Weekly Communication from Central Office - 2/1

Wink’s Weekly Words

Click here to read my Blue Ridge community blog

The Power of the Texas Legislature

This past week I attended the TASA Midwinter Conference and had the opportunity to hear finance information from the Equity Center.  Did you know that funding from the state is at one of its lowest levels.  In 2017, the state contributed 38% of the funding for schools while the remaining 62% came from local property taxes.  The original goal of education funding is a 50/50 responsibility between state and local funds.  To know more about this information, you can contact your legislators and state political candidates.

What this interesting video about the teacher that changed Dwayne Johnson’s life.

Your Vote = Your Voice

Here is how you can register to vote.  The deadline to register is February 5.  Early voting

begins on February 20, and election day is March 6.  

Amy’s Announcements

FA4

Reminder...your FA4 is due in Eduphoria on FEBRUARY 9TH. Mock Benchmark for:
* 5 and 8 Reading/Math,
* English I and
* English II
* 4 & 7 Writing - WILL NOT BENCHMARK BECAUSE OF WRITING PILOT.

Download the 2017 Released Test for your content, then “Create a Test” in Eduphoria -

creating a Quick Test Key associated with your test - https://goo.gl/qCSLq4

1819 Calendar

Please view the 1819 calendar here - http://brisd.net/domain/377

and provide your thoughts here: https://goo.gl/BBv7zZ

MAP

The MOY MAP window is drawing to a close. Please communicate any deadline issues  

to your campus MAP Coordinator. We’ll be closing out the test session at the end of the week.

This is where the data gets fun! In February, we’ll have training on each campus so staff

will have direction on which reports to run to show student progress and other useful

information. Be watching for the training date, which will be communicated by your principal.

Allowable Accommodations

Are you logging the accommodations you are using with students? Links to spreadsheets

are found here - http://www.br-impact.com/p/blog-page.html

LINKS:

** Accommodation Resources - http://www.br-impact.com/p/blog-page.html

** FA Instructions - https://goo.gl/kqmhBo

Staff Shoutout

The Special Education Department at the MS is doing an AMAZING job implementing

Snap and Read with our students who need oral administration. They have become

well-versed with how to use this technology resource on both iPad and Chromebook.

They were wonderful tutors for the rest of the staff at our MS Snap and Read training

on Wednesday. Thanks so much Mrs. Boyett, Mrs. Murphy and Mr. Williams.

Technology Announcements

* Remember to put requests in Eduphoria HelpDesk. Eduardo will respond as quickly

as possible.

* We’ve had requests from teachers to block YouTube. We’ve done some work on the

filter to still have YouTube open because we know you do use it for educational purposes.
It’s on ‘restricted’ mode, which hopefully filter out content you wouldn’t want
for your students to view. If you experience videos/channels blocked that should
be open, put a ticket in HelpDesk and we’ll address it.

Special Programs Announcements

Blue Ridge ISD Dyslexia on FB - https://goo.gl/dPkJiE

Business Office Announcements

Texas maximum mileage reimbursement rate for travel occurring on or after January 1, 2018 is 54.5 cents per mile.  Please use this rate from this point forward on any mileage reimbursements.