Embedded Files
Update Monday September 25
Congratulation to Mandy Packwood
Congratulation to Mandy Packwood
On Friday, September 22, Mandy Packwood was awarded Daily Fly's teacher of the month for the month of September. It was great to celebrate this achievement with the rest of the grade 6 students and teachers. Mandy deserves the recognition for her dedication to her students and approach to developing positive relationships.
Professional Development Day September 20
Professional Development Day September 20
Thank you for your efforts during the professional development day on September 20. Below was the focus for our time on Wednesday. For our next PD Day, we will ensure that departments have more time to collaborate. We will take the feedback provided from our If / Then/ So statements and work to continue to develop our adult learning and Professional Development.
1. Review the visible thinking routines used by teams to enhance student engagement. (1:15-1:30)
2. Evaluation of our current mission, vision, school goals, collective commitments, and values. (1:30-2:00)
3. Develop and refine our If / Then/ So statements. (2:00-2:40)
4. Develop our adult learning and Professional Development focus going forward. (2:00-2:40)
5. Department time for vertical alignment of essential skills. (2:50-3:30)
6. Host Sacajawea exploratory/elective teachers to allow for cross-campus collaboration opportunities focused on essential standards and I can statements from 2:00 onwards. Group will meet in the library and break out to classrooms.
7. Instructional Assistants will have time to work with Denise on progress monitoring during department time.
BBQ on Friday, September 29th
BBQ on Friday, September 29th
We are scheduled for a BBQ this Friday. This will be confirmed by the end of the day on Monday. As Quinn will be away, we will need some folks to help with the grilling.
Conferences October 4th and 5th
Conferences October 4th and 5th
Please use the attached spreadsheet to book times for conferences on October 4th and 5th. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please let us know. We will send reminders to parents this Monday and next Monday.
Please make sure that students know/understand the "I can statements" and their progress. Also, please make sure parents leave with an understanding of how they can help their child.
Committee Meetings this week
Committee Meetings this week
Although we are scheduled to have several committee meetings this week, we will postpone some of these till after conferences. The only committee meetings we will have this week will be:
Guiding Coalition on September 28th, at 7:15.
PBIS with Restorative Practices
PBIS with Restorative Practices
This week with Quinn being gone, we will need additional support from staff working with students demonstrating challenging behaviors.
This provides an opportunity to work on some of the restorative practices associated with PBIS.
Any student that gets a red card and needs to serve a detention, should serve the detention with the same teacher who gave the student the red card. This will provide a chance for the teacher to speak with the parents about the coming detention and also allow additional time during the detention for the student and teacher to repair the relationship.
I would also like to thank Justin in advance who will be filling in for Quinn while he is away. Thank you JUSTIN!
Update Monday September 17
Update Friday September 15
Lewiston Roundup Parade
Lewiston Roundup Parade
Huge shoutout to Amy and Mackenzie for their efforts in making Jenifer's involvement in the Lewiston Round Up a great success. Students sounded and looked amazing as they marched through the streets. All the practice for the performance clearly paid off! I also loved the collaboration with Sacajawea.
IMG_3059.MOVConnection Before Correction
Connection Before Correction
The first weeks of school have been absolutely amazing and I am grateful for all the efforts of our faculty and staff to get us off to a great start to the year.
During the summer, I met with a number of students that behaviors proved challenging the previous year. The purpose of these summer meets was to establish some connection and set a positive tone for the start to the year. There was some success with the first days/weeks of school, but the "honeymoon" period is clearly over and many staff have experienced some significant behavior challenges.
It is important that we try a variety of strategies to find success with even our most challenging students. Additionally, we need to balance accountability empathy and work to be consistent with our behavior management strategies.
We have to remember our mission to "guide and empower ALL students to learn at high levels, today, tomorrow and in the future" and do everything we can for these students.
As I worked to complete the Mandt training the last two weeks, many of the frustrating behaviors were discussed as well as their possible causes.
Lastly, I am confident that as we enhance our ability to reach our mission by developing our understanding of pastoral care and alignment of our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) we will have significant impact on student behavior.
We've made a very productive start to our year by bringing together our guiding coalition team and our department heads for the common purposes of
Student achievement
Pushing Forward collaborative best practices
Adult actions/ learning
Please see the above presentation that Justin created to outline the vision of purpose for our guiding coalition going forward. Thank you to the team for your willingness to come together for the above common purposes. I know we will continue to achieve great success at JMS.
PD Day September 20
PD Day September 20
Huge thanks to Justin for his work to get us setup for a successfully PD Day on September 20. He has worked with teams to adjust our school schedule and prepared teams for a productive day with his work with the Guiding Coalition. Please see the attached objectives and schedule below.
There are several objectives for this meeting:
Review the visible thinking routines used by teams to enhance student engagement.
Evaluation of our current mission, vision, school goals, collective commitments, and values.
Develop and refine our If / Then/ So statements.
Develop our adult learning and Professional Development focus going forward.
Additionally, we will host Sacajawea exploratory/elective teachers to allow for cross-campus collaboration opportunities.
Lastly, Instructional Assistants will have time to work with Denise on progress monitoring.
Advisory Programs
Advisory Programs
Thank you Ali for sharing the link to the Second Step advisory program.
At our last Pastoral Care/PBIS meeting we agreed to spend time to review the program and look for possibilities to incorporate lessons in advisory. Some grade levels have used the program with success with students in developing relationships and class dynamics.
🏐🏐🏐Volleyball🏐🏐🏐
🏐🏐🏐Volleyball🏐🏐🏐
On Wednesday we played Clarkston and Sacajawea and learned tons about playing volleyball! Thank you to the coaches and staff members for all their support in making these events successful for our students and parents who came to support.
Update Monday September 11
Committee Meetings and important events This Week
Committee Meetings and important events This Week
September 11
@7:50 - Staff Meeting
All Day - Progress reports for students
September 12
@7:15 - Pastoral Care Committee Meeting
@9:00 - Health and Safety
@10:30 - Fire Drill with Lewiston Fire Department
September 13
@7:15 - Department Heads Meeting
September 14
@7:30 - Guiding Coalition
@3:00 - Culture and Communication
September 15
@10:00-10:30 - Leadership Meeting
@3:15-3:45 - Admin & Secretary Meeting
This week will be a busy week for our school committees. If you are on any of these committees, please see the minutes and begin to add your points for discussion and action.
Team Weekly Update
Team Weekly Update
Spirit week last week was a complete success. Huge thanks to the entire team for your enthusiasm and participation on the week long events. Have a look at the Culture and Communication Committee update for the week. The purpose for these updates is to share the happenings of JMS with community members. We have created a spot on our website where these weekly updates can be added for the community to see the positive work we do for our students.
CHROMEBOOK RECALL
CHROMEBOOK RECALL
On Friday, September 8th, we were informed that Dell would need to recall our Chromebooks as they were missing a camera element that the school district ordered. Thanks to everyone who gave back their Chromebooks to Julian for collection. These will be picked up by central office no later than Tuesday. We will update staff when we can redistribute these devices.
September is attendance awareness month
September is attendance awareness month
You may have noticed over the weekend that we have updated our reader board outside of the school to reflect the fact that September is Attendance Awareness month. I am happy to report that as of September 6th, we are averaging 97.2% attendance.
Thank you Lori for keeping close records of our school attendance. We have set 92% attendance as an average monthly school goal this year, which is 3% increase from last year's 89% monthly attendance average. Thank you JoAnne for providing this data and Quinn for your support in setting this goal.
fire drill tuesday september 12
fire drill tuesday september 12
On Tuesday, September 12th, we will run our first fire drill of the year with support from the Fire Department. Please make sure you have all the resources you need for this drill.
Quinn will conduct the 7th grade and 6th grade hallway checks. Julian and Peggy, please check the boys girls bathroom on the 2nd floor.
Aaron will conduct the 8th grade and Admin hallway check. Mike R and Tara, please check the boys and girls bathroom.
Officer Kent will conduct annex and gym check. Morgan and Elizabeth, please check the boys and girls locker rooms.
Evacuate-to the Designated Location
Take Emergency Backpack
Take roll sheet
Lead students to evacuation location
Take roll, account for students
Use red/green card to show the appropriate message
Fire Drill - Designated locations for classrooms
Fire Drill - Designated locations for classrooms
Building smart goals
Building smart goals
Thank you to the department heads and leadership team for their support in the development of Jenifer's SMART Goals for this coming year. These are still in development and after review from Lance and the rest of the district office, we will ratify. A great start and appreciate the efforts to get us to this point in such short time. We agreed that we would add an engagement goal, but need to determine if we will use a cognitive, emotional, or behavioral. Lastly, we still need to determine building wide goals for special education, but Denise and her team have done great work setting grade level goals.
ELA SMART Goals - Jenifer Middle School students will achieve a 55% proficiency in ELA for the 2023-2024 school year as measured by the spring ISAT.
Math SMART Goals - Jenifer Middle School students will achieve a 52% proficiency in Math for the 2023-2024 school year as measured by the spring ISAT.
Science SMART Goals (5th, 8th, 11th) - By the end of the year 50% of 8th grade science students will be proficient as measured by the spring ISAT test.
Behavior Goals - Using the office referrals for the 22-23 school year, we will decrease the number of office referrals due to insubordination by 5% as measured by SWISS.
Attendance Goals - Jenifer Middle School will achieve an attendance rate of at least 92% for the 2023-24 school year. Attendance will be measured daily, and evaluated weekly through Powerschool. This is an increase of 3% from the 22-23 school year.
Please be sure to update your TA Certification Course. Follow the link above and click the icon seen below. Enjoy the course. I have completed the course and will be added the accomplishment to my resume.
Progress Reports
Progress Reports
Please remember to share with students their progress thus far in your classes. If you are a new to this process, get with your mentor teacher and seek clarification.
Reminder about the language we use with students needs to stay positive. Sometimes we may get frustrated with students, but it's important that we model the kind of behavior that we want to see. I am sharing here again the article that Quinn shared at the beginning of the year. If you don't want to read the whole thing, here are 5 summary points:
CONVEY FAITH IN STUDENT ABILITIES
PRACTICE POSITIVE VOCABULARY
CHOOSE YOUR WORDS WISELY
BE HONEST AND DIRECT
AVOID USING DON’T
Update Friday September 1
Committees Up and running
Committees Up and running
We launched our committees this week. Although each committee has a different focus, the overall aim is for continued school improvement. We all know that JMS is a great school, our objective is to look for ways to continue to build on success and look to make improvement in areas we know need attention.
It was clear that what was called "leadership" should be called "Department Heads". That has been changed and the curricular academic focus aligns with original purpose. Ensuring that department heads are supporting and leading our building goals makes our work sustainable.
Culture and Communication will act in some ways as the leadership group we had last year. This group can work to provide solutions to issues as well as support school planning to continue to develop a positive school culture. Many great ideas were shared during this meeting of how we can continue to share all the positive work that we do at JMS.
Pastoral Care met this week as well. This group is well represented and will work to enhance our socioemotional curricular elements of our school.
Spirit Week
Spirit Week
Spirit Week is September 5th - 8th!
Student Council identified some great ways to celebrate Spirit Week:
Tuesday 5th - Red, White and Blue Day
The Pep Assembly is scheduled to start around 2:15 on Tuesday, September 5th.
Wed. 6th - Country Western vs Country Club Day
Thurs. 7th - 60's, 70's, 80's Day - The kids chose to leave this open. Anyone can dress from any of these era's no matter what grade.
Fri. 8th - Squad Day - 👽👽👽
Thanks Quinn for coordinating this work with our Student Council
Pep Assembly Organization
Pep Assembly Organization
Similar to grade level assemblies the expectation is that we move over to the pep assembly with our classes and teachers stay with the classes that they were teaching during the period.
We will discuss the logistics for this assembly at our staff meeting on Tuesday at 7:50 in room 101.
Thank you Quinn for all your efforts to make this a successful event!
Student Council
Student Council
It was great to see all the students working together to plan our upcoming Spirit Week and Pep Assembly. We also started with our student council members making announcements this week. Student leadership is an important part of the student experience at school.
Team Weekly Updates - Week 2
Team Weekly Updates - Week 2
Grade 6
Grade 6
As a 6th grade team we are intentionally teaching and RE-TEACHING all of our behavior expectations. We have practiced walking in the hallways and spent time discussing assembly expectations. We’re hopeful that the extra time we spend now will be beneficial in future months.
grade 7 south team
grade 7 south team
Math: We are currently reviewing skills from last year so that the kids will be better prepared for future units. We will start integers soon. Just a reminder that homework comes out on Friday and is due the following Thursday. And yes, we have started homework!! Students are welcome to stay any day after school if they need help or just a quiet place to work.
Language Arts: We are currently reviewing annotating and paragraph writing. Currently, we are reading the article “Scream Machines” by Lauren Tarshis, and writing about the differences in roller coasters from past to present. Next week we will begin the article “What do these creatures have in common?” by Allison Friedman, and have more self directed writing practice on the topic of studying nearly indestructible creatures.
Life Science: We have been working on relationship building and the foundations of the scientific method. We conducted a lab in which we attempted to answer the question “Does temperature affect the brightness of a glow stick?” (Hint: Yes it does!) Students and the teacher have been sharing information about themselves to strengthen our classroom community. Next, we will dive into the metric system, focusing on length, volume and mass before exploring the characteristics of living things.
World Geography: in Geography class the students have been working through Daily Geography questions every day and we have been getting oriented with maps and how to use them. The students drew their first “World Continent Map” as well and had to find specific cities and physical features. The students also wrote a short four-paragraph essay titled “All About Me.” Now that we have covered the introduction stuff, next week we will move into the Five Themes review and work on latitude and longitude by play Battleship.
Team time
Time to glow
Time to experiment
Expectation Review
grade 8
grade 8
8th Grade language arts will begin their Maze Runner unit and capitalization next week. Social studies has been studying early American civilizations. IPS had dived into what is science and the skills students use in science. Math is working on transformations. All 8th graders are completing their IXL diagnostic test for math and language arts.
Exploratory and electives
Exploratory and electives
Exploratory and electives team used our extended advisory time to have their meeting. Clearly there are some great learning experiences taking place in these classes.
Update Monday August 28
Successful 1st Week
Successful 1st Week
Thank you for all your efforts to make our first week back at school a successful start to the year. There was significant learning and relationship building during these first few days back in school.
Friday Assembly
Friday Assembly
Assemblies on Friday went well. Classes were on time and the entrance and start to the assembly went well. The ending of these assemblies needs some improvement for quick and orderly dismissal. However, the purpose of welcoming students back, making some introductions, hitting our mission, vision, and values all went well. And the game (or so I'm told).
My understanding is that this was the first time that we have done assemblies like this with the support from technology and by grade level, so I would appreciate feedback to make these better.
In the future, we will shoot for 20min blocks of time for these grade level assemblies and try to have them student run as much as possible as this supports our school mission of student empowerment.
Visible Thinking Routines in practice
Visible Thinking Routines in practice
Thank you to all teachers that have kicked off the year using the visible thinking routines to support our focus for student engagement. Have a look at some of the examples from the classes.
What will our class look like?
What will our class sound like?
What will our class feel like?
How are we connected?
Staffing
Staffing
We are still looking to hire additional instructional assistants. Please share the following information within your professional learning networks or contacts seeking employment. Depending on experience, we can be flexible with our schedule.
Duty Schedule
Duty Schedule
Quinn has shared a duty schedule with staff that needs completing. Once completed, we will have adequate before and after school supervision coverage. We are also in the process of hiring another noon duty supervisor as one of the noon duties that was hired in the summer has not reported. We hope to have this position filled as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience as we continued to inventory all of our iPads. Julian has worked to get iPads out to teachers as soon as they are returned from IT. At last count we were around 20 short for iPads. Teachers who have both iPads and Chromebooks can help complete class sets of iPads by just using Chromebooks.
Schedule for
Schedule for
08/28-09/01
08/28-09/01
Please see the planning for the coming week.
We will have extended advisory schedule for Friday. Also, we will start our scheduled meetings. Guiding Coalition meetings will start with teams this week.
Monday, August 28 – No Staff Meeting
Counselor + Admin Meeting 3:00-3:30
Tuesday, August 29 – Pastoral Care Team Meeting at 7:15 - See Quinn for additional details
Health and Safety - Admin + SRO - Time to be determined
Wednesday, August 30 – Leadership Meeting at 7:15 - Department Heads + Leadership Team
Roles and responsibilities review
Thursday, August 31 – Culture + Communication Committee at 3:00-3:30
Purpose and Spirit Introduction
Friday, September 1 – Extended Advisory
Follow same schedule as last year and work through advisory lessons prepared by PBIS facilitators Katy and Lindsey.
Lessons can be found on Google Classroom: https://classroom.google.com/c/NjE2OTMyNzU5Nzg4?cjc=l45obva Join Code: l45obva
Admin + Secretarial Meeting 11:00 - Amanda, Lori, Erion
Leadership Meeting 10:00 - Aaron, Quinn, and Justin
"Hot Desking" in the mini burro lab
"Hot Desking" in the mini burro lab
We have created a mini Burro lab behind the librarian station in the library. This space has been used for other purposes in the past. However, with our increase in need to use core classrooms during exploratory and electives, this space can now be used as a work area for teachers or testing are for students.
Thank you Julian for setting this station up last week. We still have a ways to go to make a comfortable and usable space with functioning printers, but we will get there.
Update Monday August 21
School Improvement Days
School Improvement Days
Thank you to all the Jenifer faculty and staff who joined the school improvement days. I appreciate your time and attention as we focused on developing our understanding of student engagement, student achievement, and pastoral care with a focus on PBIS. It was a great 3 days.
Huge thanks to Justin, Quinn, Katy, and Lindsey for their efforts to organize meaningful professional development sessions for our community.
If you did not have a chance to provide feedback, please do so below.
Schedule for august 21-25
Schedule for august 21-25
Please see the planning for the coming week. Please edit the attached Google Slides presentation so our whole staff can be accessed from one location. We will print these out and post them in the school. Feel free to take the idea from Tom's speech and include "ask me about".
Monday, August 21 – NO SCHOOL – SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT DAYS
Breakfast at LHS at 7:00.
Opening Assembly at 8:00.
The rest of the whole day is for teachers and teams to prepare for the start of school.
Tuesday, August 22 – WEB 8:00AM-1:00 PM & OPEN HOUSE 5:00PM-7:00PM
WEB 8:00AM-1:00 with All Grade 6 Students and Grade 8 WEB leaders. Supporting the transition of our grade 6 students to Middle School. There will be a BBQ lunch for the students.
2:00-2:15PM staff stand up meeting in cafeteria.
Open House 5:00PM-7:00PM for our whole school. Students and families come to Jenifer and meet their teachers in an informal meet and greet format. Ice Cream social taking place during this time.
Wednesday, August 23 – First Day of School!
Crunch Day for Grade 8.
Thursday, August 24 – Normal School
Friday, August 25 – Normal School
Grade 6 Assembly - 08:55-09:15 - Welcome Back and Jenifer Values - Details to come
Grade 7 Assembly - 09:20-09:40 - Welcome Back and Jenifer Values - Details to come
Grade 8 Assembly - 09:40-10:00 - Welcome Back and Jenifer Values - Details to come
Facilities and Room Updates
Facilities and Room Updates
Our incoming class of grade 6 is a larger cohort. Additionally, there are a larger number of students with IEPs, which is why we have expanded the staffing in grade 6.
We now also have Cheyenne Gregg (Cleveland) at JMS for Gifted and Talented.
Justin will now have an office in the main building for team meetings.
We now have the Burro Lab in the library.
With these adjustments and constraints with facilities, we need to be flexible with our learning spaces.
During teachers' non-contact periods, classrooms not in use will be used by teachers who need space for their students. Special Education Dept is in need for additional spaces with their expansion of student services.
We will create a "hot-desking" location likely in the library where teachers can work during their non-contact periods.
Intervention Room will be likely be located in different classrooms throughout the day so the current room can be used for staff meetings and student learning.
Spaces used for storage will need to be combined and relocated to make additional spaces for teaching and learning.
I understand that these changes may cause some inconvenience but we need some flexibility with our space issues and your support and understanding is appreciated.
Team Essential Agreements
Team Essential Agreements
Please review the team essential agreements that were created during our school improvement days. I hope that these agreements will support your teaming. Please return back to these and make adjustments as needed. My expectation is that essential agreements are created in every class that you teach. This will develop students sense of agency and engagement from the beginning of the year. They will have ownership in the process of developing what is expected of them as members in our learning communities. Feel free to use student handbook or other Jenifer resources for students to use to develop their understanding when participating in this learning experience.
See you tomorrow 8/21 at lhs
See you tomorrow 8/21 at lhs
7:00 - Breakfast and 8:00 Opening Assembly
7:00 - Breakfast and 8:00 Opening Assembly
Update Monday August 14th
New Staff List with Buddies for 23-24
New Staff Orientation
New Staff Orientation
Thank you to all who have supported our new staff members in their transition to Jenifer. We spent a few hours on Thursday reviewing Jenifer's vision, mission, collective commitments, values, and goals from last year.
Please see the above slides for a summary for what was covered along with introductory slides from our new staff members.
We will use a similar template to introduce teams for our upcoming Open House on Tuesday, August 22nd, from 17:00-19:00. We can have QR codes posted for parents and students to scan that digitally introduce ourselves and avoid sharing pages of paper.
Staffing UPdate
Staffing UPdate
Exploratory/Electives Dept Head & Computer Technologist & Instructional Assistant
Exploratory/Electives Dept Head & Computer Technologist & Instructional Assistant
I am pleased to announce that Jeremy Feucht has accepted the role of department head for the Exploratory/Electives team. Congratulations Jeremy!
Mackenzie Syverson has resigned her role as instructional assistant and we will advertise shortly to replace her in this much needed role. Thank you Mackenzie for your support for students. We're are luck that we get to keep Mackenzie in her Cheer Role.
We have recently held interviews to fill our computer technologist role. I am hopeful that we will fill this role by the end of the week. I've been told that JoAnne and Quinn shared responsibilities for this role, so we will be glad to have someone to support us.
Registration & WEB Update
Registration & WEB Update
Thank you to both Web and Registration teams who were busy last week working with students and families.
The Web team did an amazing job working with our grade 8 leaders preparing them to welcome and support the grade 6 transition to middle school. This is by far the most preparation and effort I have seen at any school to support students transition. Thank you Warren, Brandon, Mandy, Amy, Ali, and Bonnie.
Late registration will take place on August 17th, 2023.
The Registration team was BUSY BUSY BUSY for 3 straight days preparing students and families for the new year. Thank you Brandee, Amanda, Lori, Selena, Erion, Quinn, Justin, Sam, and Lindsey.
School Improvement Days
School Improvement Days
August 16th, 17th, and 18th
August 16th, 17th, and 18th
This is a repeat announcement from last week with info on School Improvement Days. A detailed schedule of the days will be shared with staff on Tuesday, August 15th in the afternoon.
This year we will be at Jenifer Middle School for our School Improvement Days. We will start the day at 8:00 and finish at 3:30. On Friday, we will start the day at LHS to hear from Tom Hierck, with Solution Tree and at 9:30, return to Jenifer to begin working on our Pastoral Care focus. I understand that this may be a new term for a very old approach to working with students. To become familiar with the meaning, please read this brief introduction - Student Pastoral Care (Dispositions). On Friday, we will have additional classified staff members attend training on Friday following the whole day schedule.
Wednesday, August 16th - Student Engagement - All certified staff 8:00-15:30
Thursday, August 17th - Student Achievement - All certified staff 8:00-15:30
Friday, August 18th - Student Pastoral Care (Dispositions) - All certified and classified staff staff who work directly with students and have some behavior oversight need to attend from 7:45 at LHS and finish the day at 15:15.
Additional members to attend on Friday, August 18th:
Kadau, Candy
Brockmann, Peggy
Yorker, Sidney
MacMillan, Bonnie
Parker, Sandy
Puckett, Barabara
Wilson, Sheneen
Young, Karlene
Zumwalt, Christine
Lacey, Maria
Keener, Anita
Roberts, Teri
Hinton, Kayla
Leavitt, Baylee
I would like to say thank you to the work that Justin has started doing for the student achievement days and also to Katy, Lindsey, and Quinn for the work that they are doing with PBIS element for Pastoral Care.
Update Tuesday August 8th
Schedule for the next 2 weeks
Schedule for the next 2 weeks
New Staff Orientation - August 10th 8:00-15:30
New Staff Orientation - August 10th 8:00-15:30
New Staff Orientation at Jenifer
8/10/2023 - 8:00-3:30
Thank you to all the teams that worked on hiring our new staff members. I am again happy to communicate that many of the positions that we needed to fill in July have been filled by some great teachers. Please see the new staff buddy list for new staff orientation on August 10th.
The department head or partner teacher will go over curriculum with the new staff members in the morning, and you they will have time to meet with leadership in the afternoon.
Time will be spent reviewing the mission and vision of the school, procedures, expectations, and the "why" of doing school in your building.
Registration & WEB
Registration & WEB
This week we begin with student registration.
Registration will take place in the main building. School Pictures will also be taken at this time. JMS staff should get their pictures taken at this time for a staff ID badge (remember both sides of our badges need to be printed for easy visibility).
Late registration is on August 17th.
We also begin our WEB training this week on Wednesday and Thursday from 9:00am-3:00pm
School Improvement Days
School Improvement Days
August 16th, 17th, and 18th
August 16th, 17th, and 18th
This year we will be at Jenifer Middle School for our School Improvement Days. We will start the day at 8:00 and finish at 3:30. On Friday, we will start the day at LHS to hear from Tom Hierck, with Solution Tree and at 9:30, return to Jenifer to begin working on our Pastoral Care focus. I understand that this may be a new term for a very old approach to working with students. To become familiar with the meaning, please read this brief introduction - Student Pastoral Care (Dispositions). On Friday, we can have additional staff members attend training
Wednesday, August 16th - Student Engagement - All certified staff 8:00-15:30
Thursday, August 17th - Student Achievement - All certified staff 8:00-15:30
Friday, August 18th - Student Pastoral Care (Dispositions) - All certified and classified staff staff who work directly with students and have some behavior oversight need to attend from 7:45 at LHS and finish the day at 15:15.
More information about these days will be shared towards the end of the week. However, I would like to say thank you to the work that Justin has started doing for the student engagement and achievement days and also to Katy, Lindsey, and Quinn for the work that they are doing with PBIS element for Pastoral Care.
Work Days for Staff and Open House - August 21-22
Work Days for Staff and Open House - August 21-22
August 21st is a day for staff members to prepare for the start of the year. August 22nd is also a preparation day, however we will also have Open House from 17:00 - 19:00 in the evening to welcome parents and students before students' first day on AUGUST 23RD. More information to come for Open House.
Professional Development Schedule
Professional Development Schedule
for Dyslexia Training
for Dyslexia Training
For those who have not completed this training, please see link to learn when you can complete your Professional Development requirement for Dyslexia Training. Once completed, please submit evidence of completion to Ms. Angela Branting. I have shared a calendar invitation to all those who Ms. JoAnne Greear has identified as needing completion of this training.
More information can be found here: https://www.sde.idaho.gov/academic/ela-literacy/files/lrc/dyslexia/professional-development/Dyslexia-PD-Schedule-2023.pdf
New Student Handbook
New Student Handbook
Attached is our new student handbook that Kim Eimers has worked on completing for Jenifer and Sacajawea. The handbooks between the two schools is very similar to ensure consistency of application of policy and procedures for students between our buildings. It is worth spending some time to review the handbook.
Thank you Quinn for ensuring that all of our students will have a copy of the handbook at the start of the year.
We can also review policies for students from this site: https://go.boarddocs.com/id/lisd1/Board.nsf/Public#
Parent Meetings
Parent Meetings
There are a number of students that Quinn and I will meet with before the start of the year to connect and review expectations. These meetings need to happen on August 14th and 15th. The handbook above should be helpful in reminding these students of school expectations.
Idaho Association of School Administrators
Idaho Association of School Administrators
August 2nd-3rd
August 2nd-3rd
This conference was an excellent learning opportunity. There were many sessions focused on strategies for supporting students.
I attended two sessions with Peggy, which was fantastic as she provided additional special education context to the presentations.
What should your school counselors really be doing?
Manifestation Determination
There was a great session on boosting teacher morale and teacher retention. It was clear from this session that we need to continue to work on ways to provide appreciation and recognition for the amazing work that takes place in our building.
There was also a great session on integrating Artificial Intelligence into the workplace. As an example of how we can integrate AI in the workplace, try to guess the article from this week that was generated by AI:)
Update from July 24th - 28th
Update from Team Meetings & Interviews
Update from Team Meetings & Interviews
Team Luncheons
Team Luncheons
This last week saw luncheon meetings with grades 6, 7, 8, and the exploratory/electives team. It was great to meet so many people from all the teams. The above picture was with the Grade 8 team who managed to get all the members to attend with two team members attending virtually from Mexico!!! These meetings proved extremely insightful and provided team perspectives to how the school is functioning. Thank you all for the honest conversations and for making time to meet during these summer holidays. A summary of the survey that was shared to collect feedback is provided below so members of the team who could not meet can review part of the meeting discussion.
The document titled JMS Teams to the left is based on the conversations with all the teams, and the leadership team. Please have a look at the teams and group designations for accuracy. Apologies if I have left anyone out. This document is still a work in progress (WIP).
Interviews for Open Positions
Interviews for Open Positions
Huge thanks to all the team members who made themselves available to take part in the interview process for the open positions we currently have at the school.
Grade 8 Math - Lindsey, Pam, Joy, Justin, Quinn, and Lisa
Grade 7 Social Studies - Cheyenne, Pam, Angie, Justin, Quinn, and JoAnne
Special Education - Katy, Denise, Kinsey, and Peggy
Noon Duties - Anita and Quinn
Exploratory/Elective Department Head - Justin and Quinn
As you can see, it was a great effort to conduct these interviews last week. I am especially grateful to our HR team for their support in contacting candidates and organizing the logistics for these to take place. Thank you Kathy, Tara, and Angela for your support.
I am happy to report that for all the positions above, candidates have been offered the positions. As for the Exploratory/Elective Dept Head, we still need to finish the process.
WEB Update
WEB Update
Thank you Ali for sharing the WEB update with our community and to the WEB team for their preparations to train our grade 8s to welcome our grade 6 students.
This is an excellent program and I look forward to supporting the team on student transition to the middle school.
My understanding is we need a grade 8 rep to support this program. If you are interested, please let me know.
Idaho Association of School Administrators
Idaho Association of School Administrators
August 2nd-3rd
August 2nd-3rd
This week Quinn and I will attend IASA conference in Boise. The conference will be the first time that I get to meet with the rest of the admin team from the district. It's great that this first meeting will revolve around some great learning opportunities with other administrators from around the state. I look forward to sharing the learning outcomes from this conference with the rest of the team when we return.
If you need to get in touch while we are away please email or call Quinn or myself at 208-791-9195.
Schedules
Schedules
Today I met with the Special Education team and discussed a variety of issues relating to the needs required to support student learning.
One area of concern was the schedule. There may have been conversations prior to summer for the schedule that will need to change to support the large number of students entering grade 6.
Ali is currently working on making some of these schedule adjustments, but I will contact the grade 6 team shortly to share in more detail the issue and solution to better support students additional learning.
Update from Friday, July 21st
Dear Jenifer Staff,
I hope the summer is treating you well and you are enjoying your much needed time to recharge for the coming year. If you are currently working or traveling, I hope things are running smoothly for you.
Last week I was able to meet some of the grade 6 team in an informal gathering at Mrs. Wolf’s lovely home. It’s great to get a chance to meet teams in an informal setting and learn more about the Jenifer community. I’ve also had the opportunity to meet with Justin and discuss some of the great work currently in place at Jenifer. I am greatly appreciative for your time during the summer.
Team Luncheon with Aaron July 24th - July 28th
Next week I would like to invite teams for a lunch meet and greet. This will give me the opportunity to meet teams and learn more about our school. Considering this is summer holidays I understand that many of you may not be here or may have other obligations, however if you are here and can attend, please complete the form to give me an idea of availability and answer some of the questions as discussion prompts. Lunch will be pizza and will be provided.
Monday July 24th - Friday July 28th from 12:30-14:00 in Room 101
· 6th Grade - Monday July 24 @ 12:30 - 14:00
· 7th Grade - Tuesday July 25th @ 12:30 - 14:00
· 8th Grade - Wednesday July 26th @ 12:30 - 14:00
· Exploratory - Thursday July 27th @ 12:30 - 14:00
· Counselors - Friday July 28th @ 12:30 - 14:00
I will share a communication on Friday July 28th with confirmation for proposed meetings for next week. So please complete the form by this Thursday night or Friday morning at the latest. Thank you!
Staffing for 23-24
As you will have read from Amy’s message, we have some staffing to do this summer to make sure teams are ready for the start of the year. JoAnne and I met this morning to start planning and preparing for the screening and interview committees. We will share an update soon and we will be contacting individuals to serve on these committees.
Personal Update
On my housing hunt I have been extremely fortunate to receive many leads for places to stay for my family. Thank you to all those who shared information on this front. I believe I have secured temporary housing for my family for the next couple of months thanks to individuals sharing housing information with our Human Resource Team.
Look forward to meeting you all very soon,
Aaron
Saturday, July 1st
Dear Jenifer Staff,
This is my first all staff email to provide an update on the work taking place during the past two weeks as I have started transitioning back to Lewiston and into the principal role at Jenifer. Apologies for the summer and weekend communication.
This week was a very busy week for JoAnne and myself as we worked on many transition details for the next academic year. We covered many areas but I still have much to learn and will need all of your help for a successful transition and start to the academic year. I am very grateful for the time JoAnne has been able to spend with me. Clearly, JoAnne has had a significant and positive impact on the Jenifer community and it is an honor for me to continue in her place. While we worked together, I witnessed many acts of kindness and care from Jenifer staff sharing their appreciation for the work that she has done.
Towards the end of July I will send out team invitations to meet before the actual start of the year. I hope you will be able to join me for these informal and brief meetings to provide an opportunity to connect. If you have anything that you would like to share to support me in the transition or ideas for the start of the year, please feel free to share them with me.
Thank you to the many staff members who welcomed me to the community last week. I very much appreciated the chance to meet and learn about our school. Thank you to all of the members of the team who have reached out to me to support me with my family's transition. I have received numerous communications with leads for housing. A huge thanks to the team in the district office for all their work with me while I was overseas and when I returned last week in the on-boarding process.
Today, I will travel to the Toronto and Michigan area to visit with family and friends. I will return to Lewiston on July 10th. I hope you all have a wonderful and safe 4th of July celebration and you have time to connect with your family and friends.
If anyone needs to contact me you can text or call me at this number: 617-480-4279. It is a temporary number and I'll share my new number once I return to Lewiston.
Take care,
Aaron DeLane
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