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| BCSD Staff Newsletter |
December 2017 |
Superintendent Letter to Staff
December 2017
Dear Colleagues,
Students will be able to take ownership of their learning once they have clarity regarding their learning outcomes. Student engagement occurs when students own what they are learning and why they are learning it. As educators, we also have a role to play. One critical part of our role is ensuring our students understand what they are to learn each day in class.
Try these questions out on your students.
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What are you learning?
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Why are you learning that?
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How will you know that you have learned it?*
If they can't answer them, think about how we can better improve our communication with students about what they are to learn each day in class. Share your ideas with colleagues; together we will make the difference for every student.
With gratitude,
GwenCarol
* Source: Engagement by Design (Fisher, Frey, Quaglia, Smith, and Lande, 2018.)
P.S. If you would like to join the Teacher Advisory Committee for Grading or the Engagement Facilitators, just send me an email letting me know.
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Teaching & Learning
SLOs Build Clarity
"When you know your why, your what has more impact because you are walking towards your purpose."
Teachers in the Blaine County School District are working together to help students engage in the teaching and learning process.
These videos are great resources!
Go to:
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Staff Member Works to Save District Resources and Money: One of the Buildings and Grounds crew was recently recognized at the November Board meeting for implementing a lighting retrofit project as part of a professional development class assignment. Jose Hernandez, the District's HVAC technician, took on the project to fulfill requirements set forth to become a Level One Building Operator through the Intermountain Builder Operators Association (IBOA).
Jose partnered with local Idaho Power Customer Combo Representative Rhonda Bruce to design a lighting retrofit for the Community Campus Gym and Fitness Studio. He worked through the specifications and pricing, and submitted application for rebate. He collaborated with coworkers Buddy Wendel and Mike Hepworth to install the new LED assemblies. The result is a gymnasium that is now better illuminated at a lower operating cost, and a payback of less than a year. In addition, a rebate of $3,024 was presented to the District. The long term benefit calculated over the next 15 years should save the District approximately $52,717.65 in electrical costs.
Both Jose and Tony Brown received their Level One Operators License and will be attending an advanced programming class in Boise next week, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of our Direct Digital Control system that is used to schedule, monitor and operate the vast heating and cooling systems.
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Communications
Find out what two people had to say about Educator for a Day. Join us for the next event on Friday, February 23. Help us connect the community with public education in Blaine County.
What does Communications do in an average year?
- 1,000 people reached each week with positive and accurate stories about our students, teachers and schools through the BCSD Weekly Update.
- 200 online news stories and posts on social media reaching anywhere between 300-20,000 readers with each post.
- 20 videos showing positive stories about students and teachers reaching hundreds of viewers.
- 100 digital ads, flyers and documents with positive and accurate information.
- 2-3 media and interview requests each week resulting in 180 print, online and broadcast news stories.
- Dozens of community and public events helping community members connect with positive and accurate information.
Want to join our effort to communicate positive and accurate information about our schools, students and staff?
- Send us your news tips and let us know when you have positive stories about student learning.
- Spread the word about how your neighbors, friends and colleagues can stay in the loop with BCSD.
- Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter.
- Make sure you are receiving the BCSD Weekly Update and forward it to a friend. Encourage them to subscribe to the weekly newsletter.
- Become familiar with the district and school websites and take the time to read the news stories.
If we work together, then our students and staff will be unstoppable! Together we make the difference.
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Technology
Dec 4 - 10, 2017
Organize your school to win a Droid Inventor Kit. Get at least half of your teachers to participate in Hour of Code, send a copy of the completion certificate to the Tech Dept and win a kit for your school!
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Finance
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Tracey Munk |
And the winner is - Tracey Munk.
Congratulations on being the winner of our drawing for staff responses who correctly answered the Finance question from last month's newsletter. Well done to all.
The Finance Handbook is complete and ready for your perusal. Please take some time to review this material as some of the procedures have changed, and may impact how you apply for reimbursements and travel. The procedures are the updated versions and are applicable as of 9/1/17.
Many of the forms that we use in Finance have also been modified. As of 11/1/17 we will only be accepting the most recent version of these forms. Most of the forms have been modified to be interactive allowing the user to type in the data rather than having to write it. We hope you will find this to be easier. A link to each form is below.
You can access the Finance Handbook via the Employee Staff Portal
Finance Handbook Shortcut
Finance Forms Shortcut:
Upcoming Pay Dates
With the holiday season upon us we wanted to provide you with the upcoming pay dates for each month from December through March. Please note that there is a larger than typical gap between the December and January pay dates.
Dec - Fri 12/15
Jan - Thurs 1/25
Feb - Fri 2/23
Mar - Fri 3/23
Interesting facts
The
image of Santa Claus flying his sleigh
began in 1819 and was created by Washington Irving, the same author who dreamt up the Headless Horseman. The Montgomery Ward department store (remember them??) created Rudolph the
Reindeer
as a marketing gimmick
to encourage children
to buy their Christmas coloring books. The original Rudolph
did not have a red nose.
In that day and age, red noses were seen as an indicator of chronic alcoholism and Montgomery Ward didn't want him to look like a drunkard. To complete the original picture, he was almost named Reginald or Rollo. Salaries and benefits make up about 82% of the General Fund's budgeted expenditures in the 2017-18 fiscal year budget. Almost 28 sets of LEGO are sold every second
during the Christmas season.
'Jingle Bells'
- the popular Christmas song was composed by James Pierpont in Massachusetts, America. It was, however, written for thanksgiving and not Christmas. Did you know that
Christmas trees are grown in all 50 states
including Hawaii and Alaska, but
California, Oregon, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina are the top Christmas tree producing states from the U.S.
I can't attest to the accuracy of any of the facts (except the salaries/beny data), but I saw it on the internet so it must be true!! Email Karen Hoffman and provide her the correct answer to the following questions you will be entered into a drawing for a $20 gift certificate for Amazon. - How many sets of Legos are sold every second during the Christmas season and what date did the new procedures in the current Finance Handbook become effective? Answers will be received until 12/15/17, and the winner will be announced in the next newsletter Finance section
Reimbursement info
Receipts must be ITEMIZED and include a listing of all food and beverage items purchased. The credit card signature receipt must also be included. NO ALCOHOL WILL BE REIMBURSED. Meal reimbursements that do not include an itemized receipt will not be reimbursed due to our inability to demonstrate to auditors the traveler's adherence to allowable food purchase procedures.
Reimbursements will be made up to 90 days from the date of the purchase/transaction. After the
expiration of this time period, the employee will forfeit their reimbursement from the District.
* All receipts must be legible.
* All receipts must be itemized by listing each individual item purchased with an individual charge associated with each line item. Auditor restrictions preclude our ability to accept any receipt that does not meet the criteria.
* Receipts that include reimbursable purchases that are commingled with personal purchases can no longer be processed for reimbursement. Please keep purchases that you intend to submit for reimbursement separate from purchases that are not reimbursable. The receipt that you submit to the Finance Department for reimbursement may only include items that will be reimbursed; no other purchases.
* Purchases from L.L. Greens may no longer be submitted for reimbursement. This is due to Idaho Statute that limits a Public Entity's ability to transact business with a company who may have a conflict of interest (perceived or otherwise) due to a sitting Trustee.
Mileage
Please note that in-district mileage will be paid at a fixed distance. You can find the miles on the mileage matrix (link is above).
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Community Campus
New Facility Use Fee Schedule
Dear Administrators, Principals. Athletic Directors and BCSD staff and teachers,
I have been tasked with the scheduling of the Community Campus and the before and after hours, weekend and holiday use of BCSD facilities. The Board of Trustees approved a new facility fee schedule on November 14, 2017.
One area of emphasis this fall is to have all users of our facilities complete a building, field or theater use form. These forms are then sent to principals and athletic directors for approval. Once I receive their permission I then confirm approval with the user and place the event on the master calendar located on the BCSD Community Campus webpage for after hours use. Associated with approval to use the requested facility is our Board of Trustees approved rental fee. This fee schedule is broken down into three categories. They are as follows:
1. Category I - Blaine County School District events, athletics, meetings &
school-sponsored activities
2. Category II - Non-Profit Groups/Organizations, & Governmental agencies located
within Blaine County, ID
Non-profit groups will need to provide proof of 501(c)(3) status
3. Category III - All other individuals & groups
There is also the requirement for the individual or group to provide a Certificate of Insurance and a signed indemnification form. The request for insurance and liability information will be sent out to the user once approval for the use has been granted.
Our Board of Trustees have also approved the fee of $35.00 per hour for additional custodial, maintenance and technical assistance provided by BCSD. If the event is taking place while custodial, maintenance or technology employees are working their normal shifts then there is no additional charge. However if custodial, maintenance or technical support is needed to open, close, supervise or assist with the event or if the size of the event requires additional custodians to work then the $35.00 per hour fee will be assessed. All users of buildings or facilities that are normally locked during the requested time of the event will be required to pay for additional custodial hours to have the building opened, supervised, cleaned and locked.
Once the event is approved, if there will be a need for additional employee hours, I will estimate the cost and pass this on to the user or group.
The additional custodial, maintenance and technology assistance fee will be required for all Categories of users including athletic events and student projects. For further clarification please speak with Clara Martin or Howard Royal
Weight rooms and the use of weights pose special needs for supervision and accessibility. There will be no unsupervised use of our BCSD weight rooms or areas where weights are provided for the use of student athletes or physical education classes and/or programs. This includes use before school, after school, weekends and during school breaks. All use of weight rooms and weights must be under the supervision of a qualified coach or instructor. There will be no individual access to or use of these facilities and equipment. Group use of our weight rooms is permitted by submitting a building use request, having it approved, paying the rental fee and providing a Certificate of Insurance.
Thank you assisting us in keeping our students and community members safe. The responsible use of our facilities is our goal.
Teresa Gregory
Community Campus Manager and Coordinator for Facility Scheduling
2017 Holiday Hours of Operation for the Community Campus are as follows:
Saturday, December 23, CCB Closed
Sunday, December 24, CCB Closed
Monday, December 25, CCB Closed
Sunday, December 31, CCB closes at 3PM
Monday, January 1, CCB Closed
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Transportation
Help us save more money! Did you know that the school district gets reimbursed from the state for educational field trips? This is how it works, if a field trip falls under the guidelines set by the state, the district qualifies to receive 85% of the cost back. An example of this would be the trip that Wood River Middle School students took to Twin Falls to watch the movie
Wonder
. This trip cost about $3,000 dollars. If the trip is considered an educational field trip then $2,550 would be reimbursed by the state.
Staff on School Buses:
Please remember that the buses are for student transportation to school and school related events such as field trips and athletics only and not for staff transportation. Please do not ask drivers for rides to school. Drivers have been instructed not to transport staff who request rides to school.
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