Wednesday MM Day 5 - FIVE

Good Morning!

Please come to the staff meeting ASAP after dismissal.  Andy and I are working on a plan for the late bus to allow us all to be present.  In addition to our flex benefits and United Way presentations, we will hear from our new guidance counselor, Lauren Saldana.

I will aslo speak about cafe proceedures.  If you are comfortable with your student's behavior, move to the teacher tables.  Remember that students are still under your direct supervision while in the lunch room.  As for the table washers and sweepers, please continue to teach correct processes and limit the waste of materials and time.

One cafe situation that is life threatening is our recognition and adherence to  the Allergy tables.  DO NOT ALLOW STUDENTS TO EAT THERE IF THEY HAVE A BAGGED LUNCH.  Our cafe food is peanut free and those with allergies have appropriate packed lunches.  All others may "claim" allergen free, but they only want to socialize and do not realize the magnitude of their decision.  It is our (the whole staff) responsibility to keep kids safe.

Tech lab sign-up are posted on the door of the Lab.

From our Sub office!

Over the past couple of days, we've noticed an increase in failed to fill jobs. We've seen several instances of the following, and are hoping that with these reminders we can help to avert spikes in unfilled absences.

* LATE ABSENCE ENTRIES: Today, of the 14 jobs that went failed to fill - 5 were input after the call out period concluded last night, but before this morning's call out period; 1 was input after 6am but before 7am this morning; and 8 were input after 7am this morning. Please urge your staff to input absences as early as possible in order to optimize the call out opportunities. The evening call out period begins at 4:30 pm and runs through 9:30 pm or so. Absences input during this time have the benefit of being called tonight as well as tomorrow. Absences entered after 5:30 am tomorrow will be improperly queued and may not receive the priority they would have, had the absences been entered earlier. We certainly understand that children (and adults) do not fall ill conveniently according to our schedules - but the more notice given through the system, the better the chance a sub will see the job and pick it up.
* AM/PM:
* Sub Requested vs PreArranged:
* Absence Created by Administrator:

Thank you again for your time and support. We hope that these observations when shared will be useful and will ultimately result in your absences being filled in an efficient and timely manner.

Please do feel free to cascade to your site Sub Coordinators, faculty and staff members.

We also noticed that a good portion of the Failed to Fill absences were input by the site's Sub Coordinator rather than the employee. That said, it then follows that a considerable amount of this morning's call out period was a missed opportunity. Please remind your employees as to how to input absences so that the call outs can begin as soon as possible. Please encourage prearrangement of subs whenever possible. The "Sub Requested" function prompts the system to limit the calls to the 1 sub whose name was requested by the staff member. Multiple calls are made to the requested sub until that person acknowledges the call with either an acceptance or a rejection. With "Sub Requested", the system does not attempt to call other subs until the morning of the absence, unless the requested sub has made a decision to accept or reject. Prearranging a sub is a much better method to use in ensuring your preferred substitute is onboard and ready to work. Reach out to the sub, verbally confirm the sub's availability, and then input the absence as a prearrangement including the sub's information. At least one job was listed as a half-day, with a start time of 7:30 am and an end-time of 11:30 pm. This is a very long day, and not particularly enticing to a substitute (understandably so). Please ask your staff members to double check their time and date entries so that "typo's" don't impact their otherwise good intentions.