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Summer Updates for YG Staff

Updates in the summer of 2021
TP
Tom Piowaty

Update - August 18, 2021

Aug 17, 2021
Dear Yujin Gakuen staff:
I hope you are still enjoying your summer break, and I don’t expect many staff to read this in the middle of August. However, some of you may be interested in knowing more about what to expect in the coming weeks.
Contents
⁠
Staffing - Interviews Scheduled Thursday and Friday
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Inservice Week Schedule
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⁠
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Open House, Kindergarten Transition, and COVID Protocols
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Kindergarten Transition
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⁠
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Building Access
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Protected Teacher Planning Day - Update
⁠
⁠
⁠
Online Learning Options for 2021–22
⁠
⁠
⁠
Teacher Resources
⁠
⁠
⁠
BrainPop Free for 4J
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⁠
⁠
Free Webinar: Dispelling the Myths: Critical Race Theory
⁠
⁠
⁠
Teacher-Parent Communication Strategies to Start the Year Off Right
⁠
⁠
⁠
Repeat - Report to Work Dates:
⁠
⁠
⁠
Repeat - Inservice Week Schedule
⁠
⁠
⁠
Calendar of Events
⁠
⁠

Staffing - Interviews Scheduled Thursday and Friday

Kindergarten English Teacher - As you know YG lost Robin Sensei to Holt and we will need to hire a new kindergarten teacher. She was a very involved teacher and parent while she was at YG. It will be very hard to replace her. We have interviews scheduled for Thursday afternoon. I am hopeful that we will be able to move to hire the candidate by Friday.
First Grade English Teacher - We are also interviewing for the first grade English position. This is also temporary as Maran retains her job rights to this position.
The kindergarten and the first grade interview teams combined since there was a lot of overlap between the kindergarten and first grade applicants. The first grade interviews might be easier than the kindergarten, since we have one candidate we have confidence in working with. I’m hopeful that we will have both positions hired before August 30th

Inservice Week Schedule

Principals have had time to learn most of the information we need to share during in-service week except for COVID protocols. We were expecting the COVID protocols to be shared with principals on Tuesday. I received some information regarding visitors on campus, but I am waiting to hear about breakfast and lunch and cohorting.
My goal for inservice week is to provide the necessary information for all staff, and provide time for staff to prepare for the start of school. I am willing to put off some things until the first weeks of school, but staff will need to juggle ….
My general plan is for Monday to go over items more relevant to licensed staff and on Friday to go over items relevant to both licensed and classified staff. For Tuesday the following week, I went ahead and deleted the afternoon meeting time, but will leave the morning meeting on the calendar just in case there are any lingering items we need to go over.

Open House, Kindergarten Transition, and COVID Protocols

These were on the calendar, but now with some new COVID related safety measures, some events need to be postponed or done virtually. Here’s a summary of what we can expect.
Face Masks Protocols - most staff have heard already that masks must be worn while working indoors during school hours regardless of vaccination status.
Visitors, Volunteers, and Contractors - As was the case last year, visitors are not permitted to come inside the building. Open House will need to be outdoors or virtual. We will not be holding a Open House as usual. More information will be shared next week.
Field Trips are not permitted until further notice.
Breakfast and Lunch - protocols are still being worked out. I don’t expect to hear from 4J admin until next week.

Kindergarten Transition
The guidelines and expectations for kindergarten transition are still being worked out, but we do know that the expectation is for the transition to be all day, 8:30 to 3:00, on Sept. 9th.

Building Access

The 850 Howard building is accessible to staff at this time; however, a team of custodians are in the process of putting furniture back into the classrooms from storage. Fortunately, the items were still labeled, which made it easy to put items away. By the end of the week, most furniture will be in their classrooms.
Waxing will be done during the week of August 23-27, but the waxing will be scheduled to be done after 5PM.

Protected Teacher Planning Day - Update

The hour of protected planning & prep for licensed staff will be on Mondays this year. No meetings will be scheduled on Mondays, including IEP and 504 meetings. Early release will still be on Fridays with 2 hours of professional development and PLC meeting time on those days.

Online Learning Options for 2021–22

You may have heard about the Online Learning Options for 4J. If not, see
Back to School: Online Learning Options
⁠
on the 4J website.
4J K–5 Connect
⁠
⁠
• Elementary school: 4J K–5 Connect — Online classroom learning on a set schedule, offering a combination of real-time teaching and independent learning opportunities. The school day is planned from 8:30 a.m.–3 p.m., Monday–Friday (1:45 p.m. early release on Fridays).
• All grades: Eugene Online Academy (EOA) — Independent, asynchronous learning on a flexible schedule and regular check-ins with 4J teachers.
These programs will be districtwide, with fewer online students expected than last year. Online learning will not be linked to individual 4J schools nor will it offer special programs such as language immersion. Students will be able to return to their regular school at the term change or next year.
Submit your request by August 23 if you want your student to learn online this fall. Requests received by August 23 will be accommodated if possible. Later requests may be accepted if space is available.
⁠
Request Online Learning Enrollment
⁠
(open August 13–23)

Teacher Resources

BrainPop Free for 4J
4J has a free trial for
BrainPop
⁠
. The trial ends in December, and I think the district will probably purchase a license if a lot of teachers make use of it.
Free Webinar: Dispelling the Myths: Critical Race Theory
Misael Flores Gutierrez shared information about a FREE zoom webinar entitled "
Dispelling the Myths: Critical Race Theory in K-12 Schools
⁠
," hosted by Project Humanities out of Arizona State University. The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug 24, 2021 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm.
Teacher-Parent Communication Strategies to Start the Year Off Right
Allan, the principal at Holt, shared this with his staff, and I think it’s a good resource to help us foster strong parent engagement. This
Edutopia Article
⁠
includes good ideas for beginning the year with a strong foundation of parent-teacher interactions.

Repeat - Report to Work Dates:

Elementary Secretaries - Monday, August 16
Licensed Staff - Monday, August 30
Education Assistants - Thursday, Sep 2, 2021

Repeat - Inservice Week Schedule

Here’s a draft of the
Inservice Week Schedule
⁠
, at a glance.

Calendar of Events


1
Date
Day
Time
Event/Activity
Comment
2
Aug 30
M
8:00-10:00 10:00-11:30 12:30-4:00
Building Welcome Back 4J Keynote - Keith Jones (Zoom) 4J Learning for All
Teachers report for duty
3
Aug 31
T
8:00-11:30 12:30-4:00
4J Instructional Tech (Zoom) Acceleration (Zoom)
​
4
Sept 1
W
8:00 - 4:00
Teacher Planning
Protected
5
Sept 2
Th
9:00-11:00 12:00-4:00 12:00-4:00
District Kick Off ELA Adoption SSD Staff in Meeting
EAs report for duty Teachers/EAs
6
Sept 3
F
8:00-4:00
Building PD, Schedule K-2 ENG Teachers Hegerty Training
Times and locations TBA
7
Date
Day
Time
Event/Activity
Comment
8
Sept 6
M
​
Labor Day - No School
​
9
Sept 7
T
8:00-4:00
Building PD, Schedule
Schedule TBA
10
Sept 8
W
8:00 - 4:00
Teacher Planning
Protected
11
Sept 9
Th
​
Transition Day - Kinder Open House - Meet Your Teacher
Times TBA
12
Sept 10
F
​
First Day of Instruction for Students
​
There are no rows in this table
⁠

Update - August 11, 2021

August 11, 2021
Dear Yujin Gakuen staff:
I hope you are still enjoying your summer break, and I don’t expect many staff to read this in the middle of August. However, some of you may be interested in knowing more about what to expect in the coming weeks. Principals just received a professional development calendar this Monday, and some of the information will need to be filled in at a later time.
For staff who are new, I will try to send one long message to all staff once a week. During the school year, I usually send it out Saturday night or Sunday morning. Some staff will read the newsletter Sunday morning, while others will read it when they start work on Monday. My expectation is that staff read the newsletter by Tuesday each week.

Staffing

New Kindergarten Education Assistant - Claryn Lindley
This was announced earlier in the summer, but in case you didn’t see the Summer Updates,
Wendy Williams
⁠
has taken a job at Holt Elementary, and Claryn Lindley was moved from first grade EA to kindergarten.
New First Grade Education Assistant- Michelle Melvin
When Claryn was reassigned to kindergarten, that created a vacancy in the first grade EA position (supporting reading instruction). Michelle Melvin was hired to fill that position.

New Special Education Assistant -
Janesta Sola
⁠
⁠

Janesta finished out the year as a substitute after Mary Rosenbaum resigned last spring. Janesta is now our permanent SpEd EA.
Two Teacher Positions Posted
Kindergarten English Teacher - As you know YG lost Robin Sensei to Holt and we will need to hire a new kindergarten teacher. She was a very involved teacher and parent while she was at YG. It will be very hard to replace her. With that said, we are posting the kindergarten position now. This position closes on August 16th. If you know of anyone who is looking for a kindergarten teaching position, please let them know we have an open position. This is a temporary position.
First Grade English Teacher - We have posted the first grade position that Maran has vacated after her leave of absence. McKenzie Zimbelman is interested in this position and she is applying for it. This posting closes on August 17th.
The jobs are posted on the linked
4J Job Opportunities
⁠
page.
The kindergarten position closes on August 16th. If you are interested in serving on the interview team, let me know by next week. I am planning to hold interviews as soon as practical after the postings close, likely on August 18 or 19th, depending on how many applicants we need to interview.

Inservice Week Schedule

On Monday afternoon, principals received the
Inservice Week Schedule
⁠
, with times, dates, and general topics. Note that Thursday isn’t entirely clear. I have not set a specific time for our annual “Open House - Meet Your Teacher” event, because the plan for orientation and the expectations for teachers of grades 1-5 have not been clarified. I will provide an update when I get more information.
Report to Work Dates:
Elementary Secretaries - Monday, August 16
Licensed Staff - Monday, August 30
Education Assistants - Thursday, September 2
Building Access
The 850 Howard building is accessible to staff at this time; however, the custodians will be waxing the floors the week of August 23-27. This means the floors in the main hallways will be off limits this week. Jeremy will send an email letting staff know which sections will be waxed on which days so that staff will be able to enter parts of the building that are not being waxed. More information to follow.
District Administration Updates
There have been a number of changes in administration in 4J. These include:
Directors of Equity, Inclusion, and Instruction: Misael Flores and Larry Williams
Student Services Administrator: Angela Crum (New SSD administrator for YG)
Student Services Administrator: Joel Lavin
Principal at Adams Elementary: Natlie Oliver
Interim Principal at Awbrey Park: Mark Watson
Interim Principal at Camas Ridge: Mike Riplinger
Interim Principal at Charlemagne: Tom Maloney
Gilham Assistant Principal: Megan Russell

Calendar of Events

1
Date
Day
Time
Event/Activity
Comment
2
Aug 30
M
8:00-10:00 10:00-11:30 12:30-4:00
Building Welcome Back 4J Keynote - Keith Jones (Zoom) 4J Learning for All
Teachers report for duty
3
Aug 31
T
8:00-11:30 12:30-4:00
4J Instructional Tech (Zoom) Acceleration (Zoom)
​
4
Sept 1
W
8:00 - 4:00
Teacher Planning
Protected
5
Sept 2
Th
9:00-11:00 12:00-4:00 12:00-4:00
District Kick Off ELA Adoption SSD Staff in Meeting
EAs report for duty Teachers/EAs
6
Sept 3
F
8:00-4:00
Building PD, Schedule K-2 ENG Teachers Hegerty Training
Times and locations TBA
7
Date
Day
Time
Event/Activity
Comment
8
Sept 6
M
​
Labor Day - No School
​
9
Sept 7
T
8:00-4:00
Building PD, Schedule
Schedule TBA
10
Sept 8
W
8:00 - 4:00
Teacher Planning
Protected
11
Sept 9
Th
​
Transition Day - Kinder Open House - Meet Your Teacher
Times TBA
12
Sept 10
F
​
First Day of Instruction for Students
​
There are no rows in this table
⁠

Update - August 5, 2021

Dear staff at 850 Howard:
We are writing to provide you with an update on the inner gym and the modular classrooms planned for our shared building at 850 Howard Avenue.
Final shoring work has been completed in the Kelly Middle School inner gym. With this completed shoring, we received engineers' approval to reoccupy all adjacent spaces around the inner gym.
The inner gym will remain off limits/closed during the 21/22 school year. The fitness equipment in the inner gym, with the exception of the climbing wall, has been relocated or is in the process of relocation to the outer gym for the start of fall. 4j Facilities continues to plan for the truss replacements with the intent to complete the construction during summer 2022.
For safety and to prevent access to unauthorized staff, locks to the doors entering the inner gym have been changed. Custodial crews will be in the adjacent spaces immediately to start cleaning up.
An update for the Kelly modular classrooms (see linked
map
⁠
): site work in preparation for one modular to move from Crest Drive will begin later this week and continue through the end of the month. The Crest Drive modular is scheduled to move to Kelly the last week of August. The schedule is tight, but Facilities is doing all they can to have the first modular available for the first day of school.
A second modular classroom unit has been ordered. Delivery of the unit is expected later this year, although current market conditions may impact that timeline.
The building will be accessible to staff, starting Monday August 9. Please note that there has been no summer cleaning up to this point, and we may have to limit staff access in order to give the custodial staff the opportunity to complete their summer cleaning.
We want to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to prepare the building for your return to school on August 30th.
We hope you are enjoying the final weeks of summer break, and we hope you are safe and healthy. We will provide additional updates as soon as we receive any news. Please email or text if you have any clarifying questions for Tom or John or Sarah.
Yours sincerely,
850 Howard Administration Team
PS - We will be sending the following message to families. It is included here for your reference.

Message to families


Dear families:
We are writing to provide you with an update on the inner gym and the modulars planned for the Kelly building at 850 Howard Avenue.
Final shoring work has been completed at the Kelly Middle School inner gym. With this completed shoring, we have received engineers' approval for students and staff to reoccupy all adjacent spaces around the inner gym. The inner gym will remain off limits for use during the 21/22 school year. Fitness equipment that was located in the inner gym, with the exception of the climbing wall, has been relocated, or is in the process of relocation to the outer gym, for the start of fall. This will allow our PE curriculum to be offered to students in the outer gym. We are continuing to plan for the truss replacements with the intent to complete the construction over the summer of 2022.
An update for the Kelly modular classrooms (see linked
map
⁠
): a site for the location of modular buildings has been determined, and preparations are being made for a modular unit from Crest Drive to be relocated to Kelly Middle School. (Additional classroom space will provide students and teachers more space as our school continues to grow). Work will begin later this week and work through the end of this month. The Crest Drive modular is scheduled to move to Kelly the least by the first day of school.
A second modular classroom unit has been ordered Delivery is expected later this year, although current market conditions may impact that timeline.
As community health concerns continue to evolve, we look forward to sharing more details about our K-8 instructional plans and calendars for your students later this month. Your grace and patience the past 18 months with all of the uncertainty and changing circumstances has been welcome support for our work to provide your students with engaging learning experiences in safe and welcoming environments.
We look forward to this coming school year with students back to our school.
--
⁠
failed to upload
⁠
⁠
Thomas Masaru Piowaty
Principal, Kocho Sensei
Yujin Gakuen Japanese Immersion Elementary
Eugene School District 4J
piowaty_t@4j.lane.edu |
541.790.4640
⁠
⁠

Update - July 20, 2021

I hope everyone is having a great summer. I'm providing another update in case you are interested in knowing what's going on regarding YG. I am writing this from the building and I'm working part-time this week to support the Japanese summer camp. I will be working most mornings and will be on-call in the afternoons until I officially begin on July 28th.
See updates below:

Summer Camp Update

Summer camp begins its first week today, July 19th, and goes through the week. Here are the staff who will be working:
Classified - Jeanne, Michelle, Janesta, and Reiko will be staffing the program for its entire 4-week run. Laura said she would be available, but we need to confirm which weeks she will be working.
Licensed - Here’s the schedule for teachers at summer camp:
Week of July 19 - Robin
Week of July 26 - Jemei
Week of August 2 - No teacher scheduled (yet)
Week of August 9 - Kelly
Building administrator - I will be the official manager, but I will be on site part of the time until July 28th, when I officially start my work calendar. I will be on-call, though, in case of an emergency or situation that requires my attention.

Staffing

Education Assistant for First Grade Reading - You may recall that we assigned Claryn Lindly to the English kindergarten EA assignment. That created a vacancy for the 4-hour EA assignment to support English reading in first grade. We hired Michelle Melvin as our 4-hour EA. Please re-welcome Michelle to our staff.

Synergy Rollover

Technology has completed the post-school tasks and has rolled Synergy into the new school year (2021-2022). Synergy accounts have been deactivated for teachers, and will be reactivated in the last week of August.
SIS has upgraded Synergy to the new version 2022 yesterday (Monday) at 5PM.
Let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy the rest of your summer break.

Summer Camp Update - July 9, 2021

Dear staff,
I’m writing to give you an update on the Japanese summer camp. The original plan was for Jeanne Sensei and Rita Gillihan to apply for the summer grant and run the camp as a community-sponsored program. Due to the total cost of funding, the expense was far too much for the PTO to sponsor. We were advised to seek sponsorship from the Eugene Education Founcation, and that was the initial plan in late May. We found that there were too many difficulties in applying with the EEF. I won’t go into the details here, but I’ll be happy to answer questions later in the fall.
Getting to the point: the summer camp is going to be run as a 4J-sponsored program, instead of a community sponsored program. That means, I will need to be “managing” the program and working this summer.
We are going to delay the start of the program, and we are shifting it from the original dates of July 12 - Aug 6 to July 19th through August 13th. The program will be held in the Kelly building, primarily in the cafeteria.
In case you are interested in, here are links to:
Communication to families in
email
⁠
and Facebook
⁠
Registration form
⁠
⁠
⁠
Information about the program
⁠
⁠

Thank you in advance for your attention to this announcement, and enjoy the rest of your summer break.
Tom

Update - June 30, 2021

While you are off for the summer and most are not checking work email, I know some of you read messages over the break, so I will share a few items of note with you.

Mask Requirements - Update

Cydney sent an email to all staff today, so you can read it yourself, but I’ll give the highlights here:
Eugene School District 4J is not making wholesale changes in our protocols at this moment. However, in light of changes in state guidance, we are implementing one immediate change as of today, Wednesday, June 30:
• When outdoors, staff and students are not required to wear face coverings, regardless of vaccination status.

Staffing Updates

Special Education Assistant position - This might not come as a surprise, but it’s official.
Janesta Sola
⁠
has been hired into the 4-hour special education assistant position for YG. She has accepted the position and will be permanent, starting in September.
4-hour EA position posting soon - As you know, Claryn, was reassigned to replace Wendy Williams in the kindergarten assignment. This leaves the 4-hour education assistant for 1st grade reading open. The position should post this week.
Day Custodian -
Jeremy Niccum
⁠
returns from his leave of absence. He starts Thursday, July 1st. Mike will remain here in the building to be the second custodian for now.
Interviews - I will be conducting interviews in the second week of July, assuming the position posts and closes in the first week. If you are interested in being on the interview team, let me know.

Miscellaneous

Lockers - The middle school had to reclaim a set of lockers, # 232-272. These will be need for the additional students expected coming into 6th grade. These lockers will be assigned to 6th grade students in the YG program. There are almost 90 lockers remaining, so there should be enough for 4th and 5th grade students.
I Am Upset Because … I placed a new document in the YG Staff shared drive in the PBiS folder. It’s a form that can be used with a student when he or she needs to work out feelings. It’s linked here:
I Am Upset Because ...
⁠
⁠


Extended Contracts for Pivot to CDL

I got word today that teachers who had to make the pivot from hybrid back to CDL in mid-May will be entitled to two days (16 hours) of extended contract. I know this is summer and some of you are out of town. I will work with you to get your extended contracts in and submitted to Instruction. Brooke will be out of town the first two weeks of July, so it’s not likely that you will receive the extra pay until your August paychecks.
Teachers should download the linked
Extended Contract Pivot to CDL
⁠
form, sign and date it, then send it to me. I know this isn’t the best time to ask you to send documents, but I need them as soon as is practical. Ideally, I would like to send them all to Instruction at the same time. I will be in the office on Thursday, July 1st, and I will also plan on being there in mid-July to conduct interviews.
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