BSD Staff Updates

March 9-13, 2020 is Education Support Professionals Week (aka: Classified Staff Week!). This week we celebrate our classified staff and give recognition to the work they do for the students, families and fellow staff members. The work they do and skills they bring to Bremerton School District is immeasurable.

Compiled by Ioanna Cossack, Board Secretary

POLICY ADOPTION:

Policy 3424, Opioid Related Overdose Reversal, has been adopted. The opioid epidemic poses a major public health crisis for the United States. In 2019, our State Legislature passed SSB 5380, signed into law by Governor Inslee on May 13, requiring school districts with 2,000 students or more to obtain and maintain at least one set of opioid overdose reversal medication doses at each of its high schools beginning with the upcoming school year. Please take a few moments to review this new policy. Please check with your administrator if you have questions or contact Iva Scott or Patty Glaser.

Other Policy News:

Three other policies were reviewed for first read, meaning they will come back for second read/adoption at the March 19th Board meeting. If you would like to review these in advance of adoption, these are included as well or can be found on our BoardDocs website:

1. Policy 2409 (revised); Credit for Competency-Proficiency

2. Policy 2410 (revised); High School Graduation Requirements*

3. Policy 2030 (new); Service Animals in Schools

* Approved with some changes to be included at second reading

The Bremerton High School Men’s Trio (Rodgie Oliver, Michael Wahlquist, and Ryan DiCicco) performed the National Anthem and the song that they won regional with. These young men were fantastic and the Board wishes them well as they head to State Competition in April!

The Board proclaimed the week of March 9-13 as Education Support Professionals Week in our District.

Public Input was received from a Mountain View Middle School student and staff from Crownhill Elementary School in regard to the elimination of the Media Specialist positions at each of our school sites.

The Consent Agenda typically includes several overnight field trips for students. This was no exception, but two BHS requests (Key Club and Robotics) were pulled from the Consent Agenda as they have been cancelled by the event coordinators due to concerns about the new Coronavirus. Other items included consulting service contracts for updating the Skills Center and renewing our subscription with Thoughtexchange.

Superintendent Leavell and the Board thanked Ms. Bevers for coordinating all of the information going out to staff and parents in regard to the Coronavirus. Globally and locally, information has been changing rapidly. Dr. Leavell emphasized that the District wants a 2-way setting for our community to be able to communicate with us.

Dr. Leavell updated the Board on our continuing partnership with the K.C. Amateur Radio Club, including a potential opportunity for our students to communicate via ham radio to an astronaut at the International Space Station.

Other Reports: Juliana Cook and Robin Dudley shared data with the Board on the success of the Open Doors Program, now in its 5th year. David Herrington provided the Annual Building Condition Assessment.

Written Reports included a summary of Staff Absences (October-February) and the March Enrollment Report.

Upcoming Events:

• Education Support Professionals Week, March 9-13
• Recognition for BPEA members will be at the March 19th Board meeting
• KOP Mattress Sale/fundraiser, Bremerton High School, March 14th
• WA State Science & Engineering Fair, BHS, March 26-27

You can find these reports, other attachments, and more information on the agenda/BoardDocs site

September- Kindness

October- Creativity

November- Gratitude

December- Cooperation

January - Honesty

February- Empathy

March- Perseverance

April- Respect

May -Courage

June- Responsibility

You can download monthly character trait posters from BSD Teach (click on "SEL & Conduct" and then "SERVE & Character Traits of the Month.")

Lisa Heaman and Nick Birklid have recently submitted their resignations. Letters were sent home to families and posted on the school's Facebook pages last week.

Lisa joined the Bremerton School District in 2003 as the principal at View Ridge Elementary. She moved to West Hills Elementary during the 2009-2010 school year where she led the transition to West Hills STEM Academy.

Nick joined us as MVMS principal for the 2018-19 school year.

Thank you for your years of dedicated service to our students, Lisa and Nick! We wish you both the best of luck in your new endeavors!

March 9-13, 2020 - Classified School Employees Week

April 19-25, 2020 - Volunteer Appreciation Week

May 1, 2020 - School Lunch Hero Day

May 6-12, 2020 - National School Nurses Day / Week

May 4-8, 2020 - Teacher Appreciation Week

Two educators from West Hills STEM Academy were recently honored as Outstanding Educators by the Delta Kappa Gamma, the International Society for Key Women Eductors.

Congratulations, Melissa Chapman & Vanessa Lee.

Please visit the WSSEF website for important information about the 2020 Washington State Science Fair due to COVID-19.

Applications are now being accepted for the “Ellison Education Grants”. Grants are for K-12 public school teachers in Washington State. The Ellison Foundation has awarded 40 grants and over $168,000 to Washington State teachers in the past three years.

The Ellison Foundation will award grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 in the spring of 2020 (for use during the 2020-2021 school year). Applications must be submitted by March 21st, 2020.

To learn more about the “Ellison Education Grants” please go to the following link:

http://ellison-foundation.org/ellison-education

Ellison Foundation

400 112th Ave NE, Suite 230

Bellevue, WA 98004

The toolkit (box or pouch) is a source of hope, connection, care, and resources that will be distributed throughout the County in places where those in need can find them, as well as distributed by law enforcement officers and other emergency first responders who can deliver them to those that they believe are in need of support and connection.

The toolkit will contain a list of suicide prevention resources (hotlines), a letter from our team, tokens of hope, an inspirational poster, a deck of cards with inspirational messages, a sticker, and potentially a piece of jewelry or toy, as funding allows. All of these are intended to be a source of beauty, support, connection, and hope to those receiving the toolkit.

For more information, suggestions, or to obtain a kit, please contact Dionne Deschenne at dionned@pgst.nsn.us

The Hold On To Hope Toolkit is a Leadership Kitsap project that is being carried out with Kitsap Strong as their community partner. The project is focused on suicide prevention with the goal of decreasing the number of suicide deaths in Kitsap County.

A request from the Washington State Board of Education

As many of you know, the Washington Board of Education (SBE) has partnered with Strobel Consulting to collect feedback regarding new graduation pathway option requirements that impact the Class of 2020 and beyond. The feedback is intended to inform future decisions on whether the pathway options serve students equitably, and if they are adequate and what changes, if any, the state should make. The survey will be open for an extended period of time - it will close March 27 in order to get as many views as possible!

If you have not yet taken the Graduation Pathway Options stakeholder survey, please share your view! This is the most important part of our data collection activities this year:

WA Graduation Pathway Options Stakeholder Feedback Survey

If you have any questions about the focus groups, survey, or the feedback process in general, please feel free to contact Danielle DuBose at Strobel Consulting (copied on this email) at danielle@strobel-consulting.com or 307-654-0202.

More about graduation pathway options and associated legislation:

• Washington State Legislature House Bill 1599 Information (Graduation Pathways Options are in Section 201)
• State Board of Education Graduation Pathway Options web page

• View past issues of the Staff Updates newsletter
• Submit ideas or content for the Staff Updates newsletter to: Karen.Bevers@BremertonSchools.org

BSD Staff Updates Newsletter 2019-20 / Issue #13 : 3/10/2020

Photo: West Hills STEM Academy's 10th Annual STEM Fair

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Twitter: @BremertonSD