Harwood Staff Blog Update - March 31, 2022

Team -

 

This week the Collective Leadership Team met to analyze an action plan from the scheduling survey data from families, students and staff.  See the survey summary here.

Based on the models and feedback from Collective the CORE team has drafted the following models to consider as options for the 22-23’ school year.

Please find them here and complete this very brief survey regarding particular elements of the models.

In addition, 04/06 - ELO blocks will provide opportunity for feedback & questions re: models *Members of the CORE team will be available throughout the day in Kate’s garden to answer questions and receive feedback.  

Continuing steps for Scheduling:

• Fine tuning of the bell schedule based on feedback of the models

• Considerations of HCLC, CVCC, and middle school needs 

• Teacher assignments through department heads (after break)

• Course requests will drive the process

• Fine tuning of shared staff / middle school configurations

• Consideration of Special Education needs

Thank you all for your feedback and partnership in finalizing our schedule for next year.

Laurie, Duane and Meg

Calendar:

• April 1st - End of Quarter 3

• April 7th, 8th and 9th - Freaky Friday Musical Production

• April 18th - 22nd - NO School - April Vacation 

• May 2nd - 20th - SBAC testing window

• May 23rd - 27th - Spirit week 

• May 12th - Family Conferences

• May 18th - Family Conferences 

• June 11th - Graduation 

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Appreciations:

Staff Member	Appreciations
Rachael Potts	Working with students to host a parent/guardian focus group with the purpose of obtaining feedback from adults in the community on how we can better support students and families in planning for life after high school.
Brian Wagner	Working with students to host a student focus group with the purpose of obtaining feedback from HU students on how we can better support students and families in planning for life after high school.
Skylar Bradley	For creating an authentic and powerful mentoring program that is benefiting both the Middle School Participants as well as the High School mentors!

Safe - seen, heard, respected & understood:

Topics	Information/Links
A friendly reminder - please complete the HUUSD climate survey	Have you completed the HUUSD climate survey yet? If not please take 15 minutes to do so -  here Please complete it before next Wed.
Health Office Updates	Help us spread the word! Prom Pop Up Swap and Shop!    Where:  Harwood Union High School When:  Saturday, April 30th   10am-2pm in the Cafeteria/Prom Pop-up Shop   Drop off your gently worn (no rips, stains, broken zippers) Prom dresses and attire for donation and come 'shopping' in our pop up boutique for a 'new to you' outfit!     Drop off days/times (Harwood Main Office) Monday, April 4: 9a-12p Tuesday, April 5: 9a-12p Wednesday, April 6: 12p-2p Thursday, April 7: 12p-2p
Project Kratos Update    Detention Update	Kratos update ---- Link here:   Kratos)  Presence - All administration and Staff will become more present with holding students accountable as well as physically present during identified transitions during and after the school day.   Perseverance - Reported and encountered behavioral issues will be addressed in a simple and achievable manner.    We continue to meet as a student support team on a weekly basis to review/adjust our programming to ensure we are creating a safe environment for our community.  When we receive a student complaint or concern we task a member of our student support team to conduct an intake to determine our next steps.   We continue to track discipline infractions, following up on concerns when presented. See information below.   Plan implementation review and adjustment - Weekly reviews and adjustment based on feedback (formal and informal) will guide our forward progress. We continue to hold our weekly Friday morning meetings beginning around 8:00  in the library as a place where staff can create, connect and be curious about how things are going in general.  Please read* IMPORTANT:  Discipline issues that occur during supervised time must be logged in powerschool and the teacher must make a call home or email to the student’s parents (s) to indicate that a discipline infraction  occurred and the teacher is requesting a student serve an afterschool detention.  We hope by doing this some of the recent inconsistencies with parents/families not understanding or not knowing their student is to serve a detention will be cleared up.  Detention Update This past week we connected (email and/or phone calls) with families/students regarding behavioral/attendance issues which resulted in afterschool detention for many.  Please note we schedule detentions based on students/grouping and other issues (students who can’t be together, etc)  Going forward we will send out notices to students/families who fail to attend these afterschool detentions informing them if they miss 2 consecutive afterschool detentions they will receive a out of school suspension on the Thursday after their 2nd miss.         Discipline Consequence  Update High School  Suspension issues and served  2 Duane will update this next week.  Thanks for your patience  Current Hazing, Harassment, Bullying investigations in process 0  The student support team is following a well articulated process for conducting and determining whether or not an offense occurred with appropriate remedies offered and followed  Detentions issued and served  5 issued    2  served  Detentions were issued for late/skipping class Middle School  Suspension issues and served  ½ day The middle school did not have any students suspended this week.   Detentions issued and served  15 Students will serve detention on Friday for being late to class  and one for acting out in class and the rest are for refusals or not following overall school expectations.
	Appreciation to all of the TA groups that planned and “perpetrated” an act of kindness over the past two weeks!  I have heard some lovely stories from some of you. Thank you for inspiring our students to be kind to one another.  Theme for April: Looking Forward!!!  Our next TA staff meeting will be on April 12th. The focus of this meeting will be: Final planning for the End of Year Reflection conferences in May Planning for advisory activities for the upcoming weeks Student presentation to improve outreach and communication regarding ELOs and other enrichment options for students IMPORTANT REMINDER! Please be sure to provide time on for students to complete the District Climate Survey during TA if you have not already done so. I emailed the survey to them on Monday this week! Deadline is Wednesday, 4/6 **NEW** Connection Activity! It has been a while since I have added a new connection activity! Here is one designed to deepen our knowledge of the members of our TA “family”. It from Perspectives for a Diverse America: 20 Face to Face Advisory Activities: Secret Identity  Students play in two teams, the TA teacher serves as the announcer. Each team chooses a speaker. Every team member writes an “identity” or “alter ego” on a note card. The identity represents a part of themself that may be quite different from their public face. The identity may be expressed by naming a famous person with whom the student identifies, or it could be a general designation such as “movie star” or “circus performer.”  Team members give the cards to the announcer, who keeps the two team piles separated.  The announcer reads an identity from Team B. Team A decides together which member of Team B might have chosen this identity as her alter ego and tells their speaker who they think it is. The Team A speaker says the guess chosen by the team. If the guess is correct, the person identified moves from Team B to Team A. Then Team A gets another chance, and they continue to guess the identities of people on Team B until they guess incorrectly.  When an incorrect guess is made, the announcer reads an identity from Team A, and Team B gets to guess.  After the activity, discuss the reflection questions below.  ~Were you surprised by any of the alter egos chosen by your classmates?  ~We tend to stereotype others, even our friends, family members, and classmates, thinking we know them thoroughly. Share about a time when someone you thought you knew well surprised you.

Rigorous & Robust Academic Program:

Topics	Information/Links
Staff Meeting	Objectives: NO meet this week - please use the time to wrap up grades and comments  Staff Meeting Calendar
Quarter Ending and Flex Block	Quarter 3 ends tomorrow for both middle and high school (4/1/22, no foolin’)! Here are a few important reminders and dates to keep in mind: All semester classes and year-long classes continue, but Flex block ends (new assignments will be in Adaptive Scheduler very soon - thank you for your patience!). Please fill out and return your pink Flex block score sheet to me by the end of the day Tuesday, April 5. Scores in courses are all ongoing (nothing "closes" at the end of Q3), but we ask all scores to be as up-to-date as possible so that we can take a "snapshot" of how students are doing. In JumpRope, please include a comment for any student who is not currently meeting course expectations (any 9th grader with course score <1.8, any 10-12th grader with course score <2.6). To add comments, go to the "class comments" tab. All updates in JumpRope must be completed by the end of the day Thursday, April 7. DO NOT enter any scores for new assessments (those with a due date after 10/29) in JumpRope until we have notified you (by email) that progress reports have been sent.
Field Trip Opportunity for Students	On May 4, Brian Wagner and VSAC’s Ellen Bagnato will be leading a student field trip to Vermont Technical College for “Try a Major Day.”  10th -12th  grade students are encouraged to participate to get hands-on experience in one of VTC’s majors.  Lunch and a tour of VTC are also included in this field trip.  We are asking all teachers to connect with individual students and encourage them to participate by completing the google form to pre-register.   Here are a list of majors at VTC that students can explore on the field trip:  Veterinary Technician, Respiratory Therapy, Nursing, Renewable Energy, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Technology, Landscape Contracting, Forestry, Electrical and Electromechanical Engineering Technology, Construction Management, Computer Information Systems, Civil and Environmental Engineering Technology, Business Technology Management and Entrepreneurship, Automotive and Diesel Power Technology, Architectural Engineering Technology

Positive school climate and culture:

Topics	Information/Links
FY 23’ Hiring Update	This week: Offer out to a Driver’s Education Teacher  Offer out to a Social Worker Director of School Counseling interview (x2) Restorative Coordinator interview  Next week: Student Support Specialist Interview
Sign up for Chair Massages!!!	Hannah's House is spearheading a collaborative teacher/staff appreciation project with the MRV Community Fund, MRV Interfaith Council and the MRV Bottles & Cans Fund. Each school in the HUUSD will have a massage therapist on site to provide free mini-massages. Harwood's dates are April 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 and 14. 10 minute sessions. First come, first served. See April with questions. Click the link to sign up: Chair Massages