived. It was delayed due to the global chip shortage.  We have heard your frustration that the WIFI was slow or not allowing everyone on.  Over the last few days Noel and district personnel installed all of the equipment.  The final pieces were installed last night.   We should now have sufficient bandwidth to support all of our devices.   You should now see a significant improvement in performance.  

Submit Update to Bulletin/Show Bulletin

Please remember to show the bulletin to your Flex Time class once a week when you receive it in your email.  If you need to add something to the Bulletin, please submit your request here.  

CAASPP Update

Last year the CAASPP test was modified due to COVID.  The math and English test were reduced in size and lengthy by 50%.  The CDE is recommending that this reduction remain in place for this year.  

September 23rd

No School-October 11

I wanted to clarify and remind people that Monday October 11th is a non-school day.  Only  certain classified (12 month employees) and management come to work on that day,  

Faculty Site Council Representatives

Thank you to Angela Brown, Michelle Kite and Donna Martin for volunteering.  They will be representing the Faculty on our School Site Council this year.

Capturing Kids Hearts

A group of staff met today at lunch to talk about the potential of coming together and taking the next step with CKH.  There is an upcoming training for those who attended the first and want to do something more school wide.   I'm looking forward to it.  

September 21st

Welcome Maria Eyrisch

Please welcome Maria Eyrisch to our team.  Maria is replacing Denise Bonal  in the front office.  She is the official school greeter in the main office.  Please email Maria everything you would normally send to Denise.  Denise and her husband decided to move across country to Tennessee.  We will miss her tremendously, but we know Maria will do an excellent job.  I want to remind everyone that one of Maria's main responsibilities is maintaining and sending our weekly Parent Square messages. 

Model Trojan Luncheon

We have our first Model Trojan Luncheon for students and families this Friday.  We will be inviting the staff that nominated them as well.  These are always heart warming events.  If you want to nominate someone you can always do it in the Model Trojan tab in the menu at the top of the page at any time.

Daily Bulletin

You will start to see the daily bulletin come out again.  It will start as a slide presentation.  When the digital imaging class learns the video side of the class, they will begin putting out videos.  When you receive the bulletin presentation from Quinn Linkhart, please share it with your Flex Time class on Tuesday.  It is extremely important that students see these.  Remember, if you need to add something to the bulletin you can do that here: https://forms.gle/2qbZoHHE5ossV8ah9

September 17th

Monday Meeting

The agenda for Monday's after school meeting is in the Meetings tab above for your reference.  We will be moving our after school meetings to the MPR for the rest of this year at 3:15.  Please bring something to write with and your advisory roster.  

Restrooms

There is a Tik Tok Challenge that has students stealing school property to and showing it off in a Tik Tok video.  It is leading to school vandalism and thefts all over the country.  We are suffering a large amount of property damage and theft as well.  Often times these students are breaking things to get them off the wall and creating an unsafe/unclean environment in their wake.  So we are closing bathrooms until we can correct the problem.   Here is an article the Sac Bee wrote about this challenge. 

BtSN Thank You

I want to thank everyone for a successful Back to School Night.  I heard from several parents who were very appreciative of videos.  They appreciated how  professional the videos were.  They also felt that they learned what they needed to know to help their student be successful. So thank you for the time and care you put into making your videos and getting them up on time.  I appreciate how professional our staff is.

Flex Time Team Met Yesterday

The teacher/admin/classified committee that helped design Flex Time originally regrouped yesterday afterschool.  The group is meeting to discuss the  best path forward due to the dilemma with the Flex Time software.  We will continue to meet as much as needed.  Patrick and Brittany will be following up with the outcome of that meeting.  But things are progressing on the Flex Time front. 

Substitute Shortage

As we know, the labor shortage across the country is very real.  However, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Since the end of the federal part of the COVID unemployment increase, we have seen a big increase in job applications for unfilled positions on campus.  We went from zero applications in one position for months to having 8 in the last two weeks.  So we are hopeful that the county will now be able to find more substitutes.  

September 14th

Daily Bulletin

The daily bulletin will begin soon.  The bulletin will begin as a slide presentation to show your Flex Time Class on Tuesdays.  The bulletin will convert to video once the class is ready to for video production.  

In the meantime please submit items for the bulletin at the Student Bulleting Announcements link in the menu bar above or here.  Please remember that there is a board policy about doing the pledge of allegiance in class.  So the last slide will remind the class to do the pledge of allegiance.  

September 13th

Progress Report Follow Up with Parents

With Progress Reports, it is important to communicate with families if a student is struggling.  Please reach out and communicate with families that have a student earning an F in your class as of the Progress Report.  Parents need our assistance in knowing how to get their student back on track.  The message should contain the things the student can do in order to turn things around.  For your reference, here are two examples of templates sent out by other teachers. 

Back to School Night Wednesday

Don't forget to have your Back to School Night video posted in your Google Classroom stream by 4:00 on Wednesday.  I will copy you on the final BtSN parent communication that goes out.  You can reference the August 31st post below for all the details pertaining to this video.  

September 10th

Free Breakfast on Monday

We have free breakfast for everyone on Monday morning.  Chick-Fil-A has been generous and will bring free breakfast for everyone.  Come by the office lounge and  pick it up starting around 8:00.  We had a small agenda for our Monday collaboration, so we will postpone the Monday meeting and combine the contents to the after school meeting on the 20th.  This will give us time to enjoy the Chick-Fil-A breakfast.  

School WIFI

We are aware of the ongoing school WIFI issue.  We knew with the additional chromebooks that the WIFI infrastructure would need an upgrade. In early May equipment was ordered to make the upgrades over the summer.  But the equipment we ordered is suffering the same fate as new cars.  The manufacturer is telling us they can't get the computer chips they need to fulfill all their orders.  So we continue to wait for the equipment that should resolve our WIFI issue. 

CAASPP Test Shorter This Spring

The California State Department of Education approved a shorter version of the CAASPP for this spring.  They are claiming that their will be no loss in accuracy because of this.  Here is one article about it.   A shorter test will logistically make our jobs easier.  Of course we want the time to be well spent, and the accuracy to be there as well.

Student Behavior

We are struggling with student behavior this year.  We are seeing a large increase in student defiance and what I would classify as rude behavior.  There is definitely a significant difference between now and pre-COVID.  I know COVID has impacted all of us in a very negative way.  I know there is trauma from that for our students.  From my point of view, students are also pushing back on being back in a highly structured daily environment, now that life has been in flux for the last year and a half.  I am not a social scientist and I don't have all the answers.   But I believe that kids are kids and they are fundamentally the same people they were before COVID.  It is apparent to me that we are going to need to take definitive and concrete steps to rebuild the culture that we want for our students.  

Student Restrooms Closed

Male students are getting aggravated that we are having to close down some of the boy bathrooms.  They are complaining about lines and the inconvenience of searching for an open bathroom.  We are closing the restrooms because students are going in and doing massive amounts of damage in a short period of time.  The restrooms need to be closed until they are safe and sanitary again.  Unfortunately, a small number of students are making life difficult for everyone else.  

September 7th

Dress Code

We are struggling as a Management Team to enforce the dress code this year.  Unfortunately, the fashion trends this year do not comply with our dress code.   Our latest struggle is with equity and enforcement.  We are getting a very small number of dress code referrals.  However, a large part of our student body is not in compliance with the dress code.  It is very tough to enforce any rule when the majority of students attend classes all day and are never referred and then a handful are referred.  They ask the very real question of why me.  Is it equitable or even legal to enforce the rule with a very small number of students when the rule is not being enforced with the vast majority of students.  We are working to bring the dress code committee back together to discuss this issue.  

Community Generosity and Support

I wanted to share the generosity of our community and the support our parents have for the work you are doing.   The Foundations CCRC (same folks who feed us) asked the Department Chairs what teacher supplies they needed.  They then went out to the community and asked for donations.  What we received was overwhelming to say the least.  We needed trucks to move everything.   The CCRC has packaged (Mrs. Sprenger took the lead) it all for us and divided it up.  The department chairs have been notified so we can start to get it out to people.  The real takeaway here is just how much our parent community supports and values us.  

• Link to Pictures of Some of the Supplies

Faculty Site Council Site Rep

We still don't have any volunteers for the faculty site rep on Site Council.  If you are interested in attending this once a month meeting  (after school on the first Wednesday of every month) please nominate yourself at the link below.  Thank you.

• https://forms.gle/qD9DoopfFtrzS8fd9

Football Game Friday

I want to share why the Football game on Friday did not happen so everyone is on the same page.  The air quality was good enough to play on Friday.  However, Lincoln of Stockton made the call at 2:00 to not get on the bus. They felt the air quality would not improve at that time.  We pleaded with them to at least send their Varsity team.  Having lived these trends for weeks now we saw that the quality was improving by the hour and the forecast had us in a good place  come the later afternoon. So we did not cancel the game.  The other team canceled and would not adjust the decision they made at 2:00.  

Air Quality

We continue to keep the cafeteria closed on days where the air quality is not unhealthy.  It has become impossible to keep a safe environment as it pertains to mask compliance.  On days that the air quality is unhealthy, we open the cafeteria (and MPR if needed) for students who would like a reprieve from the smoke.  

September 2nd

Schedule Vote

The vote was 11 Yes and 56 No.  So we will keep the schedule with Flex Time in it.  The sentiment I kept hearing from teachers today was how much the students appreciated it.  I love that the students are bought into it and teachers want to help them keep it.  Once we get the software in place and student choice is built into it, the usefulness will grow even more.  

PSAT Bell Schedule

The PSAT this year lands on a Wednesday when we have the Monday off that week.  So what we normally do for this week won't work.  The Leadership Team discussed the matter and agreed upon this schedule for the week of October 12-15.  

August 31st

Back to School Night Update

BtSN will be very much like last year.  Given the limitations of COVID, BtSN was very well received last year.  However, we did learn a few ways to make it even better.   In Leadership yesterday we discussed the day to post the videos and some other best practices.  I have also listed the expectations for the videos below.

• When: Wednesday. September 15th 

• Time: Videos must be posted by 4:00PM on September 15th

• Where:  Videos need to be posted in your Google Classroom.  Please add them to the stream no earlier than the 14th so they don't get buried.

• How:  

  • The  District has supplied everyone with Screencastify.  You can use other editing tools if you want.  But we are only offering support with Screencastify.  Rob will be sharing more info for those who need a refresher on how to use it.

  • We will explain to parents, the same way we did last year, that they should sit down with their child, and have them open up each Google Classroom and watch the videos together. 

Video Expectations: Please make sure all of the elements below are contained in your video. 

1. The name of the course and what students will learn this year

2. Share a little about you, you can talk about your qualifications or why you teach this subject, etc.

3. Explain your approach to classroom management

4. Share how homework is done in your class and what type of work you assign for home

5. Explain your grading policy and how it works (weighted or not weighted, late work, etc.)

6. Explain how parents can help their student be successful

7. Include how families can find your syllabus 

8. Include how families can contact you if they have follow up questions

9. And finally, as you always do, let parents know that you care about the success of their student.  Ultimately, parents just want to know if their child will be cared for when in your class.

Smoky Day Late Start Schedule Finalized

In Leadership yesterday we settled on this bell schedule for any future late starts due to excessive smoke.  There is only one slight adjustment from the previous version.  So please use this updated version.  Let's hope we don't need to use it.

Flex Time Manager

I wanted to apologize for Flex Time Manager not working as planned.  When we piloted this product last year it worked perfectly.  But over the summer the company released a new version that has a great many problems.  At this time, Patrick and I have no confidence that they can fix it any time soon.  We explored a competitor today but they would need 3 weeks to implement it.   I refuse to allow this time to degrade into babysitting and essentially headaches for everyone.   Student behavior and expectations for this period will begin to erode if we don't do something.  

At lunch today, I was able to meet with our Faculty Site Reps.  We agreed that the best solution is to remove flex time from the bell schedule for the remainder of the first quarter.  We will distribute the minutes back into the other academic classes.   By the start of the second quarter we will have the technology tested and ready.  At that time we will revert to our bell schedule with flex time in it.  This schedule (without flex) will begin on Tuesday September 7th (we have Monday off.)  Here is the temporary schedule.  I will be sharing this news with families tomorrow.

August 27th

ORHS Students Make a Difference

Oak Ridge High School freshmen Phoebe Yonano, Ella Hoy and Ariana Thakur enhanced the learning experience at a local park in Placerville as part of their Girl Scout project.  Congratulate them if you see them. https://www.mtdemocrat.com/prospecting/scouts-learn-life-lessons-through-service/

Smoky Day Late Start

Due to feedback and collaboration with other districts our District has decided to institute a late start for days with excessive smoke.  Looking at the forecast, the District will make the call the night before.  If we call a late start, this will be the schedule that we use for now.  I will run this proposal by Leadership on Monday to get a permanent one in place.  The late start will always start at 10:30.  I do not yet know what the AQI forecast needs to be in order for the late start to be initiated.  

August 24th

Supporting Those Evacuated by Fire

Our community provided a tremendous amount of support for local fire victims.  We have boxes and boxes of supplies for the Red Cross.  We received a large amount of Target and Safeway gift cards that we are disseminating to staff who have been evacuated from their homes today.  We will be sharing these with the other sites as well.  We are so grateful to our community. When we need them, they come through for us.

Flex Time Expectations

Establishing the right culture for your Flex Time Tutorials and Study Halls is the difference between this working and not working for students and staff.  From day one we have to establish what this looks like for students.  This is academic time and should be treated as such.  There should be some academic urgency for students to get school work completed.  Each of us has to set up expectations and enforce them. We have set up some guidelines that you can use.   There are slides here designed to share with students and slides designed to inform you.   Feel free to share the student slides with them.

But each of us needs to do our part for this to work.  Each faculty member must:

• Create Activities for Each Flex Day

• Allow 35 Students in Your Study Hall (if you need more chairs, let Rob Slinger know.) 

• Use Tutorial Time  to  Call in Struggling Learners and Assist Them

Starting Flex Time

Flex Time is going to be a huge success on our campus.   A lot of people are working really hard to make sure it is. But no change this large happens without growing pains.  There is no doubt that unforeseen obstacles will pop up.   When they do, please accept students into your class and share the issue with Patrick.  We will then work on resolving it.  By the time we complete next week we will have a finely tuned machine working.  I want to thank you in advance for your patience.

Supply Locker

Right before the fires we asked our parents to donate school supplies that your department chairs requested.  We received an overwhelming amount of donations for classroom supplies.  The CCRC is organizing them all and getting ready to bring them to department chairs.  Our community truly values what we do and supports us. 

Technology Repairs

A member of our IT department has been forced to evacuate and finding it challenging to get to work.   So this has caused a slight delay in getting some tech needs addressed.  However, we are lucky on two fronts.  One, Union Mine is going to loan us their Micro Tech to assist us.  Secondly, Rob Slinger has dove in and been working harder than anyone I have ever seen at repairing what he can on his own.   

August 20th

Public Wifi Update

We have decided that the chromebooks in many locations are too slow right now to not take some type of corrective action.   We have enough bandwidth to run all of the chromebooks.  We are discovering another more technical problem we had not anticipated.  So we are purchasing the equipment we need to correct the problem.  But temporarily we are shutting down the public wifi.  This will get the student devices off the network and create the space needed for the chromebooks to work at an acceptable speed.  It will likely take one to two months for the long term solution to be implemented.  We are not blind to the fact that shutting down the public wifi will create some issues.  But we believe the greater good and the useability of the chromebooks should take priority right now.

Air Quality/Football Game

Right now we are on the cusp of the air quality falling below 150 API and being able to play.  We have decided to keep the game going.  We will make a game time decision on whether to cancel.  The logistics in moving the game to Saturday is huge.  We are not even sure how to overcome some of the obstacles.  So both schools want to try and hold the game tonight.  

When is Cafeteria Open at Lunch

It has been very difficult to enforce masks in the cafeteria at lunch time.  So we have kept it closed.  However, when the smoke is above 150 API we open the cafeteria so students have a place to go indoors to escape the unhealthy smoke.  

August 19th

School Wide Collaboration Monday

I wanted to share a few friendly reminders for Monday.  We will have our first school wide collaboration Monday morning in the MPR.   Everyone will need to be properly masked for the entirety of the time.  We will be logging into Flex Time and learning how to use it on Monday.  You can find the agenda on the meeting tab above. 

Wifi Issue

We have been working as fast we can with our district IT team.  They have been analyzing our bandwidth and trying to determine solutions.   We have a lot of additional chromebooks on campus but the site should have been able to handle it with the capacity that we have.  What is chewing up our bandwidth right now is all of the personal devices accessing our public wifi.  As we analyze the data it would appear there are more devices on the public wifi than there are people in some places.  So some students must have multiple devices connected to the public wifi.  

The long term solution is adding more bandwidth to our campus.  We are starting to work on that, but it won't happen in the short term.  To get us to that point, we are going to shut down the public wifi in most classrooms and see if this corrects the problem.  The network that the chromebooks work on will obviously remain on.  Our long term goal is to get more bandwidth and turn the public wifi back on.   I will let you know when we start this.  

Vaccine/Testing Requirement

I want to make sure I am providing you with updates on this topic.  As we all know the state has put the mandate on schools to have all employees either vaccinated or tested weekly.   The state has given district's until October 15th to determine who is vaccinated and who will need to be testing.  The testing will also need to be in place by October 15th.   Our district is currently securing a company that can administer testing.  

Student Population

As of today our total student population at Oak Ridge is 2513.   This is over what the demographic studies has us pegged at by 80+ students. 

August 17th

Important COVID Process

If a parent were to call you and share that their student is COVID positive, please follow these steps.  We need to make sure that all cases are captured and nothing falls in between the cracks.

1. Ask them if they have notified the school nurse or attendance.  If they say no, please remind them to call the school nurse at ext. 7114.

2. Then please notify school nurse, Amber Uber (auber@eduhsd.net) about the student in case the parent doesn't follow up.  Thank you.

Back to School Night Update

Back to School Night is being postponed.  The decision was made as a district  today that we will postpone BtSN until September.  The date is yet to be determined.  Between now and then we will work to get everyone access to Screencastify and we will make videos to share with our families like last year as opposed to having families on campus.  I will have more information on this as we get closer to the day. 

Fire

The new Caldor fire is already having a horrible impact on our district and site.  Oak Ridge has 4 staff members who have been evacuated from their home.  The count across the whole district is much larger as you can imagine.  As of this writing, we know of 3 district employees who have lost their homes.   We cannot run many of our bus routes up the hill.  And many of our bus drivers are evacuated and can't drive.  

As of this writing we have no way of  knowing how many students have been evacuated or lost their homes.  But the numbers of evacuated students will be large.  Our district it working all night to determine if we have enough staff left up the hill to open El Dorado and Union Mine on Wednesday.  I am proud of our site today because we all covered for those who had to leave early to either evacuate or to assist a family member in evacuating.   As a district and site we will do what we always do, we will band together to help each other out.  

August 13th

Thank you for Week 1

Thank you to everyone for a successful first week.  The start of any year has waves, but this years waves were small and manageable.  In the end, the kids felt a warm welcome and I want to thank everyone for that.   We are making a two master schedule adjustments today.   All impacted parties are already aware of the changes.  But that should be the last of the large master schedule changes.   So make sure to have a well earned and relaxing weekend.  

Monday After School Staff Meeting Canceled

The staff meeting scheduled after school on this Monday the 16th is canceled.  It was put in place in case we needed it.  However, we have covered everything we needed to.  However, please don't forget that Monday  is our first AM faculty collaboration wit your department starting at 7:45AM.  

Staffing Update

We are significantly short staff on the classified side of the house.  We continue to look for employees for Food Service,  Campus Monitors, Bus Drivers, etc.  We also have one last teaching position to fill in Special Education.  But we are close to filling that.  

Indoor Mask Process

I wanted to post the Indoor Mask Protocol that I shared in my email today.  

• Indoor Mask Protocol

Picture Day

Thank you to Jen Slinger and ASB for setting up Picture Day yesterday and today.  They had a solid plan in place, but unfortunately the photo company struggled to execute it today.  So we now have a number of students who did not have time to get their pictures taken.   So we will need to come up with a plan B to address this.  

August 12th

Oak Ridge Graduate on America's Got Talent

Recent graduate Charlene Duong has been on America's Got Talent.  Read the story about her rise in the world of Taekwondo.  

Parking/Pick Up and Drop Off

I copied all of you on my message to the community today.  Last April we became keenly aware that our 8:30 start time combined with Rolling Hills mandated 8:30 start time has made our already bad situation worse.  Over the summer we started working on it.  We met with District Facilities and the Department of Transportation.  We have identified a funding stream that we can use on a potential solution.  The proposal involves major changes to the Admin parking lot and revisiting the flow in the other lots.   

Cafeteria at Lunch

The cafeteria was open on the first day of school for sitting down and eating.  The number of students not wearing masks was unacceptable and trying to enforce it was problematic.  So we closed the cafeteria Tuesday and Wednesday to send a message.  We tried again today and there was no improvement.  Unfortunately, this behavior is preventing the cafeteria from being a safe place for students to be.  So we are shutting it down for 3 or 4 days this time.  We will consider opening it again mid-week and giving it one last try.   Students can still enter to purchase food, but they can't loiter or stay inside.  

August 11th

Clubs in Person

We are allowed to hold clubs in person again at lunch.  Please be sure to maintain all masking requirements when you do.

Quarantines

We already have some students who are on quarantine.  Like last year, you will receive an email from either Denise Bonal or Jessica Womack saying the student will be out.  Any work you can send home is appreciated.  Or directing the student to your Google Classroom where there is work is another good alternative.  We will also use Flex Time to help us catch these students up once it starts.   We will do any contact tracing that is necessary from quarantines.  So once again, please keep accurate seating charts that are easy to find after hours.  Thank you.

Advisory Video

If you ran out of time to play the Advisory video from today lesson, please find time to play it tomorrow.   This video is very important for the students to see this week. 

Governor School Vaccine Mandate

Our district is aware of the Governors new mandate on vaccines he made today.  It will take some time to go through the fine print.  On the surface it looks like all school staff need to either be vaccinated or tested once a week.  But we are not entirely sure of the details yet.  We will keep everyone updated as we learn more.  This is a big issue that will need to be implemented with care and thought.  

Faculty on Site Council

Please complete this form if you wish to nominate yourself for a position on the school Site Council.  If more people apply than we have positions, there will be a run off election.  The school Site Council is either an elected or selected group of parents, students and faculty members.  The Site Council meets to approve the schools categorical budget expenditures, help form school goals and provide input for the schools LCAP (local funding) report.  The group meets after school once a month during the school year.  

• Nomination Form

August 10th

Day 2

We only had one student sent down today for not wearing a mask.  And after speaking with their parent they determined it was in their best interest to start wearing a mask again.  I was able to walk around and get into a lot of Advisory classes today.  It was so great to see the cultures that were starting to develop.   Our goal is to increase the number of students who state there is an adult who cares about my success on the Healthy Kids Survey. We also want to achieve our goal of teaching  students the skills they need to manage their emotions.  

Lunch Line

Joyce and her team are working incredibly hard to get the lunch line down.  They opened up a second serving location today despite being down people.  I think this is really going to help moving forward.

Class Sizes

We continue to work on class sizes.  We will have a final count on our "no-shows" today.  We will use this data to remove these students and start to balance classes to the best of our ability.   We will also see if we get extra sections or not. 

Student Logins

We are sending more detailed information home to families today on how their student logs in at school.  We hope this will help some of the confusion the freshmen have.

Feel Good Message

I received this uplifting message from a new parent today: "My sons came home from school yesterday. It was their first time on a physical campus since March of 2020. One is a senior, the other a sophomore. Fellow classmates went out of their way to welcome them, and one even gave my oldest a quick tour of the campus before the morning bell. These are just some of the reasons why I feel incredibly blessed to live here. We left the Bay Area and came to EDH knowing no one a couple of months ago, but the kids you're supporting at Oak Ridge made my sons feel a sense of belonging. Thank you for supporting such kind human beings. Wishing everyone a safe and memorable school year."

August 9th

Success

We did not have one student sent down today for refusing to wear a mask.  I know this only happened because our staff counseled many kids into it.  I greatly appreciate your efforts.  There were some small waves today but we got through them.  Overall, I feel it was a really successful day.  I wanted to share some updates with you.

Cafeteria: The kids were hard to manage when it came to masks in the cafeteria today.  So w are closing the cafeteria tomorrow to show students that masks in the cafeteria must be taken seriously.

Bells: We apologize, the bells were set and ready to go.  When the time came they reverted to last years schedule which is deleted from the system.  We are at a complete loss.  We have a call into support to help us.

Freshmen Logins: Due to us running out of numbers in student IDs, our district technology committee decided to switch just the freshmen class over to State ID numbers as part of their computer/Google login.  This is a larger number.  However, it came to light today that students don't have access to that number.  The district is aware and trying to make that number show on their end.  In the meantime, Patrick was nice enough to share the login information with everyone so you can assist any struggling students in the coming days.  This will not affect the upper class people.  

Class Sizes: We are aware of large class sizes. In April the district projected that student enrollment would be at 2438.  As we got to the end of May Jon Pratt and I felt that number was way off.  We advocated with the district and did not get additional sections.  They believed the 2438 number would come to pass.  On Friday we hit 2604 enrollments.  The district gave us four sections.  After clearing out the "no shows" today we currently sit at 2568 students.  This puts us way above 2438 and in need of additional sections to bring class sizes down.  We are working with the district as we speak on how many sections we need.  But this will not happen over night or without some upset students having their schedules changed.   Our site did try and prevent this.  We will now do the best we can to minimize the tumult.

I know that looks like a lot of issues.  But as first days go, today was really good.  Everyone did an amazing job with the high numbers and students felt supported and taken care of.  Today was a success because of all of you.  Thank  you.

August 8th

What to do If You Are Sick

If you are feeling ill, please use frontline to call in sick and arrange a sub if needed.  Then call our school nurse Amber Uber to discuss your symptoms and when you may return to work at 916-933-6980 ext. 3030.  

Process for Students Who Won't Wear a Mask

Ask all students without a mask to put one on.  If they still choose to not wear a mask please send them down to the office and complete the online discipline referral form so we know they were sent down.  

Adding Sections

We have broken passed 2600 students.  Not all of these students will show, but it is still the highest number we have ever started with.  In response, the district has provided us with additional sections.  We are working to add them in as we speak.  As soon as this is done we will roll the master schedule so you have access to your rosters.  We apologize for the delay that the additional sections have caused.  

June 7th

AB 104

AB 104 has passed the Assembly and shall be voted on by the Senate. If Newsom signs the legislation, we will have 20 days to notify families of the opportunity to change any letter grade to Pass/No Mark from 2020-21. In addition, students may earn a diploma by passing the State minimum requirements.

SUMMARY: This bill, an urgency measure: (1) requires local educational agencies (LEAs), upon receiving a request, to offer the parent a consultation regarding whether a pupil should be retained; (2) creates a process for parents to request that students receive a “pass” or “no pass” instead of a letter grade in the 2020-21 academic year and requires that specified institutions of higher education accept a “pass” for credit for admissions purposes; and (3) requires that students who were in their third or fourth year of high school in the 2020-21 and who are not on track to graduate in the 2020–21 or 2021–22 school years be exempted from local graduation requirements and be given the opportunity to complete the coursework required for graduation.

Link to more information:  https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB104&showamends=false

Final Make Ups

I want to thank Marc Rubalcaba and Kate Hewett for all of their work last week with final make ups.  The bulk of students completed final make ups last week.  We did have 8 students who were quarantined last week as well.  So they will be taking their finals with me this week.  But we should be done with them in the next couple of days. 

Textbook/Chromebook Return Not Good

As of the last day of school we still had $107,905 in textbooks and chromebooks that have not been returned.  Obviously, we have no ability to replace that many books and devices.  The front office staff is working diligently on getting them all returned asap.

May 28th

Bell Schedule Update

The proposed bell schedule passed with a majority vote.  However, Jon and I need to work out some logistics with the schedule.  The Faculty Association brought to our attention that this schedule will only work if those teaching a first or second don't also have a 7th per contract language.  If we can't logistically do that, then the schedule is voided by the contract and we go back to the previous schedule.  Jon and I should know this soon.  New Schedule

Check Email

It will be in your best interest to periodically check your work email.  Next week sometime we will likely have schedule updates for you.  I will likely need to make some adjustments to our Meetings at a Glance schedule as well. and push that out.  If you have students doing a make up test, we will communicate with you via email as well.  

Scholarship & Athletic Award Nights

Our school had an enthusiastic in person Scholarship and Athletic Award nights this week spaced out in the large gym.  The end of the year is the time to celebrate the accomplishments of our students.  From Student Achievement Awards to Scholarship and Athletic Awards we were able to truly celebrate so many students and honor their hard work this year. 

I want to take this opportunity to thank several people for making this happen.  Alyce Rogers was the key organizer and decorator of our Scholarship Award Night.  She found a way to make the large gym look regal for the event.  Steve White, Amber Heinlein and Janet Hallare did a fantastic Athletic Awards ceremony last night that felt more like a professional awards show than high school event.  And a lot of these events are supported by Kate Hewitt and Terri Moore.  Their fingerprints are all over these events.  Kate and Terri really designed and made our Year End Celebration Wednesday a reality.  I am forever in their debt for how good they make everything look.

Summer

I couldn't be more excited for a new school year.  I know this one is just ending and we need to step away and rest and repair before even thinking about next year.  But next year is sizing up to be the unicorn year.  It will be impossibly perfect.  The COVID money is going to allow us to take part in a lot of professional growth.  Next year you will have the opportunity to learn:

Capturing Kids Hearts: 

• How to Open Hearts and Minds to Learning 

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): 

• How to design lessons and units in ways that all students can access.

Flex Time: 

• We are going to get the opportunity to have time to meet with struggling kids and help them get back on track.  Or to even help our advanced kids get even better.  But even more, it will buy time to breath. 

I am really excited about the possibilities.  And with any luck, things should be a lot closer to normal next year.  We will be eagerly awaiting the Governor's June 15th announcement to see the impact that will have on education.

The state budget and our district budget is looking really good for next year as well.  If the current proposal passes, there is a large COLA on the horizon.  There is truly a lot to be grateful for next year.  So go into this summer knowing that you educated kids in an impossible situation.  And now we can rest, knowing that next year is shaping up to be one of the best and most prosperous on record.  No group of people has ever deserved a break more than you.  Go into the summer knowing that you did an incredible job that no words can describe.   I am so proud of our school. 

May 24th

Published Student

Eleventh grader, Daela Montgomery has written and illustrated a special children's book called Speckles and the Worry Clouds, which is now available on Amazon for $7.00! It's a powerful little book about childhood anxiety and how to overcome it with practical tools.  https://www.amazon.com/Speckles-Worry-Clouds-Daela-Montgomery/dp/B08YDD2SLH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3N1NJQWQIZKVN&dchild=1&keywords=daela+montgomery&qid=1621884439&sprefix=daela+%2Caps%2C209&sr=8-1&asin=B08YDD2SLH&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1

Quarantined Students/Finals

I wanted to share one additional option for teachers.  It is within your power to waive a final for a quarantined student.  I am not trying to push this, I just want to make sure everyone knows all of the options available to them.

May 21st

Rotary Teacher of the Year

Hugh Corkery has won the EDH Rotary Teacher of the Year Award.  He will be honored at a ceremony on June 2nd.  Every teacher went above and beyond this year and Hugh is not exception.  Hugh has taken on coaching the Speech and Debate team which requires a lot of weekends and after school work.  He has accepted responsibility for the Military Send Off that we do every year.  He is one of those teachers that comes out to games just to watch his students play. The Rotary made an excellent choice, Hugh is a great example of a model teacher.  

Flex Time Coordinator

I was overwhelmed by the amount of people who volunteered to be the Flex Time Coordinator next year.  We had an embarrassment of riches.  Patrick and I spoke with everyone and Brittney Lansford will be our Flex Time Coordinator next year.  But I can't thank everyone enough who put their name forward.  The conversations with everyone where great and I learned something from all of them.

Grading Window & Quarantines

Reminder, the grading window will close at its normal time.  However, if you have a student who is having their year extended into the first week of summer because of quarantines, don't forget to give them an incomplete.  After the student is done, you will update their grade with Kathy Schults by June 4th.  Don't forget, you will be paid hourly for this.

Quarantined Student Academic Protocol

Faculty, please don't forget to familiarize yourself with this protocol if have a quarantined student in the last two weeks of school. 

Model Trojan Awards

We are having our final student Model Trojan Awards after school today in the MPR.  We will be recognizing 13 students put forth by the staff.   I love all of the end of the year celebrations that happen. 

May 13th

Graduation Guests

In order to make sure we are complying with the state's guidelines on graduation, we had the fire department come out and give us a capacity ruling for the stadium for a seated ceremony.  We took that number and applied it to the guidelines that the state issued on graduations.  It came out to us being allowed to have 4.09 guests per graduate.  So we will allow each graduate to bring 4 guests.

End of Year Celebration

Save the date, we are going to hold an end of year celebration as a staff after school on the last Wednesday (5/26) of the year like we always do.  Please plan on it being an hour. 

Military Send Off Today

Our Military Send Off Ceremony will happen today at lunch in the Large Gym.  All staff are invited.

May 10th

Seniors and The Last Day

Traditionally, seniors spend the last day on campus taking part in celebrations and graduation practice.  That time counts as time on campus and instructional minutes traditionally.  Without those events this year, we will be instructing seniors to attend all of there classes on the last day so we technically have all of our instructional minutes. 

Staff Meeting Reminder (Next Monday)

This Monday we have an AM staff meeting online.  We will have two topics.  One, we will discuss everyone's role in graduation.  Two, Dr. Carruth will be presenting to us.  The meeting is 7:45 to 8:30 and the link is here:  meet.google.com/cbd-qvco-gyn

May 6th

Make Up Days After Finals

As we know, we currently have assessment make up times when quarantined students return.  This will prevent them from missing additional class time to assess.  

We have also scheduled make up days the first week of summer for any student who missed the last week of school due to quarantines.  This time was set up for final make ups.  But you can have students make up anything.  The make ups will need to run out a whole week to make sure students have time to get off quarantine and make up assessments.  You can sign students up here as you need to. 

Make Up Time

Every Day Tues June 1 to Fri June 4

9:30 to 11:30

Classroom I-6

If you sign a student up for this make up time, you will be paid the hourly rate to grade this work and add it into Aeries and update the students grade if necessary with Kathy Schults.  

Technology Resources

The District is bringing a proposal to the Board on Tuesday to approve a large purchase of additional Chromebooks and licenses for education programs for next year.  We won't know the exact amount until the Board decides on a final figure on Tuesday.  But this is looking to be a large infusion of technology into our schools.  The District has heard from teachers that they have built an effective online learning environment and would like to maintain that post COVID.  So they are investing what they can into supporting that. 

May 5th

Teacher of the Year

Oak Ridge is fortunate to have great community support.  Each year our Rotary Club chooses an Oak Ridge teacher to honor.  And our district has also started the first annual teacher of the year program.  With your nominations, we were able to look at all the tremendous candidates.  I am proud to announce that Kim May received the most nominations, is an incredible teacher and as part of the new district program is our schools Teacher of the Year for 2021. Please congratulate Kim when you see her.  Kim works endless hours, mentored new teachers, designs excellent lessons used by others, her students love her and so much more.  We are lucky to have her.  Kim will be honored at the next board meeting on May 11th at Union Mine High school at 6:30.  Rotary will be announcing their teacher of the year soon as well. 

STEM Fair

This year we had a group of student very interested in STEM start the first STEM Fair at Oak Ridge.  When I first met with these students I thought they were incredibly audacious. I couldn't believe that for their first year they wanted to invent an online virtual STEM Fair.  But they did it.  They had the support of many teachers throughout the process.  But Paul Kuzmich and Casey Rhyan helped them a lot.  Students filmed themselves doing science and sent it in to  be judged.  They then put it all together in a YouTube video and winners were awarded.  Follow the link to check it out.

Internet and Phone Problems

We are sorry that some people are still experiencing internet and phone problems. The power outage and surge when the power returned has wrecked havoc with our system.  Something is not working correctly and we cannot identify what that is.  We have all hands on deck and are doing everything possible to get the problem corrected.  I want everyone to know that locating the issue is our school's and district's top priority.

May 3rd

Teacher Appreciation Gift

Our fantastic parent group, the CCRC arm of the Foundation, has put Teacher Appreciation gifts in everyone's box.  They appreciate that everyone on campus is helping to educate kids and should be recognized.  So come down tomorrow and see the surprise in your box.

Prom

I want to take a minute and thank Jen Slinger and her Student Leadership class for the work they putting into making Prom happen at the Stadium Saturday Night.  The kids who attended had a great time.   This year has been defined by adapting quickly to changes.  And Prom can be described in that same way.  They were able to move quickly with new guidance and provide students with an opportunity no one felt they would have this year.  I want to thank all of the staff members who helped supervise as well.  It was great being able to hang out and catch up.  

Oak Ridge Alumni Enters NFL

Ian Book, former Oak Ridge quarterback was drafted by the New Orleans Saints this weekend in the 4th round.  A big congratulations to Ian and his family.   And a big congratulations to all of the coaches at Oak Ridge that helped get him where he is today.  And in speaking with him, I know he is very thankful for all of his teachers preparing him academically for the rigor he had at Notre Dame.  

April 30th

Teacher of the Year

The District is putting together its first Teacher of the Year for the El Dorado Union High School District.  We need you to help nominate great teachers. Any staff member can nominate a who they think should be the Oak Ridge representative for the EDUHSD Teacher of the Year.  

The primary criteria are as follows:

1. Demonstrates outstanding classroom instruction that is both creative and engaging.

2. Models outstanding relationships with students and coworkers.

3. Represents the values that we all strive for and the character to serve as a positive role model for students.

4. Is engaged with making a positive impact on the campus for both students and staff as well as the community.

The Administrative Team at each site will pick from the nominations.  The District will choose an honoree from the names provided by each site.  We have a fast turn around on this.  So please get your nominations in by the end of the day Monday May 3rd.  Send your nominations to myself at apalm@eduhsd.net,  

Vaccination Clinic For High School Students

Our district has been working with Public Health on a vaccination clinic for students 16+ years old and their families.  The district will send an interest survey to our families today.  If there is enough interest, we will host a vaccination clinic for our 16+ year old students and their families on one of our sites.   

Summer Updates

We have been able to staff summer school as a district.  We are now encouraging families to sign up their students to recover credits.  Summer School will take place at Ponderosa this year.  

Kim Doyle has Intersession fully staff as well.  We will actually be adding Life Fitness to Intersession for the first time this summer.  

Positive Cases

In the previous week the vast majority of our positive COVID students came from athletic testing.  We made adjustments and put some programs on hold (4 total) last week.  The results came back this week with only 1 positive.  So we feel good about the steps we took on that front last week.  For the most part, our positives this week came from families reporting it.  

April 27th

Finals Bell Schedule

Leadership came to consensus on the bell schedule for finals week. It has been posted on the school bell schedule page.  Thank you for your patience as we worked through all of the different options.

Bell Schedule Next Year

There was some confusion on some of the details of the bell schedule for next year.  I worked with Stephanie and Julia today to make sure that what we have posted online is what everyone voted on last year.  I am able to confirm that the schedule we have online is the accurate one. 

April 26th

FCCLA State Conference

Oak Ridge FCCLA students have worked their way to the state level for FCCLA.  They competed online and Emily Ho took first place in Salad Preparation.  

Culinary teacher Sharon Varozza noted, "Emily Ho earned 1st place in Salad Preparation ! That is a first for us at the State level - requires a lot of technical skills, organization and time management. Emily was also installed as a Region 4 Officer for next school year." 

And speaking of Mrs. Varozza, she was awarded Outstanding Advisor at the Silver Level.  I want to thank Sharon for the outstanding work and time she dedicates to her students.  She has been honored multiple times by FCCLA.  Wish Sharon a big congratulations when you see her around campus.

April 22nd

Ionizers in Classrooms

I wanted to share some information we are learning about the new ionizers put in your room to help with COVID and other infections.  Even when your AC/Heater is off, the ionizer is still functioning and putting the ions that attack COVID into the air.  It is hard wired to run continuously.  The objective of the machine is to put enough ions into your room to kill as much COVID as possible.  

The company would state that when your doors and windows are open, the ions are just floating outside and not building up in your room and doing their job.  However, no one is willing to state if it is more effective to have your room properly filled with these ions or to have air flow from open doors and windows.  I wanted to share this information with you so you can make up your own mind. 

Positive Staff Member

We do have a staff member who has tested positive for COVID today.  Amber is out today, so a district nurse is working with Public Health to do the appropriate contact tracing.  

Graduation

The state of California has released guidance specifically on graduation ceremonies.  They are relying heavily on the already established limits in the current color tier system.  Our county is going by these guidelines.  You probably hear that a lot of senior parents are upset that we breaking the ceremony into two and only allowing 2 guests per student.  We are trying to communicate to families that we are not randomly saying there can only be 2 guests.  When you count 300 graduates, the staff on hand and 2 parents per graduate, that brings us to the capacity allowed in the orange tier.  So we do not have ability to allow additional guests.  We will continue to message this to our senior families.

Water Cooler

Kate came up with the great idea of replacing the water fountain in the staff lounge with a water cooler that filters water and dispenses it at room temperature, cooled or hot for tea.  A big thank you to Kate, and John Dawson and his team for getting it installed.  Come on down and enjoy.

April 21st

Classified Employee of the Year

I want to congratulate Stacia Peterson, Counseling Secretary, as the Oak Ridge Classified Employee of the Year.  Stacia was recognized at the school board meeting last night.  We have a lot of tremendous classified employees doing great work this year.  But Stacia has worked incredibly hard this year.  She is solution oriented.  She makes the impossible possible.  She is a technology whiz.  And most importantly, she has a kind soul and is gracious and inviting to all.  Oak Ridge is lucky to have her.  

Quarantine Update

As we can see on the district dashboard, we currently have 215 students on quarantine.  That number will be higher by the end of the day.  Of the 27 positives, 4 are symptomatic and 23 are asymptomatic.  The asymptomatic students are getting detected by the athletic testing.  

Because of this, we took a deep dive into the data this week.  It appeared that three athletic teams had multiple positives and the bulk of our cases.  So we have paused those three teams until further notice.  The data would suggest that this should drive down additional quarantines.

If the quarantine numbers do not turn around.  I will run additional data and find additional programs to shut down.  At this point, having kids in class is paramount to anything else.  On top of that, the burden being placed upon all staff by this level of quarantines is unsustainable. It is hard, because there is a very real mental health component to students not having sports. The mental health of our young people continues to decline as we look at Wellness Center numbers and the cases of self harm coming forward.  

And at this time, I have been given no plan for us to move back to the hybrid model or distance learning model.  However, I will continue to shut down what is necessary to bring our quarantine numbers under control.  

Quarantined Students Returning

I want to remind everyone about some of the nuances of when quarantined students return.  Just like with students who out with an illness, they have several days after they return to submit the work they missed or to take assessments that they missed.  Technically, they have one day for every day they were out to submit work and make up assessments.  

Department Chairs

We continue to work with departments whose chairs are up this year.  So far Social Science has selected Erin Arthur and Rob Slinger to continue as Department Co-Chairs.  And Special Education will now have Denise Root and Cassie Tuller as Co-Chairs next year.  We have one more department to complete the process with.

April 16th

Quarantine Supports for Students

Thank you to everyone for the work they are doing to support quarantined students.  I want to review some points we need to follow for these students:

1. I have sent communication home to these students remind parents and students that they have work to be completed and submitted daily.

2. Every teacher will be paid at the hourly rate to support quarantined students (via Google Meet) outside of class time.  You can claim one hour a day for a total of 5 hours a week.  

3. No student should have their grade negatively impacted because of a quarantine.  Obviously if a student chooses not to do any work that is a different story.  But we need to have patience with students struggling while in quarantine and give them what they need to be successful.  

Here is the guide for quarantined students:

• Guide for Quarantined Students

Quarantine Make Up Testing:

Please complete this form to sign up your students for make up testing outside of class time.  We do not want students missing any more class time. 

Seating Charts:

Please don't forget to get your latest seating charts to school nurse Amber Uber.  

Athletic Games

We had a few athletes that tested positive this week in various sports.  We spent a lot of time in communication with Public Health about how to manage this.  We were able to work with them and do the necessary contact tracing on the teams.  At this time we have not canceled any games, but we have quarantined effected athletes. 

April 14th

Quarantine Updates

Seating Charts: It is absolutely critical that all classes have accurate seating charts for their classes in case quarantines need to happen.  Please send a copy of your seating chart to Amber or have it laying out in an obvious place.  In most cases where there are a lot of quarantines we don't have time to call all the families and all of the impacted teachers as well.  We really need those charts on file with Amber Uber.  Thank you.

Supporting Quarantined Students

This is a repeat of the email I sent out earlier.  Here is the document for getting paid to support your quarantined students online.

Next WASC Meeting

This is a reminder that this Monday the 91th is our next WASC staff meeting after school.  Don will follow up with specifics. 

April 12th

Quarantines/Testing

Our first round of testing for indoor athletes was last Thursday.  Our second round was Saturday.  The results from Thursdays test came in and we had 7 athletes test positive or presumptive positive.  This has led to 103 quarantines.

Assisting Quarantined Students

The biggest dilemma with a full return was also going to be how to assist quaratined students.  I understand that it is problematic when some teachers have multiple students quarantined.  Some teachers have asked  me for clarification on what they can or cannot do.  So below are answers to some questions I have received.  

Can I continue or start to  live stream for students that are quaratnined?

• Absolutely, teachers are encouraged to do this.  However, Dr. Carruth has not mandated that faculty do this.  

If I continue to maintain Google Classroom is that a good way to help quarantined students?

• Yes.  When you are notified that you have a quarantined studend please let them know that you will put the class work on Google Classroom for them to do.  

As a district and school we are finalizing some additional supports for quarantined students.  I should have more information on this very soon. 

Failing Students

I want to remind faculty that when a student starts to fail your class that you need to communicate this to the parents.   The goal is to let them know what their student isn't doing and how they can help their student turn it around.  Thank you.

April 8th

Staff Meeting on Monday

We are cancelling the scheduled staff meeting for Monday.  One, with this being the first day returning to full instruction the timing is bad for a meeting.  Second, we don't have anything time sensitive to discuss at this time.   So there will be no staff meeting on Monday morning.

CAASPP Thank You

I wanted to thank everyone for their part in CAASPP testing this week.  I know it was a big change and I appreciate the flexibility.  Having never tested like this before with the CAASPP, we did hit a few isolated snags.  But our team quickly worked through it and every student who showed was able to test.  Testing only goes this well because everyone did their job well. Thank you for attending the training and doing a great job starting and proctoring/supporting the test.  This year it truly took a whole team effort.  I am appreciative of the work and attention everyone paid to this. 

March 26th

Returning Chrome Carts to 36

In September, we began the process of temporarily splitting Chromebooks into carts of 18 and distributing these across the campus for the Hybrid model.  After CAASPP testing is completed, we will begin the process of moving Chromebooks to make complete carts of 36 and to locations we had prior to the Hybrid and distance learning models.  Please note that we have over 400 Chromebooks (impacting 14 carts) currently checked out to families. As a result, it may be some time before we have all carts fully stocked. Thank you for your patience and flexibility as we do the "Chromebook Shuffle" again.

Full Return Clarification 

Here are some more questions I received that will be good for everyone to see.

1.    Do we need to  live stream for quarantined students?

   a. You do not have to live stream for quarantined students in the Full Return model. However, you are more than welcome to do it for a student if you would like.

2.    How do we supply work to students who are quarantined?

   a. We have to remember that students have no control whether they are quarantined or not.  They are often quarantined for being near someone.  So we want our process to be as beneficial to their academic success as possible.  I would suggest continuing to post your assignments on Google Classroom so you don’t have to send work or collect 10 days of work each time a student is quarantined.  They can simply get the work from Google Classroom.  Otherwise, we will need to get them the work.

3.    What about Google Classroom?

   a. There is no mandate that people use Google Classroom once all students are back.  However, we have done 2 small (unscientific) student focus groups.  One of the questions we asked was, what good thing(s) came out of COVID we should keep. The student’s pretty universally felt that Google Classroom was a tremendous help to them.  So it is one of those tools we will have further discussions about.  I would encourage us to have conversations with our students about Google Classroom and the value they perceive in it. 

CAASPP Proctoring Update

1.     Unfortunately, some teachers might find another teacher in their room on a day they are not proctoring.  That is one of the negative side effects from this testing schedule.  Although, short of another global pandemic and odd timing, we will never test this way again. But if your room will be used for testing on a day you are not proctoring, you have three options for that day:

     i.You can be in your room but know that you won’t have access to your computer.

     ii.You can go to a different room to work.

     iii.You can work from home that day.

2.    If you haven’t looked since Thursday, please check the Proctor List again to verify what room and day you are.  We had to change a small number of people.

a.   https://sites.google.com/a/eduhsd.k12.ca.us/orhsprincipal/caaspp-testing

3.    Please do not forget to have your CAASPP testing password with you when you move rooms. It is too easy to have your classroom computer save the password then forget it when you move to a different room.

March 25th

Full Return Bell Schedule

The site Bell Schedule Committee met today and agreed upon a bell schedule for Full Return.  This schedule was put together following the language outlined in the MOU.  With guidance from the site Leadership Team the Bell Schedule Committee did chose to go with only one lunch.  This schedule will take effect starting on Monday April 12th.  Kate emailed the schedule to everyone earlier.  However, it will also be posted at the link below shortly. 

• Full Return Bell Schedule

CAASPP Proctoring

Please take a minute to check the location of the room that you are proctoring in for CAASPP.  We had to change some of the room assignments unfortunately due to an error that was found.  Please recheck to find where you are proctoring.

• Proctor Assignments

Energy Conservation

I want to remind everyone that conserving energy over spring break is extremely important.  Please use this break to unplug any refrigerators you have in your room. But be mindful that there is nothing in them that can melt, such as ice trays or ice build up.  Any energy we can conserve is a win-win.  Mr. Williams will be going around and checking each room and putting a report together on each site.  

March 19th

CAASPP Update

I know all the changes surrounding CAASPP can be confusing so I want to over communicate about it.  So pardon me if some of this is a repeat. Wednesday April 7th and Thursday April 8th will be CAASPP testing days.  Those will be asynchronous school days.  Only the students who are testing will be on campus.

We have put together a schedule were each teacher will proctor testing for 1 of the 2 days.   You will not have to proctor for both days.  In order to not have to move chrome carts we are going to move teachers and students to the location of the chrome carts.  Special Education teachers will remain in their rooms and just test students who have an accommodation for a smaller test setting. I should have the list of what test you will proctor and what students you will have early next week.  The Leadership Team is also meeting on Monday afternoon to determine how to schedule Tuesday April 6th and Friday April 9th.  We will come out of that meeting with an answer. 

March 18th

Bell Schedule Next Week

I want to remind everyone of the bell schedule for next week.  It can be found on the bell schedule page of the website: http://orhs.eduhsd.k12.ca.us/Our-School/About-Us/Bell-Schedule/index.html

Safety Update

The fire department will be on campus training on how to respond to school based emergencies on March 28th, 30th and April 2nd from 7:30 to 10:30PM.  They will be focusing on the Admin building and will not be inside any classrooms.  

Oak Ridge Students in the News

The Oak Ridge Financial Literacy for You club is in the news this week.  Follow the link to read the story: https://www.mtdemocrat.com/prospecting/oak-ridge-club-flying-in-the-face-of-adversity/

Oak Ridge students won first and third place in the Poetry Out Loud Competition this year.  The Mountain Democrat wrote a nice story about it: https://www.mtdemocrat.com/prospecting/oak-ridge-student-impresses-local-state-poetry-out-loud-judges/

March 16th

CAASPP Update

Thank you to everyone who sent me corrections and good ideas on how to make the CAASPP testing schedule better.  However, we received some information today which makes the CAASPP schedule I shared with you earlier obsolete.  There have been a lot of concern that in the hybrid model the testing schedule was punitive and overly complicated.  It was not fair that junior English and Social Science classes would lose 4 weeks of instruction.  And the overall complexity was going to be difficult for staff and students potentially.  

The district has opted for another approach to testing that will greatly simplify the process.  Again, I understand there is no perfect schedule or plan.  But I believe this plan has more upsides than downsides to it.  On Wednesday April 7th and Thursday April 8th we will have asynchronous instruction days.  But the juniors and seniors will come to school to test.  We will get English (juniors) and half of science (seniors) done on the 7th.  Then we will complete math (juniors) and the other half of science (seniors) on the 8th.  We will give asynchronous work to the freshmen and sophomores.  This will involve all of us helping on those days in some capacity.  I will work on getting the list of roles out this week.  

Athletic Update

COVID Testing

For the third weekend in a row, we had all of our high contact athletes test negative for COVID.

Indoor Sports

In working with CIF and CA Public Health we have determined that we can give indoor athletes the less invasive COVID test (not the swab into the nasal cavity as first indicated) for the weekly test.  And we have been able to get details on how to run these tests and get them to Southern California.  So it appears that indoor sports will begin to happen.

I can't thank Steve White, Don Azevada and  our coaches enough for everything they have done.  They are all being asked to do triple the work right now to make sports happen in a safe way for our students.  

State Waiver for Full Open

The State Public Health Office responded to our waiver.  They did not approve it or deny it.  They requested additional information from our district.  In addition they explained that we would need to offer asymptomatic covalent testing to staff and students who want it.  So the waiver is being edited and will be resubmitted. I will continue to keep you updated on this.     

March 11th

State Waiver Update

As most people know our district submitted a waiver to the State to have all students return. The guidelines gave them to today to respond. We were just notified by the State that they cannot get us an answer to our waiver today.  And they did not propose a date they would notify us by. 

This is extremely frustrating for two reasons:

1. CAASPP Testing: We are waiting to announce what testing schedule we will need to use, the hybrid schedule or a full return schedule. 

2. Finals Schedule: We are also waiting to publish our finals schedule based on this information as well.  We will get you this as soon as a decision is made by the state.

CAASPP Testing

I have been feeling a good deal of anxiety about not getting a final CAASPP schedule to you by now.  Leaving you without the knowledge of how to plan instruction after spring break with us this close to testing is not acceptable.  So I wanted to share some of the factors that are making this difficult to pin down.

1. The Federal Government decided to make states assess students a few weeks back.  The State's plan for how to implement testing in a COVID environment was not what we had been expecting. Furthermore, there are still unknowns.  The State submitted a waiver to the Feds to waive the 95% participation rate and to not do the science CAASPP test.  We have no timeline for when that decision will be made.  This information is critical for how we structure the testing.

2. We shared with Leadership what a CAASPP testing schedule would look like if done in the traditional manner in the hybrid schedule with the state's waiver requests denied.  It would lead to the loss of of 4 weeks of instruction for English 3 and US History teachers.  This is both unacceptable and our only option at this time.  So we are desperately trying to come up with an alternate option.  Because we are so close to the testing window, I am going to share the schedule we currently have tomorrow.  But I want everyone to know that we will not stop exploring options to improve this schedule.  We are currently exploring one idea as we speak.

3. If we have all students back come full time, it would seem simple to test using our traditional 2 week testing format we have always done.  And ultimately, we might end up doing that.   However, we are currently exploring one final option. The amount of instructional time lost this year has been so significant (as far as minutes) that I feel compelled to try to get alternate ideas approved.

4. If you have any thoughts, questions or concerns about this feel free to email me.  Or ask your department chair what we discussed in our Leadership Meeting.

March 10th

COVID Testing

Sorry this update is coming so late. We tested our district athletes again last Saturday.  Again, every student athlete tested negative.  We will be testing again this Saturday.

Indoor Athletics Update

Our initial optimism for indoor athletics was short lived.  When the guidelines actually arrived they were clearly going to be difficult to implement.  As a district we do not have the ability to implement the level of requirements that have been put in place for indoor athletics to commence.  Our district in collaboration with other organizations is working to get clarification and a few modifications in the guidelines.  But indoor athletics are once again on hold until modifications are made to the guidelines.  We are remaining hopeful that a compromise can be reached so these athletes can have the same chance as the outdoor athletes.  

Art/Mural Committee

I want to thank the staff members who volunteered to be on our Art/Mural Committee.  We had our first meeting yesterday and reviewed a student proposal.  I look forward to this group helping our school navigate a path forward for more student art on campus. 

Challenge Success

Our Challenge Success team was able to finally meet again for the first time in a long time.  The group is focusing on next school year and keeping the momentum moving forward for student wellness.  One of our goals will be making sure that our school is prepared to properly implement the Flex Time bell schedule next year. 

Waiver Application

The State has until this Thursday to respond to our waiver request.  If this waiver is granted it would give our district the opportunity to open full time with all students if we choose.  As part of the waiver we did acknowledge that there is no way we can comply with the new 4 foot rule if we open with all students.  I will share the result when I get notified. 

Outdoor Athletics

Outdoor games will begin in a matter of days for our students.  We will be notifying our community this week that only immediate family members can attend the games.  Even then, only a certain number of family members are allowed to attend.  Each venue has a different number of participants allowed based on the size of the venue and number of players on the team.  We will use an online ticket system to ensure that each family associated with an athlete gets only the number of tickets available to them.  They will need this ticket to enter the venue.  Parents are also being provided with the rules on what they can and cannot do at games.  

March 4th

Indoor Athletic Announcement

The State of California and the legal team representing a group of high school athletes pertaining to indoor sports reached a settlement today on indoor sports.  The specifics of the settlement have not yet been made public.  However, the state has agreed to release a set of guidelines that will allow indoor sports to start.  When the guidelines are released we will address them and start indoor sports accordingly.

Prom and Graduation

We are actively working on plans for what graduation and prom will look like. As a district we are running different options for graduation by the county Public Health Office for their input.  And we are looking into ways to do Prom safely in smaller groupings.  

Testing

Putting together testing calendars for CAASPP, AP and the CA Healthy Kids survey have been challenging.  As you know we announce the CAASPP testing schedule at the start of each year in the Meetings at a Glance sheet. We also put the testing window for AP there.   The State Board of Education announcement the CAASPP requirements for this year last week and we were forced to adjust our plan significantly.  We currently have two options.  We will bring these options to the Leadership Team in a matter of days.  Once it is approved we will share the plan.  The AP plan has also been established based on the testing windows they put our a few weeks back.  We are sorry for the last minute changes, but that seems to be the theme this year.  

WASC Focus Group Reminder

We all have our WASC Focus Groups on Monday morning.  

March 1st

Athletic Testing Update

On Saturday we tested approximately 400 athletes for COVID 19 so they can take part in athletics.  This test will continue once a week every Saturday for as long as high contact sports are playing.  Don't forget, the COVID money is paying for this testing.  However, rapid tests were done and all approximately 400 athletes came back negative.  I want to thank John Dawson and his team for helping with this.  I want to thank Eric Cavaliere for coming out and assisting. And I need to thank Chuck Palmer and Ron Carruth for getting the testing lined up. We had students so excited they showed up at 7:30 for an 8:00AM test, on a Saturday.  

Supervision Duties

With supervision duties starting up we are going to need faculty to each sign up for one event to supervise in the remaining 3 months of school.  We are currently working on that list and process.  But I wanted to give everyone an early warning about supervision duties for the spring starting up. We will send out the signups soon.  For now, all supervisions will be outdoors. It is likely that some indoor ones will take place later.  

February 26th

Monday Morning Staff Meeting

This is a reminder that we have a staff meeting with Dr. Carruth Monday at 8:30 at this Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/91506595724?pwd=eGVXa0xDZlcrWjhZYklpcys5Z1dZdz09

• You can find the agenda in the meeting tab above.

Network Down Monday at 3:30

This is just a reminder that the network will be down on campus starting at 3:30. 

February 25th

State Takes Action on CAASPP

On Monday, the Biden administration declared that all states need to proctor standardized tests under ESSA, but granted states the opportunity to delay testing until the fall. Yesterday, the California State Board Education met for over 5 hours to discuss what to do. At the end of five hours they agreed to apply for several specific waivers.  Here are the requests cut and pasted from the SBE website:  

• Decouple state assessments from federal accountability requirements, as applicable. Instead, any data collected would be used to inform local educators, parents, and the public and align resources to student supports.

• Waive federal penalties for student testing participation rates of less than 95 percent on the state’s Smarter Balanced English language arts and math assessments.

• Extend the window by which schools must complete test administration to July 30 for both the CAASPP and the ELPAC, which measures English learners’ progress toward language proficiency, as applicable.

• Waive administration of the state’s science test altogether for 2021.

They are also going to let schools in distance learning substitute the CAASPP test with a local metric if they want. However, schools that are open (Oak Ridge) will need to test at school.

From EdSource:  After a long discussion about what type of testing environment could be most fair and accurate, the board voted to develop a waiver proposal that could provide districts with test options if they are unable to bring students safely back on campus within the testing window in order to administer the Smarter Balanced assessments.

We need to move forward planning on having to give the science test until the Federal Government actually accepts the waiver.  Until then we are on the hook for it.  The Management Team will continue to finalize our plan for testing in the hybrid schedule.  We will bring the plan to Leadership for approval soon.

February 23rd

Standardized Testing Update

• Article: States Must Still Give Standardized Tests this Year, Biden Administration Says

• California Board of Education Board Meeting Tomorrow

The Biden administration issued a letter to the State's late yesterday announcing that standardized testing for 2020-21 must occur. Their letter states that they must assess the damage done by COVID 19. They also announce that students can take the assessment at home if need be.  However, states have some decisions to make.  Here are some of the options our State Board of Education needs to declare answers to.  We are hoping they can do this at tomorrow's meeting.

1. A state can delay the test to the summer or potentially the start of next school year or do it as schedule this year.

2. They can waive the 95% participation rate to a lower percentage.  

3. Schools that do not improve will not be moved into an "improvement status" by the Feds. 

4. And there are other little things they can change in order to not make the test so "high stakes."  However, the results must be shared publicly. 

We are going to continue planning (as we have been) for the worst case scenario and giving the test starting on April 8th.  You can see the whole schedule on our Meetings at a Glance 2020-21 here.  However, if the state punts the test to later we will be ready to adjust. 

Athletics Starting Up

Everyone in the world of athletics from our site to the district is working full speed to make this opportunity happen for our students. I wanted to send a really general update to those who are interested.

• All outdoor sports are taking place in one season starting this Friday.

• Indoor sports have still not be authorized.

• Football and Water Polo will need weekly testing to take place as they have been defined as High Contact Sports.  Our district got a testing vendor lined up today.  COVID money would pay for it.  The state has also committed to reimbursing the cost of these tests.

• With all sports going at one time there will be some kind of game happening almost every day on campus.  This means we will need to get creative with when kids can practice. 

• The new schedule for all sports is being finalized.  Once it is finalized we will need teacher assistance supervising games. There will be fewer games and we will need less supervision at them.  But we will still need supervision.

• Spectators are being limited.  It will either be limited to each players family group or just parents.  These family groups will need to be masked and be six feet apart. 

February 19th

WASC Focus Groups Monday

This is friendly reminder that WASC Focus Groups meet from 9-10 a.m. on Monday morning, February 22, 2021.

Today, you will receive an email that includes the Focus Group you have been assigned to and the Zoom or Google Meet link for the meeting.

Additionally, you will be receiving access to a shared Google WASC drive, of which the contents will be reviewed in the Focus Group Meeting.

Athletics Update

The Governor's office dropped a bombshell on us today.  They have created a path for almost all athletics to be played starting on February 26th.  However, there are eight pages of guidelines on how to do it.  We are processing them as we speak.  It will not be easy to put some of these guidelines in place.  But thankfully for our athletes, they will get to play now.  

Safety Drills

This is a friendly reminder of our safety drills next Tuesday and Thursday.  Alison will be sending out a reminder.  

Master Schedule

Most students have submitted their course requests for next year.   We have some students we are still waiting on.  The process for building the master schedule is several weeks behind because the decision was made to leave the Online Distance Learning Program (ODLP) in place for next year.  So we needed to give families time to sign up for it.  

This Thursday we will receive our section allocation from the district.  At that time we will need to move into high gear to process what we have and get department chairs their allocations as quickly as possible.  

February 16th

Student Stress/Anxiety Study

I know it is not surprising.  But Challenge Success, the group out of Stanford that we have partnered with did a study of how the pandemic has effected student stress, anxiety and relationships with friends and adults.  They compared results after the start of the pandemic to their historical trends before the pandemic.  Even if you don't have time to read the study, glancing over the graphs and tables is powerful.

Study: https://www.challengesuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CS-NBC-Study-Kids-Under-Pressure-PUBLISHED.pdf

Poetry Out Loud Competition

Two of our students have placed in the county Poetry Out Loud competition.  Emily Lieber came in 1st and Caleb Stocking 3rd.  I am so proud of these students staying with it with the difficulties provided by COVID.   Please congratulate them when you see them.  

And with Mark Coovelis having to step away, his long term substitute Debra Tenney stepped up with no one asking and helped these students with the competition.  Please thank her when you see her around.

Substitute Update and Thank You

Due to reactions people are having to the second dose our district is really struggling to fill sub jobs.  We anticipate it will be a challenge this week and next.  We want to encourage people to not call in for a sub if it can be helped.  The strain on the system is great right now and we want to do everything in our power to get people vaccinated.  

I also need to thank all of you.  Whenever we have needed subs you have stepped up.  We have cut it close on several days but thanks to you we are getting sub vacancies filled by on site folks willing to help out.  We would not be able to cover people's classes and get everyone vaccinated without you.  Thank you!

February 11th

Academic Decathlon Victory

Congratulations to the Oak Ridge Academic Decathlon Team and Coach Jeff Hassian for winning the 2021 Academic Decathlon.  This year was exceptionally challenging due to the whole event being moved online.

But the team doubled down and committed to the endeavor.  They are an amazing group of young people.  Every year these students impress with me with their knowledge, skill and maturity.  I also can't thank Jeff enough for coming back each year and putting a championship team together.  He had to work twice as hard this year to pull it all together.  Congratulations!

Model Trojan Awards

Casey Rhyan

Be Real / Care for Others / Growth Mindset / Compassion/Empathy / Collaboration / Integrity/Authenticity / Creativity / Respect

I advise the STEM club, and the students want to have a Science Fair.  They invited Mr. Rhyan to attend a meeting so they could run their ideas by him and get his input.  Mr. Rhyan gave of his time and energy, providing excellent advice and input for the students to consider.  I really appreciate Mr. Rhyan taking the time for these students. Mr. Rhyan helped the students see things they might not have thought about.  He did this in a way that showed respect to the students and helped them grow.  He provided creative thoughts and solutions for the students to consider.  He was real about the challenges their ideas face while at the same time offering collaborative ways to address those challenges.

Deanna Yates

Teamwork

Deanna is absolutely critical to the success of the health office. There is no way that I could have managed the last month or two without her. I absolutely have to recognize Deanna and her contribution towards effectively managing COVID in the school setting. I appreciate her tremendously!

Megan Watson

Care for Others / Compassion / Empathy / Communication

Hi Mrs. Watson,

I just wanted to send my gratitude to you for being such an amazing teacher!!!! I know that this year has given you a tremendous amount of challenges in teaching our kids and I really appreciate the extra effort you have given. You've managed to make our current situation as seamless as possible.

You are my son's FAVORITE teacher! I asked him why and he said because...

1) You really care about your students.

2) You are always so timely with everything you do.

3) You are super organized.

Whatever you are doing, you have made my son feel valued and supported. I hope that this Christmas season is greatly enjoyed by you and your family. Thanks for all that you do, it really does make a difference in your students’ lives.

Jennifer Slinger

Be Real / Care for Others / Growth Mindset

Thank you so much for your time and input at the webinar yesterday. We cannot thank you enough! It was so helpful that our superintendent plans to encourage every teacher in the district, who didn’t attend live, to take the time to do so! Just listening to teachers who are currently doing it was super great for ours to hear!

Wade Ness

Be Real / Dare to Question / Care for Others

Mr. Ness makes history engaging, meaningful and fun. Love his lectures (thank you zoom), and my son learns from them too.

Ellen Mulert

Be Real / Care for Others

Mrs. Mulert is seriously my daughter’s favorite teacher ever. This semester has been brutal; my kids have struggled but have figured it out with the help of teachers like Ms. Mulert. She has done a truly amazing job.

Julie Giordano

Care for Others / Growth Mindset / Balanced Lives / Compassion / Empathy

A parent sent an email indicating that Julie took the time to work with a struggling student on their first semester Computer Science project. She allowed the student extra time over the winter break. In addition, the parent overhead the Google Meet taking place between Julie and the student and was so grateful for how supportive and helpful Julie was in helping the student figure out what he needed to do to successfully complete the project.

Tony Diaz

Be Real / Care for Others / Growth Mindset

Thank you so much for your time and input at the webinar yesterday. We cannot thank you enough! It was so helpful that our superintendent plans to encourage every teacher in the district, who didn’t attend live, to take the time to do so! Just listening to teachers who are currently doing it was super great for ours to hear!

Darsy Arburn

Care for Others / Collaboration / Communication / Respect

Darsy Arburn is a complete gem- she has been a life line to my oldest student who is graduating this year. I have been through the ringer with that boy and I honestly believe her caring and dedication has helped him become extremely successful this year.

Michelle Wegmann

Care for Others / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Communication / Integrity / Authenticity / Working Together

Michelle has taken over scheduling the Para professionals each day. This is no easy task. We are short para professionals and there are so many students needing support. She is so thoughtful of the students’ needs and making the right fit. She always looks out for the teachers to make sure they are taken care of and she learned how to do all of this crazy scheduling really quickly. In true Michelle form she takes all of this on and never complains and does everything with a smile. When she can't find someone to cover a class, you will see her running across campus to do it herself. She is exceptional! Michelle takes everyone's needs into consideration and exemplifies the meaning of teamwork. Working with all of us effectively and professionally. Clear and timely communication is an area where Michelle excels and we are so grateful. Always letting us know where people will be and making sure our slots are filled.

Renee O'Banion

Be Real / Care for Others / Teamwork / Communication

Renee always comes in with a smile on her face and a friendly wave hello. She takes pride in her work and makes an effort to get to know and understand not only the staff but the students as on campus as well. Renee works well with other staff members by having open and constant communication. She is a valuable member of our staff and we are lucky to have her.

Casey Mussetter

Be Real / Dare to Question / Care for Others / Teamwork / Communication / Integrity / Authenticity

Casey is not new to the district but is a newer addition to ORHS. We are incredibly lucky to have him on our team. Casey acclimated to the ORHS fast paced environment in no time. Casey pays attention to detail and is able to quickly resolve issues as they arise. In the few months Casey has been here, he has already started to build valuable relationships with the staff and students. Casey has shared ideas that have worked at his previous school and has helped to change processes at ORHS. He works well with the other Campus Monitors and genuinely cares for others around him.

Eric Larsen

Dare to Question / Care for Others / Growth Mindset / Compassion / Empathy / Collaboration / Communication / Creativity / Respect / Working Together

Eric looked at the "system" and saw an individual student. He accommodated a highly unusual situation during this extraordinary time and allowed a "re-set" and hope for passing his E/S Science class. She demonstrated grace, humility, and humanity. Eric looked outside the box for a solution to meet the student where he is and with the support of the case manager the student has renewed hope and possibility that he can invest and try to pass the semester. Leaning into a collaborative model to tap into all the resources available to the student.

Jeanne Duran

Care for Others / Compassion / Empathy / Creativity 

Reaching out to express my admiration for Jeanne Duran, French 1 teacher. Our daughter Grace was taught French 1 by Mrs. Duran. Throughout the year, Grace spoke highly of Mrs. Duran and Grace thoroughly enjoyed French 1. With that great foundation, Grace has gone on to excel in French 2 and currently French 3 with plans to take AP French next year. As a family, we have travelled to France and are excited at the prospect of having a child who can help us navigate the French language on future trips. Fast forward to the Fall 2019 where we are alerted that Grant has mixed hearing loss and needs a hearing aide. We are shocked. An eighth grader learning to navigate growing up and now a new hurdle, a hearing aide. One year later, add COVID 19 and starting high school and the fun really begins. As school started, Grant asked me what his options were for language, I even reached out to his counselor to explore his options. He was anxious about learning a new language and extra anxious given the online format. He wanted to know if he could learn American Sign Language instead to which I investigated and told him those options were not available for Freshman. He was reluctant to begin French anticipating significant challenges hearing accent and variances in pronunciation. Thankfully, we were blessed with Mrs. Duran. No one wants to see a disability limit a child's potential and having a teacher willing to go the extra mile even during the most challenging school year in anyone's career with Covid-19 is beyond incredible. When distance learning started, hearing verbal commands and having 30 students on a call was a hearing challenge. A challenge that Mrs. Duran handled in proactive ways. She emailed with Grant before and after classes to discuss methods for him to successfully hear her and participate fully in class. She embraced the challenges and reached out to Mrs. Hardy to ask for tips to help Grant. She explored options for him to hear French words spoken through various websites and gave him assurance that he absolutely could learn to speak French. Her efforts resulted in building Grant's confidence that he would be able to learn and creating a learning environment where he had an equal chance to exceed. What did she do? Whatever it took! She muted the class strategically when they were online practicing words, she created small breakout groups online so kids could speak in smaller groups, she connected with Grant to ask if he was able to hear if her setting changed for online class, she initiated contact with him to ask if he could hear, she pulled him aside to do conversational portions of quizzes and tests without the background noise of other students being around. Simply put, she met the moment by being open to innovative methods fueled by a desire to truly teach Grant. She engaged a shy ninth grader proactively multiple times to draw out of him what was working and what needed adjusting. Mrs. Duran has taught Grant French 1 in a spectacular way. She has also taught Grant that with creative methods he is capable of learning at a high level. It is one thing for a family member to go above and beyond for you, but for someone outside the family to take a sincere interest is powerful! I know this will be an experience that Grant remembers forever! As a parent, there are no words to express the gratitude and love we have for Mrs. Duran. It is a blessing to have a teacher in the midst of the most challenging school year of anyone's career to take the time to treat your child with incredible respect and love and to believe in their potential despite obvious challenges. Mrs. Duran has inspired Grant to learn French and we owe her a debt of gratitude. Her creative spirit has engaged Grant and he is enjoying learning French. With gratitude and deep appreciation, Eileen

Hugh Corkery

Be Real / Teamwork

ORHS Speech and Debate is on an upward trend. They have 35 kids competing and 8 parents volunteering to judge. Our team is broken into teams and 2 are undefeated and 5 are 3-1. Hugh has done a great job of not only building this program and thus opportunities for students. But he hosts a big tournament here at Oak Ridge. He is working really hard and has dedicated himself to this opportunity for students.  

Jessica Womack

Teamwork / Communication

I can't thank you enough for your support with the projects I've asked you to help me with over the past couple of weeks. I'm writing this evening because I just checked the document that I asked you to help me with this afternoon. I can't believe how much work has been done already!! You have no idea how helpful this is to me in coordinating para support and communicating with teachers. Thank you for being so willing to help and working so quickly! I appreciate you.

Keri Whiting

Be Real / Care for Others / Growth Mindset / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Collaboration / Communication / Integrity / Authenticity / Creativity, Respect

Keri regularly takes the time and energy to communicate with individual students, ensuring a supportive learning environment that promotes engagement. She values student understanding and wellbeing, and acts in a way that exemplifies compassion and empathy.

Amber Uber

Be Real / Care for Others / Growth Mindset / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Collaboration / Communication

 Amber's job has changed in a dramatic way. She has the heavy responsibility of keeping us all safe. Her job is now one of constant training and communication with County Health. There are days where she is juggling the normal health office issues with all of the additional COVID related work. She is juggling more than anyone should have to right now. But she is doing it with grace and professionalism.

Patty Taylor

Care for Others / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork 

Patty worked to help a struggling IEP student to get caught up. She encouraged her and helped to organize her missing work. Due to Patty's efforts the student was able to get caught up in a number of her classes. More importantly, Patty showed the student that she cared about her and that she was believed in her abilities.

Jon Pratt

Teamwork / Collaboration / Communication

Behind the scenes Jon had to create a master schedule calendar for each day of the week so attendance would work correctly. This took an enormous amount of time and a great deal of collaboration with the other Director's of Guidance. He did it without complaint and remained solution oriented the whole time.

Susan Pebley

Be Real / Care for Others / Teamwork / Communication / Integrity /Authenticity / Respect

Susan is always willing to help whenever needed. She adjusts and welcomes change with a positive attitude, which is incredibly rare during these ever changing times. Susan shows respect to both the students and staff. She is an incredible employee and we are lucky to have her at Oak Ridge.

Wade Ness

Care for Others / Find Balance / Growth Mindset / Balanced Lives / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Collaboration / Communication / Integrity / Authenticity / Respect

Wade takes time out of his busy schedule to connect with students and case managers. He is understanding and supports students seeking balance in his class. Wade is solution-oriented and thoughtful. He seems to build lessons that consider each individual student, and collaborates to find balance when a student is struggling.

Kim May

Be Real / Care for Others / Growth Mindset / Compassion / Empathy / Collaboration / Communication / Integrity / Authenticity / Creativity

The 2nd week of school, I had my freshman English students send an email to a teacher that they appreciated in the first 2 weeks. I had about 15 of my 65 freshman send an email to Kim. Their reasoning exemplified Kim’s abilities as a compassionate teacher and, overall, as a human being. The wonderful things the students said about how she was engaging them in distance learning and creating a safe learning environment was awe-inspiring to me and made me proud to call her my colleague, even though I had never really had a conversation with Kim before! This compassion continued when we had a shared student struggling in our classes. Kim worked to get this kid on campus for 30 minutes to get him on the same page as his peers with all the technology in the classes. Kim did this and got the necessary clearances all on her own to ensure the success of the student because she knew what was going to be beneficial for the student and she helped advocate for him. She reached out to all of his teachers to let them know he would be on campus and to send over any work that might be beneficial for him to do with the help of a teacher. Her expectation wasn’t to have all of his teachers come and help, but instead to selflessly do this herself. Overall 1,000,000/10 would share all of my students with her :)

Heath Jenkins

Be Real / Collaboration / Communication

Mr. Jenkins runs the states Mock Election for Oak Ridge students. Mr. Jenkins takes this on each year and goes above and beyond to make sure our students and our school has this opportunity. In this trying time, I was impressed that he was willing to do one more thing for students.

Kate Hewett

Be Real / Care for Others / Communication / Integrity /Authenticity / Respect

Be Real / Care for Others / Communication / Integrity /Authenticity / Respect

Gary Galbraith

Be Real / Care for Others / Teamwork

Gary has been a great addition to the Oak Ridge team. A recent example is how Gary looks out for every student. He noticed a student who was spending a lot of time by themselves and spending their lunch in the bathroom hiding out. Instead of seeing this as a discipline issue. He worked to try and figure out the problem and get to know the student or find someone who could help. His attention to detail and his care for others is evident.

Max Foorman

Growth Mindset / Teamwork / Collaboration

Just a heads up, we've offered Evan an internship and he will likely be starting next Monday. Both he and Jacob surpassed many 4th upper division CSUS students and Los Rios CCD students in both a functional assembly test and in their responses to some of our atypical interview questions designed to assess problem solving ability, soft skills, and perhaps most critically their ability to ask questions in a professional environment. For reference, the other internship we offered was to a NASA NCAS program finalist. (Written about Max's students by Tyler Clark at Ansync)

Denise Bonal

Teamwork / Communication

I can't thank you enough for your support with the projects I've asked you to help me with over the past couple of weeks. I'm writing this evening because I just checked the document that I asked you to help me with this afternoon. I can't believe how much work has been done already!! You have no idea how helpful this is to me in coordinating para support and communicating with teachers. Thank you for being so willing to help and working so quickly! I appreciate you.

Lauren Alazzawi

Care for Others / Teamwork / Communication

She got a parent compliment saying she's done so much to support her student and communicate with her her students general education teachers. She's also gone above and beyond meeting with another student and ensuring that the student is getting the mental health support he/she needs.

Haley Rodriguez

Care for Others / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Communication

She goes so far above and beyond for Special Education kids and for the department in general. Communicates with parents, helps arrange for kids to come on campus, always willing to answer questions about compliance. Just a helpful and supportive team member. I seriously couldn't do Special Education without her.

Jen Slinger

Find Balance / Teamwork / Collaboration / Communication

Ms. Slinger has stepped up this summer and the start of the year and had to go above and beyond to fulfill her role as Department Chair, Activity Director and Yearbook Teacher. She has worked in the summer handing out yearbooks. She has worked in the summer doing English book distribution. She has figured out how to hold student pictures. She has managed everything that has come her way. And she still advocates for student and staff wellness and balance.

Keri Whiting

Be Real / Care for Others

Keri's ability to use technology for the enhancement of her students is truly impressive. Not to mention her ability to get the students engaged and keep an upbeat, happy atmosphere .... I could go on and on." I can't tell you how many times the Special Education case managers have made similar comments to me about you. Everyone who works with you knows that you truly care about kids and will do all you can to support struggling students.

Noel Villapando

Care for Others / Growth Mindset / 

Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Collaboration / Communication

I have had issues with my desktop all week, which has made the challenges of distance learning even more problematic. I called Noel every single day this week with cries for help, which he responded to with patience and willingness to do everything possible to try and resolve the situation. Noel went through the entire catalog of possibilities, even putting calls in to zoom. After a grueling week, he was able to fix the problem and I can teach without creating a workaround for everything I need to do!! What a relief!! Thank you so much, Noel!!!!

Nicole Trevino

Teamwork / Collaboration / Communication

The new attendance reports she started to sending to the Counselors and AP's has been incredibly helpful.  The Counselors and AP's mentioned how much easier it is to do their jobs with this information.  Since attendance is the number one predictor of student success, they are closely watching these lists and calling students in to try and get them back on track.

Ashley Tillman

Care for Others / Teamwork / Collaboration / Creativity

Ashley worked tirelessly for our kiddo's who participated in Special Olympics. She created t-shirts for the staff and students. She came in early, stayed late and sacrificed a lot of lunches to make sure that we looked like the stellar group that we are. Our kids looked like champions. Thanks Ashley you reminded me every day what a model Trojan looks like and you are very appreciated.

Ashley showed warmth towards our kids and humor all the way until game day when we were running around like crazy people making sure everyone had a shirt!

Haley Rodriguez

Be Real / Dare to Question / Care for Others / Find Balance / Growth Mindset / Balanced Lives / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Collaboration / Communication / Integrity / Authenticity / Creativity / Respect / Inquiry / Being Together / Working Together

We recently had a difficult IEP meeting. Haley was professional, direct, compassionate, and knowledgeable. I don't know how many people really know what she does, but she's a major asset to our school.

Haley is kind, down-to-earth, professional, reliable, compassionate, and real.

Julia Madsen

Be Real / Teamwork

At one of our football games we were short help and Julia was one of the teachers on duty.  Everyone noted that she really stepped up and took ownership of the back side of the stadium and made sure that the administration didn't need to worry about that.  She took ownership of the space and managed it all night long.  We were very appreciative.

Jordan Lampenfeld

Be Real / Teamwork

Jordan has gone above and beyond at Oak Ridge.  He takes his after school supervision very seriously and is dedicated to doing what he does well.  He has volunteered to be a part of the LINK Crew program and has gone all in on it. He also stands outside his room before every class period and welcomes students to his room.  Jordan is a bright light at Oak Ridge.

Jordan Lampenfeld

Be Real / Teamwork

Jordan has gone above and beyond at Oak Ridge.  He takes his after school supervision very seriously and is dedicated to doing what he does well.  He has volunteered to be a part of the LINK Crew program and has gone all in on it. He also stands outside his room before every class period and welcomes students to his room.  Jordan is a bright light at Oak Ridge.

Chris Hoverstein

Be Real / Care for Others / Find Balance / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Collaboration / Communication / Integrity / Authenticity / Respect / Being Together / Working Together

Chris cares about the students and students can relate to him because he shows he cares.  He is able to find humor in the daily struggles.  He is real in sharing his own life stories, and being honest about his life. Chris jumps in to help anytime we need it, and takes his own time to keep our water jugs filled for our dept. use.  We all just appreciate him being a part of our department team. Thanks Chris! 

Chris shows compassion for struggling students, teamwork with all the aides/teachers, collaboration by discussing various issues he sees, integrity and honesty, and respect for all those he interacts with.

Chris does the things listed in the Oak Ridge Way and does them with a kind and fun spirit.

Trish Hardy

Be Real / Care for Others / Growth Mindset / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Collaboration / Integrity / Authenticity / Creativity / Respect / Being Together 

The compassion she has for the students is contagious.  Her energy and happiness spreads throughout the campus. 

Trish is always thinking of new and creative ways to give her students opportunities that they may not experience if wasn't for her and thinking outside the box.

As I have stated above, her warmth, humor compassion and collegiality is not only for students but spread to everyone she comes in contact with.

James DuBose

Be Real / Care for Others / Find Balance / Balance Lives / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Integrity / Authenticity / Respect / Being Together / Working Together  

James is a good man.  He has such a warm, kind soul.  He seems genuinely happy to see you and always takes time out of his day to make meaningful conversation with you. 

James is authentic.  He makes you feel valued and important and I always enjoy my conversations with him.  We are lucky to have a colleague like James on our campus.

Bo Cheli

Be Real / Care for Others / Teamwork 

Bo is extremely passionate about education and being a part of our school.  he is always volunteering to help wherever he can.  He stays to the very, very end of football games and won't leave until all of the work is done.  He went above and beyond his football duty and was happy to help supervise the snack bar area.  He has been a really positive and upbeat addition to the staff.  

Hayley Rodriguez

Be Real / Dare to Question / Care for Others / Find Balance / Growth Mindset / Balanced Lives / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Collaboration / Communication / Integrity / Authenticity / Creativity / Respect / Inquiry / Being Together / Working Together 

We recently had a difficult IEP meeting. Haley was professional, direct, compassionate, and knowledgeable. I don't know how many people really know what she does, but she's a major asset to our school.

Haley is kind, down-to-earth, professional, reliable, compassionate, and real.

James DuBose

Care for Others / Compassion / Empathy / Teamwork / Collaboration / Being Together / Working Together

James exemplifies "care for others" in the way he lives his life.  Every time I run into him, he has a smile on his face.  He always takes the time to ask about the family and remembers the stories from the last time we talked.  His positive energy is contagious!  I'm so glad we have James on our staff! 

Helpful, connects with others.

Silvia Arredondo

Care for Others/Teamwork/Communication/ Being Together

Silvia always talk to me on a personal level to the point we've become friends because she truly cares. I know I'll feel a pick-me-up after talking to her because she's very positive and complimentary of others.

Without Silvia, I would be much busier. She not only makes all my copies but without complaint (even when I send her a book to copy a ton of stuff from), and she makes things perfectly and on time (or early). She will make things quickly at the last minute when needed and deliver it personally if necessary. If she knows she's going to be out, she makes a ton of copies in advance. She is also great at communicating with staff so we know when she's here or not. She continues to amaze me with the great work she does to make my classroom and life easier. Great team mate!

She is very personable, so she displays warmth, humor and compassion and really gets to know individuals. She also loves to share stories of what works for different teachers that might help others out.

Don Azevada & Noel Villalpando

Care for Others

I feel they cared for others in they created a workspace in the teacher lounge.  For me, I can work, print, input grades etc during my prep while I am without a classroom.  I am able to get things done and the computers are very speedy too!  Thank you so much!!

Katie Hewitt

Be Real/Dare to Question/Care for Others/Find Balance/Growth Mindset/Balanced Lives/

Compassion/Empathy/Teamwork/Collaboration/ Communication/Integrity/Authenticity/

Creativity/Respect/Inquiry

Not only is Katie a skilled science teacher, she is a skilled stand-up comedian without even trying.  When we're all together, the one-liners and comments she throws in context have us all rolling.  When you talk to Katie casually for just a few minutes, her infectious spirit cheers you up immediately.  She is always looking for a cohesive and innovative way to do things, and she always tries to connect the department.  She is also the best at "finding balance" in her life as a mom of two babies and a full-time teacher and knows how to weave some fun activities into her life here and there.  If she's ever having a hard time, you would never know it! She is a role model on many levels, and I feel she needs to be acknowledged ( to other staff besides just us!)  

Matt Hodgins

Care for Others/Compassion/Empathy

Matt cares for students and staff by constantly thinking of ways to engage and involve. As the long-time adviser of Interact, he moves students to make a difference at the school and in the community. As a teacher, he's constantly connecting kids to the larger community through guest speakers and relevant, hands-on projects. And he shares--inviting other teachers to bring their students along to experience learning beyond the classroom. Even though he's truly a stand out educator, he's not flashy or attention grabbing. He just does the work, caring for others for its own sake. 

Matt doesn't get paid more to make other's lives better. He does it because he cares.  

Kate Hewett

Teamwork/Collaboration

Katelyn did an excellent job on the 504/IEP project I asked her to complete this summer. She went above and beyond and did even more than I asked. It’s so organized and clear.

Julie Giordano

Be Real/Dare to Question/Care for Others

Deniz Sert felt you were one of the most influential teacher in his development. He thanked you for your time, patience, expertise, love, discipline, and everything else that made you a great teacher. 

Deanna Yates

Care for Others

Deanna overheard a student saying he could not pay for homecoming ticket and he had been asked to dance...she offered to pay for his ticket.

Donna Martin

Teamwork/Collaboration

Sandra Kelsey, the Librarian at the EDH Library stated: "I have worked with Donna for nearly 5 years and cannot speak enough for her dedication to the students of Oak Ridge. As co-lead of Y.E.L.L. (Youth Executive League at the Library), she attends weekly meetings on her own time to meet with middle school and high school students interested in providing support to the library. She is a skilled librarian, but also a patient collaborator, working with students to help them succeed and providing them support beyond the walls of her library. I admire her greatly and believe Oak Ridge is very lucky to have her". 

Don Azevada

Be Real/Care for Others

Don displayed incredible patience, professionalism and compassion in dealing with a very distraught, volatile student. He calmly listened and spoke in such a way that the student felt "heard" and understood. 

Darsy Arburn

Be Real/Care for Others/Balanced Lives/ Compassion/Empathy/Teamwork/ Communication/Integrity/Authenticity/Respect

Darsy came into the AP office to diffuse a difficult situation with a very upset student. She spoke to the student with kindness and respect which made him feel heard and helped to calm him down.

Dalisa Sanford

Care for Others/Compassion/Empathy/ Teamwork/ Communication/Respect 

Dalisa attended a a504 meeting for a student that had been struggling with anxiety. She was incredibly supportive, kind and understanding with the student and the family. The parents commended her on her organization and her ability to connect with such a troubled student.

Erin Arthur

Care for Others/Find Balance

Staff was working to help a student "lighten her class load" but could not find a location for her to go during "open time". Erin stepped up and volunteered to open her room during her prep so that the student would have a safe place to do her homework and have some quiet time.

Suzanne Everett

Be Real/Care for Others/Integrity/Authenticity 

Ms. Everett has arranged for professionals in many fields to come and address her English classes. As part of her "What I Want to be When I Grow Up" project the classes have been able to speak with adults who are in the fields many of the students are interested in. This program has resulted in Job-shadowing opportunities and greater understanding of future possibilities.

Jennifer Szelenyi

Be Real, Dare to Question/Care for Others/Find Balance

Jen consistently works towards the betterment of ORHS in all areas. She supports teachers, and fellow staff members through her initiative, care and compassion. She is incredibly helpful and handles it all with grace.

Mike Eisenhart

Care for Others

One of our students parents notified her counselor to compliment Mike. Mike had sent a handwritten note to the student to let her know of her excellent math score on an assessment. This brought tears to the eyes of the parent and a smile to the student. 

Denise Bonal

Care for Others, Collaboration, Creativity

Denise shows a good deal of initiative. She took on the responsibility of "Parent Square" messaging very seriously. She worked to make the system clearer in its communications to parents. Without being asked, she tried different templates within the system to come up with a more clear, concise and effective communication tool.

Michelle Kite

Dare to Question

Michelle wanted her students to perform puppet shows for children. She made arrangements with the EDH Library to do several shows, along with a stage and baskets of handmade puppets much to the delight of the Library families. She goes above and beyond to provide her classes with opportunities to learn and succeed. 

Jessica Womack

Care for Others, Compassion/Empathy/

Teamwork

When you call the AP office about an issue or in need of help, Jessica is always willing to do whatever it takes to help you. She is friendly and professional and does her job well!

Silvia Arredondo

Care for Others, Teamwork

Silvia is friendly to everyone and goes above and beyond to get everyone's copy requests done in a timely manner. She helps with last minute requests and always has a smile on her face. She is a treat to work with.

Renee O'Banion

Care for Others

Renee is always ready & willing to step up to help our teachers.  She will help get supplies to their rooms, and volunteers regularly to help get teachers their work from the copy room in a speedy fashion. She embodies the kind of Teamwork/Care for others that is fundamental to ORHS.

Julie Ornelas

Be Real/Care for Others/Dare to Question/Find Balance/All School Values

Michelle Kite believes that Julie is the best department chair ever. She is fun, caring and professional. She worked really hard to make her feel welcomed this year. And she is always open to new ideas. 

Mandy Fiedler

Care for Others/Teamwork/Collaboration

Mandy was approached by our department to find a way to change the schedules of 23 kids, all for the good of my Geometry 11-12 (remedial) class. In the eye of the storm that is scheduling season, Mandy made it happen without any questions. She added this task to her very full plate, all for the good of the students who need it most.

Julie Giordano

Care for Others/Teamwork/Collaboration

Julie recognized the need for more one-on-one help in my Geometry 11-12 (remedial) class. She brought up the idea of collapsing her 3rd period Geometry, which only had 23 students in it, in order to co-teach with me in my class of 25 students, primarily students with IEPs and 504s. It was a tremendously selfless act!

Donna Martin

Teamwork/Collaboration

Donna is a fantastic librarian. She is friendly and approachable, and she loves working with both students and teachers. If she knows your class is going to be doing a project, she quickly offers to assist and offer her expertise. She truly goes above and beyond. She keeps the library organized, and she gives kids a safe space to hang out during break and lunch, too.

Carmela Sabatano

Be Real/Communication/Inquiry

A parent and student wanted me to know how incredible a teacher Ms. Sabatano was. They can't believe that nothing was lost in transitioning from Mrs. Hewitt to Ms. Sabatano. Their daughter is excited about how much she is learning from Ms. Sabatano. 

Megan Watson

Care for Others/Growth Mindset/Compassion

Quote from an Oak Ridge student, "I've never been in a school where the teachers show they care so much. Miss Watson spent so much time with me- making sure I knew the math concepts to help me be successful in math. I'm a junior and I've never had a teacher sit down with me and actually teach me one on one. She didn't even know me and she was straight up nice to me. I really like it here". 

Heath Jenkins/Jonathan Owens

Be Real/Care for Others

Quote from an Oak Ridge mother, "Our son Wesley really struggled academically his first two years at Oak Ridge. Mr. Pratt and Wesley's teachers have gone above and beyond to encourage Wesley to do his best work and not to give up. Wesley has mentioned often about how much his teachers, especially Mr. Owens and Mr. Jenkins really care about him. This has made all of the difference."

Kristina Argueta

Care for Others/Creativity/Compassion

Students rom Kristina's French classes and French Honor Society sang carols for two assisted living places in EDH this week for the second year in a row: El Dorado Hills Senior Care Village and El Dorado Estates. Thank you Kristina for providng this opportunity for our kids and community. 

Julie Prather

Be Real/Care for Others/Growth Mindset/ Teamwork

Julie has worked tirelessly with a 9th grade student who receives Special Education services. As a new member of the staff, Julie has been authentic, creative, flexible, cooperative, communicative and supportive. As she learns the ropes of being a "Trojan" she is working with her peers in her department, the Special Education department, Counseling, the family, and a reluctant learner who does not believe in his own abilities. Julie believes in the student, his skills, and genuinely wants him to succeed.

Casey Rhyan

Care for Others

Casey is a model coach with the lifelong relationships he forms with his wrestlers. Casey is currently working with a young man, 25 years old, who was a past player of his. This young man is experiencing great challenges in his life and his father passed away when he was young. Casey has stepped up and is there for this young man and helping him get all of the appointments that he needs. Casey is a coach that cares beyond the lines.

David Warren/Tony Diaz

Teamwork/Collaboration

A parent of a student in Dave Warren's class happens to be the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum in another district. He became very interested in how Dave was grading his classes. His curiosity over the ATI practices that Dave had in his class ended up with him asking Dave a lot of questions and setting up a collaboration between some of his teachers and Dave and Tony Diaz. I want to thank Dave and Tony for taking time of their day to work with teachers from another district. I admire their desire to help all students and teachers, even those not at Oak Ridge. 

Kim Doyle

Be Real/Care for Others

Kim recently shared with my Financial Analysis classes her struggles with debt. It was a powerful demonstration of being real and caring for others. She pulled no punches. In doing so, she laid out for my students in very real terms what the consequences can be from living with large amounts of debt. This also demonstrates caring for others. Kim hopes none of the students have to experience what she did. 

Jordan Lampenfeld

Be Real/Care for Others/Being Together 

I was supervising at the MPR and noticed when the bell rang that Mr. Lampenfeld was standing outside his door shaking the hand of every student as they entered the classroom and greeting them. It was clear this made the students feel welcome and important. I have no doubt that every student in that classroom knows that Mr. Lampenfeld cares about them and is glad they are in his class!

Kim Hassian

Care for Others/Teamwork/Collaboration

3Strands is a national organization based in El Dorado Hills. 3Strands is dedicated to ending the practice of sex trafficking. Many years ago a concerned community member came to Kim and asked her how they could teach students at Oak Ridge how to protect themselves from sex trafficking. At that moment, the PROTECT program was born. Kim was the first teacher in America to teach the PROTECT curriculum to her Health students. Now, Governor Brown has written into law that every student in the state must be taught the PROTECT curriculum. It has reached into other states as well. I was recently reminded that Kim was one of the pioneers of the program and showed that it could be done and that it was effective. 

Jeff Hassian

Care for Others/Teamwork/Collaboration 

Jeff excels at inspiring young people and making them reach beyond what they thought was possible. Jeff is also a silent leader. When Academic Decathlon needed a coach he stepped up. When he learned there was a Cyber Patriot National Cyber Defense Competition he started a team. He wanted to provide a place where our students could be challenged and improve. He does the same with Academic Decathlon.

Nicole Lucidi

Be Real/Compassion/Empathy/Care for Others

Nicole had unprecedented success with her EL class last year. Upon testing her returning students this year they all experienced a one level increase in their proficiency. In the EL world this is unheard of. Nicole goes beyond the curriculum with these students. She takes them under her wing and becomes a case manager for them. She always goes the extra mile and it shows. The phenomenal success of her students can be linked back directly to the work she is doing and the heart she has for her students. 

Cathy Kauffman

Be Real/Care for Others/Compassion/Empathy 

Cathy did not want to be recognized in a meeting. But I still felt it appropriate to recognize her publicly in this format.Parent Letter:

My daughter, Lindsay, became ill at the end of her junior year with Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH) and Papilledema. In short, the increased spinal fluid around her spine, optical nerves, and brain caused Lindsay to be put on Home and Hospital.

Struggling to heal from her conditions and complete all of her classes by the end of the school year proved to be impossible. Lindsay finished all of her classes with the exception of chemistry.

Both Lindsay and I reached out to her chemistry teacher, Cathy Kauffman. I expressed my concern that when Lindsay applies for colleges in November that an incomplete may affect her acceptance. Cathy immediately eased Lindsay's and my worries. When Cathy volunteered to come to our home during her summer and work with Lindsay, I was shocked since most teachers would probably never do this. Sure enough, she came multiple times!

THANKS to Cathy, Lindsay completed chemistry and her junior year successfully!!! We are so overwhelmingly appreciative for the dedication, kindness, commitment, and compassion that Cathy has shown to our daughter. It truly touched our hearts that Cathy would take time out of her own well-deserved vacation to help my daughter.

My daughter is super lucky to have had Cathy as her junior year chemistry teacher. Cathy truly cares about her students and went the extra mile to help my daughter through a very difficult time and that means the world to us. Oak Ridge is so fortunate to have such a terrific teacher who, out of the goodness of her heart, goes above and beyond and makes a true difference and positive impact on her students' lives.

I hope you and your staff will recognize what an amazing teacher Cathy Kauffman is and give her kudos that she so rightfully deserves!

Denise Bonal

Care for Others/Team Work/Collaboration/

Working Together

Denise took the ball and ran with a big job that needed to be completed right before school started (student information for Lifetouch.) She cared for me in a big way, I was overwhelmed and saw there was no way I could get the task at hand completed that day. She looked at me with confidence, and said "I've got this! don't worry!" 

 - Marty Wagner

Alison Lishman

Care for Others/Teamwork/Respect/Being Together/Working Together

Alison came in on a Saturday to put together the furniture for C-4 to make sure our Special Education Department had a beautiful space ready for them the first day of school. It showed the paraprofessionals that we value them and care about making their workspace comfortable and functional. Alison gave up her personal time to make this happen and I, as the admin who oversees Special Education, really appreciated her going the extra mile to make this happen before school started. – Kim Doyle

Dann Lealos

Be Real/Care for Others/Integrity/Authenticity/ Respect/Compassion/Empathy/Being Together

Dann was picking weeds in the upper parking lot before school one morning. Something I have been meaning to do, but his actions speaks louder than my intentions. We teachers lead by example. Doing kind things for the sake of kindness shows our students what being real and caring for others (and our environment) mean. Thank you, Dann, for inspiring me personally today. – Anonymous 

Dave White

Be Real/Teamwork/The Oak Ridge Way

I want to recognize David White for all his work with Link Crew this summer. Their work culminated with one of the best Freshmen Orientations I have ever seen. It was clear that a tremendous amount of time and deep consideration went into planning the event. I want to honor Dave for going above and beyond for our freshmen class. He was determined to give them an amazing introduction to Oak Ridge. I want to honor him for his care, teamwork and willingness to be real with his Link Crew team.

Denise Root

Be Real/Compassion/Empathy/Care for Others/Teamwork/Collaboration

Denise was honored by the El Dorado Hills Rotary as the Oak Ridge Teacher of the Year.  Denise was recognized for her incredible commitment to her students and the passion she brings every day.  There is no one that cares more deeply about their students than Denise.  Beyond that, she spends countless hours dedicated to her department.  Student achievement among special education students increase last year and Denise is a big part of the reason why. 

Speech Team

Great news, we had students place #2 and #3 at the Stanford Invitational.  The winners are Giavanna Chopra and Amrit Bajwa.  Be sure to congratulate them.

Testing

I have a few updates for you pertaining to testing.  The Feds are signaling that they will likely allow states to opt out of testing.  This would mean that California could opt out of CAASPP testing if the State Board of Education wanted to.  The politics of this will be interesting. But it appears that the Feds are going to create a waiver process for this.

AP Testing is still going to happen.  The College Board is providing some options for how a school can do the testing.  We are going through all of the options and determining which ones can and cannot work at Oak Ridge. 

The California Healthy Kids Survey must still be given this year.  Typically we would have completed this in October.  But it was pushed this year.  So we are in the process of preparing to roll this assessment out. 

Model Trojan Award

If you have know of a student or staff member who should be honored with a Model Trojan Award don't forget to sign them up here.  Thank you.

Conserve Energy

Please remember to power everything down for the long weekend.

Long Weekend

I hope everyone takes the time to recharge this weekend. After this is that unfortunate long stretch between holidays. So take the time to rest and spend time with the family.    

February 5th

Rotary Speech Contest

Three Oak Ridge students won in the El Dorado Hills Rotary Speech Contest this week.  Mahee Haswani won first place, Alexandra Thompson won second, and Nicole Spies won third.  They had really good speeches on trying to find a positive that had come out of the chaos of the last year.  If you see them on campus please congratulate them.  Mahee will be going on to the regional competition with her speech.

State Guidelines

We continue to work through identifying what classrooms cannot comply with the state's new 4 foot rule between students.  We have assessed and identified the rooms where this isn't possible.  We have begun speaking with the effected teachers on next steps.  We spoke with most of those teachers this week and should be able to get to the last few early next week.

It also appears that the state is creating a waiver process for some of the new guidelines.  If and when a waiver process is put in place we will examine the feasibility of it.  But it would appear that one is coming.  

Vaccines

Round two of the vaccines for educators will start next week and carry on until complete.  Those who had their vaccine with Safeway will get round two at Safeway.  Those who got round two from Public Health are being notified of a drive through location for round 2. 

We are still working with Safeway and Public Health on when they will access to additional vaccines to complete the round one process for those still waiting.  The shortage of vaccines in California is really hampering our counties efforts right now.  

Staff Meeting Monday Morning

Don't forget to reference the Meetings tab above to access our staff meeting Monday morning at 8:30AM online.

January 29th

CAASPP Update

This week the officials for the CAASPP test and California Accountability Dashboard held a webinar.  They outlined California's Accountability plan for this year.

All of this is predicated on the test actually being given.  The officials in this meeting are not policy makers. They comply with policy.  They have been ordered to have the testing system ready if it is needed. 

State officials claim they will not ignore the Federal governments mandate.  If the Feds require the test (which is the default) they will give it.  At this time the US Department of Education is working without a Secretary of Education because Biden's nominee has yet to be confirmed.  According to state officials this person will need to be in place for the Feds to accept waivers from states.  Currently, the Feds are not even accepting waivers for state tests.  

The current feeling is, if the Feds begin accepting waivers, that State Board of Education will file for one.  The other feeling is that if the Feds allow states to submit waivers then they are of a mindset to accept them all.  

If the testing goes forward here is how it will be different:

• The test will be 3/5ths as long

• They will still require the math, ELA and science test.  The CAA will also be available for some sped students.  

• The 95% overall participation rate will still be required.  And a 95% participation rate for each subgroup will still be required.  

• For schools in Distance Learning, they have come up with a complicated process for testing students at home using a new secure at home testing browser which has not yet been completed. 

Let's cross our fingers and hope for a waiver.  Although, if we had to test, I'm convinced our students would do incredible compared to the rest of the state thanks to your efforts.  

Staff Meeting Reminder

I wanted to share a friendly reminder that we have a staff meeting on the morning of February 8th that will primarily focus on WASC.  The current agenda is under the Meetings tab above.

Student Model Trojan Awards

I had been holding off on Model Trojan awards for students in hopes that we could one day have a safe but small ceremony for the kids.  That is obviously not going to happen.  So we are starting to move forward with virtual award ceremonies for these students and their parents.  The first one will be next week.  Those who submitted student names have been invited.  Please feel free to nominate students again for a Model Trojan Award.  You can find that form under the Resource tab above or by clicking here. 

Athletic Updates

The CIF is working hand in hand with the State Office of Public Health.  This collaboration has produced the latest plan on how sports will be implemented with what time remains in the year.  They have provided a lot of information to process.  However, if you are interested, this is the best link to access as of yesterday.

January 26th

Athletic Update

The State guidelines are allowing certain sports such as Alpine, Cross Country and Golf to start in the Purple Tier.  Each colored tier has a list of sports that can happen.  Our League and district are working on the spectator part of athletics and what that looks like in each tier. It will likely be limited to immediate family but that is not set in stone yet.  The plan for athletics seems to change daily but is starting to come into focus.  

Upcoming Safety Drills

We discussed safety drills and dates in Leadership yesterday.  We have confirmed that the state and district are still requiring us to do safety drills. However, we all understand that they must look different.  We can't evacuate the school and have hundreds of students bunched together.  Alison will be sending out more information about how we will do these drills.  But please plan for them happening on February 23rd for Schedule Group A and February 25th for Schedule Group B.  Both will take place at 8:45 AM.

WASC Time Again

Next Year Oak Ridge will have our three day WASC visit from February 28th to March 2nd 2022.  So we are just a little over a year away.  Don will be the lead for WASC.  Don has been attending the WASC trainings and has a timeline in place for us to complete it on time.  Because of the pandemic a lot of the WASC work will need to be done in your departments.  We will go into more detail about the process in our February 8th staff meeting.  

Work Due Dates

In our leadership team meeting yesterday we discussed some parent frustrations that have come up over assigned due dates.  We ended up having a long and nuanced conversation that was very fruitful.  To simply a long conversation.  Parents are frustrated when assignments are due on weekends and holidays.  They feel that in the past students only turned in work in person on school days.  

However, the issue is more complicated than that.  For the sake of brevity I am going to give two examples to frame what our practice will be moving forward.  Example, it is acceptable to make work due on a weekend if you gave students multiple days to work on it.  For example, you assign it on Monday and it is due on Saturday.   The student had the opportunity to do the work and submit it before the weekend if the chose.  You simply gave them an extra day if they wanted the weekend to work on it.  This is acceptable.  

However, assigning something on Thursday or Friday and making it due on Sat or Sun is not acceptable.  Those assignments would need to be due on Monday (which is technically the next time you have class.)  We support students being given extra time and the opportunity to turn in work on the weekend.  We just don't want them getting an assignment on Friday and having it due before Monday.  Thank you.

January 21st

Lincoln Holiday Bell Schedule Update

I want to make sure that we all have the accurate bell schedule for the week of February 8th.  Some people have reported seeing two versions.  Please refer to the one on our website.  

PROTECT Online Training

3Strands Global Foundation, in partnership with El Dorado Health and Human Services is providing an educational opportunity for staff to learn more about Human Trafficking and prevention efforts. 3Strands, based out of El Dorado Hills, started in 2008 in response to a child trafficking incident in our county. 13 years later and the team at 3Strands has caused a wave of education across the nation, having educated well over 250k educators and 600k students.

Join us for an uplifting 90 min training sessions where we dive deep into understand trafficking and how it effects our youth. Now more than ever, traffickers are grooming children online. Since the pandemic California has seen a near 200% increase in the number of child trafficking cases. Help us stop this crime once and for all!  Register Here

January 15th

Bell Schedule Change for President's Holiday

We have a 4 day weekend coming up from Friday February 12th through Monday February 15th. (School Calendar) Losing Monday February 15th will not affect the bell schedule for that week. 

However, not having school on Friday the 12th will require us to make a change in the school bell schedule for that week.  I worked with our FA reps and confirmed that we cannot swap Friday for Monday and have kids on campus on Monday the 8th.  

Our school Leadership Team looked at the options available to them.  The team decided to make Thursday February 11th a 1-7 period day.  This way B Schedule Group students can see all of their teachers this week.  The bell schedule for this week has been posted to the website here.  

Student Class Registration

As we alluded to in our staff meeting on Monday, there will have to be changes to how we register students for classes this year.  The previous process would simply not work with the COVID guidelines that are in place.  We want everyone to "be in the know" of how the process will work if students ask you.  And some of you will be involved in the process as in previous years (just in a different way.)  Counseling will be putting this process out to everyone soon.  

We are already beginning the outreach to our incoming 9th graders and getting them set up for registration as well.  As a reminder, we have a virtual 8th Grade Parent Night Monday January 25th at 6PM.  

2021-22 Bell Schedule

With 8th Grade Parent Night almost upon us we need to make some decisions about what next year will look like.  I think we are all optimistic that next year will be "normal."  But we must be prepared for any outcome.

For now, we are going to tell our 8th Grade Parents that we are planning for a "normal" bell schedule next year barring an COVID interruptions.  So you will see the new bell schedule that we approved as a school last year on the website for 2021-22. 

Administration is also working on the best way to roll this out next year.  We understand that this will involve us taking time to train and assist everyone with how the new schedule will work.

January 13th

CTE Student Success

Two Oak Ridge students have taken full advantage of our districts Animal Health Field career path and have earned their certification in the profession. If you see Haley Kay, and Alexa Songco, congratulate them. 

They have completed over 500 hours in both classroom and clinical experience in the Animal Health Field as well as learned over 100 practical veterinary skills.  Yesterday they sat for a 100-question exam from the California Veterinary Medical Association.  Each of these students passed and have earned their CVA (Certified Veterinary Assistant) Certificate.

Vaccine

I want to appreciate Public Health, EDCOE and our District for being able to pivot so quickly and get us access to the 1A vaccines in our county.  As the letter yesterday stated in part, once opened, these vaccines expire fairly quickly.  So instead of throwing them away, they decided to start the 1B tier 1 roll out using the 1A vaccines.  

There will likely not be enough 1A vaccines left to serve all school employees. But when the 1B vaccines arrive they will be able to finish serving all school staff.  We do not have an estimated date for when that will arrive. 

Please do not forget to schedule your second dose immediately after getting your first dose.  And don't forget, just because the site says this is just for 1A professions, you can still sign up.  They simply have not updated the website yet.  Please have proof of being a school employee with you in case they ask for it (ID card, pay stub, etc.)

4 Day Full Return Bell Schedule

The Bell Schedule Committee met yesterday and worked on what our 4 Day Full Return Bell Schedule will be once the Board chooses to move in this direction.  At this time, the Committee needs to wait until the District and Faculty Association have completed any modifications they desire for the MOU.  Any changes to the MOU could have an impact on the bell schedule.  So once that process is complete, the committee will be able to finalize the bell schedule and share it.

January 12th

Spring Break Days Clarification

I have asked how we are managing the days for spring break that were listed as Emergency Closure days.  March 26th and April 5th were days we could hold school if we had significant school closures due to PG&E days, etc.  But we have not had significant days to make up so far.  So short of losing school days between now and March 26th, those two days will be added to spring break and we will have them off.

Vaccine News

County Public Health has notified us that the transition from 1A of the vaccine roll out to 1B will be happening sooner than later.  As we know, all school staff are included in the 1B phase of the vaccine roll out.  Our district and county office of education have been working closely with Public Health and OES on how to roll this out to our staff.  Within the next day or two you will start to see communication from the district on this process.  Our district office will be managing this process for us.  

Bell Schedule Committee

The Bell Schedule Committee (as outlined in the MOU) will be meeting today.  We have no idea when we will be asked to transition to all students returning every day 4 days a week.  I am going to start referring to this as a 4 Day Full Return.  Whenever it  does happen, we want to be prepared for it.  So we will begin to discuss what that bell schedule will look like today. 

January 6th

Mural Complete

The approved student mural was completed over the break.  We now have a beautiful student mural to compliment the Wellness Garden next to it.  There is some touch up that needs to be done.  But I wanted to share the completed project.  

• https://youtu.be/J6MEr_WJHxw

Live Streaming Technology

As Don has previously noted we have about 64 teachers who have requested live stream technology.  The first wave of orders has already arrived and are being delivered today.  As people have ordered we have put additional orders in.  So the second wave of live stream tech should arrive on Tuesday.  A big thank you to Don, Jessica and Chris Moore for effectively pulling off a roll out this big with such little time. 

ODLP Transfers

Just and FYI- From the boards decision to go hybrid, we had 53 families decide to move to ODLP.  

October 1 Update

Monday Professional Development Update

A proposal was brought forth from the Faculty Association to make the Monday Professional Development opportunities optional for teachers.  In my eyes, the question is,  do we trust our teachers as professionals to determine if their time would be better spent attending a professional development training or to prioritize the time towards another aspect of their teaching.  The core of the issue is, if a teacher feels they will find value in the growth opportunity being presented they will avail themselves of it.  If it is not a skill that they need or already have, they can focus their time on their classes.

In consultation with the Faculty Association and our school Leadership Team, all agreed that the professional development opportunities now being offered on Monday should be optional and left up to each teacher’s professional judgement.  I can whole-heartedly support that proposal.  So moving forward these will now be optional for the faculty. 

Clarifying the Schedule for Next Week

What came from Leadership was that Tuesday October 6th and Wednesday October 7th are Online Distance Learning days that happen to use the Hybrid Bell schedule. Thursday and Friday October 8th and 9th will be the first two days of the actual hybrid model.  If you somehow want to set up your Tuesday and Wednesday so that Schedule Group A is more aligned with Schedule Group B, you have the freedom to do that.

Mask Defiance

A student can be sent to the office for being defiant and not wearing their mask.  We would like to norm when a student is defiant for not wearing their mask.  Here are two examples for which we will send a student home for not wearing their mask.

1. If they are refusing to wear a mask even after being told to wear one.

2.    2. If they are playing games and intentionally trying to not appropriately wear their mask. 

Here is what we do not consider mask defiance:

1.    1. We do not want to send a student home who has made an honest mistake with their mask.  If you ask a student to make and adjustment and they comply, that is not considered defiance.

I know there is a lot of gray here.  But I trust your judgement to know when a student needs to be repeatedly redirected for their mask because they are being defiant.  I think you are good judges of character for when a student honestly makes a mistake. 

Is COVID Surveillance Testing Painful?

Some people have expressed concern over the voluntary COVID 19 testing being provided by the district.  Some people feel it is a painful procedure.  EDCOE made a video showing exactly how the test works.  They are apparently using a less invasive test that is just as accurate as the painful test.

Video:  Please watch this video on how the staff COVID testing will be administered

September 30 Update

Hybrid Attendance in Aeries

Tomorrow there will be a district meeting on attendance in the hybrid model.  We will get the complete protocol for how to do this correctly.  We will be taking that information and synthesizing it into a handout for you.  One question I can answer pertains to tardies.  The new Aeries attendance system for the hybrid model will give teachers the option of marking a student tardy.  We will have more direction about this soon.

Water in Class

I submitted a question to County Health about students drinking water in class using the system they have given us to get clarification on these issues.  I received a written response from them today stating that students are allowed to take a drink of water in class and thus lowering their mask to do that.  

September 25 Update

Meeting Acceptance

I wanted to remind everyone that we cannot reject meeting invitations to IEPs, 504s or SSTs, etc.  We also need you to hit accept so you appear in the schedule.  These are extremely difficult to schedule and involve coordinating a lot of schedules.  If you receive one of these invitations and cannot attend you must reach out to me and ask to be excused.  

Lunch Schedule/Communicate to Students

We will need your help informing your students which lunch they will have.  If you are in lunch 1 then they will be in lunch 1 and vice versa.  Please share your lunch group with your 4th and 5th period classes as soon as possible.  The students already have access to the bell schedule which shows the lunch times on the school website.

Lunch Schedule

Staff Meeting Monday

Just a reminder we will have a staff meeting Monday at 2:15 in Google Meet: meet.google.com/fmx-vkbv-oxu

September 22nd Update

Google Doc Sharing Update

Some of us are starting to receive Google Doc requests to add people we have never heard of as collaborators on sensitive documents with confidential information on them.  So on the surface, it appears that people are trying to locate documents (ex. Different lists of students) and request access to them. 

Google security is doing exactly what it is supposed to do and keeping these people out.  I want to caution us to be very careful with who we grant rights to in Google Docs.  When someone requests access to one of your docs please be very careful and look at who is asking for permission to it before granting it.

Parents at School Today

We found out a few days ago that some parents were planning what they called a protest.  Their objective was to convince the school board to move to the hybrid model.  I called the three people making the most posts about it.  I convinced them to move their protest on to the sidewalk and keep it off of campus.  It actually was easy, they immediately agree to it.  So about 3 dozen students and parents showed up for roughly two hours today in support of the hybrid model.

Parent Survey on Hybrid

I have been told that across the district 79% of parents (2520 unduplicated responses) support our schools moving to the hybrid model.  At Oak Ridge that number was 73% out of 1205 unduplicated responses.  

September 18th Update

Hybrid Social Distancing

We have received a lot of questions about social distancing in the classrooms in the hybrid model.  I want to share two things with everyone.  

   1. The 6 feet rule does not apply in classrooms in the hybrid model.  County Health has authorized us to have up to 20 people in a room even if that means they are not 6 feet apart.  They are more concerned with masks than distances.

   2. All of your classroom furniture must stay in your room.  We do not have the capacity to store extra desks.

Hybrid Model Cleaning

County Health is encouraging us to focus on hand sanitation if the Board chooses to move to the hybrid.  For example, it is acceptable to collect and pass out papers.  It is alright for one student to use a Chromebook used by a different student the period before as long as everyone is sanitizing their hands frequently.

We need to encourage students to sanitize their hands when they enter the room so they don't bring anything in with them.  Then we encourage them to sanitize their hands before they leave class so they don't take anything with them. Wearing a mask and frequently sanitation of hands is our best way to remain healthy. 

Our Maintenance team will sanitize classrooms at the end of the day. If teachers want, they can sanitize Chromebooks  but our Maintenance team will not be doing that.  Our goal is focus on sanitizing our hands before and after using the Chromebooks.  

Hybrid Model Procedures Update

I have added more procedures to our Hybrid FAQ pages.  Please take a look and see the additions (mostly around cleaning) highlighted in yellow.  Hybrid Procedures Link

Additional Hybrid Resources

The August Reopening Page (the tab above) on the Trojan Hub has been updated with all of the Hybrid information that we currently have.  This page has been updated with the lunch time split schedule.

September 11th Update

9/11 Remembrance

I wanted to take a moment and remember all of those lost on September 11th.  

Faculty Site Council Election

One of our annual traditions is electing faculty members to the schools Site Council.  Each year we elect three faculty members.  This year we have three volunteers.  However, we still need to hold the election.  I am asking the Faculty to please vote either online or in person at Kate's desk for their representative to the Site Council.  

Staff Photos

I want to follow up on Jen's email and remind everyone that staff photos are being done on 9/14, 9/21, 9/28 or 10/12 in the MPR.

Hybrid Update

Testing Center: It has been determined that the testing center for all public school teachers and students in EDH will be held here at Oak Ridge.  We are getting more information in order to pick the best place for that testing center. 

Childcare: It has been determined that we will also be housing the childcare center for public school employees in EDH as well.  We are working on identifying that space on campus. 

Parent Information:  This weekend we will start to share information about the hybrid model with parents.  We will share the bell schedule with them, how the school is split into two groups and two lunches.  We will officially be calling the two cohorts Student Group A and Student Group B.  They will learn which group they are in (if they haven't already figured it out.) 

Screen Time Survey Results

I want to thank everyone who took the time to have their students complete the screen time survey.  We had 1,505 students take part. If you are interested, I put some of the screen time survey results below for your reference.