September 25, 2020

 Honey-Do List- September

9/30/20 Share your bathroom and handwashing schedule with Jodi

9/30/20 Enter notes from all family meetings and tech and wellness checks into Panorama.

10/1/20 High Priority In-Person Learners in Group B- First day in person

Buzzing Along- Important Upcoming Dates

10/5/20.       High Priority in-person learners Group A-First Day in person

10/9/20        School Facing Schedules to be uploaded into Lee Academy 20-21 Folder

10/15/20      Hybrid B in-person learners K0-K2-First Day

10/15/20      Goals entered into TeachPoint

10/19/20.     Hybrid A in-person learners K0-K2 First day

10/22/20.     Hybrid B in-person learners 1-3 First Day

10/26/20.     Hybrid A in-person learners 1-3 First Day

10/5-10/19  Assessment window open for MAP Reading Fluency Screener (K2-2)

10/5-10/19  Assessment window open for MAP Reading Growth (3)

Criteria for Identification as a High Priority In-person Learner

The following is the criteria that the district used to identify students for high priority in-person learning

• Students with disabilities in public day schools
• Students with disabilities in substantially separate classrooms
• Students with disabilities in inclusion classrooms with high needs, as defined by the student’s Individualized Education Plan (Classified as a 4 or above)
• Students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE)
• English Learners in English Language Development Programs Levels 1 & 2
• Students Experiencing Homelessness
• Students in the care of the Department of Children and Families 

 Special Education Learning Plans

• You may recall from our mandatory training that in addition to their IEP every student must have a Special Education Learning Plan until such time that we return fully in person
• This requirement was in place last year but Alyce quietly took care of it for everyone
• I have asked Ellen to complete the forms for you however she will need your teacher facing student schedule in order to do so. 
• These are the Special Education Learning Plan forms that need to be completed so you know the information Ellen needs
• This year students must receive their full allotment of special education services. We had slightly more flexibility in the Spring. 
• Please complete your school facing schedules where you identify where/when your SWDs and ELs are receiving services
• Please upload your school facing schedules to the *Lee Academy 20-21 Folder by October 9th. 

Evaluation Goals

• The evaluation timelines have not changed for this year according to the District
• I am extending that timeline to allow us to open the building
• Your goals must be entered into TeachPoint for 10/15
• The good news is as a school community we are using the same goals as last year wit one small tweak to the professional practice goal:
• Professional Practice Goal: All staff will design high-quality, culturally relevant, standards-based tasks, and feedback for both in-person and online instruction. As a result, students will produce work at a high level, with careful guidance and feedback. 80% of classroom visits will indicate that these elements are at the established level as defined in the observation tool.
• Student Learning Goal: All students who entered the school year at or above benchmark will make at least 1 year of growth as measured by the end of the year benchmark assessment. Students who are reading below grade level will make at least 1.3 years of growth or benchmark.
• Please enter these goals into TeachPoint by 10/15/20
• As we did last year, you are able to create your own grade level or individual action plan. 
• Here is the asynchronous TeachPoint/Evaluation overview. As you know it is contractually mandated that this training is provided to every BTU member. 
• My directive is that if you are in your first 3 years as an educator you watch this training
• The bad news is that I will be everyone's primary evaluator because Keri has assumed so many teaching duties to make our model work. This is bad news because as those of you who had me last year know managing evaluation is a growth area for me. We will get through it. 

Information for MAP

• Some of you are asking for a chance to learn about the MAP Assessments because the administration window is quickly approaching
• Keri and I are attending office hours about the assessment on Tuesday. 
• The District has also made available many asynchronous modules that you can look at independently to prepare for the administration of the assessment

K2-2

Map Fluency Testing Overview with Embedded Links

Map Fluency Remote Testing Slide Deck with Embedded Links

Map Fluency Remote Testing Guide

Grade 3

Map Growth Remote Testing Slide Deck with Embedded Links

Map Growth Remote Testing Guide

Map Growth Remote Troubleshooting Guide

Health Numbers as of 9/24

• Every day from 3:00-4:00 I have a call with the city team including the mayor and Marty Martinez the Director of the Boston Public Health Commission. 
• We all work together to plan for reopening.
• In an attempt to be transparent I will share the current public health metrics as long as they are available to me.
• The positivity threshold for reopening schools in 4% for the entire city and 8% for individual neighborhoods

Budget and Supplies

Lee Academy Budget

• We ordered all supplies that you coded green on the spreadsheets. I also said that I would be transparent around amounts spent by each grade level and specialty area.

K0/K1    $0

K2          $ 240.69

Gr. 1       $ 448.91

Gr. 2       $ 280.21

Gr. 3       $ 184.00

Sci.         $ 491.76

Math       $ 379.00

Rdg.        $ 515.00

Current Total: $2,539.57

At-Home Learning Kits K0-2

• Supplies continue to trickle in as soon as we have what we need to assemble a kit we will put them together
• We may look for volunteers to help.

District Support to Families

• Every student will receive a $50 gift card to Staples
• These cards must be used in-store prior to 11/30
• These cards should be available after 10/1

Outside Dining Area

• We are working to set up our outside dining area for student's return.
• There will be (2) 10x20 canopies and (6) 6ft picnic tables where we can seat students for lunch
• I am working with the family council on the potential of fundraising for two propane heaters.
• Affordable propane heaters are scarce on the market right now so this could be a process. 

Attendance

• Our attendance rates look great at 92.7% on Thursday.
• The District average attendance was
• Thank you for all of your efforts to get students online

PPE

• Two months of PPE ordered from Special Education, based on our programming, was delivered to the building.
• K0/K1 receives additional PPE
• Sam will be responsible for distributing this PPE once everyone is back in the building. 

Masks

• Per district regulation and as presented in our training with Nurse Sam, the following type of masks are not allowed. 
• Beginning 9/28 if you or a student is wearing a mask of this type you will be provided with a surgical mask. 
• The expectation is you will have an appropriate mask the following day.
• The district, courtesy of the Red Sox organization, will be providing each teacher and student two reusable masks

Bandana tied around nose and mouth	Neck Gaiter	Mask with Valve

Chromebook Updates

Lost Chargers

• The District will not be replacing lost chargers. 
• If a family reports that they have lost their charger they are responsible for purchasing a new one.
• We do not have any chargers in the building to supply families with

Broken Chromebooks

• In order to start a ticket for a broken Chromebook to be repaired,  I need to physically have the computer.
• The reason for this is we (and the district) actually have had multiple Chromebooks that parents have reported as broken that in fact worked. 
• Please inform parents of this prior to having them call or email me

Chromebook Distribution

• We received a second small allocation of Chromebooks yesterday that have been assigned to families who requested a Chromebook
• At this time we still do not have "loaner" devices for broken computers.
• Currently, we only have 4 students who have requested a Chromebook that does not have one assigned. 
• If you have questions about the Chromebook status of your students please reach out to me. 

Family Communication

• Please refer to the following table about where to log family contact

Aspen	Panorama	EdPlan
Staff will continue to use Aspen to enter: Daily student attendance Course grades Incidents Individual schools will create and access: Master student schedules including specialties, ESL, resource room, related services Individual teacher schedules Note: all state reporting to DESE will continue to happen from Aspen.	​Staff  will use Student Success to see:  Student data from Aspen and multiple assessment platforms Staff will: Log Student Support Notes (Tier 1 Family Communication),  replacing the Aspen Journal* Develop and monitor Student Success Plans (Tier 2 and Tier 3) - academic, attendance, behavior Coordinate with colleagues and assign team member roles	Staff will use Edplan to: Enter communications related to progress towards IEP goals
*Student Support Notes as replacement of Journal: Moving forward, Panorama’s support notes feature replaces the Aspen journal. For notes normally logged in the journal, staff should now log those via Support Notes. This centralizes student support information in the Student Success platform. Panorama will not display historical journal entries; the system will only display new support notes that staff directly enter into it.

Talking Points

• Talking points is up and running!
• It is available to you in Clever
• I just sent my first two texts to all 186 students. 
• Please use it. It is wonderful and the translation features are top-notch! (Unfortunately no Cape Verdean Creole)

Some Instructional Ideas from Academics Office

• As we continue our plunge into unchartered instructional territory the BPS office of academics has provided some resources and guidance. 
• Ironically our schedule for balancing hybrid and remote which I thought would be frowned upon is included as an exemplar of how to make this happen. 
• That is because of YOU and your willingness to lean into this work.

BPS Instructional resources and guidance 

Grading Terms

• Please see the grading terms in the table below
• We will be using the report cards in Aspen this year for distribution purposes
• It is expected that IEP progress reports will go out at the same time as the report cards

Trimesters

(Grades K-5, K-6, K-8)

Term	Start	End	Days		Report Card Grading Window	Report Card Distribution
Fall	9/21/2020	12/11/2020	56		12/2 – 12/20	Week of 12/21
Winter	12/14/2020	3/19/2021	56		3/15 – 3/28	Week of 3/29
Spring	3/22/2021	6/18/2021	58		6/4 – 6/13	Week of 6/14

New Format of the Hive

• We are all in information overload
• I thought writing in bullets may make the information easier to access
• Please let me know if you like this new format (or not)

September 18, 2020

 

Honey-Do List

9/21/20 Add Jodi as a co-teacher to your Google Classroom or Seesaw account

9/30/20 Share your bathroom and handwashing schedule with Jodi

9/30/20 Enter notes from all family meetings and tech and wellness checks into Panorama.

Important Links

Student needs a Chromebook

The family wants to change something about their Hybrid or Remote Selection

Family needs Chromebook repair- Call school

The Neighborhood

There has been a recent uptick in violence in our neighborhood. You may have seen the news stories. This reached a crescendo today when some of our colleagues were outside with families doing their family meetings. I want to thank the teachers who did the right thing and calmly escorted the families into the building and continued like nothing had happened. Today made me realize how useless active shooter drills are. We lived it, in real-time and everyone did exactly the right thing. I am no longer amazed at how great our Lee Academy family is now I am just saying we are blessed to have each other. 

Panorama and Family Meetings

You need to log all of your family visits and technology "checks" in Panorama this year by September 30th.

Please check off both the Tech and Wellness Check and Home Visit boxes. Please refer back to the Panorama MTSS presentation if you need support. 

Things Left to Do in the Building to Prepare for 10/1

Furniture: All furniture that was left in the hall has been moved to storage. Please do not remove anything from storage unless you ask me. I had asked people to NOT move furniture into the hall because it was a potential issue with the Fire department. We left some furniture in strange places!

Bathroom & Sink Schedule: Over the course of the next two Wednesdays could you please work with the grade level sharing your bathroom to work out a bathroom and sink schedule. I was going to do it but I realized you know your schedules the best when you will have the kids in front of you. The maximum occupancy for most bathrooms is 2 students at a time. This is because of the number of sinks. The number of students in a bathroom should not exceed the number of sinks. Students should not be traveling in the building unaccompanied.   

• Grades 1 & K2 Bathroom downstairs by the science room and sink outside of 106
• Grades 3 & 2 Upstairs bathroom 
• K0/K1 Yellow Bathroom and sink outside of 103

Signage: I need to create occupancy signs for the bathrooms, directional cues, and one-way signs for hallway traffic patterns. We need to spraypaint the social distancing flowers on the outside surfaces. For socially distanced lines at the playground, there will be plastic circles available that you can place on the ground 6 feet apart for students.

Playground: Given the number of students in each cohort we should be able to safely use the playground. Teachers should bring their bottle of hand-sanitizer with them and sanitize on the way in and again on the way out. 

Morning Duty Starting 10/1

Please read this document to see our morning entry procedures and duty stations. 

Some Highlights:

• Beginning 9/21 all staff will be required to enter through the front door. 
• All people entering the building will sanitize at the station in the entryway. 
• Visitors will be stopped prior to entering the building and asked what their purpose is for entering the school. 
• During morning arrival Sarah will perform this duty. Zoraida will perform this duty for the remainder of the day. 
• Visitors will not be admitted into the building if it is not essential that they do so.
• Visitors will not be allowed in the building beyond the office.
• The central staircase will be for staff use only. 

Who Can Go Where and When

We received guidance from the District about how non-classroom teachers could travel within the building. Here is the spreadsheet that details varying roles and people's movement within the classroom environment.  This may be helpful for everyone to be on the same page. 

Sanitation Stations

Please place your sanitation materials all together in a location near your door where they are visible so the custodian could easily see them if they need to be replenished. If you are running low on any supplies please let Zoraida know so she can inform Bill. Here is a picture of what they could look like:

 Fans

John installed fans in everyone's window today they are all in reach of an outlet. All you need to do is plug them in that are all set to on. They are exhaust fans pushing the air out for circulation. You may still use your box fans in your window if you would like to increase air circulation in beyond just having the window open. 

Mask Breaks

We are not going to have a formal schedule for mask breaks because they will happen at natural points during the day. Mask breaks should always occur outside of the school building (except for K0/K1 rest time). Lunch, recess, snack, extra exploration outside are all opportunities for students to have a break from their mask. 

Clear Masks

Paula made a connection with some enterprising BLS students that have put together a service project of making clear masks. Here is their webpage   Paula also passed on a picture of their product so we could see it:

I thought that this might be of interest to many of you!

SeeSaw and Google Classroom Co-teacher

Please add me to your Google Classroom or SeeSaw as a co-teacher by the end of the day on Monday. I am looking forward to seeing kids too!

Seesaw Directions from the District

For Educators:

• Teachers should login with Clever and must use the Clever created classroom - This is the most recently added class. Watch video example (CC).

• Please re-send any family invitations through this Clever created class. Existing invitations sent from other classes will not link families to the correct class. 

• Teachers or admins can rename the Clever-created class as needed. Hint - if you are a homeroom teacher (not a specialist), rename your class with a “ . “ before the name.

• If you created any classes before September 16, 2020, please archive them. All non-Clever classes will be automatically archived on Monday 9/21 if not done so already.

• Teachers can add up to 20 co-teachers to their classes in Seesaw, such as a paraprofessional.

For Families:

• All students should access Seesaw through Clever - this will automatically connect them to their teacher and class. Watch video example (CC).

• Seesaw Class is the application students will use. This is where they will see assigned activities and respond with their home learning work.

• Seesaw Family is for families and should be set up on a personal device, not the student’s Chromebook, if possible. Teachers can send family invites to connect family members to their child’s account. Find out how here.

Other Notes and Resources:

• Seesaw Help Doc has captioned videos, slides, trainings, and contact information.

• Seesaw Frequently Asked Questions

• The Office of Special Education will be offering Seesaw to some substantially separate classrooms grades 7-12. More information will be coming in the next week.

Chromebook Assignments

As of 9/15 161 of our 187 students have assigned devices. That is 86% of our students. Way to go team in getting the info out to families. We currently have 12 families on the waiting list. I am hoping that the remaining 15 will reach out to us during your home visits. 

From Mark Racine:

There's a bit of misinformation going around that I want to clear up regarding Chromebook numbers. The first delivery that you're receiving this week is the available inventory that our vendor has shipped to us so far. We placed an order for 40,000 Chromebooks (in addition to the 20,000 that were purchased in March) and these are being delivered to BPS in phases. 

The manufacturer (Acer) has confirmed that they have the next shipment of 20,000 en route to us and we expect that delivery very soon. I will share an exact date as soon as I have one but there are a lot of variables that could shift dates. You may have read on the news about delays in Chromebook orders that are impacting many districts and these issues may impact our shipments. 

We placed our order for Chromebooks early and they are on the way but I know you are all anxious for more! Since we are tracking all assignments in One2One Manager, there's no need to request more devices! We are also tracking your needs within One2One.

Some schools have asked if they can purchase additional Chromebooks - please note that current shipping dates for Chromebooks ordered today will likely be after January. If you hear of staff trying to fundraise for Chromebooks, please let them know that this is not necessary and may not be effective since new orders will be months from now.

As soon as we have a delivery date from our distributor, we'll send an update so you know how many to expect and when!

If you have a family that needs a Chromebook please have them fill out this form. We will contact them as soon as their Chromebook is ready. 

Headphones

From Mark Racine: I have some good news and some GREAT news about headphones! Our distributor is providing customized shipping to expedite the process and will start delivering to schools, starting the week of the 28th. This first order is going to be a pair of headphones for each special education and ELL student in your school.

     Now for the great news (and the reason why I said that was the first order). We have been trying to find external funding for headphones for all students and I received confirmation today our funding came through! This means that you'll receive a second shipment with additional headsets so that all students can have a headset. I don't have an exact shipping date for the second shipment but I'll send an update when I have more information.

Here is the exact model of headphones but don't pay attention to the price...our pricing is almost half of what is listed on this website.

Balanced Assessment System

From the Office of Data & Accountability:

In Boston Public Schools, we are building a comprehensive and balanced assessment system. This system has the fewest assessments possible, each with a clearly defined and understood purpose, that will allow educators to make informed culturally-responsive instructional decisions. There is an acknowledged tension that educators are experiencing with the need to break down systems of oppression and the fact that assessments can be tools of those systems. We need to both upend systems of oppression and at the same time ensure students receive the skills, knowledge, and understandings that will allow them to become who they want to be.

Therefore, we seek to balance standardized formative assessments, like the BPS interims, with adaptive assessments, like the MAP assessments, and classroom assessments, like authentic assessment, lesson-embedded assessment, and performance tasks. Student performance on these different types of assessment allows for insight into who the student is as a learner. Given the varied academic experiences students have had during school closure, it's important now more than ever that we have a clear picture of what each student knows and is able to do. A comprehensive assessment system is integral to the development of each student's "academic portrait." 

Donors Choose

Congratulate Lindsay, Kathryn, and Rose they each had a Donors Choose Project funded with the past two weeks. 

September 11, 2020

What a Week it has Been 

This poem really spoke to me. Together we have struggled to try and find some order in the chaos and newness of what the next year will be. This poem made all of this so elegantly simple. It is about our own true hearts reaching the heart and souls of our children. No matter what the model, our knowledge of technology, socially distanced safety drills, or the 800 plans we are supposed to write. It is about the heart and beauty of humanity.  I hope that you too will find some solace in this poem.

Heart of A Teacher

~ Paula J. Fox

The child arrives like a mystery box…

with puzzle pieces inside

some of the pieces are broken or missing…

and others just seem to hide

But the HEART of a teacher can sort them out…

and help the child to see

the potential for greatness he has within…

a picture of what he can be

Her goal isn’t just to teach knowledge…

by filling the box with more parts

it’s putting the pieces together…

to create a work of art.

The process is painfully slow at times…

some need more help than others

each child is a work in progress…

with assorted shapes and colors

First, she creates a classroom…

where the child can feel safe in school

where he never feels threatened or afraid to try…

and kindness is always the rule

She knows that a child can achieve

much more when he feels secure inside

when he’s valued and loved… and believes in himself …

and he has a sense of pride

She models and teaches good character…

and respect for one another

how to focus on strengths… not weaknesses

and how to encourage each other

She gives the child the freedom he needs…

to make choices on his own

so he learns to become more responsible…

and is able to stand alone

He’s taught to be strong and for himself…

as his soul and spirit heal

and the puzzle that’s taking shape inside…

has a much more positive feel

The child discovers the joy that comes…

from learning something new…

and his vision grows as he begins

to see all the things he can do

A picture is formed as more pieces fit…

an image of the child within

with greater strength and confidence…

and a belief that he can win!

In the HEART of a teacher who cared

All because a hero was there…

enabling the child to become much more…

than he ever imagined…or dared

A teacher with a HEART for her children…

knows what teaching is all about

she may not have all the answers…

but on this… she has no doubt

When asked which subjects she loved to teach,

she answered this way and smiled…

“It’s not the subjects that matter…

It’s all about teaching the CHILD.

Health Services Opening Plan

Here is the Health Services Opening Plan. Sam and I wanted to provide it to those of you that are very interested prior to Tuesday's meeting. Sam will be reviewing this material but previewing it might be helpful as well. I do not own the link and/or sharing permissions so you will have to use your BPS Email to access

Professional Development

It has been a crazy week with all of our anticipated sessions, from the central office, not being quite ready for our schedule. I appreciate how you have all stuck it out and have gone with the flow. I want to thank Sarah and all of you for an immensely powerful session on anti-racist education. I am looking forward to turning ideas into actions. Sarah has also offered to facilitate a Zoom Basics session for paraprofessionals on Wednesday, I am not sure your technology will be here but hopefully, we can make it work.  This is our building schedule for next week. 

I know how much this staff values learning and goes the extra mile to do their own learning. The following is a list including lists to asynchronous sessions that are applicable to your teaching practice.

• Supporting the Behavioral Health of Staff And Students/ Andria Amador
• Meeting the Needs of Students with Special Needs through Lesson Planning and Accessibility/ Kiersten Sullivan 
• Getting Started with Google Classroom/Digital Learning Team
• Google Classroom Best Practices/ Digital Learning Team
• Getting Started with Zoom/ Digital Learning Team
• Google Classroom from a Student View/ Digital Learning Team
• Seesaw Basics (for Schools Opting into SeeSaw)/Annie Taylor (K0-6)
• Nearpod Basics/Jaclyn Eichenberger and Christina Carnes

Changes to Support Staff

We needed to make some changes to the teams that are supporting your grade level teams for remote learning. The expectations for co-planning and co-facilitation remain the same. Just the names have been changed. A major contributing factor to this is ESL service delivery. Paula cannot service all of the level ones and twos in the school. There are simply not enough minutes in the day. She will be focusing on K2 and first grade where the majority of students at these levels are learning. To provide consistency across support at these formative levels Kathryn and Keri will now be supporting K2 and Grade 1. Brian and Sarah will provide support for grades two and three and fill in any ESL and Special Education needs at this level. As an added bonus our newest teacher will be supported by our instructional coaches!

Kathryn & Keri supporting grades K2 & 1

Sarah & Brian supporting grades 2 & 3

Communication Opportunities

I realize that with people working remotely some days, in-person others, and the trepidation of entering into other's space it may feel difficult to drop in and ask me questions. In order to help you feel more comfortable and provide additional communication access, I will be starting the year off implementing two optional new practices.

I will hold office hours every morning from 8:30-9:00. I will have a live Zoom link where you can pop in and ask any questions, make any comments or raise any issues you want. You will receive an invite with the link in it soon. Office Hours Link

I have also created this form The Lee Academy is Buzzing for you to write me a quick note. I want to be transparent that I will not respond to anonymous items raised in this manner. I believe that it is only fair that I have the chance to address issues directly with the parties involved. It has been my experience that all too often people write things anonymously that they would never say in person. (Case in point the comment section in the Globe)  That is also not who we are at the Lee Academy we are a family who directly addresses things and thrives by being a team.

Expectation

The reason this blog exists is to avoid having all of you drown in the sea of emails that I could send every week. It is also a way for me to share thoughts and expectations with you about our work together and our community.  It is an expectation that every member of our Lee Academy Family read the Hive every week. There will be action items included and information that you will want to have.  The Hive also nicely archives itself so that you have easy access to back copies. I felt that it was important that I explicitly state this expectation so that everyone is aware of it. It is also one way to avoid having a mandated huddle. 

Honey Do List

• Budget: Final Budget Lists are due by 4:00 PM on Monday, September 14th
• Please color code your supply orders using the following code:
• Green is something you absolutely must have you can't teach without it
• Yellow is something you must have BUT can make it work without it. 
• Red is something you want

September 4, 2020: The First Hive of The New School Year

 Thinking

Over the summer we have all spent a lot of time in our thinking spots both alone and together. As I write this, the Friday before our first PD of the new year, I realize that there is still so much to be thought of. When I moved my son into his apartment they were (and still are) building it around him. I realized that this is much the case with what we will be doing for our students, families, and each other. We will have moved into our new reality but together we will still be actively creating it.  

Working this way will require us to show grace to each other and our families as we move forward. One of the things that I have been thinking about is how to actively show grace to others. 

Courtesy of the internet, here are 8 ideas that I think may be helpful to keep in the back of our minds.

How to Show Grace to Others

1. Words. Be kind and gentle in what you say and how you say it. 
2. Look for Needs and Opportunities. Simple everyday kindnesses and actions often help in great ways. 
3. Let it Go. Letting it go is one of the easiest ways to extend grace to others.
4. Be There. 
5. Forgive. 
6. Learn to Ask for Forgiveness. 
7. Watch the Way You Speak. 
8. Gratitude.

Professional Development Schedule

Here is a link to our schedule for PD. We will all log in together to watch the district offerings that are identified here. 

 

Registration Information:

• Participants will register in Cadence for all sessions. Participants can watch this quick video for directions on how to register. 
• The Cadence event site will go live at 6pm Friday night for both required and optional session registration. 
• Please register for the sessions that I have identified in the schedule. They align with our school priorities. 
• Please use a time when you are not in a transition meeting or meeting with me to register for Cadence on the 8th if you would like. 
• Our schedule does not include all of the "required" training at this time. Please select the sessions identified on our schedule

Master Schedule DRAFT

This version of the schedule may change. Keri has been tirelessly working to finalize it and clean it up. The good news is because of our decision making we can have a DRAFT master schedule today. The district still has not finalized guidance about sharing specialists between buildings. 

I want to thank all of our specialists for the amazing conversations that we have had. I truly appreciate the dialogue this week and the work that you do. All specialists will be remote and pre-recorded except for 2nd Step and Science. Jen and Ben have options for delivery that they may choose to toggle between based on the content. The remainder of our specials will be pre-recorded. That offers teacher teams the ability to plug and play the specials when it makes sense for your students. 

Class Lists

We will be creating homeroom lists for teachers as decided in response to our faculty senate debrief. Unfortunately, we cannot do that yet because the district is still maneuvering the A, B and Students prioritized for remote learning lists. A balanced class list (15/5) can not be created until they stop the behind the scenes manipulation. I am hoping to have these for you sometime next week. 

Students-Prioritized for Group Learning (Formely Group C)

These are the students that will be starting in-person on 10/1. Here are the criteria used to identify these students:

• Students with disabilities in therapeutic day schools
• Students with disabilities in substantially separate classrooms
• Students with disabilities in inclusion classrooms with high needs, as defined by the PL3 in the student’s IEP
• Students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE)
• Students in English Language Development Programs Levels 1 & 2
• Students Experiencing Homelessness
• Students in the care of the Department of Children and Families 

Sharing the A/B and C lists information 

• The district is planning on sending to families next week (goal of Wednesday). District communications will be sent. 
• Once those communications have been sent, school leaders can follow up with families. 
• Families eligible for 4 days of in-person learning will be contacted by the district next week to find out if they are interested in coming for 4 days a week. Completing the survey does not guarantee a four-day placement. I will discuss this more at our staff meeting.   

What is the process for families who want to change their remote/hybrid learning choice?

• Families will be able to change from the hybrid model to remote on a rolling basis. 
• Families will be able to change from the remote model to the hybrid model at defined points throughout the year - BPS will share specific dates about when these changes can be accommodated. 

What is the process for changing A/B groups due to families who share childcare, etc.?

• Families who would like to change their A/B group may submit an appeal through the central office. All decisions will be made at the central office without consultation with the schools. 
• Siblings who are in the same household will be changed. All other cases will be reviewed individually. 

What communication will be the responsibility of schools v central office (A/B/C lists, building safety measures, etc---basically anything that is coherent across schools)?

• BPS will communicate cohort lists, appeals process and approvals, transportation, and district implementation to the schools
• Schools will communicate school-specific health and safety measures (building entering/exiting protocols, etc)

Partnerships

• Partners and third-party providers will be not allowed on school grounds and in buildings to run programming. This includes our ABA provider.
• Building and grounds access will be limited to BPS and City of Boston Staff.
• Boston Public Health Commission will be allowed in school buildings
  

Technology Updates

How will schools be able to give families coupons for broadband internet?

• The City of Boston has not settled the sponsored broadband contract but we anticipate receiving the first round of coupon codes by end of next week. 
• In the meantime, we recommend having families sign up for the 60 days free Comcast Internet Essentials, and then they can apply the coupon code retroactively to their account.
• Just a reminder that SSN is NOT required to sign up for Comcast Internet Essentials.
• Schools will receive a spreadsheet with the coupon codes and instructions for families.
• The CoB is extending the Verizon hotspots from the spring for the school year so we will not have to transition families off of the hotspots that were distributed last year!!!

How are families getting access to new computers?

• This weekend, new-to-BPS families will receive an email invitation with instructions to login to their Google account and instructions to pick up a Chromebook. 
• Distribution sites have been established across the city for the next two weeks to ensure that new-to-BPS families have the ability to pick up a device first. 
• As more inventory is delivered over the coming weeks, schools will begin receiving shipments of Chromebooks to assist with new deployments and repairs.