Colleagues,
I hope you each had a productive week with our students. Per my message last week, we have begun rolling out our next phase of viral “surveillance” testing by beginning with our staff at WMS and WHS. If you work in either of those schools, please remember to collect your sample at home Monday morning and return it to school that day. Later next week, we will begin phasing in this model for all schools in the district before expanding to all secondary students at WMS and WHS.
We also learned this week that the Commissioner of Education has approved district use of remote learning days this winter, rather than calling traditional snow days. The good news is that this should allow us to complete the year earlier in June without utilizing the built-in days from our calendar we traditionally use to make up for any lost snow days.
Finally, I want to be sure you are all aware that our District COVID Dashboard is posted on the Town’s web page, to which you can link from the WPS homepage. This site will be updated each Thursday based on the weekly release of state COVID data.
Thanks for all that you do for our students and have a great weekend!
Best,
David
Calendar
10/20/20 – School Committee Meeting – Remote Online – 5:15 pm
11/03/20 – (Tues) – Election Day – Remote Learning Day Gr. K-12 (1/2 Day)
11/04/20 (Wed) – In-person Day for Students in Cohort B
10/20/20 – School Committee Meeting – Remote Online – 6:30 pm
11/11/20 (Wed) – Veteran’s Day – No School
Reminder: Equity Protocols Training
Beginning in SY20-21, all WPS faculty and staff are required to take the Equity Protocols Training and accompanying assessment as seen on the Mandatory Trainings page of our Human Resources website. A passing score of 6 out of 8 is required. The equity protocols training ensures that we are all aware of equity violations that may arise in our community, and our collective responsibility to prevent and address such issues. Please complete the training by October 31, 2020, as communicated by the Office of Human Resources.
Our Panorama survey window is open and will close Wednesday, October 21.
All survey responses are anonymous and confidential. The survey will take approximately 30 minutes.
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Employee Group |
Example(s) |
Survey Link |
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Teachers/Instructional Staff |
Classroom Teachers, Directors/Department Heads, Long-term Substitutes, Math and Literacy Coaches, Paraprofessionals, Special Educators, Specialists, Teaching Assistants, etc. |
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Non-Instructional Staff |
Assistant Principals, Guidance Counselors, METCO, Nurses, OT/PT/SLT, Psychologists, School Front Office Staff, Social Workers, etc. |
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Operations Staff |
Custodial, Facilities, Food Services, Mail, Maintenance, Transportation, etc. |
*Please note: If you are a staff member who works at two schools, select the school where you work the most and with which you are most familiar. You may take the survey for each school only if you feel that your experiences at each school strongly differ. If you work at more than two schools, please select “District-wide” as your school.
Salary Lane Change News: Letters of Intent to change lanes in SY2020-22 are due by November 1, 2020.
All professional staff who expect to receive a Masters, M+30, or M+60/Doctorate at the beginning of the next school year 2021-2022, must send formal notification of intent to change salary lanes to Addie Doherty dohertya@wellesleyps.org, no later than November 1, 2020. The notification should include: current lane, proposed lane, and the school year (2021-22) in which you hope to change lanes. This early notification deadline is required so that provisions for anticipated salary lane changes may be included within the new fiscal year budget. Please note: The list does not carry forward. You must provide written notice each year until you have achieved the desired lane change.
Signi
ng in to WPS Buildings
You may have noticed signs at the entrance of our schools that look like the picture below. This is an electronic way of signing into the building and attesting that you are feeling well. Please take a picture of the sign. This will prompt you to fill out your information on a Google form attesting that you are well. If you do not have a cell phone, you will still be able to sign in to the building using the paper sign in log.
Fraudulent Unemployment Claims
Unfortunately, many of our employees have been affected by a data breach and false unemployment claims have been filed on their behalf. The Human Resources Office has contacted all employees who were impacted. If you have been contacted by the Human Resources Office and informed that your information has been used to file a false unemployment claim, please follow the steps below to report unemployment benefits fraud.
1. Report the fraud to the unemployment office.
2. Report it to your local police department.
3. Report it to the credit bureau.
4. Report it to the social security administration by calling 1-800-269-0271
Human Relations Services
The Human Relation Services (HRS) can help. Wellesley Public Schools has contracted with HRS to provide up to ten free counseling visits for you and/or your family members. This program is designed to help you deal with stresses of life and work –including personal and family issues, drug or alcohol problems, and job related tension. It offers prevention and intervention to reduce these stresses and improve coping skills.
HRS is located at 11 Chapel Place in Wellesley and can be reached at 781-235-4950. This is a confidential service. Wellesley Public Schools is not aware of the names of employees or their family members who utilize this service.
New DESE License Call Center Hours
The DESE Licensure Call Center will offer an additional five hours per week of service to educators and prospective educators. Effective Monday, January 6, 2020 the Licensure Call Center (781-338-6600) will be open each business day from 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Almost 50 percent of the responses from a recent survey favored these new hours over other options.
Do you have a question for the WPS Human Resources Department? Email AskHR@Wellesleyps.org. The Human Resources Department is happy to assist you.
WPS Internal Job Postings on District Website
For all Internal Job Postings, please go to “Internal Job Postings” under the Faculty tab of the District’s website.