Welcome Back 2018-2019
Inspire. Innovate. Achieve.
We inspire personal greatness, we provide opportunities for students to participate in innovative practices, and we focus on high levels of achievement for ALL learners. What a dynamic place to work and learn together!
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We are Brown School!
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Welcome back and Happy New School Year! Boy, have I missed all of you! This is the just the best time of year - reconnecting around our shared vision and gearing up to reach great heights with our new batch of learners. How exciting!
This blog post is packed full of the information you will need as you begin to plan your school year.
We have several changes to our Brown School team this year. Please join me in congratulating and welcoming:
Miss Carolyn Kodis- Young Fives (2 sections at Brown this year - hooray!)
Miss Alyssa Barkovioch - Kindergarten
Mrs. Erica Brown - First Grade
Mrs. Becky Lokey - moved to Fifth Grade
Mrs. Ann LeClear - moved to ECDD
Mrs. Faith Balanowski - LRE Aide
Ms. Mindi Mach - LRE Aide
Ms. Sara Codde - School Secretary
Mrs. Nikki Joanis - lunchroom monitor
Mrs. Brianne Van Hekken - School Social Worker
Please give our amazing summer custodial crew some love! Sue, Rick and Kevin deserve a HUGE thank you for their hard work and dedication to making our school a beautiful place to work and learn together. We heard from many staff members that their collective work to clean and prepare your classrooms for the upcoming year was second to none! We are so lucky to have them!
18-19 School Social Work
Welcome to the district's SSW team, Bri Van Hekken! Colette and Bri will share the elementary responsibilities this year with Bri at Brown School, Colette at E.P. Clarke, and both sharing Lincoln School. Welcome to the team, we can't wait to introduce you to our students!
Please be sure to take the time to familiarize yourself with the Elementary Student Handbook 2018-19.
Our Consent Agenda
In effort to protect our times together for conversations about what matters most (our students!), we will use this blog each week to communicate most of the "nuts and bolts" of our work at Brown. Please consider it our consent agenda - meaning that we've all taken the time to read the blog as a part of our work together as a staff. Our office staff commits to having the blog published on Friday of each week so that you have the information you need to plan for the coming week.
Please be sure to check the weekly parent blog, Brown School News, so that you are in the loop. We publish a new post every weekend. To protect everyone's time, specific news shared in that blog is not repeated here.
Specials Schedule
This year’s schedule is very similar to last year's intentionally. Our elementary district committee worked very hard last year to create a balanced system that allowed for common planning time while minimizing the impact of planning loss at late starts and spreading out sessions over the six days for itinerants. It took a lot of effort on everyone’s part, but we landed on a schedule that worked well. Schedules are linked here and are posted in our Brown School Staff shared google folder.
ItsLearning Update from Amy Dirlam
Back to School Ice Cream Social
Our students and families are excited to meet you at Wednesday's Ice Cream Social! The event runs from 6-7 p.m. on the school playground. New families (including Y5/K families) will be welcome to participate in a self-guided tour from 5:30-6:00. PTO will be on hand to support families at this time.
18-19 School Social Work
Welcome to the district's SSW team, Bri Van Hekken! Colette and Bri will share the elementary responsibilities this year with Bri at Brown School, Colette at E.P. Clarke, and both sharing Lincoln School. Welcome to the team, we can't wait to introduce you to our students!
Please be sure to take the time to familiarize yourself with the Elementary Student Handbook 2018-19.
Our Consent Agenda
In effort to protect our times together for conversations about what matters most (our students!), we will use this blog each week to communicate most of the "nuts and bolts" of our work at Brown. Please consider it our consent agenda - meaning that we've all taken the time to read the blog as a part of our work together as a staff. Our office staff commits to having the blog published on Friday of each week so that you have the information you need to plan for the coming week.
Please be sure to check the weekly parent blog, Brown School News, so that you are in the loop. We publish a new post every weekend. To protect everyone's time, specific news shared in that blog is not repeated here.
Specials Schedule
This year’s schedule is very similar to last year's intentionally. Our elementary district committee worked very hard last year to create a balanced system that allowed for common planning time while minimizing the impact of planning loss at late starts and spreading out sessions over the six days for itinerants. It took a lot of effort on everyone’s part, but we landed on a schedule that worked well. Schedules are linked here and are posted in our Brown School Staff shared google folder.
ItsLearning Update from Amy Dirlam
The new school year is beginning to populate in itsLearning, which means your 2017-18 classes have been archived. If you want to start working on this year's class information, you will need to follow the directions in the linked document below.
More information about itsLearning use this year will be coming at next week's staff meetings, but the basic class set-up information is below. Please note: if you changed grade levels, you may want to coordinate with a teacher at that level to share resources and class set up guidelines. New teachers will receive further directions next week also.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Back to School Ice Cream Social
Our students and families are excited to meet you at Wednesday's Ice Cream Social! The event runs from 6-7 p.m. on the school playground. New families (including Y5/K families) will be welcome to participate in a self-guided tour from 5:30-6:00. PTO will be on hand to support families at this time.
You’ll need a clipboard and class list - Sara will have copies in your box for you. Please keep track of attendance and collect brown emergency forms, yellow ridership cards, and first week transportation half-sheets (please keep these). Please alphabetize the brown emergency forms and turn them into Sara after the event. There will be a spot for ridership cards to be handed in as well.
Please do not accept any medication, medication forms or allergy / asthma action forms. Direct parents to the office to see Sara. Although law does allow students to keep rescue medications (ie: inhalers and epi-pens) in their backpack, we prefer that these are on file in the office so we know where they are when we need them. We will work with parents on an individual basis if needed.
Please do not accept any medication, medication forms or allergy / asthma action forms. Direct parents to the office to see Sara. Although law does allow students to keep rescue medications (ie: inhalers and epi-pens) in their backpack, we prefer that these are on file in the office so we know where they are when we need them. We will work with parents on an individual basis if needed.
News from IT
School Website
Please take a moment to update your website "directory" listing to make sure it is still accurate.
To change your information:
1. Visit https://sjschools.org/administrator/
2. Login using the same username and password as your school computer login (typically first initial/lastname and password).
3. Upper right corner of the page is a silhouette, click on that and then edit account.
4. You can edit the following 3 tabs:
a. Contact Information (name, phone, email)
b. About Me (title, location, teaching grade, education focus, biography)
c. Learning Management System (link to your itsLearning page)
Email Reminders
No staff member should be using the district@sjschools.org (district@stjoebears.com) email to send out any information that is not school related unless specifically given permission from Administration per Board policy 7540.05.
In addition, permission must be granted to send an email to building-wide distribution groups.
Remember not to "REPLY TO ALL" in effort to keep people's inboxes clear.
It is encouraged to use the BCC line to address a large number recipients, e.g. a group of parents, an entire class of students, or any large number out of in or out of district emails, instead of the TO field. This not only masks the email address of all the recipients from each other, but keeps the REPLY TO ALL response from actually going to ALL with the "me too" responses that often occur.
Personal email accounts should be created for personal business/use.
***USE YOUR SJSCHOOLS.ORG email address and SJPS Phone extension for HELPDESK request. Be as detailed as possible, PLEASE. Students and NON-SJPS employees should NOT be directed to use the HelpDesk System***
All email communications with students MUST BE done with the students stjoebears.com account. This is per board policy, no exceptions. http://www.neola.com/stjosephpub-mi/ 7545 sec. D - also note 3213 and 4213
All sharing of documents and folders MUST BE done with the stjoebears.com email/drive account or through the district LMS.
Know who you are opening attachments from and for what. If you don’t expect an attachment, verify before opening. This also applies to clicking on unknown links in emails. (best practices)
Do not send out or forward a mass email without prior approval.
Help Desk
The IT Help Desk system is the best way to ensure IT has documentation of your issue. Please use http://helpdesk.sjschools.org or an email to helpdesk@sjschools.org to submit an issue. The help desk accepts both technology and maintenance requests. Please be as detailed as possible and include location, contact info (email/phone).
Class Lists
Tentative class lists are being maintained online for you to access from home until school starts. Four copies of your current class list will be in your mailbox on workday. However, please be mindful that the lists change almost hourly this time of year! Powerschool is being updated daily, and we are working to add them as soon as they register. Class lists should be considered tentative until Thursday, August 30th. And. . . you may want to wait until the first week of school to assign class numbers, etc. since we often have switches and adds the first week!
Our generous PTO has allocated $300 per classroom teacher ($200 for part-time teachers) for student-related supplies and materials yet again this year. Please complete a reimbursement form with receipt(s) attached and place them in the PTO mailbox.
Attendance Codes
Just a reminder. . . attendance needs to be taken twice a day. At 8:30 a.m. and then again within 10 minutes of returning from lunch. If you are prone to forgetfulness or distractions, please set an alarm or enlist a student to remind you!! Attendance codes are as follows:
AC = Absent, Contacted: meaning you were told the child would not be in school. The reason the parent gave for the absence must also be reported. You add that as a comment/note.
A= Absent: the child isn't in class and you haven't had any contact from parents regarding his/her absence
T = Tardy: The student entered class between 8:30-9:00 or within the first 30 minutes after lunch.
Lunchroom
We will have two lunch periods this year, staggered by five minutes to allow for smoother transitions. The lunch table assignments and entry door chart can be found here. To begin the year, ALL students will have assigned seating in lunchroom. The classroom assignment form can be found here and is also in our shared google folder. Please complete the seating charts and hand them into the office prior to the first day of school so that they can be posted. Be sure to make a copy for yourself so that you can practice with your class prior to lunchtime on the first day. The tables will be down all morning. Please plan to walk your class down, practicing procedures and reviewing table assignments. Let's set our students and monitors up for success on Day One!
Emergency Procedures
Be sure you are familiar with SJPS emergency procedures. A bound copy of the procedures should be available in classroom/workspace at all times. If you are in need of a copy, please tell Kristen ASAP. Be sure to review the fire drill procedures, in particular, at the beginning of the year. For those new to our school, please review the entire packet and talk with your mentors about the procedures.
Please post a class list (once finalized) on the wall outside your classroom and place one on a ready-access clipboard inside your classroom door you can grab in case of an emergency or shrink one small enough to tape on the back of your staff ID card so that it is with you at all times.
Leave Requests
All time off requests must be made and approved in Skyward. Teachers will request subs by accessing AESOP through Skyward. Remember to line up your subs as soon as you can for known absences. Sara will schedule your subs for curriculum release or IEP/CST days this year. Please also add your discretionary days to our staff google calendar online this year. Only one discretionary day is allowed per elementary building on a given day - so check the calendar before requesting! All discretionary leave requests must be approved before a sub is requested.
Recess Supervision Schedule
***USE YOUR SJSCHOOLS.ORG email address and SJPS Phone extension for HELPDESK request. Be as detailed as possible, PLEASE. Students and NON-SJPS employees should NOT be directed to use the HelpDesk System***
All email communications with students MUST BE done with the students stjoebears.com account. This is per board policy, no exceptions. http://www.neola.com/stjosephpub-mi/ 7545 sec. D - also note 3213 and 4213
All sharing of documents and folders MUST BE done with the stjoebears.com email/drive account or through the district LMS.
Know who you are opening attachments from and for what. If you don’t expect an attachment, verify before opening. This also applies to clicking on unknown links in emails. (best practices)
Do not send out or forward a mass email without prior approval.
Help Desk
The IT Help Desk system is the best way to ensure IT has documentation of your issue. Please use http://helpdesk.sjschools.org or an email to helpdesk@sjschools.org to submit an issue. The help desk accepts both technology and maintenance requests. Please be as detailed as possible and include location, contact info (email/phone).
Tentative class lists are being maintained online for you to access from home until school starts. Four copies of your current class list will be in your mailbox on workday. However, please be mindful that the lists change almost hourly this time of year! Powerschool is being updated daily, and we are working to add them as soon as they register. Class lists should be considered tentative until Thursday, August 30th. And. . . you may want to wait until the first week of school to assign class numbers, etc. since we often have switches and adds the first week!
Our generous PTO has allocated $300 per classroom teacher ($200 for part-time teachers) for student-related supplies and materials yet again this year. Please complete a reimbursement form with receipt(s) attached and place them in the PTO mailbox.
Just a reminder. . . attendance needs to be taken twice a day. At 8:30 a.m. and then again within 10 minutes of returning from lunch. If you are prone to forgetfulness or distractions, please set an alarm or enlist a student to remind you!! Attendance codes are as follows:
AC = Absent, Contacted: meaning you were told the child would not be in school. The reason the parent gave for the absence must also be reported. You add that as a comment/note.
A= Absent: the child isn't in class and you haven't had any contact from parents regarding his/her absence
T = Tardy: The student entered class between 8:30-9:00 or within the first 30 minutes after lunch.
Lunchroom
We will have two lunch periods this year, staggered by five minutes to allow for smoother transitions. The lunch table assignments and entry door chart can be found here. To begin the year, ALL students will have assigned seating in lunchroom. The classroom assignment form can be found here and is also in our shared google folder. Please complete the seating charts and hand them into the office prior to the first day of school so that they can be posted. Be sure to make a copy for yourself so that you can practice with your class prior to lunchtime on the first day. The tables will be down all morning. Please plan to walk your class down, practicing procedures and reviewing table assignments. Let's set our students and monitors up for success on Day One!
Emergency Procedures
Be sure you are familiar with SJPS emergency procedures. A bound copy of the procedures should be available in classroom/workspace at all times. If you are in need of a copy, please tell Kristen ASAP. Be sure to review the fire drill procedures, in particular, at the beginning of the year. For those new to our school, please review the entire packet and talk with your mentors about the procedures.
Please post a class list (once finalized) on the wall outside your classroom and place one on a ready-access clipboard inside your classroom door you can grab in case of an emergency or shrink one small enough to tape on the back of your staff ID card so that it is with you at all times.
Leave Requests
All time off requests must be made and approved in Skyward. Teachers will request subs by accessing AESOP through Skyward. Remember to line up your subs as soon as you can for known absences. Sara will schedule your subs for curriculum release or IEP/CST days this year. Please also add your discretionary days to our staff google calendar online this year. Only one discretionary day is allowed per elementary building on a given day - so check the calendar before requesting! All discretionary leave requests must be approved before a sub is requested.
Recess Supervision Schedule
You have the opportunity to sign-up for recesses that work best with your schedule this year - keeping specials and protected teaching times in mind. In addition to signing your class up for recess times, please select 4 recesses to attend with your students. We aim for three supervisors at each recess. Please protect before/after school times for itinerants and other specialists who see students during recess times. Placements should be considered tentative until finalized in the office. Our amazing Title interventionists and SSW will cover recesses the first week of school to ensure you have a chance to catch your breath while organizing the first few days. Click here to access the 18-19 Supervision Schedule.
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| PTO Board 2018-19 Matthew & April Soyk - Co- Treasurers Shannon Larsen- Vice President Marylin Bishop - President Kate Baum - Secretary |
We are fortunate in that our PTO works hard to support our work students. Please show your appreciation and partnership by signing up to attend at least one PTO meeting this school year. Click here to sign up today!
Our 2018-19 Brown School Meeting Schedule is now available. Mark your calendars for our time to learn and grow together. Staff meetings with nuts and bolts type of information will occupy 30-minutes of our time together, with the other 30 devoted to professional growth surrounding our two main school improvement topics of focus: active engagement and collective response to intervention/enrichment (PLC questions 3 & 4). In addition, meeting time was prioritized to the beginning and the middle of the school year in effort to avoid the end-of-the-year busy-ness.
Kudos and Thank You to . . .
Becky for supporting our Learning Lasts! Summer Experience trip to the South Bend Cubs game. She, Burke and the boys enjoyed some baseball, hot dogs, and splash pad play with some of our most at-promise students. It was a great day!
Kent, Mary (we miss you!), Morgan, and Stephanie for teaching summer school again this year! Our students are so lucky to have you!
Linda and Beth for their help with Kindergarten screening this summer. All of the planning they did for their sessions and feedback they offered ensured a smooth transition to our new screening method.
Beth and Carolyn for attending GrapeSEED training and make-and-take workshop this summer.
Linda, Kim and Caroline for assisting with interviews this past spring and summer. You helped us to select some pretty amazing teachers!
Aug. 27 New Teacher Induction Day 1 @ Upton Media Center, 8-4:30
Kagan Refresher/New Teacher Session 12-3 @ Upton
Aug. 28 District Welcome Back & Professional Learning Day - SJHS Student Center
7:30a.m. - SJPS Staff Welcome Back Breakfast
Followed immediately by Professional Development / Keynote
All staff is required to attend this event!
Followed immediately by Professional Development / Keynote
All staff is required to attend this event!
Aug. 29 Building Orientation & School Improvement Workshop Day
9:15-12:30 Building School Improvement Workshop
12:30-12:45 Break & Lunch Pickup
12:45-2:15 Staff Meeting (All staff)
2:15-5:15 Teacher Work Day / Classroom Time
5:30-6:00 Kindergarten/New Student Orientation
6:00-7:00 p.m. Ice Cream Social
Aug. 30 New Teacher Induction Day 2 @ Upton Media Center, 8-3:30
*Last day for garbage pickup and cleaning in classrooms before the first day!
12:30-12:45 Break & Lunch Pickup
12:45-2:15 Staff Meeting (All staff)
2:15-5:15 Teacher Work Day / Classroom Time
5:30-6:00 Kindergarten/New Student Orientation
6:00-7:00 p.m. Ice Cream Social
Aug. 30 New Teacher Induction Day 2 @ Upton Media Center, 8-3:30
*Last day for garbage pickup and cleaning in classrooms before the first day!
Aug. 31 Labor Day Weekend (non-contract day)
September 4th First Day of School!
Remember to...
Remember to...
- Let Kevin and Rick prior to Thursday, 8/30, if you need additional student desks or chairs in your room.
- Update your voicemail greeting if you've changed rooms or your name. If your display name needs to be changed, please submit a help desk ticket ASAP.
- Sign up to sponsor a month on our staff social calendar. Please pay your dues to Sara Codde - $20 for full-time, $10 for part-time employees.
Week One Goals
✔Get to know your new batch of smart cookies!
✔Listen, observe, document, reflect.
✔Read with each student one minute as you work to build stamina.
✔Model, model, model expected procedures and routines, being mindful of engagement - while it is all important, it's a lot to learn and can feel overwhelming. We want our students to leave each day excited about school.
✔Build community with and among your students. Classbuilding and teambuilding are priorities our first few weeks!
Don't forget that we have resources in our shared staff work area in the office, including the silly sports book. Remember. . . any back to school/getting to know you activity can easily be turned in to a Kagan structure. Think interdependence and individual accountability.
School Improvement Update
Great news! All of our collaborative work throughout the course of last year surrounding our mission, vision, and collective commitments led to the development of our five year
school improvement plan. Here are the highlights:
4 main strategies of focus that overlap in the areas of ELA, Math, and Science:
Instructional Design: PD to support our work, PLC, STEAM/Project-Based Learning (PBL) focus, 1:1 technology access, integrated thematic units, and continued work with academic vocabulary
Curriculum Alignment: unpacking and aligning standards (vertically as well), understanding and applying the NextGen Science Standards, creating learning scales/progressions, high quality assessment development, PD to support our work
Systems of Support: tiered support including intervention practices, SMART time schedules and processes, tier one building-wide expectations for behavior, continued use and focus on EBOS for student behavior tracking, social-emotional learning (SEL) at tier one, small group learning in math and ELA, building-wide team communication protocols, restorative justice practices (likely to lead to rubric revisions), and PD to support our work together
Learning Centered Culture: cultural awareness and responsiveness, growth mindset/grit, poverty and trauma informed instruction, family engagement, and PD to support our work
Business Office News
4 main strategies of focus that overlap in the areas of ELA, Math, and Science:
Instructional Design: PD to support our work, PLC, STEAM/Project-Based Learning (PBL) focus, 1:1 technology access, integrated thematic units, and continued work with academic vocabulary
Curriculum Alignment: unpacking and aligning standards (vertically as well), understanding and applying the NextGen Science Standards, creating learning scales/progressions, high quality assessment development, PD to support our work
Systems of Support: tiered support including intervention practices, SMART time schedules and processes, tier one building-wide expectations for behavior, continued use and focus on EBOS for student behavior tracking, social-emotional learning (SEL) at tier one, small group learning in math and ELA, building-wide team communication protocols, restorative justice practices (likely to lead to rubric revisions), and PD to support our work together
Learning Centered Culture: cultural awareness and responsiveness, growth mindset/grit, poverty and trauma informed instruction, family engagement, and PD to support our work
Business Office News
Please complete the required Safe School Trainings by September 30th.
Instructions for SafeSchools
Please log in to SafeSchools using the instructions below. Please do NOT print the certificates. We will run reports and keep on file. If you have any questions or problems, please contact the business office.
SafeSchools website = http://stjoseph.mi.safeschoo
Username = firstname.lastname
Password = not required
| All Employees | ||
| Course Name | Time | |
| Bullying - Recognition/Response- Refresher | 25 | |
| Seclusion and Restraint - (New) | 24 | |
| Sexual Harassment - (Staff to Student for Teachers & Staff to Staff for others) | 35/27 | |
| Blood Borne Pathogens | 23 | |
| Additional for Teachers | ||
| Child Abuse Mandatory Reporting | ||
| Additional New Hires | ||
| Homeless Student Awareness and Understanding | 23 | |
| FERPA | 14 |
And a few things related to the district insurance policy to be advised about when planning your classroom space . . .
NO decorations or management cues (colors, shapes, etc) can be hung from light fixtures in your room
NO tubs, bins, or classroom materials can be stored or displayed on top of the univent cabinet in your classroom. For most rooms, this is the space below the window. Please plan accordingly.
All soft furnishings and fabrics must have meet the California standards for safety (ie: have a label on them).
NO decorations or management cues (colors, shapes, etc) can be hung from light fixtures in your room
NO tubs, bins, or classroom materials can be stored or displayed on top of the univent cabinet in your classroom. For most rooms, this is the space below the window. Please plan accordingly.
All soft furnishings and fabrics must have meet the California standards for safety (ie: have a label on them).
Phew! You made it through the longest blog post of the year! Thank you for reading along! I can't wait to see you all on Tuesday! 😊
