VS 30 - HR and Capital Connections

Vol.1 Issue 6

The new year started at Forest Road with an unexpected turn, on Wednesday, January 25, 2023, there was a contained fire in a custodial room designated for the solar transformer. Although these types of situations can be alarming or scary, we are happy that no staff were injured, the fire was contained and it did not affect the operations of the school for an extended period of time.

We wanted to inform you that we are currently in the restoration phase of our response to this situation which has involved working with BELFOR Property Restoration to rehabilitate the areas affected by the fire, as well as working with our insurance provider.

We want to thank everyone for making the comeback to school a smooth process. In Dr. France’s words: “A special shout out to our Forest Road leaders, teachers, teacher aides, special services, support staff, custodians, families, and students.”

As always if you have any questions, please contact your building administration or the office of Human Resources.

● Install smoke alarms on every level of your home

● Test smoke alarms every month. If they're not working, change the batteries

● Talk with all family members about a fire escape plan and practice the plan twice a year

● Unplug electrical items not often in use

● Avoid electric heaters if you can. If you need them, use them only when necessary

● Make sure when leaving the house that all electric heaters are off and unplugged

● Inspect electrical cables to make sure no wires are exposed

● Use surge protectors

Please join us in congratulating the following employees on the birth of their bundles of joy:

It is bittersweet that we announce the one retirement and one resignation of two long-standing career educators, who have made innumerable contributions to the District.

Taya Bartell has been with us since December 1998 as an Elementary teacher. On Taya’s own words:

“I first walked in the doors at Forest Road in 1999. I was 22 years old and eager to be the teacher of my own classroom. I was beyond thrilled and lucky to be offered a position as a 1st grade teacher. Soon after, I moved to 2nd grade and spent many wonderful years teaching little hearts. From there I moved up to 3rd grade and learned more about honing my craft and becoming a seasoned teacher. There I began teaching under the principalship of Erin Malone and truly loved the career I had chosen for myself. After the birth of my second son, I ‘graduated’ to 5th grade and have spent the last 8 years loving the experience of teaching an upper grade.

My years at Forest Road and in Valley Stream #30 have been an absolute blessing. I appreciate every moment I have had the privilege of being a teacher here. As I embark on the next phase of my life, please know that the Valley Stream family is forever embedded in my heart. I thank you, my administrators, my colleagues, and students and their families for a truly wonderful experience and career.”

On Kyung Joo has been with us since September 2015. On K. has been a wonderful educator working as a Media Library.

During her time with Valley Stream Ms. Joo was the recipient of the Nassau Association of School Technologist Award, in honor for her innovation, integration of technology and example technology leadership. Ms. Joo came to VS 30 with a wealth of knowledge and a long career as an educator that included positions in a variety of school districts in Long Island. We wish her a happy retirement and success in her future endeavors!

It is AFLAC open enrollment month. Open enrollment is only from 2/1/2023 to 2/15/2023 with a start date of March 1, 2023.

The three plans our district currently participate in are the

• Accident Plan,

• Cancer Plan, and a

• Short-Term Disability Plan.

As an employee of Valley Stream UFSD Thirty, you have the opportunity to have payroll deductions, some of which are pre-tax, in order to cover the cost of your selected plan.

If you wish to continue with your current plan/plans, no action is necessary. If there has been a life event, i.e., adding or removing a spouse from a plan or adding children to your plan, these changes can be made at this time, if not already done.

Below is a Landing Page link for employees to gain access to product information and/or schedule time to get quotes, make changes, ask questions or enroll:

https://www.aflacenrollment.com/District30ValleyStream/NZ0274402379

Please help the District during the budget process by circulating the Community Budget Survey to all our parents and community members. The Survey can be found at the following links:

• 2023-24 Community Budget Survey (English)

• 2023-24 Community Budget Survey (Spanish)

• 2023-24 Community Budget Survey (Urdu)

If you know of any family planning on sending their child(ren) to a private or parochial school for the 2023-24 school year, please remind them that the applications are due to the Transportation Department at the Valley Stream Union Free School District #30 Business Office/Transportation Office at 175 North Central Avenue, Valley Stream, NY 11580 by April 1. This deadline is the same across all New York State.

Applications for the Valley Stream 30 transportation office will be available through the website. https://valleystream30.com/capital/transportation

Field Trips:

Field Trip request forms are located at the main office of all three schools. They need to be filled out by the requestor and signed by the building principal, then forwarded to the Business Office as soon as possible to start the Transportation process.

Cash Deposits:

All cash or checks that are accepted by any school must be sent to the Business Office. Suzanne Brady will give a receipt of all monies received, and it will be logged into the Business office spreadsheet. Cash, money orders, and checks are all acceptable forms of payment.

Use of Facilities:

You may now fill out the application and permit forms online and then save them to your computer. They are found on the Valley Stream 30 website under “Capital” and “Buildings & Grounds Department.” You can then email them along with rosters, and insurance forms to the respective schools to the contact person (If requesting more than 1 school, then you must fill out your forms for each school.)

The schools will then sign-off on the applications & camp; permits as approval on the Principals part and forward them to Central Office. The forms will be processed and sent to the Board of Education for final approval at the next possible meeting. Please make sure your application is in on time so that approval will happen before you begin to use the facilities, otherwise you will be delayed until the following meeting. Facilities usage that has been approved will be logged into the District calendar for all three schools to view.

For confirmation on permit approval please contact Mrs. Suzanne Brady at sbrady@vs30.org and/or (516) 434-3613.

You should have all received your W2 by the end of January. Please be sure to carefully review it. If you did not receive your W2, or have any questions regarding your W2, please contact Ms. Teresa Fergus at ext. 5226 or by email at tfergus@vs30.org, and be sure to cc Brian Phillips at bphillips@vs30.org.

Teachers who have acquired 15 credits by February 1 are eligible to apply for a salary/lane movement.

The deadline to submit all required paperwork to move on the salary schedule is Friday, February 24. Please click here to read the procedure letter with the steps to follow to be eligible for credit/salary advancement.

It is important to note that in order to move in the salary schedule, 6 credits must be earned at a recognized college; the other 9 can be in-service credits (prior approval is required). Completion of the required credits has to be on or prior to February 1, 2023.

All your classes/courses must be marked “Complete” in MLP/Frontline/Professional Growth. Only classes that are listed in MLP will be considered for a salary advancement. Additionally, the OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPTS for College credits must be sent directly from your College/ University to the HR office to be eligible to move to the next lane.

Important to remember:

• You can only move 15 credits once per school year.

• All college credits must be verified by official transcripts sent directly to HR from the college/university

• Must be received at HR no later than 02/24/2023

For more information click here.

Educators may complete CTLE clock hours in the following categories:

• Pedagogy, and/or

• the content area of the certificate title, and

• language acquisition addressing the needs of English language learners (ELLs) (unless the school has a waiver).

Acceptable CTLE:

• includes activities designed to improve the teacher or leader’s pedagogical

• and/or leadership skills,

• promotes the professionalization of teaching and educational leadership, as

• applicable, and

• are closely aligned to district goals for student performance.

The following courses WILL NO longer be accepted for CTLE:

Activities that are not rigorous training in pedagogy, content, or language acquisition for English language learners. For example:

• Faculty Meetings

• Superintendent’s Days

• Certification workshops (DASA, Child Abuse Identification, Autism Awareness, and School Violence Intervention and Prevention)

• Other activities considered part of the typical duties for educators.

• We have also learned that our provider GCN’s tutorials do not qualify for NY CTLE, so the following activities will not be included:

• Sexual harassment training (unless it pertains to students rather than colleagues)

• Bloodborne pathogen training

• Hazard Communications

Human Resources will be reaching out to a few teachers who may need assistance with registrations. Should you need any assistance or have any questions, please contact Human Resources at extension 5011.

EAP has a training Center that provides many courses available to all our employees.

After the recent fire at Forest Road we reviewed the many courses available to all our staff members. It is important to note that EAP has a module dedicated to Educators called the Educator’s Resource Centers.

Additionally the Training Center has a 16 minute training course named “Fire Prevention in the Office” although geared toward office spaces some of the information continues to be very relevant to our schools. I invite you to check the training.

• February 13th | Virtual - Parent Meeting on “Chat GPT” at 6:00 pm
  Zoom Link: https://vs30-org.zoom.us/j/92525577078
• February 13th |
  7:00 PM - Budget Forum - Shaw Avenue Auditorium, followed by
  PTA Founders Day Presentation, followed by
  8:00 PM - Board of Education Business Meeting in the Auditorium of Shaw Avenue School
• February 14th | Valentine’s Day
• February 13 - 17th | Random Acts of Kindness Week
• February 20th | Presidents' Day
• February 20 - 24th |Winter Recess - Schools Closed

Below is a chart of ideas for Random Act of Kindness to do at home or with our students!