Welcome Back!

 Good Afternoon-

I hope this finds you happy, healthy, safe and ready for a great year at Beacon!  We look forward to seeing you on September 3rd 2024 at Lincoln Park High School at 8:00 am in the auditorium.  The agenda is attached 9.3.24 Agenda - We will be heading back to Beacon in the afternoon.  Carrabbas is graciously providing lunch for our staff at the building on this day. Lunch will be served at 11:15. We will be providing water. If you would like something different please feel free to bring your own drink.

Human Resources has worked extremely hard to ensure we are fully staffed.  We are close to that goal - fingers crossed. We have had 14 new staff join our team this year.  I am very excited about these additions and know they will be a great asset to our team. They are as follows:

Amanda Swan - Behavior Specialist    

Alex Duda - PE Teacher

Emily Hiser - Middle School ELA Teacher    

Beth  Wusthoff - High School Science

Kim Criger - Literacy Coach    

Sarah Rea - School Psychologist

Darrion Thompson - Behavior Coach I    

Erica Taylor - Behavior Paraprofessional

Harrison Hancock - 1:1 Paraprofessional    

Jacklynn Hancock - HS ELA Paraprofessional

James Ascott - MS Math Paraprofessional    

Yulissa Cuevas - MS ELA Paraprofessional

Allison Reese- HS SS Paraprofessional    

Shannon Russell - HS Science Paraprofessional

Our team has worked hard this summer to expand upon last year's completed committee work and have made some exciting changes to our program. I will be outlining some of the changes and our team will be going more in depth during our time together on September 3rd.  Please don’t let this overwhelm you - we will get through this together.

1. We have updated our Point Sheets. These were created by the Points Committee last year.  It was piloted towards the end of the year in various areas.  This will mirror the PBIS expectations and hopefully make it easier to understand for both staff and students.You can review the point sheet  prior our meeting here - 2024 Point Sheet

2. Our leveling system will look different this year.  To begin the year, each student will start on step 2, with the expeption of the students that left for the summer on a higher step.  Those students will keep their current step. Steps may change weekly - this will be explained in depth on Tuesday.

3. We have renamed the Centers. They will now be known as Reset Rooms.  

4. Our phone policy is the same as the districts. Some of you followed the policy last year in your classrooms.  Moving forward the entire building will follow the policy. Martha has made posters for your classrooms that she has laminated and placed in your mailboxes. Please be sure to hang these in your classrooms. Reset Rooms will be a Red Zone (no phone use). The cafeteria and the hallway will be Green Zones. Your personal classroom is your discretion.

5. We are bringing back Beacon Bucks! The PBIS team will give an overview of how and when we will use Beacon Bucks for our students. These will NOT take the place of our students' points.

6. The behavior team has worked hard this year to develop new ways of working with our students.  At this time, we have 15 members that are part of the behavior team, this does NOT include our social work team.  More information will be provided on September 3 of how this will look at Beacon.

7. Our bell schedule has changed to support our students.  The bell schedule for the 24-25 school year can be viewed  Here. As you may have noticed, Group has been shortened and time has been added to the end of the day to homeroom/dismissal time. Also, we have added an Enrichment time before lunch for High School students and after lunch for Elementary/ Middle school students.  More information will be forthcoming during our time together.

8. I will continue to share information through Bloggin with Beacon this school year.  Please make sure to bookmark it and refer to it often.

Many of our changes were due to the hard work that was done through our 23-24 committees. I am thankful for all of your dedication to our program and look forward to continuing this work in the upcoming school year.  Looking forward to seeing you on September 3rd! Let’s make it a great year - on purpose! Go Rails!

Sincerely,

Jenn