SIT/PBIS/STEM

Our missed opportunity to meet will require a re-schedule.  

All teams will meet at Noon Thursday to kick off the year in building their team specific culture.

SIT in Mobile 36

PBIS in the Cafe'

STEM in the Computer Lab

12 month Pay option & Benefits Fair

Monday August 18th is the last day that non-12 month employees are able to sign up for 12-Month Option.  I know the first day back for your staffs are hectic and jam-packed but I am asking that you please remind your people of this deadline.  We have some new system constraints in place that only allow the 12-month option to be selected from a WS/FCS network computer which means that our employees have not be able to make this selection from home this summer.  


Remember only employees needing to stop the 12-month option or sign up for the first time need to follow the link on the website.  Anyone that had the option last year will keep it unless they stop it.

21^st Annual

Employee Benefits Fair

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

12noon – 5:00pm

Career Center High School

 910 Highland Court, Winston Salem, NC

Insurance & 401K, 403B, 457, representatives will be there to answer questions & for enrollment.

Retirement seminars with Kerry Crutchfield at 2:00pm & 3:30pm, room 551.

Meet the new State 403b representative from TIAA-CREF.

Also, meet the reps from VALIC and Franklin Templeton (403b products approved 1/1/14).

Summer Update #5 - Thursday, August 14th

Schedule for the week

August 18th	August 19th	August 20th	August 21st	August 22nd
7:45 PTA Welcome coffee & pastries 8:15 Meet new staff, roster distribution 9:15  SIT/PBIS/STEM Team meetings 10:00 Teachers to rooms Classified Meeting 12:00 Lunch Break 1:00 K-2 meeting 1:45 3-5 meeting 2:30 HAG meeting 3:15 Specialist meeting 8:00 Building Closes	8:00 Reserved Central Office Staff Development Day Teacher Assistants do not work this day 3:45 Workday ends 8:00 Building Closes	7:00 Building open ·        8:00-11:15 EL PD for 30 teachers ·        11:15 Lunch ·        12:30-3:45 EL PD continues ·        8:30-10:30 Paula Wilkins HAG Teacher Assistants do not work this day 8:00 Building Closes	7:00 Building open 12:00 Work day starts Class Preparation 4:00 Staff meeting with Pizza from Burke Street in the Media center 5:30 Open House 7:30 End Open House 8:00 Building Closes	8:00 PD for the entire Staff 11:45 Lunch Break 1:00 DIBELS/TRC 3:45 Workday ends 8:00 Building Closes

Rosters

We anticipate Bus information sometime Thursday.  Therefore we will stuff welcome letters and label envelopes Monday after breakfast.  

Our PTA will "pre-stuff" the envelopes with their information (Direct Donation and Brunson ONE form) on Thursday to speed the process.

More Blog information Thursday with our Weekly schedule.  

Summer Update #4 - Sunday, August 10th

WOW, in a little more than one week I will be thrilled to have all our staff together to begin the new year!

Only a few items before this Thursday's full calendar update

• Open house letters will be stuffed and mailed with bus information on.....Thursday?  We have not received any info that they will not be ready by then, nor have we had much success with entering rosters in Power-School.  So the Thursday date is tentative.  If we are delayed we will do the letters over the weekend for delivery Monday Morning.  Stay tuned and be flexible if you are willing to help, THANKS.
• Monday, August 18th  we return to a welcoming continental breakfast from our PTA.  Food will be ready by 7:45 and we will start our opening meeting @ 8:10 in the cafe.

The full weekly calendar will be posted on Thursday the 14th.  

Summer Update #3 - Friday, July 25th

Good news and bad news about the blog;

• Bad News - I was at the WSFCS summer leadership retreat and did not get the blog written hence my morning work on this Friday - a typical "day off."
• Good News -  I had the intention to write the blog in some "down-time," yet the retreat was so relevant and engaging - There was no down time!  I could have said I was "busy." To me that term implies obligation and tasks that are rote and mindless.  I was fully mindful and thrilled to be participating in the process of school/district improvement!

So, one day late I can provide a brief recap of the last couple of weeks;

• The 14th -17th was FULL of interviews.
• Thanks to Darcy and Kathy for lending perspective and participating in the process.
• We hired two ESL teachers-
• Anna Stoppelbein joins us from Pilot Elementary in GSO where she was teaching first grade
• Diana Adkins joins us from Diggs -Latham where she was an ESL teacher and SIT co-chair
• We hired a 3rd grade HAG teacher
• Kelsey Byrd joins us from High Point with experiences in STEM and LEGO robotics
• We bid a fond farewell to Angela Adams. She has accepted a position at Lewisville elementary as a Kindergarten teacher.
• We also say goodbye to Jason Brewer who accepted the fifth grade position and was lured away  by the Museum of Science in Boston to be a national trainer for EIE workshops
• On the 18th Elizabeth and I celebrated 22 years of Marriage!  We flew to St. Louis to visit with my brother and attend a Faullin family reunion where we honored my Dad on his 80th Birthday.
• The Leadership Retreat on the 22nd-24th was AWESOME.  I will have much more to share at our opening meeting, yet I need some time to reflect on my new learning.

I will attend the Professional Learning Team training next week on Monday and Tuesday, then work on Staffing and Schedules for the last three weeks.  I will blog again on August 7th before we join forces on AUGUST 18th @ 8am

Summer Update #2 - Thursday July 10th

Happy THURSDAY!

I am doing well and hope you are too.  The following are some news tidbits to keep you updated.

• What do you imagine when your hear the phrase, "STEM pipeline."  I have two new staff members to introduce that may shift your perception.
• Brandi Burroughs joins our team as a second grade teacher in room 11.  I first met Brandi at the Scaling STEM conference as she was presenting on integration of the Engineering Design Process through all areas of the curriculum.
• Jason Brewer joins our team as a 5th grade teacher in T-36.  He just recently returned from EIE training at the Museum of Science in Boston as part of a UNC-G grant team.  
• Welcome these two new teachers to our team from the "STEM pipeline."

In other staffing and assignment news;

• Charity Cota-Robles will teach 3rd grade next year in T-38
• Jessie Spaciel will teach 3rd grade next year in T-34
• Kim Mason will teach 4th grade next year and stay in room 16
• Tiffany Ray will teach 3rd grade next year in room 15 (tentative)
• Suzette Lopez will move from room 15 (tentative) to the new mobile T-41 or room 26, still teaching 2nd grade TBE.
• Laurie Steadman will move to the main office to be our 50% Local Assistant and 50% Testing Coordinator
• Dr. Willie Stevens will bump his Parent involvement role to 50% at Brunson and 50% at Kimmel Farm

Remaining staffing needs;

• We need to hire a new 3rd grade HAG teacher as our numbers will be near 80.
• We need a 60% AIG resource tacher to serve our growing number of AIG students
• We need to hire TWO ESL teachers
• 1 for Olga - Who is loving retirement
• 1 for Stephanie - She has accepted a transfer to become a Wiley Wolverine. This creates an opportunity for collaboration between our two schools shared population of LEP families.     
• We need to hire two PRT positions with Title One funds to provide interventions for developing readers.
• We await the state budget outcome to determine our needs for Assistants.

If you have recommendations for any of the positions that are open, please zip me an e-mail or call as I have interviews for the ESL and HAG openings set up for next week. 

I am also going to be more "active" on our Twitter feed.  Follow Brunson at

• https://twitter.com/BrunsonOffice 

Professional Development Notices

From Willette Nash, the WSFCS Instructional Specialist, Multicultural Education.

This summer the Office of Multicultural Education will offer a two day institute in Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies to help support the goals of the Title I LEA Improvement Plan.  There will be two sessions for 25 teachers (first come/first served basis). Participants will receive a stipend of $75.00 per day. The dates are August 12-13 from 9:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M. (location TBD). Please share this with your staff and have all interested parties respond to wnash@wsfcs.k12.nc.us.

The Raytheon-EiE Teacher Scholarship program supports teachers in implementing EiE in their elementary classroom by providing funds for professional development and classroom materials. Attend an EiE workshop at the Museum of Science and receive a complete set of EiE classroom materials. The total value of the award is more than $2,500.

We’ll start accepting applications for the next round of scholarships in early Fall 2014. Check back soon for more details.

For more information:

http://www.eie.org/eie-curriculum/scholarships-elementary-teachers