BSD Staff Updates

News, Information and Updates for Bremerton School District staff.

View archives here.

Wednesday - November 17, 2021 @ 6:00PM (live Spanish translation available)

Schools, families, and community members are invited to join this webinar to learn how a modified/balanced calendar can support equity and student achievement!

Washington’s Regional Educational Service Districts, OSPI, and other state partners are hosting webinars throughout this year for schools and communities to come together on this topic. On November 17th, David Hornak, the Executive Director for the National Year Round School Association, and a parent panel will share insights for communities, families, and schools to consider.

Please click here for details.

Coming soon: A summary of responses to our Balanced Calendar ThoughtExchange!

Teachers: Please encourage your families to complete the survey in your communication with them this week. Download graphics here.

The Panorama Survey is administered to parents, students, and staff two times per year in the Bremerton School District.

Fall Survey Dates:

• Teachers/Students: November 1-19
• Parents/Community: November 8-21 (to avoid overlapping with the Balanced Calendar Thought Exchange)

We are pleased to offer free online tutoring through TutorMe for all Bremerton School District students in grades 3-12. Students can access TutorMe through Clever.

More information is available on the District's Family Technology Support website.

Learn more at www.BremertonSchools.org/Gaggle. Resources for staff wanting to refer students can be found in this shared folder.

Teachers: Please consider adding a Gaggle Teletherapy graphic to your Google Classroom and Google Site. Please link to www.BremertonSchools.org/Gaggle or https://www.bremertonschools.org/Page/8609.

Our PCHS clinic at Mountain View Middle School is now open Monday through Friday and provides services (including COVID testing!) for all Bremerton School District students and staff.

The clinic serves Bremerton School District students (preschool - 12th grade) and staff. Learn more at www.BremertonSchools.org/Clinic.

Policy News

Assistant Superintendent Iva Scott presented revised Policy 2255, Alternative Learning Experience Programs, to the Board for first reading. This will come back to the Board in December for adoption on second reading but in case you’d like to get a glimpse of this rough draft/mark-up copy to see what the changes are, it is attached below. Upon adoption, we will attach a clean copy and these can always be found on the Board’s website as well.

Assistant Superintendent Garth Steedman presented two different options for the Board to place a measure on the February 8, 2022 ballot for a 2-year replacement Capital Levy. The Board chose to run a 2-year levy for a total of $17 million which is projected to result in an actual decrease in taxes to the property owner when comparing 2021 to 2023. These funds would continue our work modernizing school facilities and increasing opportunities for students and community by creating a School & Community Sports and Fitness Complex at Mountain View Middle School.

Additional items approved by the Board included the Federal Carl Perkins Grant for West Sound Tech, Interlocal Agreements with North Kitsap and Central Kitsap school districts in regard to providing equitable services to Our Lady Star of the Sea, and an amendment to the current annual Working Agreement with the Washington Youth Academy, extending the end date and increasing the dollar amount to pay for contracted services for the additional two months. The new 2021-22 contract is delayed as the district continues negotiations with the Bremerton Education Association (BEA).

Although the study session to discuss the Comprehensive School Improvement Plans with building administrators was postponed due to the weather (tornado warnings), the CSIPs still needed to be (and were) approved by the Board in order to be submitted to OSPI by the December 1st deadline. The conversation with the Board has been rescheduled for December 9th at 4:00 pm.

A revision was made to the Substitute/On-Call Pay Rates for the current year to update substitute rates for classified positions.

To view any of these documents, you may also visit https://go.boarddocs.com/wa/wabrsd/Board.nsf/Public#.

American Education Week (AEW), first celebrated in 1921 (read history below), is an opportunity to celebrate public education, to inform the community of the accomplishments and needs of public schools, to secure cooperation and support from the public, and to honor individuals who are making a difference in ensuring that every child receives a quality education.

Krystle McFarlane and Michele Siler are our transportations dispatchers who, according to fellow transportation staff, at times "grow 8 arms" to deal with two phones, two radios and have 10 conversations at one time!

Their work has been described as "conducting a symphony of sorts (albeit sometimes out of tune)." They are amazing at what they do to make sure our students get to and from school.

These gals KNOW the students too! If you mention a student they can tell you where their bus stop is and what school they go to!

The fact that they care so much about the students themselves and not just getting them to school amidst all the chaos inspires pride in our district and the Transportation department. This year has been especially challenging in transportation and they both work so hard to accommodate many different schedules, schedule changes and shortages. These ladies are rock stars.

We appreciate you Krystle and Michele!

Congratulations to our Instructional Coach/DoDEA Grant Coordinator, Lisa Concepcion-Elm! She was selected as the Ozobot Educator of the Month.

Lisa is a strong advocate in increasing awareness and knowledge of STEM career pathways that will open doors and opportunities for our students. During the camps, programming and coding Ozobot lessons were the highlight of the camps. Students used their creativity to design codes to complete challenges: Olympics floor routine, race for the gold, a curling challenge and many more. What a great opportunity for our students!

Great job, Lisa and thank you to DoDEA grant for funding these opportunities for our students! Learn more about her award.

Got a shout-out for someone in your school or in the community doing great things to support our students? Please email Karen.Bevers@BremertonSchools.org!

Open enrollment is your opportunity to make changes to your health plan benefits.

All changes will be effective January 1, 2022.

• Learn about the changes you can make on our open enrollment webpage and in the October Intercom
• How do I make changes? Log in to SEBB My Account.

If your spouse is on your medical insurance you may need to reattest on the status of their insurance from other sources.

Also, if you are a dependent, or have a dependent, on PEBB insurance, the new rules regarding Dual enrollment may pertain to you – you should have received something from SEBB if this is the case.

Lastly, don’t forget to make your selection on the Long Term Disability (LTD) plan – if you do not select a different level of coverage, you will be defaulted into the 60% benefit plan. Please note, this does not have to be done during open enrollment. You can adjust your LTD coverage at any time via paper forms.

If you have questions about your benefits or account, please contact Stephenie L. Nagle

Benefits Specialist / Receptionist at 360.473.1021 or stephenie.nagle@bremertonschools.org

Look for this graphic and link on the homepage, or click on the "FOR STAFF" tab on any District or school web page which takes you to the staff quick links & resources page.

The Office of Native Education is offering introductory webinars through Dec. 9 to give educators an overview of the Since Time Immemorial curriculum including history and legislation, a guided navigation of the website, lessons and Native Knowledge 360 curriculum developed by the National Museum of the American Indian and other pertinent materials and an opportunity to plan to integrate and implement STI curriculum into your classrooms. Webinars will be held from 4-6 p.m. and two free clock hours will be offered. Learn more here.

The Bremerton Substance Abuse Prevention Coalitions invite you to participate in their annual community survey. The Coalitions are seeking 300 completed surveys by December 15, 2021.

The goal is to assess attitudes, beliefs, and practices related to youth substance use and behavioral health in our community.

The completed surveys will be utilized to guide our work, and to develop effective substance abuse prevention programs for our community.

• ONLINE SURVEY ENGLISH
• ONLINE SURVEY SPANISH

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Background photo: Halloween parade at Crownhill Elementary.

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

Website: www.bremertonschools.org
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Twitter: @BremertonSD