Staff Handbook
John Williams School No. 5 Bobcats
“We are the bobcats the mighty, mighty bobcats when we want some knowledge we roar, we roar.”
John Williams School No. 5
Table of Contents
I. General Information
Ä Welcome
Ä Urgency
Ä What is a School?
Ä Dress for Respect
Ä Mission/Vision Statement
Ä School Climate (C-Food Cuisine)
Ä School Time Schedules
II. Staffing / Organization
Ä Staff Roster
Ä School Time Periods
Ä Teacher reporting time
Ä Calendar at glance
Ä Administrative Team
Ä Main Office and Other Personnel
Ä School Schedule
Ä Lunch Periods
III. General Policies
Ä Bulletin Boards
Ä Child Abuse Reporting Procedures
Ä Communication to Staff / Parents
Ä Conference Days
Ä Copying Services
Ä Crisis Incidents
Ä Custodial Request Procedure and Form
Ä Dining Hall Procedures
Ä Dining Hall Services
Ä Staff Absences
Ä Fire Alarm Procedures
Ä Fund Raising / Student Activity Accounts
Ä Special Events
Ä School Activities/Fieldtrips
Ä Induction (New Staff)
Ä Student / Employee Injuries
Ä Keys, Lost & Found and Mailboxes
Ä Lost and Found, Keys and Mailboxes
Ä Office Staff Form & Other Request Forms
Ä Parent Involvement
Ä 911 Procedure
Ä School Committees
Ä Signs and Posters
Ä Smoking
Ä Staff Identification Badges
Ä Telephone Usage
IV. School-wide Common Language Policies
Ä School Creed
Ä School-wide Agenda Adoption
Ä School-wide Discipline Policy/ Second Chance Room
Ä School-wide Bi-monthly Parent Newsletter
Ä School-wide Student Announcements
Ä School-wide Weekly Bulletin
Ä School-wide Student Supervision
V. Additional School Safety Plan Inserts
Ä Exit Standards
Ä Grading Policy
Ä Homework Policy
Ä Intervention Letters
Ä Parent-Teacher Conferences
Ä School Safety Response Team
Ä School Uniform Policy and %100 Uniform Challenge
Ä TEAM Mediation Request Form
Ä Standards for Recognition
Ä Extra-Curricular Activities (Board Policy)
Ä 7th/8th Grade Intermediate Sports
Ä Six Shifts Common Core Shift in Math and ELA
Ä Teach Like a Champion Protocol
Ä Teacher Evaluation Process
Dear Staff,
This year we will experience several changes and challenges. We are temporarily located on the Jefferson Campus. However, we will be moving into a newly renovated space in the 2014-2015 school year. We have lost several significant members of our school community. They will be greatly missed. On another note we are welcoming several new members to our staff and look forward to establishing collegial relationships with them.
We continue to focus on increasing student achievement. This will be K-6 second year using the New York State Common Core. Members of our 7th and 8th grade team will begin to incorporate the Common Core in ELA and Math. We no longer have short Wednesdays and will need to begin to seek alternatives ways to grow professionally.
With so many challenges facing us it is important to take care of ourselves and to be kind to one another. You are a phenomenal staff and we feel you have the capacity to help are students achieve academic success.
Fondly,
Joanne Wideman LoWan Brown Dave Gizzi
Principal Assistant Principal Assistant Principal
Change
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
George Bernard Shaw
What is a School?What is the teacher?
A guide, not a guard.
What is learning?
A journey, not a destination.
What is discovery?
Questioning the answers, not answering the questions.
What is the process?
Discovering ideas, not covering content.
What is the goal?
Open minds, not closed issues.
What is the test?
Being and becoming, not remembering and answering.
What is the school?
Whatever we choose to make it!!!
Alan Glatthorn
Dress for Respect
Let your professionalism speak for you!
Clothing may not make a person, but it can be a contributing factor in unmaking a person.
Whether we want to admit it, our appearance affects how we are perceived and received in definite ways. Clothing has nothing to do with students liking a teacher. But clothing definitely has an affect on students’ respect for a teacher, and respect is what a teacher must have if learning is to take place.
Harry Wong, 1991
I Could Not Believe What I Saw
After Christmas Vacation, one of my students left some pictures of the class holiday party on my desk. I took a look at myself and I could not believe how I looked. I looked like I didn’t care about myself.The next day I came to school more appropriately dressed and they all noticed and commented on how nice I looked. I was so happy and they made me feel so good.
I now spend more time caring about who I am. The students care about me. I am proud of who I am. And they are also so much better behaved now as a result of who I represent.
Vision Statement
Through rigorous and relevant instruction, students will develop critical thinking skills and become masters of their own learning. Teachers will present content and concepts to students; and, coach and guide students throughout their learning.
Mission StatementStudents at John Williams School #5 learn best when instruction is varied in its practice and is individualized to student learning styles. Teachers, students and parents will collaborate to ensure student academic success as they learn to apply knowledge and skills to new situations.
C-Food CuisineThe C-Food cuisine contains the nutrients and vitamins needed for healthy growth in any organization. It contains few calories and can only nurture school excellence:
ü Confidence in oneself, in one’s decisions, and in one’s teaching.
ü Courage to take risks and to break new ground.
ü Compassion for children and others.
ü Character to always do one’s personal best.
ü Competence within one’s field and in current trends.
ü Capacity to learn new things.
ü Commitment to our mission.
ü Clarity in one’s focus and on developmentally appropriate ways to get there.
ü Consciousness in bringing one’s thinking to a higher level.
ü Communication to open lines of dialogue.
ü Collaboration to share one’s expertise toward the betterment of all.
ü Connectedness in bonding to each other and our mission.
ü Collegiality in one’s interactions.
ü Challenge to keep oneself on a personal cutting edge.
ü Critical thinking and thoughtfulness in planning and preparation.
ü Creativity to implement innovations
ü Curiosity to actively seek better ways.
ü Contentment so that everyone feels accepted and an important part of our team.
Sigmund Boloz
Time ScheduleGrades K-8 / Mon. through Fri.
Breakfast / 9:00 a.m.
Instruction Begins / 9:15 a.m.
Dismissal / 3:35 p.m.
Teacher Reporting Time
a.m. / 9:00 a.m.
p.m. / When buses have departed school grounds and homeroom teacher’s students are accounted for!!
2013-2014 Calendar at a Glance
Sept. 2 Labor Day Holiday
Sept. 3 Superintendent’s Conference Day (Superintendent’s Initiatives)
Sept. 3 Teachers Report/Teacher Prep
Sept. 4 School Opens (Full day for K-12 students)
Oct. 14 Columbus Day Holiday
Oct. 15 Parent/Teacher Conferences/Elementary
Oct. 17 Parent/Teacher Conferences/Secondary
Nov. 11 Veterans Day Holiday
Nov. 27-29 Thanksgiving Recess (28 – 29 All Facilities Closed)
Dec. 23-31 Jan. 1 Winter Recess (24 – 25 All Facilities Closed) New Year’s Day Holiday
Jan. 2-3 Winter Recess Continues
Jan. 6 School Resumes
Jan. 20 Martin Luther King Day Holiday
Jan. 27-30 Regents Exams
Feb. 17 Presidents Day Holiday
Feb. 18-21 Mid-Winter Recess Parent/Teacher Conferences/Elementary Parent/Teacher
March 4 Parent/Teacher conferences elementary
March 6 Parent/Teacher conferences secondary
March 14 Superintendent’s Conference Day
April 14-18 Spring Recess Good Friday Holiday Recess (26-All Facilities Closed)
May 26 Memorial Day Holiday
June 3 Regents exams
June 17 Regents Exams Regents Exams
June 26 Last Day of School for K-12 Students/Teachers/Rating Day
June 27 & 30 Make-Up Days for Emergency Closings
AdministrationPrincipal / Joanne Wideman Pre-K -1
Assistant Principal / LoWan Brown 6th - 8th
Assistant Principal / Dave Gizzi 2nd - Grade - 5
Main Office and Other Personnel
School Secretary / Berdell Chisholm
Clerk III w/Typing / Nancy Bauman
Bilingual Clerk Typist / Ivin Pantojas
Custodial Engineer / Ron C. Johnson
Assistant Custodian / Joe Jackson
Custodial Assistant / Kijana Perry
Custodial Assistant / Ricky Miller Sr.
Cleaner / Pending
Sunshine Café Supervisors / Kim Bush & Aida Vazquez
School Time Periods
PLEASE FOLLOW SCHEDULE GIVEN IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR.
Lunch PeriodsFirst Lunch 10:55 -11:0 40
Second Lunch 11:42 – 12:27
Third Lunch 12:29 – 1:14
Bulletin Board DisplaysHallway bulletin boards are displays that serve as an excellent means of communication for our students, parents and visitors who enter our school by highlighting things that are happening in our classrooms. The displays and/or boards are an outgrowth of lessons being taught in classrooms.
ALL DISPLAYS AND BULLETIN BOARDS ARE TO BE NEAT, ORGANIZED, AESTHETICALLY PLEASING TO LOOK UPON, LABELED BY CLASS, AND CONTAIN NOTATION IF GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION AND GRAMMAR ARE INCORRECT.
For Example: Work in Progress, Transitional Speller, On the Right Road.
Each grade level will be assigned specific bulletin boards in hallways to display student work, based on standards. Please record the common core standards on the bulletin boards.
Child Abuse Reporting Procedures
We are all required by law to report students who were suspect may be being abused to Social Services Protective Unit.
At #5 the procedure we would like you to follow is:
1. If you see or hear a child say something that makes you think that they may have been injured or abused by someone talk to the child to see if they tell you how they got injured. Once you have talked to the child and if the events don’t appear to match with the injury you take the child to the School Nurse.
2. The Nurse then will take a look at the injury and determine whether it looks like something that needs to be investigated.
3. If it needs to be reported, you may contact CPS yourself, but please inform administration, the social worker, or nurse immediately following the call. If you do not wish to make the phone call, please ask the people listed below.
A. Ms. Wideman, Principal
B. Ms. Brown, Assistant Principal
C. Dave Gizzi, Assistant Principal
D. Mrs. Prusak, School Social Worker
E. Ms. Bliss-Joyner, School Nurse
By doing referrals in this way, a consistent process can be maintained within the building.
Communication to Parents / StaffThe principal produces a Weekly Bulletin for staff, parent handbook and seasonal newsletters for parents. In addition, other communications will be distributed when the need arises in the form of memos, letters, etc.
Also, if anyone is interested in coordinating a No. 5 School yearbook and/or student newspaper, please see the principal.
Public Address System
Ø Business announcements will be made at 9:00 a.m. and at 3:25 p.m. by the administrative and/or office staff.
Ø The Pledge of Allegiance, School Creed, Vision statement, and student announcements will be done over the P.A. system promptly at 9:20 a.m. All staff/faculty, students and visitors are to participate, unless due to religious convictions. However, all activities and movement comes to a halt during this time.
Ø All other P.A. announcements are given to the Principal, in writing, for approval.
Ø Emergency announcements will be made at the discretion of the Principal, or case of absence, the substitute administrator and/or the Asst. Principal.
Visitors
ü All visitors to the building must register at the Main Office and ask the receptionist for a visitor’s tag.
ü Visitors are encouraged to have advanced scheduled appointments, unless it is an emergency.
Conference DaysThrough an agreement between the Rochester Teachers Association and the Board of Education, schools are allocated some RTA conference days and money for use each year by full-time classroom teachers. The administration of this allocation is handled jointly by the Building Committee.
A special conference day request form is used and available in the school office. Care should be taken in completing the request form and travel voucher if reimbursement is to occur.
Copying Services
q The copy machine is for use of all staff members for copying related to education. It is located in the faculty lounge.
q City School District owned copiers should not be used to copy personal documents.
q The copy machine is in great demand on a daily basis.
q Every individual is responsible for making their own copies.
Procedures may change, based upon operational needs.
Please be mindful that there is only one large copier for the building.
§ This will require extreme courtesy and efficiency on everyone’s part.
§ Limit your copying to 5 minutes or less each time you copy.
Please follow carefully the instructions for copier use.
Repair charges are astronomical and can be prevented if you read directions!
STAFF WILL NOTIFY THE MAIN OFFICE WHEN NEW TONER IS NEEDED!The purchase of copy paper is the single largest expenditure in the school’s yearly supply budget.
THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR KEEPING THE COST DOWN!
Crisis Incident
A crisis incident is defined as:
ü A situation that can not be handled safely by the teacher in the classroom
ü When a child is in danger of hurting himself or others in the classroom!
Please contact administration immediately when a crisis occurs.
Adult behaviors that can escalate a crisis are:
¨ Sarcasm
¨ Negative tone of voice
¨ Inconsistency
¨ Favoritism
¨ Negative body language
¨ Put-downs
¨ Outbursts