November 13, 2009

Prayers and Positive Thougths Needed - I know that many have heard of a construction accident that occurred earlier today involving a member of the Gene and Nadine Redd family. Their son, Brian, fell from a large two story house in Stanton that he was re-roofing. The fall resulted in injuries that  required him to be taken by helicopter to Omaha. I spoke with Nadine this morning and she said he went through six hours of surgery last night and is still in critical condition. Please keep the entire Redd family in your thoughts and prayers. I told Nadine that if they needed anything from us at Washington, not to hestitate to ask.

Daily Recess Policy - Recent conversations made me realize I have not revisited our board policy regarding recess and appropriate consequence.  Although not necessarily ideal in keeping kids accountable for work and/or discipline, it is the policy we have.  It is extremely important kids get some physical activity during the day.  Some kids have access to before school recess but the bus kids do not.  I've included the post from 2/12/2009:
Please note the following board policy (adopted June 26, 2006) we need to begin following on a regular basis. This may change the way you handle punishment for missing work and may require us to look at other possibilities as a team or building.
 Daily Recess: Elementary schools should provide recess for students that:
* is at least 20 minutes a day;
* is preferably outdoors;
* encourages moderate to vigorous physical activity through the provision of space and equipment; and,
* discourages extended periods (i.e., periods of two or more hours) of inactivity.

Physical Activity and Discipline
Employees should not use physical activity for discipline during the regular school day nor withhold more than 50% of daily recess activities.

PTO Meeting was held at WIS on Tuesday night. Thanks to the WIS teachers in attendance. Many agenda items were covered and Kelly Maynes has created a Red Oak PTO website that will include the minutes at some point. Thanks Kelly!

Student Information System - Along with staff from all buildings, Mark, Stephanie and I listened to three presentations from JMC, Infinite Campus and PowerSchool this week.  The team will be making a decision in the near future about which system to move to this coming summer/fall.  If you have input as to what you want to make sure the next system includes, please see one of us soon!

Website of the Week - http://delicious.com/   Delicious is a Social Bookmarking service, which means you can save all your bookmarks online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking. The website posts the most popular bookmarks being saved right now across many areas of interest.  Create your own or use one I've created:  http://delicious.com/djbarry98/

Dates to Note...
Nov. 16: Mark on KCSI (6:15 am - The Coffee & Mark show)
Nov. 18: Cutoff for midterm grades
Nov. 19: SAT (3:20 pm in Braymen's rm)
Nov. 20: Mrs. Timmerman's birthday
Nov. 23: PTO Trashbag Assembly (9:15 am); Grades due by 4pm
Nov. 25: Midterms go home; Indv PD & Turkey-break begins at 2:30 pm.