March 5, 2018 Bi-Weekly Report The Office for Catholic Schools fosters collaborative communities among all shareholders through high quality professional development to positively impact student learning and develop Christ-like servant-leaders for today’s world. We work in the spirit of communion, solidarity and subsidiarity. Important Dates to Remember: Chancery Day of Reflecon -OCS will be out of the office on March 5, 2018 Quarterly Principal Meeng—March 8, 2018 Leadership Academy—March 8, 2018 Good Friday—OCS Offices closed March 30, 2018 Easter Monday—OCS Offices closed April 2, 2018 Leadership academy—April 10, 2018 2017-2018 Accreditaon Progress Reports For schools in Accreditaon Year 1, 2, 3, or 4 (not the self study year or the visit year)—you are scheduled to complete the annual accreditaon progress report. The new report template has been sent to your email inbox along with instrucons on the new format. As you review the template, you will see that we are trying to make this process easier for you to complete each year. Please complete the report by the end of March. If you have any quesons about the report, please contact [email protected]We will briefly review the report at the All Principal meengs this week. 529 Plans and K-12 Educaon Did you know that 529 Educaon Savings Plans can now be used to pay for K-12 educaon—including Catholic school tuion? Changes approved in the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act extend the use of 529 Educaon Savings Plans—tradionally meant to cover college or other post-high school educaon and training costs—can now be used for approved K-12 educa- on expenses. Fulcrum is working with the Office for Catholic Schools and a commiee of principals and local financial experts to develop guidance for schools and parents on this issue. In the meanme, check out these great resources to learn more about the changes: What is a 529 Plan? What are the new changes to 529 Plans? New York Times Arcle Krisn Dixon Superintendent [email protected]TO DO List: Complete Budget March Principal Monthly Tasks Please complete the OCS Website Survey Winter MAP Trainings MAP Fusion Conference (Portland) Time to volunteer!! Special Olympics USA Games, Seale - July 1-6, 2018 PD Opportunies: Diversified Learners Commiee ACRE Preparaon As of March 2 nd , 25 elementary schools are commied to the April ACRE tesng window of April 9 – 30. Please let me know your decision by Friday, March 9 by compleng our ACRE registraon form. While I believe there is sll me to order the electronic version, the paper opon might not now be available. Our ACRE Tesng Coordinators list is growing so we can support each other. Thank you! 2018 Christ in the Classroom Local Winter Retreats BRAVO! We are in retreat mode and you are doing GREAT! PLEASE send your CIC sign-in sheets to me! We have 99 survey- monkey evaluaons as of today. So much good feedback but ponder this one… “As a non-Catholic, this retreat was very informave. It allowed me to feel more knowledgeable in both scripture and the Catholic faith and be able to implement my understanding into my own class. The discussion of the Bible was beneficial as I feel more comfortable talking about the different books of the Bible and what happens in each book or chapter.” Christ in the Classroom Foundaon Resources Toolkit contains monthly faculty prayers that support our Great Mysteries theme of the year….Incarnaon, Trinity, Paschal Mystery and Eucharist. The March prayers focusing on the Paschal Mys- tery have been added to the toolkit. Sandy Barton Smith Catholic Identy & Essenal Services [email protected]Learning Walks Informaon—Please read before the meeng on March 8th For parcipants aending the Learning Walk at St Philomena School. For parcipants aending the Learning Walk at St Patrick School. If you have not signed-up for a locaon to aend, please contact [email protected]High school leader are not required to aend the Principal Meeng/Learning Walk on March 8h, but you are welcome to aend if you choose. Please register with Janeal. March 8, 2018 Principal Meeng and Learning Walk
Transcript
March 5, 2018 Bi-Weekly Report
The Office for Catholic Schools fosters collaborative communities among all shareholders
through high quality professional development
to positively impact student learning and
develop Christ-like servant-leaders for today’s world.
We work in the spirit of communion, solidarity and subsidiarity.
Important Dates to Remember:
Chancery Day of Reflection -OCS will be out of the
office on March 5, 2018
Quarterly Principal Meeting—March 8, 2018
Leadership Academy—March 8, 2018
Good Friday—OCS Offices closed March 30, 2018
Easter Monday—OCS Offices closed April 2, 2018
Leadership academy—April 10, 2018
2017-2018 Accreditation Progress Reports
For schools in Accreditation Year 1, 2, 3, or 4 (not the self study year or the visit year)—you are scheduled to complete the annual accreditation progress report. The new report template has been sent to your email inbox along with instructions on the new format. As you review the template, you will see that we are trying to make this process easier for you to complete each year. Please complete the report by the end of March. If you have any questions about the report, please contact [email protected] We will briefly review the report at the All Principal meetings this week.
529 Plans and K-12 Education
Did you know that 529 Education Savings Plans can now be used to pay for K-12 education—including Catholic school tuition? Changes approved in the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act extend the use of 529 Education Savings Plans—traditionally meant to cover college or other post-high school education and training costs—can now be used for approved K-12 educa-tion expenses. Fulcrum is working with the Office for Catholic Schools and a committee of principals and local financial experts to develop guidance for schools and parents on this issue. In the meantime, check out these great resources to learn more about the changes: What is a 529 Plan? What are the new changes to 529 Plans? New York Times Article
Time to volunteer!! Special Olympics USA Games, Seattle - July 1-6, 2018
PD Opportunities:
Diversified Learners Committee
ACRE Preparation As of March 2nd, 25 elementary schools are committed to the April ACRE testing window of April 9 – 30. Please let me know your decision by Friday, March 9 by completing our ACRE registration form. While I believe there is still time to order the electronic version, the paper option might not now be available. Our ACRE Testing Coordinators list is growing so we can support each other. Thank you!
2018 Christ in the Classroom Local Winter Retreats BRAVO! We are in retreat mode and you are doing GREAT! PLEASE send your CIC sign-in sheets to me! We have 99 survey-monkey evaluations as of today. So much good feedback but ponder this one… “As a non-Catholic, this retreat was very informative. It allowed me to feel more knowledgeable in both scripture and the Catholic faith and be able to implement my understanding into my own class. The discussion of the Bible was beneficial as I feel more comfortable talking about the different books of the Bible and what happens in each book or chapter.”
Christ in the Classroom Foundation Resources Toolkit contains monthly faculty prayers that support our Great Mysteries theme of the year….Incarnation, Trinity, Paschal Mystery and Eucharist. The March prayers focusing on the Paschal Mys-tery have been added to the toolkit.
Learning Walks Information—Please read before the meeting on March 8th For participants attending the Learning Walk at St Philomena School.
For participants attending the Learning Walk at St Patrick School.
If you have not signed-up for a location to attend, please contact [email protected]
High school leader are not required to attend the Principal Meeting/Learning Walk on March 8h, but you are welcome to attend if you choose. Please register with Janeal.
Ad Pilot 2.0—LAUNCHED We have launched Ad Pilot 2.0, including Facebook and Google search ads that direct visitors to a new centralized website (catholicschoolsww.org) designed to raise awareness of Catholic schools and direct more people to consider us for their children. Targeted advertisements are now live to ALL Catholics and ALL school-aged parents within 5 miles of ALL Catho-lic schools.
These ads will run through March, to make sure you are prepared to welcome, follow up, enroll and retain more families this year!
GreatSchools.org Reviews More and more parents are accessing online reviews as they consider education options for their children. One review site, GreatSchools, feeds into Zillow and RedFin real estate listings and will sometimes include local Catholic schools as part of a home listing profile (though not as often as we would like).
As we enter registration season we highly recommend that all schools “claim” their GreatSchools profile (yes, you have one) to: 1. ensure the description is accurate and 2. encourage some of your best parent ambassadors to provide new reviews about why they love your school. In addition to GreatSchools, we also recommend updating Yelp, Facebook, and Google descriptions and encouraging parents to provide positive reviews.
Budget Season Each school recently received both a template to create their next year’s budget as well as an analysis tool that will help the conversation to develop financial goals for next year. If you’d like assistance with developing your next year’s budget, please feel free to contact me!
Employee Service Awards See mailing today for Service Awards Instructions. Each school is responsible for submitting a list of employees who has reached 10, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, etc. years of service to Catholic Schools. This includes all school employees and service given in another (arch)diocese. The awards will be delivered to the principals at the May 17th, All Principal Meeting. Deadline for submitting names: April 13th
Forms and Pins for 7th Grade Recognition A prayer service and recognition ceremony may be held locally for seventh grade students who exemplify the identity and excellence of Catholic education. Some Regions have gathered with neighboring schools to celebrate these students. Contact Eugenia Geisel at [email protected] for certificates and pins for 7th Grade Leadership Recognition.
Teacher Recruitment Initiatives The Office for Catholic Schools staff will be visiting and recruiting at the spring Career Fairs. Administrators are invited to join us to get a personal opportunity to visit with applicants and present their job opportunities. Please notify Eugenia, [email protected] if you wish to attend and meet the candidates. Gonzaga—March 13th, Seattle Universi-ty – March 26th, Washington Career Fair (Tacoma Dome) –March 28th, St. Martin’s University – April 18th. Be sure to post your openings as they are known.
Covenants and Work Agreements Teacher Covenants (for teachers qualifying for paid benefits) and for those not qualifying for paid benefits (working less than 2/3 teaching per week), Principal Covenants and Work Agreements have been posted on the OCS website Person-nel Section, “All Forms”. Please use the form, “Change in Terms or Conditions of Employment”, to note an employee changing to or from full time or part time status, and record the employee’s signature as record of their notification of the transition.
March 8th Learning Walks On March 8th elementary principals will have the opportunity to participate in learning walks facilitated by the University of Washington. Please bring the 5D card and your preferred writing tool for descriptive observation (notebook, laptop, or tablet). Click here to access all meeting materials.
OSPI Compliance: Private Education Re-Approval Application The annual OSPI re-approval application is now open in EDS and is due by April 10th. Click here for detailed instructions on filling out this form.
Federal Programs Data Collection As you reregister families for the upcoming school year, remember to use this opportunity to identify low income stu-dents and English language learners. Here are some helpful resources:
Family Income Survey: English & Spanish
KEY for Interpreting Family Income Surveys
Home Language Survey: English & Spanish
KEY for Interpreting Home Language Surveys
Regional Curriculum Day Offerings Click here to learn about different workshops taking place throughout the Archdiocese on March 16th. Note especially the Emergent Writing Workshop available to all Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers and the free Innovative School Trans-formation Conference hosted by O’Dea High School in partnership with Microsoft.
Save the Date! GRACE Catholic Educators Forum The GRACE Catholic Educators Forum will take place on June 21st and 22nd this year. We are asking that all teacher lead-ers AND principals attend this event. Registration and location information will be available soon.
Still time to submit a Proposal for the MAP Fusion Conference The national MAP Fusion Conference will be in Portland on June 26th and 27th. The OCS hopes to send a group to attend this conference and learn together. After February the 16th, the registration cost is $560 per person. Title IIA funds can be used to pay for the conference. Does your school have a story of success to tell about MAP? Then please consider presenting at the conference. Click here for the Call for Proposals. Presenters earn three free passes to the conference.
Using MAP data to Inform your Work With thanks to schools who participated in winter testing, the winter testing window is closed and the data are ready for reporting and analysis. Do you need help summarizing the data? Need help with Excel spreadsheeting and charting? I’m eager to help! If there is anything I can do to help you work with your data, please don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected] or 206-382-4855.
Update on MAP Administrative Access In the fall we updated MAP user roles to ensure administrators had access to the data only for their own school. We’ve since heard feedback that this change impacted your ability to manage other users at your school and access operation-al reports. Please know that we’ve heard your concerns and are working with NWEA to resolve the issue, most likely by the spring testing window.
E-Rate Task Force The funding request deadlines are much earlier this year. If you receive any emails from USAC requesting additional information, forward them to us immediately. Four schools have been approved for funding already. 90% of the funding request applications have been filed.
Technology Strategy and Planning Tom has been tracking school adoption of higher performance Wi-Fi computers at schools that have completed class-room Wi-Fi modernization projects and the trends are very favorable. An estimated 35% of our classroom wireless computers have high performance Wi-Fi network capabilities (IEEE 802.11ac network adapters) enabling a much greater level of service.
Planning for 2019 IT Network Modernization projects are in progress. Tom will begin visiting the candidate schools in March
Leadership Academy We are taking nominations for the 2018-2019 cohort of the Leadership Academy.
WHO: Aspiring administrators WHEN: 1 Summer Workshop-August 15-16 5 Tuesday Meetings throughout the school year from 3:00pm-6:00pm WHERE: Chancery (Orr Conference Room), 910 Marion Street, Seattle WA 98104 Here is the survey link for those interested in applying: Leadership Academy Interest Survey Or contact Kelly Surapaneni at [email protected].
Principal Certification, and Masters Programs Are you or teachers in your school interested in pursuing a program in Educational Leadership?
We have a relationship with the following universities: Creighton University (Omaha, NB), Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA), University of Notre Dame (South Bend, IN), St. Martin’s University (Lacey, WA) and Seattle University (Seattle, WA).
Click here for the contact information for the universities we have cultivated a partnership with:
St Martin’s Educational Administration Program Testimonial
Anna Hunthausen, a teacher at St Patrick School, is currently enrolled in St Martin University’s Educational Administration
program. Here is an insight into Anna’s degree work from St Martin University.
2018-2019 Accreditation Team Member Registration—NOW OPEN If you would like to be on an accreditation team for 2018-2019 please register online. Please register to be on either an
Elementary Team or a Secondary Team. We will hold all training meetings at the beginning of the previsit meeting date,
unless you are notified by OCS. If you are assigned to an accreditation team and are unable to attend the previsit date,
2018-2019 Academic Calendar—DUE as soon as possible
The Archdiocesan Academic Calendar for 2018-2019 was due on March 1st. Please use this Online Calendar Tool to submit your school calendar to OCS. If you have any questions on how to adjust this calendar for your school needs, please contact [email protected]
In addition, the online calendar tool is now available for the 2018-2019 School year. Please complete your calendar dates online by March 1, 2018.
Archdiocesan School Board Awards
Would you like to nominate your pastor or school leader for this year’s Archbishop Brunett or Sr Mary Taylor awards? Please Click here.
In February 2018, Fulcrum welcomed Julie Coleman as its Interim Executive Director. Julie most re-cently served as a consultant for Mary's Place and has over 25 years as a development professional in Seattle, New York, and Kigali, Rwanda. She has served in leadership roles at Sacred Heart School, Seattle Prep and Seattle University. Julie is a local Seattle philanthropist committed to the delivery and sustainability of education to the marginalized of society. She has served on over ten nonprofit boards, ranging in scope from education, homelessness, poverty and medical research. She has chaired several capital campaigns and is co-founder of The Grace Foundation. Julie has her BA from the University of Washington in Political Science and a MA in Transformational Leadership from Se-
attle University.
Julie’s email is [email protected] and her direct office phone is 206.748.7987.
EDvantage Professional Development Opportunities 2017-2018 The 2017-2018 EDvantage is now available. Please share this link with all your school personnel.
