Limited slots for special spring projects are available for all high schools through Project Graduation. 

Special projects are designed to provide prescriptive support by customizing courses and class days/times to meet the specific needs of your school. 

Complete the special projects form before October 5 to request a PG Special Project course for your school. CLICK HERE for more information and detailed steps. 

Click here: The Way to ReThink.

It has come to our attention that some schools have been utilizing self-made/unofficial forms of suspension. Please remember that schools are mandated only to use the District’s standardized official suspension letter. Suspensions must be entered in Incident Management within 24 hours of the incident (business days). NO EXCEPTIONS.

Please see the steps for printing an Official Letter of Suspension. Moving forward, only principals, assistant principals, vice-principals, and select central office staff from the SEED department will have the ability to enter suspensions. 

If you have questions regarding discipline data entry, contact June Nickols, Discipline Advisor, at NICKOLSJL@scsk12.org. If you need additional clarity regarding TCA-related obligations concerning discipline implementation, contact Dr. JB Blocker, Manager of Equity Discipline & Intervention (EDI), at BLOCKERJ@scsk12.org or 901-314-9157.

As a reminder, state law requires all districts and schools to implement the truancy intervention process with fidelity. Per state law and MSCS Policy 6016, schools must ensure that truant students with five (5) or more unexcused absences receive a Student Attendance Review Team (SART) meeting. Failure to conduct a SART meeting impedes the truancy process and can result in truancy cases being dismissed from court. Please refer to Truancy Flow Chart to ensure each step of the SART process is completed. All truancy actions must be documented in PowerSchool, and the PSAP be entered in BrightBytes. 

Several trainings will be offered this semester around the SART process. School clerical and administrators responsible for attendance and truancy should attend. The dates are listed below. Participants should register in PLZ using course code #31824.

• October 4
• October 27
• November 15
• December 1

Your assigned truancy specialist can provide onsite support and additional training. Contact Thomasena Stuckett at stucketttd@scsk12.org or Gail Cotton at cottongd@scsk12.org if you have any questions or need further information.

It is important to remember that the KID Team staff is limited and serves all of our elementary school populations. The KID Team protocols require that Tier 1, 2, and 3 supports are exhausted before one of the three KID Team specialists is deployed for one-on-one student support. Please review the attached KID Team manual before making KID Team referrals. 

For additional guidance or KID Team assessment, contact Pamela Jones, Advisor JONESP@scsk12.org, or at 901-416-8343. 

Please review the KID Team manual.

TennCare ships the annual TennCare Kids Well-Child Checkup reminder flyers and posters each school year. They will be shipped to all public schools around the middle of October to coincide with Child Health Month. The boxes will be addressed to the school principal by name. These materials are designed to remind students and parents of the importance of annual well-child visits and staying up to date on immunizations. Each school will receive one flyer per student and two posters to be placed prominently in the school building. 

TennCare is asking for your assistance in supporting the distribution of these materials. If you have questions about this initiative, please contact TennCare at TennCareKids.Help@tn.gov.

The Tennessee Department of Education and the American Heart Association have created a survey to gather information on the physical education programs in all public school districts. This survey also allows for reporting with compliance to T.C.A. § 49-1-1007. 

We will use the data gathered from this survey to understand what physical education looks like across Tennessee. The data will be analyzed and returned to the district to share with the schools to help develop the school’s overall wellness plan. 

You have been identified by your district school health coordinator as the point of contact to complete this survey for your school’s physical education program. The survey will take approximately 10 minutes. Please answer the questions to the best of your knowledge. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to Heather.M.Piergies@tn.gov. 

Please click here to begin the survey. If you teach in more than one school, please complete one survey for each of them. If you are the designated lead and have responsibilities to distribute content to your colleagues, please forward this email to ensure a completed survey from each building.

The district now utilizes a centralized withdrawal process to monitor and track students. These withdrawals are currently being handled by the SEED Office. To ensure office staff is fully knowledgeable, please review the attached FACT and step sheet to better understand the process.  

As a reminder, e-mail addresses have been created for all schools to communicate real-time student requests with principals, VPs, APs, Counselors, GOS, Records, and Financial secretaries, if applicable.

Attendance:

1. Teachers should mark attendance daily and grades should be updated in PowerTeacher Pro
2. All attendance should be processed and reconciled daily by the attendance designee
3. On-going attendance clean-up sessions will be conducted by zone within the coming weeks

 Please email studentservices@scsk12.org for questions.

The Curriculum Associates PD team is ready to help with the following items: 

• Tools to accelerate students' readiness for grade-level instruction, such as the Math Prerequisites report, the NEW Grade Level Scaffolding Report 
• Prescriptions with Ready in Reading and Math 
• Toolbox to support differentiated, teacher-led instruction 
• For scheduling, please reach out to Elaine Price, Marty Pettigrew, and Mike Ricci (EPrice@cainc.com, MPettigrew@cainc.com, MRicci@cainc.com)

The TVA STEM Classroom Grant is now open for teachers in grades K-12. The TVA STEM Classroom Grant Program, sponsored by the Tennessee Valley Authority in partnership with Bicentennial Volunteers Incorporated, is designed to fund STEM learning projects in classrooms and schools in the TVA service area. Applications for the 2022-2023 program will close on October 17. Please click here to apply.

Optional Schools Strategic Plans for 2022-23 are due by Friday, October 7. These plans are critical to ensure we engage in purposeful activities that align with the National Magnet Standards of Excellence and focus on strengthening all aspects of your optional program. 

As a reminder, please review upcoming deadlines in the Optional Calendar - 9-29-22.doc. 

Please contact Linda Sklar or Katrina Taylor if you have questions. 

Please complete the Fifth Grade Enrichment Monitoring Form to communicate your progress in implementing the fifth-grade enrichment initiative for the first quarter. This form has been sent to you in a digital folder. 

Please contact Dr. Katrina Taylor if you have questions or need access to the shared folder. 

To ensure that all MSCS honors courses remain in compliance with state and district requirements that govern advanced courses, honors teachers must submit compliance documentation each semester. Honors Compliance documents for the first semester are due by Friday, October 28. The following documents are required:

• Honors Cover Page
• Task Instructions
• Student Exemplar

This information is being sent to all honors teachers and honors administrator designees. Please contact Emily Barbee or Terriny Lloyd if you have questions or need support.  

Please see and share the flyer regarding professional learning sessions for new teachers in the first week of October. These sessions can be attended by new teachers or returning teachers who need a refresher.

If you have any questions, please reach out to boyletd@scsk12.org.

The Blended Learning Team will share monthly updates highlighting various supports available to assist with Blended Learning. This month, we are introducing you to our new team and course offerings for the fall. Check out our newsletter.

The AOSS Manual contains important information for addressing serious situations with employees.  Please review the information regarding Staff Arrested at School.  

For detailed information regarding employment matters, please consult the MSCS HR Website.

Check out what’s happening in our employee Family Care Center (FBC) and school-based clinics (SBC). Student Support Services will offer the “The Clinic View” newsletter each month.

• FCC NEWSLETTER October 2022.pdf
• newsletter October 2022 SBC.pdf

The deadline to complete ALL NIE Goal-Setting Conferences in PLZ is Friday, October 28. Employees MUST select their evaluator for the evaluator to access their evaluation. ALL fields should be completed in their entirety before finalizing. 

The following links are available as resources for completing the Goal Setting Conference and can also be found in PLZ under the "Resources" tab:

• NIE Goal Setting Conference Tutorial
• NIE Step Guide (Evaluator Perspective)
• NIE Step Guide (Employee Perspective)

Questions? Please reach out to eps@scsk12.org.

School Administrators should complete this form to indicate the site coordinator for their school by September 30. 

Questions? Reach out to the EPS office: 

• Phone: 901.416.2475 | Email,  eps@scsk12.org. 

ALL content teachers will require two informal observations in PLZ. One informal observation should be recorded in PLZ EACH semester. The first informal observation in PLZ should occur before beginning formal observations.

Please note: When uploading a file, each field must be completed. Observers can enter “See Attachment” in the fields when they attach the document.

As a resource, please click the links below.

• SY22-23 Informal Walkthrough PLZ Guide - ADMINISTRATOR
• SY22-23 Informal Walkthrough PLZ Guide - TEACHER

Registration is now open for SY22-23 Professionalism Training. To find out more information, click here.

The window for completing Growth and Achievement selections for the SY 2022-23 is October 1-31.  Please find the guidance for Teachers and Evaluators, which can also be found under PLZ Resources for completing the selections for Growth and Achievement. 

Questions? Reach out to the EPS office: 

• Phone: 90.416.2475 l Email: eps@scsk12.org. 

The TEM TEACHer Training Series is now open for ALL teachers. The series aims to identify teacher and student actions that guide effective instruction at performance levels 3-5 of the TEACH indicators. Register in PLZ, course #26177.

The MSCS Compass is a new one-stop shop for all your PowerBI reports, including the new and improved Student Profile, which is now called Student Data 360. Watch our introduction and navigation video here - Intro to MSCS Compass

Need to Give Someone Access to PowerBI?

• Principals can give school staff members access through the PowerBI Access App. If you see someone in the Access App that should be removed from your school, contact DAIM Support (DAIMSUPPORT@scsk12.org) and we can assist. 

NEW Feature – Literacy Commitment ASP List

• You can now pull a list of students to create ASPs for Literacy Commitment using i-Ready data. Check out our user guide and video for more info.
   

NEW Feature – Bi-Weekly Data Tracker

• We have a new tool to support Principals to efficiently locate data for the bi-weekly data tracker. The tool contains links to each required data point (where available in PowerBI). While visuals may appear blank, data will populate upon following the link. We recommend Principals subscribe to this report ahead of the bi-weekly deadline.
   
• NOTE: The following data points are unavailable in PowerBI at this time but will be released in the coming weeks (stay tuned to Leaderboard for updates): Tutoring Enrollment & Attendance, i-Ready Health Ratings, Instructional Practice Walkthroughs, TEM Observations, Teacher Vacancies, SOAR Cycle, RTI Progress Monitoring, and Failing Grades in Teacher Gradebooks.

Support and Trainings

• Virtual Office Hours for this week (October 4th and 6th) will be an open forum Q&A. Come ask any questions you have about PowerBI or BrightBytes. VOH trainings are normally every Tuesday and Thursday at 3:30 PM. Sign Up for Virtual Office Hours here→ Virtual Office Hours (sharepoint.com)

Attention School Clerical Staff

• During the week of October 18th and 20th, we will move VOH to 10 AM on both days and go over the Attendance Reconciliation Report.

DAIM Support and Data Quality Alerts

• Does something in a dashboard look wrong? Check our Data Quality Updates.
• And check out the rest of the DAIM Support Sharepoint site, complete with additional video tutorials, walkthrough guides, and more!

To provide an enhanced and more secure service for tracking the movement of student records, MSCS Records Office will transition to the electronic transfer of student cumulative files using Scribbles (K-12 ScribTransfer). Training has concluded, and on October 3, schools will begin utilizing the Scribbles K-12 ScribTransfer to process student records requests. 

Student records requests from in-district and out-of-district schools will no longer be accepted via faxes, emails, or mail. 

Please contact the Records Office at 901-416-5830 or scsrecordsdepartment@scsk12.org if there are additional questions or concerns.

October is Adopt-A-School Month. MSCS and the Greater Memphis Chamber are issuing a CALL to ACTION to businesses to Reimagine 901 by becoming school adopters. 

Businesses have the opportunity to support schools, impact student learning and have meaningful volunteer opportunities. During this campaign, school leaders can engage in activities like inviting active and potential adopters to their schools and highlighting them on your school websites. Click here for more information. 

Adopt-A-School Recognition Luncheon Details:

October 27, 11:30 a.m., at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn, 3700 Central Ave.

Principals will:

• Nominate one (1) adopter who is highly active and goes above and beyond by COB 10/7/22
• Notify adopter of nomination and invite them to attend
• Briefly share why this adopter has been nominated
• The winner of Adopter-of-The Year will be revealed at the Adopt-A-School Recognition Luncheon.
• The principal or administrator is required to attend