The Office of Student Equity Enrollment and Discipline is offering virtual professional development sessions around attendance, SEL, RTI2-B, and truancy during Spring 2022. We are asking leaders to please with school staff. Interested participants will need to register for courses in PLZ. Session facilitators will send the link to access training to all enrolled participants prior to the session. If you have any questions, email Thomasena Stuckett at stucketttd@scsk12.org. 

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

ALL students are required to complete online registration.  

• Online Registration launched 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 students.

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.

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

The Checklist for Wonders ancillary materials for Grades 1-5 was emailed to all elementary principals in November. The checklist is due on Friday, January 28.

Please email the completed checklist to Meryl Isabel - isabelml@scsk12.org.

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 ci_ela_team@scsk12.org.

Now that the Winter Diagnostic is completed, refresh yourself on the attached i-Ready/Toolbox Best Practices, to finish the 2nd half of the year strong.

Stay tuned for more info coming soon about this year’s i-Ready Incentive Campaign!

SCS District i-Ready Session Late Jan-March 2022 -LB.docx
SCS i-Ready Ready Toolbox RTI2 Best Practices 21-22v1.pdf

The Fall 2021 ILT stipend review is underway. However, ILT stipends have not been disbursed as we are still completing the review process. Once we have 100% of the schools Federal Programs, we will submit them for payment. If you have questions about the ILT stipend, please email SCSILTStipends@scsk12.org.

The Office of School Operations wants to reiterate the instructions regarding COVID-19 communications to parents and staff. 

After receiving word of a positive case in your school from the Contact Tracing Team, the Communications Department emails the principal “talking points” to be used for the individual calls to the parents of close contacts and a script for the “School-Wide Messaging”.  

The instructions for the talking points and script usually state something like this:     

• “Below are talking points for personal phone calls to the affected student(s), along with a school-wide message that can be sent to your families after school. The same school-wide messages can be adapted for staff. For any questions, call 901-416-1730 or email scsselfreport@scsk12.org.”      

Each time a School-Wide Message goes out to parents about a positive case, please remember the staff should also be informed by sending them a message. 

Thank you for the continued support.  

On the Job Injury (OJI) is an important issue discussed in the AOSS Manual. Please review this information and share it with your staff.

Please take a moment to review the RTI2 Lead Update newsletter content shared with RTI2 Leads on Tuesday, January 18. 

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 this form for support from Professional Learning and Support. 

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

 Professional Learning and Support is excited to expand our Spring 2022 offerings for your teacher assistants on the resources and supports that are available through i-Ready and Illuminate FastBridge. See full details in this flyer. 

Please reach out to Professional Learning and Support at professionallearning@scsk12.org if you have any questions.

Please encourage your students to attend AP Student Saturday Review, which will be held on January 29 at East High School (8 a.m. - 3 p.m.). Lunch will be provided. Sessions will be offered in the following subjects: 

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Computer Science A
• Physics
• English Language and Composition
• English Literature and Composition
• World History
• U.S. History
• Calculus AB and BC
• Human Geography

Please ask students to register using this link.  

We believe sustainability of explicit SEL instruction requires administrators and teachers have the knowledge, mindset, and skills necessary for equitable access to SEL content. Let us show you “The Way to ReThink”.  S.E.E.D. would like to provide your team support with ReThink Implementation.  Professional development hours are available if you register for one of these sessions in PLZ. The links are available for you to join the session.  

As a result of this session, teachers will be able to access essential lesson components within the ReThink platform to make strong instructional decisions that align with the district’s commitment to providing all students with meaningful social-emotional learning opportunities.

If you have questions, please email Rosalind Davis (DavisRJ@scsk12.org).

January 23-29 is School Board Appreciation Week in the state of Tennessee! Taking advantage of the designated School Board Appreciation Week ensures that School Board members receive the recognition they deserve. Download the graphics here! 

This year’s theme - “School Boards: Building the Future”

Click here to view the school/board member list.

 Here are some suggestions on how to show appreciation to your Board representative: 

• Add an appreciation message to your school’s marquee
• Ask students to write thank you cards to your school’s Board member
• Feature School Board members in school publications, on the website, and social media sites. 

Please utilize this hashtag when posting: #MySCSBoard. 

High schools that may be considering offering a new course that does not already have a state code need to inquire about the state’s special course application. Please contact William (Bill) White at whitewe@scsk12.org by Wednesday, January 26 for more information.

EPS is currently working to remove teachers listed on the PYE II track from the Power BI dashboard. Due to a hire date of November 8 or later, the educator will receive a partial year exemption and complete only 2 observations. These individuals will not count in the benchmark completion rate. PYE educators will not receive an LOE.

The Office of Employee Performance and Support is currently working with the PLZ vendor to establish a new plan for administrators who may have a role change during the school year.

The Evaluation plan will be called TEAM PYE. The TEAM PYE plan will be assigned to administrators (principals/vice & assistant principals) who started the role on or after November 8. The requirement for PYE administrators will be one observation for the school year. 

Please Note: TEAM PYE administrators will not receive an LOE.

In order to conduct NIE evaluations, evaluators MUST be NIE certified. If you are seeking NIE Certification, please complete the NIE Evaluator Certification Request Form.

Access to the NIE Certification course in the Canvas platform will be granted to eligible NIE evaluators as outlined per SCS Policy 4020.

 The deadline to complete all NIE Mid-Year Conferences in PLZ is February 11.  

• ALL required fields should be completed in their entirety before finalizing.  
• Need a refresher? The NIE Mid-year Conference tutorial is in Safeschools! Employees should log into their Safeschools account to search the library and view the NIE Mid-Year Conference tutorial.  
• NIE Step Guide – Employee 
• NIE Step Guide – Evaluator  

Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-2-136 became effective in 2021 and requires schools to notify the TSSAA of an enrolled student’s placement in foster care if the student expresses interest in participating in interscholastic athletics. Failure to do so may result in the student-athlete being ineligible.  

The TSSAA Portal is a primary point of interaction between member schools and the TSSAA state office. Schools should submit all potential student-athletes via the portal for TSSAA/TMSAA sanctioned sports. Foster care students are submitted in the same fashion.  

For special hardship cases, TSSAA has the authority to set aside the effect of any eligibility rule upon student-athletes per specific circumstances outlined in the TSSAA Constitution and Bylaws. If you have any additional questions, please contact the TSSAA regarding submission procedures. 

Please contact India Weaver at weaveri@scsk12.org or Dr. Roderick Richmond at richmondrf@scsk12.org if you have questions or concerns.