Dear Life School Staff: 

We have exciting news! Beginning this August, Life School Mountain Creek is expanding to offer grades 7-8. We expect the addition of these grades to add convenience for LSMC families who, until now, have needed to bus their students to Waxahachie or drive them to Oak Cliff  to continue with Life School.

Subcommittee Recaps:

Stakeholder Engagement

• An email address, TIA@lifeschools.net, has been created for staff members to submit questions they may have
• A landing page on the Life School Extranet will be coming soon and will house all of the resources and information related to TIA
• District-wide Town Hall has been scheduled for March 24th at 3:30, please submit questions using the email address TIA@lifeschools.net ahead of time
• Each campus TIA Ambassador will be providing a TIA update during each upcoming staff meeting

Student Growth

• SLO One Pager
• Use One-pager for an overview of the three different phases
• Use the phases to integrate into the existing practices of T-Tess
• Phase One: Year one, use the same foundational skill. Use this skill to have a target for students
• Phase Two: Monitoring Process
• Phase Three: Evaluate

Teacher Observation

• Principals will create a plan to give a T-TESS refresher during the beginning of the year PD
• Walkthroughs: Make sure all principals are using the same guidelines to look for when having walkthroughs

Communication

• The survey went out today and it is in reminders of newsletter and email
• Draft of the webpage for information for our website was shared and information will be compiled soon

Dear Life School Staff,

Members of the District System Development Committee (DSDC) continue to meet as we prepare to implement the Teach Incentive Allotment (TIA) program for Life School teachers. In an effort to keep you better informed about this program, we have created a webpage on the Life School Extranet. We would like to encourage all teachers and administrators to click here and watch a brief 3-minute video to learn more about the TIA program and what it could mean for teachers in our district. Any questions that you might have regarding the TIA can be directed to TIA@lifeschools.net.

Also, today is the final day to complete the Stakeholder Engagement survey. We are asking all teachers and campus administrators to please click here to take the survey and provide feedback on the most recent decisions that have been made. The survey will close tonight, Friday, March 5th.

Please mark your calendars to join us for a Town Hall Meeting to gather additional feedback from our stakeholders. We would love to hear from you, please submit questions ahead of time to TIA@lifeschools.net.

• Town Hall Meeting
  March 24, 2021 from 4:00-5:00
  Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85041306218
  Meeting ID: 850 4130 6218
  Passcode: n7uh30

Subcommittee Recaps:

Spending & Funding

• Waiting on results from the survey to have final decisions

Stakeholder Engagement

• An email address, TIA@lifeschools.net, has been created for staff members to submit questions they may have
• District-wide Town Hall has been scheduled for March 24th at 4:00
• Each campus TIA Ambassador will be providing a TIA update during each upcoming staff meeting

Student Growth

• SLO One Pager
• Use One-pager for an overview of the three different phasesUse the phases to integrate into the existing practices of T-TessWalked through SLO’s from all aspects for the different grade levels and how the admin will use it
• Reviewed TEA rubric

Teacher Observation

• Principals will create a plan to give a T-TESS refresher during the beginning of the year
• PD
• Walkthroughs: Make sure all principals are using the same guidelines to look for when having walkthroughs
• Created items to add to the LS TIA Extranet
• Domains 2 and 3 are very important and teachers need to know this - Put this on the website so they understand how they are being observed and scored

Communication

• District push for the survey one more time
• Created a landing page to house TIA information on the website

Sincerely,

Life School DSDC Committee Members

• Alissa Russell-LSOCS
• Devonne Hutson-LSCO
• Jolie Bishop-LSL
• Megan Beck-LSCO
• Ana Cardona-LMSW
• Dewayne Volentine-LSOCS
• Joy Shepherd-LSCO
• Megan Rollins-LSMC
• Ann Glasco-LSCH
• Isabel Green-LSOCE
• Kelli Whicker-LSRO
• Scott Fuller-LSCO
• Bryan Craun-LSOCS
• Jenna Evans-LSC
• Kim Riepe-LSCO
• Stephanie Colwell-LSCO
• Casey Ballard-LSCO
• Jenna Ruebman-LSL
• La Rosa Barnes-LSOCE
• Stephanie Wolf-LSCO
• Dana Johnson-LSOCS
• Jennifer Villavaso-LSC
• Lee Coleman-LHSW
• Timothy McInvale-LSOCS
• Danielle Dillard-LSRO
• Jessica Barlow-LMSW
• Malissa Allen-LSCH

Life School Teachers,

In our on-going pursuit of aligning our goals and actions to the District Strategic Plan and our goal of becoming the Employer of Choice (1.3), we have begun the process of qualifying for the state’s new Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) program.

We value your engagement, opinions, and perspective and thus have created a District System Development Committee (DSDC) to increase stakeholder engagement. The DSDC is a group of Life School administrators, teachers, and other district-level leaders tasked with designing the district’s local optional teacher designation system. Every Life School campus is represented by at least one teacher or administrator who will serve as the TIA Ambassador for their campus.

Our DSDC has held two meetings in recent weeks. Since the first meeting, the team of 27 members has been broken down into subcommittees focused on: spending and funding, scoring rubric development, determination of the student growth component, teacher observations, stakeholder engagement, and communications.

During the meeting, each subcommittee was given the opportunity to share their goals and progress. A few of the topics discussed were:

Spending & Funding

• Should the allotment be eligible for TRS? If so, what avenues do we need to explore to be able to do so?
• How much compensation will be allocated?
• When/how frequently will teachers be compensated? (i.e monthly, bi-annual, annual)?

 We will seek input and feedback from the teachers on the items above.

Stakeholder Engagement

• The importance of having relevant information to share with stakeholders and keeping everyone informed was emphasized.
• What mechanisms do we use to keep teachers updated with critical information?

Student Growth

• Explored the various methods allowable under TIA and narrowed down to two methods that serve the best interest of teachers and the district.

* We will seek input and feedback from the teachers on the two methods.

Scoring Rubric

• Explored the options for the weights under the TIA designation system.
• The determination was made that only the two required components would be used, student
• growth and teacher performance.
• Work was done on creating a weighted rubric factoring in the two components to designate who would qualify under the TIA local designation system.

Teacher Observation

• Methods and strategies were discussed to ensure calibration across campuses and the district.
• The importance of all rating practices should be fair and equitable across the district was emphasized.
• An additional factor will be discussed related to teachers maintaining observation levels year-to-year because the certification is good for 5 years.

Communication

• Using diversified methods of communication will be important to ensure employees have access to important information in addition to being able to provide feedback and ask questions.
• The creation of static and dynamic places for information will be essential for staff to stay up to date throughout the process.

As we continue to explore this program we will provide opportunities for teachers to learn more about the TIA program and provide feedback.

For more information or any questions, please contact your campus TIA Ambassador.

Sincerely,

Life School DSDC Committee Members

• Alissa Russell-LSOCS
• Devonne Hutson-LSCO
• Jolie Bishop-LSL
• Megan Beck-LSCO
• Ana Cardona-LMSW
• Dewayne Volentine-LSOCS
• Joy Shepherd-LSCO
• Megan Rollins-LSMC
• Ann Glasco-LSCH
• Isabel Green-LSOCE
• Kelli Whicker-LSRO
• Scott Fuller-LSCO
• Bryan Craun-LSOCS
• Jenna Evans-LSC
• Kim Riepe-LSCO
• Stephanie Colwell-LSCO
• Casey Ballard-LSCO
• Jenna Ruebman-LSL
• La Rosa Barnes-LSOCE
• Stephanie Wolf-LSCO
• Dana Johnson-LSOCS
• Jennifer Villavaso-LSC
• Lee Coleman-LHSW
• Timothy McInvale-LSOCS
• Danielle Dillard-LSRO
• Jessica Barlow-LMSW
• Malissa Allen-LSCH