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
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I S S U E
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O C T O B E R
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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.
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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
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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
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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