Superintendent Letter to Staff

Give us 30 minutes to give you updates on the Strategic and Financial Plans.

Get 30 minutes to ask questions and get answers.

Find out how we plan to inspire, engage, educate and empower every student and learn how next year's budget fits into the future financial plan.

There are both community meetings and staff meetings scheduled.  See the staff meeting schedule below.

Staff meetings:

Thursday	April 14	Alturas Elementary Staff	Alturas Elementary	2:45-3:45
Wednesday	April 20	WRHS Staff	DLL	2:00-3:00
Wednesday	April 20	Carey	Carey School (parents and staff combined)	5:00-6:00
Thursday	April 21	WRMS Staff	WRMS	3:30-4:30
Monday	April 25	Bellevue Elementary Staff	Bellevue Elementary	2:45-3:45
Wednesday	April 27	Hemingway Elementary Staff	Hemingway Elementary	2:45-3:45
Monday	May 2	SCHS, Transportation and DSS	SCHS	8:00-9:00 a.m.
Wednesday	May 4	Hailey Elementary Staff	Hailey Elementary	2:45-3:45

The Buildings and Grounds Department and a number of the custodians spent a good portion of spring break sweeping and hauling sand that was put down on the sidewalks and parking lots over the course of the winter. There are a few areas left to go and then we will begin to prep for line painting on the parking lots. Snow was blown off of the running tracks and WRHS tennis courts to allow the students to utilize the venues as soon as the weather permits.

An all night endeavor by Jim Chatterton at the Community Campus made it possible for him to install much needed isolation valves on the main water lines in the building. In the past it was necessary to shut the entire building down to perform simple service procedures. It is now possible to shut down smaller portions of the building to expedite and simplify the repair process.

The sound studio project is underway at SCHS. The Buildings and Grounds Department has been inspired and engaged by Tyson, and is looking forward to working closely with him to see this legacy project through to fruition.

This past week week we had the opportunity to participate in an Arbor Day activity at Alturas Elementary. The celebration started with an assembly in the gym to educate and engage the children, then moved to the grass area in front of the school building to place the tree in the ground. Thank you to the City of Hailey for the lovely tree and for the coordinated efforts of a number of contractors, District and City personnel, administrators and countless others to help make this an inspiring and memorable event for the children.

The votes are in! We received 110 responses to our website survey, and the overwhelming majority prefered Design 2. Web Coordinators, District Office staff, and others who viewed the two designs also prefered Design 2.

Now for the fun part, moving content to the updated website. The good news is that we going to do the majority of this work for you. And when we say "we" that means Kelly Martin. Give him a high five the next time you see him, because you will not see him this summer as he works on copying thousands of pages of content for all nine websites.

This is Kelly next summer.

Teachers: We are only asking certified staff to do two things: fill out this Google Form, and decide whether you want your current content moved over to the updated website for the next school year. It's that easy. If you want your current content moved over, you will need to have it updated by Saturday, June 11. Otherwise the content will go away after June 11. Call Kelly Martin at 578-5008 if you have questions.

Check out the Professional Development webpage for a growing number of professional learning opportunities!

Earn your ENL endorsement for free!

FREE for up to 20 BCSD certified teachers (the district will be using Title IIA federal money to pay for this)

We are encouraging teachers to remain in their current content and general education classrooms with this offer. Teachers interested in this opportunity are invited to attend an informational session with BSU and district leadership on Monday, April 18th  at 4:00 PM in the Minnie Moore Room in the Community Campus.

The opportunity is yours!

• join a cohort of other BCSD teachers and earn your ENL endorsement through Boise State University
• continue to teach in your current position
• effectively develop the academic language of ALL students through your content to increase student achievement
• get most of a master's degree paid for - credits earned will apply to salary advancement schedules

Courses are also available for BCSD Para-Educators working toward a teaching degree through the BCSD Grow Your Own Program.

Student Summer Learning Opportunities

There are new summer program options for students this year.

• For elementary, we have partnered with Wood River YMCA to offer the Power Scholars Academy Camp for identified current 1st and 2nd grade students. This is a six week program that empowers students as leaders and scholars through dedicated academic skill development and enrichment activities.
• For secondary, we will have IDLA credit recovery courses for students at risk of not meeting graduation requirements. Additionally, identified 8th grade students will participate in a transition and high school readiness program for six weeks.
• Please contact Aaron at x)5006 or your building principal if you would like more information.

Professional Development opportunities are continually posted on the website. Check out opportunities on topics such as Understanding LGBQT Youth, Mindfulness, and Coding.

The Finance department is working on the 2016-2017 fiscal year budget.  We have been able to trim approximately $1.3 million without affecting classroom instruction.  Most of the positions that have been reduced are coming from district-wide positions and most have come through attrition.  We will be presenting the budget to the Board of Trustees on April 19, 2016 at the regular scheduled board meeting. The budget is scheduled to be approved at the June 14, 2016 school board meeting.

The District will be holding "State of the District" budget meeting between April 14, 2016 and April 27, 2016. Negotiations with the Blaine County Education Association are scheduled April 28, 29 and May 5 and May 6. Negotiations will be held at the Community Campus and will be open to the public.

The Human Resources Department is glad to invite PERSI to talk to you about your benefits. We will have two information sessions on Tuesday April 19, 2016 . They will be held in the Distance Learning Lab at Wood River High School.

At 3:30 PM we will be offering SET?. This course is designed for those that are mid-career or late who are now starting to consider what retirement means to them and the benefits PERSI offers.  

At 4:30 PM we will be offering GO!. This course is great for employees who are close to retirement and this will assist them in understanding their options and the retirement process.

To sign up, please email [email protected] and let us know if you plan to attend session 1, session 2 or both.

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American Fidelity will be visiting soon! Please check the schedule below for dates and times.

Bellevue: April 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Community Campus: April 8 (afternoon)

Technology: April 11 (morning)

Hailey: April 11, 12, 13, 14

SCHS: April 11

WRHS: April 11, 13, 14, 15

WRMS: April 12, 13, 14, 15

Hemingway: April 12, 13, 14, 15

Alturas: April 25, 26, 27, 28

Maintenance: April 29

Carey: May 2, 3, 4

Transportation: May 5, 6

District Office: May 9, 10

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The Blaine County School District Human Resources office is proud to announce that we are now a Praxis testing center. We will be offering tests May 14th, June 11th, and July 13th. Please visit https://www.ets.org/praxis to see the tests available.

Spring Ahead with Tech

As we all know, technology is constantly changing. It seems we just get comfortable with one thing and poof!  It is replaced with the next best thing.

To continue our commitment to state-of-the-art technology, we are working on several upgrades.

 

Challenges

Reduce costs

Provide Internet security for  1:1 students at home

Stay current with advancements

Securly - New cloud-based, URL filtering solution will replace Websense.

Why?

1) Chromebooks will be filtered at home

2) Approximately 1/3 of the cost of Websense

3) Easier to use

Windows 10 - Computers we purchase in the future will come with Windows 10 pre-installed. We are preparing to move to Windows 10 over the next school year.

Why?

1)  Industry Standard

2)  Better security

3)  New tools

Active Directory - Novell networking has served us well for 20 years. To be in a good position for the next 20, we need to move to Windows servers and Active Directory. We will need to change our passwords to be more complex for all our safety.

Why?

1) Better integration with other products

2) Single Sign-on Authentication

3) Industry Standard

What will look different to staff?  Block page on Internet sites. New login screen. Windows Start menu.

Professional Development - On-going training will be available this summer and throughout next school year on Windows 10, Password Management in addition to our ever popular Chromebook series.