The Quarterly Bellevue Union School District NOTEWORTHY DATES: NOVEMBER: Site Leadership Com 5: District PD Curriculum Com High Impact ELD 10: District PD Veteran’s Day Holiday Site Leadership Com 12: Special Ed PLC & RtI 18: Board Meeting 17-21: Parent/Teacher Conferences 24-28: Thanksgiving Break DECEMBER: 3: District PD, BEST Site Teams, Curriculum Com 9: Board Meeting 10: Special Ed PLC, BEST Site Teams, RtI SARB Holiday Open House at the District Office 17: Site Leadership Com 22-31 Winter Break JANUARY: 1-2: Winter Break Site Leadership Com PD: High Impact ELD 14: District Wide Grade Level Collaboration 15: BEST Site Teams, Curriculum Com 19: Martin Luther King Jr. Day Holiday Board Meeting Bellevue District Science 21: Special Ed PLC, BEST Site Teams, RtI 29: SARB Fair V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 1 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 4 Autumn Greetings Dear Bellevue Community, We are well into the 2014-15 school year, which I would characterize as a successful start - even in the midst of numerous changes and transitions. With the early start date this year, we limited the summer learning loss for our students, and we were running full throttle in every classroom by the first week of August! We’ve had an incredible amount of professional development for all of our staff already, which has been designed to provide focused support. Our instructional program has been coordinated so that we can include our new literacy paraprofessionals in K-3rd grades, and PE for K-6th grades. In addition, our staggered recess and lunch times now provide optimal schedules for students. We’ve “protected” our core instructional time, limiting interruptions and distractions so that teachers can teach and students can learn. We are in our second year with our new ELA curriculum, and we have new math curriculum for all TK-6th students. We have new ELA curriculum maps and an assessment system which are now being implemented. We continue with our new ELD instructional framework, and implementation of digital teaching and learning in every classroom. All of our 6th grade students now have a Chromebook which is the beginning of our 1:1 program in the district. This year we are getting serious about BEST, and have devoted time and resources to ensure it is 100% at each school. We have community liaisons at each school to support staff with students needing assistance, as well connecting our families with needed resources in the community. We are committed to positive student attendance, and now have systems to follow up with students needing support. Needless to say, our pace has been breath-taking. Our collective effort is responsible for the fine start to this school year, and all BUSD staff are to be commended. In partnership with our families, we are all working together to meet the needs of our students. I am confident this is going to be a great year. Sincerely, PAGE 2 New email address :-) Last year we started the transition from @bellevueusd.org to @busd.org This transition was started to ease students’ access to Google apps for education as well as their use with Chromebooks. @bellevueusd.org - with its long and unusual spelling - was creating an unnecessary roadblock for our students. The plan has been to transition all staff to busd.org, but it is important that everyone is aware of a few key points before the transition is made. What will change? You will need to log in with @busd.org instead of @bellevueusd.org. @bellevueusd.org will no longer work for logging in post-switch. You may need to recreate your email signature; if you have never customized it you will be fine. Any devices that have been connected to your district account: smartphones or tablets may need the username switched. What will not change? Other accounts that use your district email address for your username. Since they are not attached to google they will not change over and you will still log in with the @bellevueusd.org version of your email. If you want to change them, this will have to be done for each external account you have individually. People will still be able to email you at your old address. Google will automatically forward messages from your @bellevueusd.org address to your @busd.org address. “Google will automatically forward messages from your @bellevueusd.org address to your @busd.org address”. When will this happen? All accounts will be switched over during Winter Break. There will be no downtime, but if you try to log in over Winter Break and it does not work then log in again changing @bellevueusd.org to busd.org on your email address. THE QUARTERLY VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 PAGE Yeah! P.E.! Our PE Teachers have worked very hard to create a comprehensive and engaging physical education program for our students. They have ordered new PE equipment Our PE Team: Laura Inge (Meadow View), Luis Patrick (Kawana Academy). Steve for all schools, and Thiele (Taylor Mountain) and Stephanie Schroeder (Bellevue) have also organized sets of rotating sports equipment such as volleyball nets, hurdles, and soccer balls to be used during sports units at each school site. Additionally, all PE teachers and instructional assistants attended professional development in the SPARK PE curriculum in October. This curriculum is used to support engaging lessons that follow a clear scope and sequence for students’ skill development. In addition, PE teachers meet as a group each week to plan future units of instruction and debrief previously taught lessons. Students have responded very positively to having guided physical education lessons three times a week. They actively participate in cooperative group games in addition to individual and small group development in a variety of physical skills. Our PE teachers have taught basic skills such as skipping and hopping to kindergarten students, jumping rope and bounce passes to first through third grade students, and hockey dribbling and volleyball to upper grade students. Classroom teachers also report positive outcomes in the classroom as a result of students attending PE classes. They report that students are more focused during instruction in the classroom and that students are practicing skills they learned in PE during recess. 3 PAGE 4 Differentiated Instruction Different students have different needs The McGraw-Hill training on differentiated instruction training has provided a useful framework for differentiated instruction (DI). DI involves making choices about materials, mode of instructional delivery and activities. DI incorporates small group instruction, in which content is taught in different ways to each group. This includes targeted lessons based on data about student needs. The data can be formal or informal, and is related to the core instruction being taught. In these small groups, patterns of error are identified, immediate feedback is given to students, and instruction is adjusted. Leveled materials are used to help students access new core content for their grade level. DI has a student practice orientation that provides many opportunities to learn new content and skills. These include, guided practice, teacher-led practice, and peer-led practice. The grouping of students should be flexible, based on data about what each student knows. The grouping options include: Whole Group - Explicit instruction led by the teacher Small Group - Facilitated practice led by teacher Small Group - Guided student practice, collaborative with students in centers Individual - Independent work in centers for students to demonstrate content mastery There is a wonderful resource for DI within the online Wonders resources entitled Managing Small Groups: A HowTo Guide. This is on ConnectEd under “Resources / Professional Development / Managing Small Groups: A How-to Guide” THE QUARTERLY PAGE 5 The Science Fair is Coming Bellevue Union School District is hosting our second DistrictWide Science Fair January 21st 2015. The BUSD Science Fair will give students in all grades the opportunity to learn in-depth about a topic of their choice, to engage in hands on learning and present their knowledge to the wider Bellevue Community. Top projects in sixth grade will go to the Synopsys-Sonoma County Science Fair being hosted February 27th at Sonoma State University. BUSD Science Fair details: http://www.bellevueusd.org/science.html 4 Benefits of Participation 1. Scientific Investigation: develop an idea, plan an experiment, conduct an experiment. 2. Project Management: manage a project and meet deadlines. 3. Scientific analysis: keep a log book, analyze data, create a chart or graph 4. Communication: write results, create a presentation board, present and discuss results. www.classroomscience.org/new-research-just-what-are-the-benefits-of-science-projects Reminder: The Field Trip Request form is on the District Web Page and on the NAS under Electronic Forms. Requests still need to be submitted at least two weeks in advance. THE QUARTERLY Good Food at Bellevue! Deborah Schumacher (server) and Osmin Ponce (cook) Congratulations Bellevue! You have successfully launched our meal preparation program to cook and feed our students healthy food. Special thanks to Patty Gallagher for her excellent leadership to get this program off the ground, and developing our “farm to school” program using local produce and vendors. November 10th is BEST day for all staff What is BEST? It is a research-based schoolwide discipline system. BEST has been in our district for a number of years, however we are FULLY embracing BEST this year. We have strong BEST teams at every school, and we have had three full professional development days for the BEST teams this fall. Now its time to bring everybody else on board before the grand roll-out in January 2015. Monday, November 10th is a professional development day for teachers that will be devoted to BEST. In addition, all classified staff are invited and encouraged to attend, as well as CalServes staff, and our regular substitute teachers. Following the November 10th training, we will be ready to implement BEST at every school, at all times, in every location, with all students, with a “wall of consistency” that will result in a very noticeable improvement in student discipline and school climate throughout our district. VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 PAGE We Would Like You to Meet… Susie Raymond joined the Bellevue community in August 1986 as a clerk, then moved to payroll, added personnel and then ten years ago became Business Manager. Prior to joining the Bellevue USD team, she had a variety of roles including positions at Bank of America in San Francisco and First Interstate Bank in Klamath Falls, Oregon and in Foster City. Susie was born in Santa Rosa at Memorial Hospital. She attended elementary and high school in Sonoma, went to Santa Rosa Junior College, and then OIT in Klamath Falls, Oregon. She has been a lifelong learner taking classes supporting her career roles. She likes to remind everyone in the District Office about the early days when she worked out of a closet on the Bellevue Elementary School campus. When she is not in the office, Susie enjoys playing soccer and visiting with her 6 grandsons and brand new baby granddaughter. She and her husband George just celebrated their 37 wedding anniversary. Following 28 1/2 years, Susie will be retiring in December 2014. We thank her for her many years of service to our district. Save the Date Thursday, December 11th For our Annual Bellevue Union School District Holiday Open House Our doors will be open 2:30pm-4:30pm We will have warm beverages, cookies and holiday music! Please join the Bellevue community at the District Office 7 PAGE 8 Alicia Henderson, Ph.D. - Superintendent Susie Raymond - Director of Financial Services Amy Littlejohn - Director of Human Resources Gilda DeNiro - Director of Student Services Jacob Lopez - Director of Information & Technology Joel Dontos - Director of Maintenance Marcia Russell, Ed.D. - Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment Coordinator Moriah Hart - Executive Assistant/Data Heather Castor - Business Technician Patty Gallagher - Cafeteria Manager Candace Loeffler - Special Education Assistant Heather Barajas - Account Technician / District Receptionist 3150 Education Drive Santa Rosa, CA 95407 Phone: 707-542-5197 Fax: 707-542-6127 www.busd.org Board of Trustees Carol Montoya - President Lisa Reyes—Vice President/Clerk Yvonne L. Kennedy Kathleen A. Mullins Sharon Ligon Principals Daniel Hoffman - Meadow View Carolina Castro - Kawana Jenny Lynch - Bellevue Tawny Fernandez - Taylor Mountain
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