As a helpful reminder, when you encounter serious issues, please contact the departments listed in the Pressing Issues protocol. The intent is to help streamline the operational procedure, deliver a prompt crisis response, and ensure quality service. 

ALL students are required to complete online registration.  

• Online Registration will launch Monday, January 10 for all new and returning students in Shelby County Schools.
• General Choice Transfer will begin Tuesday, January 25 at 10 a.m.
• Online Registration link will be accessible on all student digital devices for parents to easily update their child’s information.
• Students who do not register will not be considered enrolled. (Please ensure all parents complete the Online Registration to be fully enrolled into SCS).
• Yearly updates to demographic data, opt-in/out, and health information are required for all studen

Review the MANDATORY Discipline Training on Threats & Fights  (i.e., Counselors, administrators, teachers, etc.). 

Although we strongly encourage and require to readmit conferences for students returning from out-of-school suspensions, please remember that students cannot be held out of school beyond the suspension’s end date. If parents are not able to meet for re-admit conferences during your designated time slots due to work or other unavoidable circumstances, students should still be allowed to return to the instructional environment and an alternate meeting time should be scheduled for the re-admit conference. 

If parents arrive for late check-ins with multiple school hours remaining in the day, they should not be turned away. Turning students away from the instructional environment will detrimentally affect your school’s chronic absenteeism and academic achievement rates. The state law allows students to return to the school building during school hours. If you need additional clarity about equitable attendance and discipline practices, please contact SEED support at 901-416-6007.

Code: CVD

Description:  COVID Positive or Exposed with Distance Learning

Presence Status: Present

Code Category: Distance Learning (Distance Learning)

• The D-Code (Distance Learning) was used last year when the district defaulted to virtual schooling environments. District leadership will communicate when these codes should be used district-wide. We are using the CVD (COVID exposed Distance Learning code) for students who have been identified as having COVID but who are attending school via distance (virtual) learning, alternative assignments, or telephoned instruction.

Code: CVHB

Description:  COVID Positive Test with Home Bound Services

Presence Status:  Present

Code Category: Distance Learning (Distance Learning)

• Students who have severe COVID-related symptoms that cause them to be qualified by a doctor for Homebound services and approved by the Homebound advisor will be counted present using the attendance code of CVHB (COVID Homebound).
• Asynchronous Learning can take place for students who are being quarantined due to COVID in conjunction with the CVD code. For our district’s purposes, remote learning will be in the state-approved forms of alternative assignments and telephoned instruction. Please click here to access the state's guidelines that outline this process. School and class closures must be state approved with waivers.
• NOTE: This code is an absent value code

Code:  CVA

Description:  COVID Positive or Exposed and Absent

Presence Status: Absent

Code Category: Excused (Excused)

•  Students who test positive and are quarantined will be counted as an excused absence​ if the student is not receiving alternate assignments or participating in virtual learning or telephoned instruction. The attendance code that will be used for these instances will be the CVA (COVID absent) code. 

CODES NOT BEING USED:

D Code (Distance Learning)

PNC (Present No Connectivity)

ANC (Absent No Connectivity

I am also forwarding this correspondence to Dr. Baker and Mrs. Leger. They can assist schools or advise analysts to support with greater specifics if necessary.

Student Materials At this point all schools should have received Ready Read student materials. If your school needs additional Ready Read student materials, please communicate your grade level-specific needs to the ELA Department of Curriculum and Instruction via the email ci_ela_team@scsk12.org.

The K-5 Illuminate FastBridge Universal Screener and Benchmark window has been extended. The window will now close end of the day, Wednesday, January 26. This extension only applies to the IFB screener window. The i-Ready winter diagnostic window closes on Friday, January 14. Contact your assigned RTI2 Advisor for any questions, concerns, or additional support.

The Office of Curriculum and Instruction has collaborated with the Office of Professional Learning & Support, to provide professional development for our teachers K-5 for BrainPOP and BrainPOP science 9-12. Attached is the flyer with the information for sign-up in PLZ. Please encourage teachers to sign up. 

Science Upcoming Events 

Ready Math workbooks have been delivered to elementary and middle schools. Please use this form to confirm the number of Ready Math books that your school has received. The Department of Curriculum and Instruction is working diligently to redistribute overages to those schools that need additional materials to accommodate their current enrollment. Your assistance is greatly needed. 

January has arrived and that means that TDOE has issued courtesy reminders to anyone who has a license that will expire in August 2022. Please go ahead and review your TASL tab, by looking for a green checkmark indicating that you are compliant for all TASL cycles for which you served in a mandated role of principal or assistant principal.  This will support you with being ready for the renewal process.  Keep in mind that the current TASL cycle runs from July 1 through June 30 so you have plenty of time to fulfill the 14 required TASL hours. You may want to schedule a reminder to upload your 2021-22 LDW TASL credits following the May 2022 session.

Thank each of you for your support in encouraging parents to register 1st – 3rd-grade students in BookNook after-school virtual tutoring.  We were able to register a total number of 4,127 students through the TN state website. The students have been broken into 3 cohorts based on the availability of approved tutors as well as parents completing the 2-step registration process as required by BookNook. 

Cohort 1

• 222 students' parents completed the 2nd step process and began tutoring on December 13

Cohort 2 

• 1,106  began January 10  - communication reminders went out to those parents.

Cohort 3

• 2,500 students who completed steps 1 and 2 of the registration will begin February 22

The school with the highest participation rate by April 29, will receive a $1,000 gift card to provide lunch for their staff. To see the list of students who have registered, please review our BookNook SharePoint folder to see your students that have registered.  If there are questions and/or concerns as it relates to BookNook tutoring, please contact the academic team at wisemanlk@scsk12.org.

All schools should receive SEA Literacy Kits by January 20. Each kit contains literacy resources for SEAs to use with students when providing small group instruction or intervention. Principals, please designate someone on your admin team to 

• (1) Complete the survey indicating how many kits were received and how many more kits are needed 
• (2) Distribute the kits to SEAs
•  (3) Retrieve and store the kits at the end of the school year

Support for Successful Implementation: The Early Literacy Department has created professional learning content to explain and demonstrate "how to use" the resources in the kit.  SEAs can access this content via recording link (here) or SEAs can attend a live, TEAMS session by registering in PLZ, using course #29778.

If you have questions, please contact the Early Literacy Office at 901.416.4801 or email EarlyLiteracyDept@scsk12.org.

Thank you for attending January LDW. Materials can be accessed here.

Please review the 2022 Spring Professional Learning Catalog for learning opportunities that will support professional growth for all teachers, leaders, and central office staff. These multiple modalities of learning are designed to foster and maintain a high-quality workforce in all areas of expertise. The catalog includes sessions available through May 2022. 

https://bit.ly/SCSSpring2022PLCatalog

Thank you for attending the first two Instructional Practice 3 sessions with Chief Carson.  

A link to the OneDrive folder to access the presentation, facilitator guide, and IP3 norming lesson video is below. There are session materials for the I Do and We Do phases of gradual release using the norming video that we discussed during the December and January LDW sessions. The expectation is for school admin teams to redeliver the Instructional Practice 3 content to their building faculty by February 4.  

The expectation is that school admin or zone level supports redeliver this content to your teachers.  If your school admin or zone team does not have the capacity to redeliver this content, please complete the form linked below for support from Professional Learning and Support. https://forms.office.com/r/w5KxfM8515

Please download all materials prior to editing. IP3 for Leaders Session Materials
​Please reach out if you have questions, concerns, or need any additional support.

We are excited to launch part 2 of the district-wide DURING-THE-DAY TUTORING initiative, the TN ALL Corp program. Tutors consist of volunteers and internal and external tutors hired through Hey Tutor, YMCA of Memphis and SCS. They will be assigned to schools based on the hiring of staff or availability of volunteer tutors. Schools that have been selected to participate in Cohort One have been contacted. 

During-the-Day tutors will provide small group sessions focusing on re-teaching content, and connecting prerequisite skills to grade level content. All sessions will occur in the classroom under the active supervision of the classroom teacher. At no point should the tutor be left alone with students for any reason.      

For questions regarding the During-the-Day tutoring initiative, contact Stephanie McClain at mcclainsl@scsk12.org.