BOCES Employee Newsletter

Click the link below to see February BOCES Now!

The Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee has been working to make sure everyone feels a sense of belonging when they come to work at BOCES. In addition to setting up some affinity group, the committee has also been undergoing training sessions from Carla Murray. Carla recently taught the group about microaggressions and how they are harmful. The group is looking for ways to offer this valuable training to all our employees.

The committee also wanted a way to educate employees about cultural celebrations that take place every month. They created a cultural commemoration webpage where employees can learn more about what celebrations, holidays and commemorations are taking place. To learn more visit the link below.

Early Spring is close at hand and with Spring comes the promise of change and new beginnings. The BOCES’ Administration and our District DEI Committee are working hard to improve our relationships with every employee here at BOCES and we are making some great progress. The attached flyer is being distributed to announce our first established affinity group with meeting dates and times ahead. So exciting!

Also, we are seeking assistance with improving multi-lingual communications and finding opportunities to celebrate our existing culturally diversity. Both of these initiatives will help us attract, recruit, retain, and improve our growing workforce and better support the diversity of our student population. Please consider sharing your language skills and your unique celebrations with your coworkers across the organization.

Thank you all again for your continued acceptance, outreach, and support of each member of our growing BOCES community.

Think Spring!

O&M is putting its final touches on the new clothing closet in the Ed Center as well as the new kitchen area at West Learning Center. The HVAC project for the 100 & 200 wing of the ED center is moving forward. The equipment is ordered and you will hear more about that project as it comes to fruition. Aside from that, O&M has been diligently working hard to keep things together and make improvements on campus as necessary.

Part of the role of the Health and Safety Department is to inform and provide support to our districts when new laws and policies are put into place by the state.

Our office works as a liaison between the districts and other organizations such as Public Employees Safety and Health (PESH),Department of Labor (DOL), State Education Department (SED) as well as the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Environmental Conservation (DECC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

We provide guidance to our districts when new laws and regulations are put into action. In January, the governor passed a Workplace Violence Prevention Program policy, and we have been working to ensure all parts of this program are completed as stated in the law by all of our component districts.

We have also completed and submitted all of our participating districts Utica Nationals Safety Excellence Award Program reports. All of our districts do a great job to ensure the schools are as safe as possible for students and staff and usually do very well on the Utica National programs requirements.

An award ceremony will be held on March 26 where district leads will obtain their annual certification plaque.

Form 1095, Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage, are required for all Applicable Large Employers under the Affordable Care Act. As the title of the form suggests, this form includes information about health insurance coverage offered to you by your employer.

During the month of February our Communications team at Broome-Tioga BOCES took on the project of highlighting 12 of our programs to celebrate CTE Month. The short videos are located on our website (link below). These 12 videos are just the beginning, as our ultimate goal is to have a similar video for each and every one of our CTE programs.

Here’s the link to our web page on the BOCES site: https://www.btboces.org/CTEMonthVideos.aspx

Earlier this month at Broome-Tioga BOCES, our 110 Work Experience students from PALS and Oak Tree took part in WE’s first-ever “InVESTment in the Future” ceremonies at their various job sites located at the Education Center and offsite locations. The students each received Work Experience uniforms that they’ll wear each day at work. Check out our Facebook page (Broome-Tioga BOCES) to see all our photos.

WBNG reporter Jailah Pettis visited our Broome-Tioga BOCES main campus last week for a story about our PALS & Oak Tree food pantry. Take a look and listen. Good stuff!

Click here to see the story on WBNG

Friendly Reminder from the Building Safety Team:

For all expected visitors please notify:

1) Your program office

2) Lois Ball-lball@btboces.org

3) switchbd@btboces.org

These three areas are responsible for maintaining files, indicating who is expected, who is expecting them, when they are expected and their reason for the visit.

As a courtesy, you may also notify the security officers, but they may not admit anyone to the Ed Center without permission from at least one of the three listed above. A lot of confusion and unnecessary phone calls are made when a visitor shows up and prior notification has not been made to the BOCES staff responsible for building admittance. Visitors, including food deliveries, should only use the main entrance.

Files are kept months in advance, so feel free to notify the above three as soon as your arrangements for a BOCES visitor are complete.

Please help to make the Ed Center run smoothly and safely.

In a recent shift, the "Golden Spoon Award," previously given to outstanding individuals, now celebrates entire school kitchens with the new “Kitchen of the Month” award. Since the transition in December, two kitchens, Owego Free Academy and Binghamton High School have earned the title of “Kitchen of the Month.”

The plan is to extend this recognition to other schools within our component districts, shining a spotlight on the daily efforts of our staff who continue to go above and beyond for our students.

The dynamic showcase of career opportunities ignited passion for STEM education right in our backyard. With interactive workshops and demonstrations such as flying drones, repairing Chromebooks, and sampling eSports games, SCRIC technicians Jonathan Hollen, Robert Morrison, and Nate Revoir inspired the next generation, fostering curiosity and opening doors to endless possibilities.

Recently, the SCRIC's own Sean Culligan led a learning opportunity for any interested SCRIC staff member to learn the fundamentals of PowerShell. In this full-day class, participants went through six modules that included an introduction to PowerShell, scripting foundations, and examples. They will then take what they learned and apply it to their specific role. We hope to offer more sessions like this in the future.

Daniel Bardeen who was promoted from Computer Programmer/Analyst to Engineer IT

On Feb. 28 BOCES will be hosting County Executive Jason Garnar's State of the County address in our Auto Tech Shop. This annual address will highlight all of the work done in the county and will feature many important area leaders. It's a great way to highlight our facilities and all that we do at BOCES.

We have completed the 24-25 BT BOCES Services Guide. Thank you to everyone who provided information to put this together and a big thank you to Amy Tillotson who designed and compiled it. As you can imagine it is a big lift and certainly a team effort.

Printed copies are available in the CPR office in the ISC building. The booklets were printed by Document Services and look fantastic!

This year, New York State enacted new legislature about education budgets that will affect many of our districts. To serve these districts in a collaborative way, we are working on a budget toolkit that districts can use when communicating information to their stakeholders. We are working with Kathy Blackman to create videos, graphics, FAQs and messaging surrounding the upcoming budget.

Document Services has been busy printing report cards, newsletters and various booklets for teacher's use in the classroom. Banners and posters have also been printed to satisfy district requests along with Musical programs.

Now the print shop offers delivery 5 days a week to all our districts!

In late November and early December, teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators and related service personnel across our BT Region came together to be certified as Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) practitioners. Life Space Crisis Intervention is an evidenced based, trauma-informed, internationally recognized training and certification program that helps professionals turn crisis situations into learning opportunities for children and youth with chronic patterns of self-defeating behavior.

Given the social, emotional and mental health needs of our students, LSCI provides staff with the tools to understand and respond to students, either proactively or at the time of crisis, to enforce and strengthen new ways of expressing themselves and gaining confidence in their ability to manage stressful situations. LSCI supports the CASEL 5 - the five core competence areas that articulate what young people need for academic success, school and civic engagement, health and wellness, and fulfilling careers (CASEL, 2022.)

Over the 5-day certification program, led by senior LSCI trainers, Amy Wallick and Sue Jones, participants learned a systematic, 6-stage process to support and move children and youth from stress and conflict to insight and long-term behavioral change. Skills for immediate gain to implement in the classroom included effective listening, understanding the dynamics of conflict and skills to manage counter aggression, how the brain responds to stress & trauma, and identifying reclaiming interventions that create genuine changes in perceptions, thoughts, feelings and behaviors with the young people in our care.

What participants are saying about this professional learning experience:

“I feel like this should be mandatory training for all staff in every district everywhere. Even if it's a two or three day training. Everything we discuss in this training applies to all adults and staff working in public schools, alt ed, special ed, pre-k-12, all of it.”

“LSCI helps to bring language to kids' emotions. I have learned about negative behaviors that come from their thinking and feelings. All behaviors are a form of communication therefore it is a crucial piece of teaching.”

If you’re interested in learning more about LSCI, visit www.lsci.org . If you would like to participate in our next LSCI Certification Program, scheduled for March 11, 12, 20 - 22.

Do you struggle with finding a suitable time for a meeting with multiple attendees? Do you waste time sending emails back and forth to coordinate schedules? If so, you might want to try the scheduling assistant feature in Outlook to plan and book your next meeting.

The scheduling assistant is a tool that works with Microsoft Outlook and allows you to view the availability of a group of recipients and select the optimal meeting time for everyone. This tool tracks the calendar information of all participants and highlights the time slots where everyone is free, making it easier to find a mutually convenient time to schedule a meeting.

How to use the scheduling assistant in Outlook to coordinate and book a meeting

1. Go to outlook.office.com/calendar.
2. Double-click any date in your calendar, and a new event window will appear. (Don’t worry—you’ll be able to modify the event date in the next step.)
3. In the Invite Attendees field, enter the email addresses of all your attendees. (You can also click Optional to invite optional attendees.)
4. By default, the scheduling assistant will automatically suggest three of the earliest available, 30-minute time slots that work for everyone’s schedule. If you are happy with one of the suggested times, click it and Outlook will update your event accordingly. (If none of the suggested times work for you, jump to the next section.)
5. Fill in the rest of your event details, such as event name and location, and then click Send.
   
   

How to manually find meeting availability using the scheduling assistant

If you need more control over the meeting time or duration, you can manually find additional meeting times using the scheduling assistant. Here are two ways you can do that:

● Directly from a new event: In the New event window, click the Scheduling Assistant tab at the top. You will see a grid view of the availability of all your attendees. You can drag the meeting time bar to adjust the start and end time or use the arrows to change the date. You can also use the Show a room list drop-down menu to find and book a conference room. Once you find a suitable time and room, click OK and Outlook will update your event.

● From the calendar view: In the calendar view, click the Find a time button at the top right corner. You will see a pop-up window where you can enter the event name, attendees, and duration. You can also use the Preferences button to change the timing options. Outlook will show you a list of available time slots that match your criteria. Click one of them and Outlook will create a new event with the selected time and attendees.

Tips and tricks for using the scheduling assistant

● If you want to see more details about the availability of a specific attendee, you can hover over their name in the grid view and Outlook will show you their calendar events for that day.

● If you want to see the availability of a group of attendees, you can select their names in the grid view and Outlook will show you the combined free/busy status of the group.

● If you want to see the availability of attendees across different time zones, you can use the Time Zones drop-down menu in the grid view and select the time zone you want to view.

● If you want to see the availability of attendees in a different view, you can use the View drop-down menu in the grid view and select the view you prefer, such as Day, Work week, or Month.

● If you want to learn more about the scheduling assistant feature in Outlook, you can watch some of the video tutorials that are available online123.

We hope this article has helped you understand how to use the scheduling assistant in Outlook to simplify your scheduling workflow. The scheduling assistant is a powerful and convenient tool that can save you time and hassle when planning meetings with multiple attendees. Try it out today and see how it can improve your productivity and collaboration.

*This article was written with the support of AI Copilot