September 30-October 3

Fall Conferences 

What a great way to end the week with our school BBQ. The weather was perfect for students and staff to enjoy lunch together and close out the week. 

This week we continue to prepare for our conferences that will be held on Thursday. Remember, our goals during the conference are:

• To meet with all of our students and their parents/guardians.

• To share “I can” statements and current levels of learning.

• To provide strategies that will help support your child’s learning at home.

Dept Meetings

Thank you to all our teachers for your participation and support during our dept meetings. It's great to see our depts working together across grade levels to support school improvement and enhance our curricular focus. 

IPLPs + Domain 5 + Evaluations

Please see the guidance for completing your IPLPs + Domain 5 details by November 1st. We will also begin to schedule observations for evaluations in 2 weeks time. Please see the guidance for booking your evaluation and if you are on the formal track for evaluations, please see the guidance for booking your pre/post meetings for your observation. 

Staffing Update - Drama Club

JMS is starting Drama Club this year. There will be a Christmas performance held the first week of December. Auditions for the performance will be on October 7th and 8th. Please let students know that If they are interested in joining Drama Club, to please come to the Drama Club meeting on Wednesday, October 2nd in the cafeteria at 3:00. During this meeting, students can meet Mr. Steele and learn about the show that will be performed and the additional details of auditions.

Please welcome Mr. Steele when you see him in the next few weeks. Last Friday, Jill Opdhal and Trace Steele met to discuss how drama club and the production had worked in the past. 

September 23-27

School Improvement Feedback & Gratitude 

If you have not already completed the Professional Development Feedback Form, please take a few minutes to complete: Feedback

Thank you for your active participation during our first school improvement day of the year. Thank you to Quinn, Justin, Katy, Kinsey, and Will for their support in facilitating our learning. It's great to see our team continue to work to improve our PBIS practice. Thank you Heather for all the awesome snacks! We appreciate how you have incorporated this learning experience of food preparation for our PDs with your students!

Burro Cards and BBQs

Next week will be a excellent week for our students as we launch our Burro Cards Fundraising initiative and we have our first whole school BBQ of the year. Look for more information on Burro Cards from Quinn.  

Dept Meetings

Dept Heads may have been in contact with teams about scheduled dept time next week. This will give us a good opportunity to align our initiatives from a departmental perspective. This is something that dept heads have all recommended is much needed.  

Conferences

In just two weeks (crazy that we're here already) we will have our conferences. Thanks to teams for working on logistic adjustments needed with the change in conference schedule from two to one day. There will a communication that will be shared with parents about conferences today. 

Full School Extended Advisory

Next week on Friday, September 27th will be our first whole school extended advisory. Looking forward to seeing all the different learning experiences students will have during this time. 

September 16-20

Last week was a very fun week filled with excellent JMS spirit! Thank you for supporting the spirit week inititives. 

This week sees JMS continue on with our SICA testing and prepare for our conferences that are only 3 weeks away! Additionally, we will likely have some students away for the Nez Perce County Fair. 

Updating Emergency Communication Tree

We will share a Google Doc that outlines emergency contacting so information can be shared if systems are not working like last week with the power outage. Please also update your attendance rosters in your emergency kits if not already done. Lastly, if you do not have a flashlight in your emergency bag, please let Brandee know so we can get some ordered. 

Maternity Leave for Jordyn Boardman

Jordyn Boardman has started her maternity leave. Please be on the lookout for an update from the Boardman family about the little addition they will see shortly. Isabelle Mullikin will be her long-term substitute. 

September 9-13

This should make for a great week at JMS. This whole week is Spirit Week! Please see the section below for an outline of how Spirit Week will run and watch for the communication about Spirit Week from Quinn. We also have football and volleyball games this week. 

Committee Meetings this Week:

Committee Meetings this week: We will have our PBIS meeting on Tuesday in room 106 at 7:15 and our Guiding Coalition Meeting will be on Wednesday in the library at 7:15. Both of these meetings will focus on preparations for our professional development day next week

September 3-6

On Friday, August 30th, there was an incident on one of our busses during drop-offs. I was meeting with the SPED department when I was informed there would be a bus returning with students who had behaved inappropriately. A few minutes later the bus arrived back at school with many students still on board from the route, including the students who had misbehaved. Before I was at the bus, a couple parents had already made it to the bus as they had been informed of issues from their children using their phones to share updates of the bus location. Once I was on the scene and spoke to the driver, I made the decision to allow any student off the bus who no longer wanted to ride the bus. All students disembarked and we began to contact parents and guardians and make alternative arrangements for transportation. Later that evening, I was informed that several videos from the incident were circulating social media. The next day, the Tribune had shared an article of the incident as well. 

Today, I have a meeting with the director of transportation (Dan Robertson), JoAnne, and Kim for next steps in regards to the incident and pending actions. 

In advisory classes, we will add a PBIS lesson for expectations on the bus. Quinn and myself will also visit classrooms and update students about bus and dismissal expectations. 

I will share further information when it is available to share. 

Lewiston Roundup 90th Anniversary 

This week marks a significant community event with the Lewiston Roundup taking place. Hard to believe that it has been running for 90 years. For more information have a look at their website: https://lewistonroundup.com/ 

Building Committees 

This week Dept Heads and Team Leads meet. Dept Heads are meeting on Wednesday, September 4th at 7:15 in room 101 and Team Leads will meet on Thursday, September 5th in Justin's office from 3:00-3:30. 

District Committees

Please see the list of district committee representatives and let me know if there any representatives that no longer wish to serve on their committee. If there any representatives needed, I will share with the whole staff what committees are in need of representation and seek volunteers. 

Ally Health

ALLY goes live! 

ALLY, a benefit for all regularly scheduled employees. This goes live this weekend, and all those enrolled in Allied health will get notice. There is an app which seems easier to use. Lance/JoAnne will come to our faculty meeting on Tuesday to discuss the benefits of Allied Health. Learn more about AllyHealth: https://www.allyhealth.net/ 

You should have received a letter about ALLY Health over the summer.