CWCS May 2007 ES Agenda

CWCS May 2007 ES Agenda

Please read the agenda, along with each of its links (all links available in ES Manual for future reference).

The agenda quiz must be completed in your ES WEBfiles BEFORE 3:00 pm the day before your ES meeting.

1) Dates to Remember and Dated Duties

a) May 8^th and 9^th: CAHSEE for 10, 11, and 12^th graders. All 10th grade students that didn't test in February MUST test in May... no exceptions.

b) May 15, 2007: 8^th Grade Graduation (practice at 4:30 and graduation at 7:00 p.m. at the Waterford High School Gymnasium)

c) May 17, 2007: Senior Graduation (practice at 4:30 and graduation at 7:00 p.m. at the Waterford High School Gymnasium)

Graduation information for both ceremonies that was sent on ES listserve.

d) May 18, 2007:

HQT Courses: Math, English, Social Science (includes Economics, government, US history, World History), Science

Learning Center Prospective Classes: Modesto Learning Center and Ceres Learning Center

ESs please sign up your students for the LC and the HQT classes in WEBfiles by May 18th so that we will know if we have to add sections.

(Most have been entered as CP classes for next year...remember to choose "Fall" classes when the prompt asks "Do you wish to find a summer or fall class")

Learning Center and Office Closing dates:

April 1, 2007- close the curriculum portion of the libraries to begin inventory and cataloging for our new library system at each Learning Center.

June 29, 2007- Learning Centers close.

July 16-31- Waterford Office closed

August 6 & 7- Learning Centers open for new families & AESS (families or ES) to pick up materials

August 8- Learning Centers open to returning families

August 13- first day of school and scholastic book fair begins at the Modesto Learning Center

August 16- Back to School night at the Modesto Learning Center

e) Monday, August 13, 2005: All ESs are expected to return to work, (be available by phone and e-mail), by August 13th. All enrolled students need to have been provided with all necessary educational materials by this date so that they can begin school on August 13th.

f) Tuesday, August 14, 2007: Fall All ES meeting. New Location Modesto Centre Plaza. Mark your calendars now for this mandatory all-day meeting! There will be a two-day all ES meeting in February of next year.

2) Things to Do

a) 2008 Student Agreements: Please mail in your 2008 Student Agreements and Assessment Confirmations. Only use the updated Assessment Confirmation form (includes a phrase about funding spent on standards review materials, and that the mandatory school assessment will take 7 days and STAR from 3-4 days), and read it CAREFULLY to be sure that the parents initial all appropriate sections. We would like all Student Agreements mailed to the IEM Office by May 11th. However, we understand that those families that test at the Manteca site at the last week of testing, may not be able to meet that deadline. We do not expect you to plan an extra meeting in order to meet the deadline. Late Reports will be run on May 14th as a courtesy reminder.

Kindergarten Retention Forms: Please submit any kindergarten retention forms with the Fall Student Agreements.

b) ES Checkout Please read carefully through the ES Checkout Procedure.

Mail to IEM c/o Shara Langford:

1) your completed ES checkout pages (two pages printed and completed from WEBfiles)

2) your signed and sealed ES evaluation

3) a copy of your “all clear” email from your ES Advisor

*4) A signed CWCS Employment Agreement

5) if applicable, resignation letter

*You will be receiving in the mail a CWCS Employee Agreement that you will need to sign and return to IEM c/o HR if you plan to continue employment with CWCS next year.

c) Summer Reminders:

-Summer Grads: Regular ESs will need to collect all materials from their Summer Grads, except those materials which will be used for summer school, which the summer school ES will collect.

-Summer School Report Cards: Remember, when registering your current students for summer school (SS), after completing the SS request form, you will need to create a high school or grade school summer school report card in ES WEBfiles. Be sure to select semester 3/2007, and the courses that the student needs to take in summer school according to the supplemental program they have signed up for. Also include the number of credits (for HS) the student is attempting for each course. Do not add the grades at this time--the summer school ES will complete the grades at the end of summer school.

-Summer Centralized Intake: Please e-mail stuassign@ieminc.org to let the office know if you will be able to contact new students during the month of June as we will only assign them to ESs that will be able to meet with them without delay according to the initial student assignment policy. In the e-mail, provide us with dates that you will be available, and when you will not be available. If we do not receive an e-mail from you, we will assume that you are not available to sign up meet with families until August 13th.

Centralized Intake will start May 21st and continue through June (and if needed early July). The assigned ES will receive an e-mail notifying them about the student assignment. The assigned ES will call the family immediately once the e-mail is received, and meet with the family within 7-10 week days after receiving the e-mail notification. Students that go through intake at this time will need to have their Scantron testing completed in the Fall when the school year begins in order to meet the requirements of our Scantron testing window for the '08 school year.

Centralized Intake Curriculum will be available for ESs or families to pick up at the Modesto Learning Center in August.

-Summer drops: If any students drop during the summer, remember to send in a drop form and e-mail stuassign@ieminc.org right away if you need a replacement. If you have POs placed for them, they are NOT automatically cancelled, so be sure to contact VR Inquiries to have the orders canceled. If the orders have already arrived, make arrangements to “sell” them to another family or ES. Use your ES group to network about this!

-Fall Orders: Remember that any items that you have ordered for families for the Fall, will be arriving during the summer. If you are going to be away from your home, make sure that you have someone collecting your mail. Please mark items in as received right away so that we can pay the vendors! (Any orders made starting April 23rd will need to be marked "08")

d) PO Files need updating:

-Backordered Items: When marking POs complete, remember to mark all backordered items that have come in as received.

-"Incomplete" POs. An easy way to view which POs need your attention is to go to ES Webfiles, ”View/POs” and scan for those not marked with an “X” in the completed column on the right side of the list. Send in a VR inquiry to have a problem PO researched or cancelled. This list now includes both service and product POs. Remember, an outstanding PO will still be encumbered against your IF account even if the item/service is never provided by the vendor. You will need to clear up all of these before ES Checkout, so now would be an excellent time to start this process. As stated in the Spring and Summer PO Requests, accounting will delete any POs that are still incomplete by June 15th. If your families have important items that they were hoping to receive from this year's budget, be sure to let them know about this cutoff. No exceptions will be made.

e) Items to Share with Your Parents:

-April and May CWCS Newsletters

-CWCS 2008 Calendar

-The Ceres Learning Center is Moving!!!

The Ceres Learning Center will be moving over the summer. The new location has 2800 square feet with several small classrooms and meeting areas for ESs and families!The new Ceres Learning Center will offer a separate library, small storage area, 2 restrooms, and an open meeting place. The new address is: 3641 Mitchell Road, Suite F Ceres, CA 95307

-CWCS Awards Ceremony

-CWCS Renaissance Fair

-CWCS Field Day

f) STAR Testing Flyer Awards will be presented by the ESs to their students after the results are received. The awards will be given to the ESs at the All ES meeting in August.

g) ES Survey: The traditional end of school year ES Support Survey is available for your input . We would like all ESs to complete the survey by ES Checkout. This is your time to give us input as to what we can do to serve you better as you serve your students.

h) Yearly print out of Standards: Each growth area of the student's learning record has a yellow button on the top right labeled "print yearly standards". Print a copy of the yearly student standards for each student in each growth area where learning occurred, and keep in student's file.

3) Training Items

a) HQT 2007/2008

*Assigning Credits/ Grade for HQT

ES Responsibilities beginning Fall 2007/2008:

Log in to www.nicenet.org and sign up as a class member.
Check nicenet for announcements or students’ assignments.
Daily work assignments to be graded by parent or ES
Sign off and date class assignment sheet on syllabus at each learning record meeting, and keep for records.
Email monthly progress sheet (see attached) to Department ES after each learning record meeting.
Contact Department ES if student is dropping the course, or having any difficulties
Department ES will give 100% of grade based on ES/parent input and assigned work, etc.

*Sample of a Monthly Elluminate Progress Report

*HQT Parents Denied LR Reminder:

Please note: the “HQT Parent Denied” is not be used freely for the 2007-2008 school year.

Examples of when this is appropriate to use:

-A HQT class may conflict with student’s current schedule
-Parents are highly qualified in content area
-Student is proficient in the content area and is focusing on other areas
Students should use the options and resources available so that we can meet the Federal Mandate of NCLB Act of 2001.

"HQT Parents denied" is not a likely option for "at risk" students.

*Individual Learning Plan Checklist- Individual Learning Plan Checklist is an optional form for your use in helping evaluate each student's Personalized Learning Improvement Plan

PLIP Checklists: LA K-3, 4-8, 9-12 Math: K-7, Algebra, 9-12

*HQT Courses: Math, English, Social Science (includes Economics, government, US history, World History), Science

Learning Center Prospective Classes: Modesto Learning Center and Ceres Learning Center (Most have been entered as CP classes for next year.)

ESs please sign up your students for the LC and the HQT classes by May 18th so that we will know if we have to add sections.

(Most have been entered as CP classes for next year...remember to choose "Fall" classes when the prompt asks "Do you wish to find a summer or fall class")

b) Non-School Funded Resources- Clarification regarding materials used by parents that are non-school funded resources.

c) Assigning Credits/Grades for College Classes for Grads

ESs with students graduating that are taking college classes, should get a progress report from the instructor and make an estimate of the final grade. Once the final grades are received, the ESs should make any necessary changes to the transcript through their advisor within two weeks after the college class ends.

d) Assigning Grades to Courses with No Credits: The "F" grade will be removed as an option from the report card. Please be sure to follow the No Grades/ Credits Earned policy.

e) CP Course Set-up: A new page has been added to the CP course set-up directions that is a pdf of the webfiles page for your reference.

f) CWCS 2008 Paperwork Timetable:

Please note:

-These are ES deadlines. In order to meet the expected deadlines, ESs will need to give their parents sufficient notice so that any required information or documents can be collected from parents at an earlier date set by the ES.

-New for next year: The First Semester portfolios for all students will be reviewed at the December 2007 ES meeting.

g) Reminders from Student Records: These are two common reasons the student agreement paperwork needs to be redone.

-Ret means Retention: Don’t check the “ret” box on the student agreement unless the student is going to stay in the same grade for the Fall. SeeK-8 Grade Placement Policy for more information.

-Assessment Confirmation Form: Please note which boxes need to be initialed for each grade level, and that the top three need to be initialed by all! Do not send in forms that are incomplete.

h) X’s and O’s: An addition has been made to the attendance rollsheet checklist to clarify that the ES may NOT make changes and initial them in the X’s and 0’s portion of the rollsheet. Prior to this it only stated that the parent should initial the change, but didn’t state that the ES could not. Remember, Parents only, not ESs, can mark the X's and 0's on the rollsheet.

i) First Meeting Information Sheet: The First Meeting Information Sheet that is completed at the beginning of each school year now includes the CAHSEE letter and the WASC/ESLRs survey.

j) Dropped Student IFs: The CW Instructional Fund Policy now includes a Dropped Student’s IF section describing the process for deducting unused instructional funding when a student drops.

k) AESS Reminder: ESs must create a new AESS contract each year for their AESS students. Please review the AESS guidelines and remember that with option A, the parent must be provided with appropriate materials so that work can be graded, and that with option B the ES must both make the assignments and collect the daily work, grading the tests and quizzes.

l) Your AF will be giving a wallet of cds to each ES. IT has written directions that each ES must read carefully. There are 4 disks in each wallet: 1) Microsoft Office 2003 Install Disk (CD)2) AVG and Firefox Install Disk (CD)3) Install & Restore Disk for Optiplex 745 Computers (2 copies) DVD

4) Messages from School Departments

a) ASSESSMENT:

Thank you for all of your hard work! 1329 out of 1337 students completed testing = 99.4% STAR Participation Rate. A Scantron report will be run and individual emails will be sent to each ES that may have students that did not complete their Scantron testing. This must be completed before ES checkout. The Assessment department will be working throughout the summer so that they can hit the ground running come Fall. Thank you for a great year!

b) CURRICULUM NEWS from Lori Freeman

c) GUIDANCE NEWS from Mary Halter

-BYU online has been reinstated as a vendor! More information can be found online at http://www.ce.byu.edu/is/site . Courses are offered for grades 7 through 12 and most courses are $115 per semester total, no textbooks needed. If you have questions, please contact Mary Halter at mhalter@connectingwaters.org

d) IT

-Duplicate POs: ESs can now go to “view” POs and after selecting a PO, can click on the button “duplicate as a PO Request” to create a new PO request from the processed PO.

-Benchmark Content Standards are now noted in the LR standards files with an asterisk *

-Microsoft Office 2003- CWCS now has a site license for Microsoft Office that is ordered through Dell.

*Dell computers come with Microsoft Office and are included in the CWCS quote.

*If an ES would like to order Microsoft Office for a non-Dell computer, they must create a PO using the quote on the computer page. The ES will then use the cd that was given to them at the May ES meeting and will also use it for any future POs that they create for school owned computers (ESs must create a new PO for any non-Dell school owned computer each time they install the program).

Important: This licensed program is for use on Connecting Waters Charter School owned and CWCS employee owned computers only. (Check with IT Coordinator for further info) Use on any other computers is expressly forbidden. Education Specialists must maintain possession of this disk at all times.

-New Database additions:

*Truancy Letters: The truancy letters now have a field called “missed appointments” with a drop down for you to choose CAHSEE, STAR, or Scantron

*Learning Records: The learning records now have a button that will allow you to delete the standards in each growth area for the current learning record. This is helpful when you duplicate a learning record from the previous month. The button will allow you to delete the standards in a growth area all at once, if desired, without having to “uncheck” each individual standard.

e) VENDOR RELATIONS

- Marine World is now called “Six Flags Discovery Kingdom”.

The park no longer has an “Outdoor Classroom” program with the online curriculum that can be printed to give to our parents. Attendance to the park will now be allowed only on the linked Educationally Themed days or for scheduled animal interactions. A note regarding this will be made in the PO notes as well as in the ES manual.

-Vendor Relations is now separated into two distinct parts with two people answering emails about specific topics. Please use the VR Inquiries link in the ES manual for both parties. The email vendorrelations@ieminc.org is specific to only one of the topics, so should not be used as a generic email.

The first selection on the VR Inquiries page is “New Vendor Request” and will automatically be sent to vendorrelations@ieminc.org . It is only for vendor approvals or to check the status of prospective vendors.

The second selection on the VR Inquiries page is “PO Inquiries” and will automatically be sent to poinquiries@ieminc.org. It is for ES inquiries of any type regarding already placed POs, PO requests, or vendors.

-Vendor Relations is now separated into two distinct parts with two people answering emails about specific topics. Please use the VR Inquiries link in the ES manual for both parties. The email vendorrelations@ieminc.org is specific to only one of the topics, so should not be used as a generic email.

IEM has recently made some staffing changes and has separated these duties out which should equate to faster TAT (turn-around-times) and better customer service!

- New Ordering Information from Rosetta Stone (info will be posted on vendor notes area on PO request)

1. Specify the Classroom Edition, not Home School or Personal Edition as described on the Internet.
2. Specify the language the student wants to study – Spanish (LA) or German, for example.
3. Specify the level of the language – Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3
4. Specify the Standalone application.
5. Request the Home School box. Until the Classroom Edition is available in a bookshelf box, if you request a Home School box we will send it to you at no charge. Specify “No Charge” on your PO.
6. Request Home School Student Management System (SMS). The Home School SMS is designed to be used by parents in the home. Specify “No Charge” on your PO.
7. The price is $195.00 per license per level. (The Classroom Edition is not available in sets as described for the Personal Edition on the Internet.)
8. If you need additional copies of the ancillary material that comes with the license please see the attached sheet for a list of the materials available. (Not all languages have the same material available. Workbook are $9.95, Workbook Answer Keys $2.95 and Teacher's Guide $75.00.)

5) ES Networking

a) Curriculum swap

-Bring any materials that might be able to be used by other families, to trade or “sell” to other ESs for their families to use. Money is not actually exchanged, but funding transfers from budgets can occur if desired using the transfer of funds form.

b) Meeting Dates for 2008

c) All ES Meeting Topics: Please network amongst your group and send your top five suggestions in your AF meeting summary for consideration for our All ES meetings. The August meeting is pretty packed, but we'd like to incorporate as many as possible in that meeting as well as in our February meeting.