Share appreciation and gratitude for a fellow CIS employee. Giving a shout out is a great way to recognize an individual or group for their extra effort and talent, and to contribute to a culture of appreciation, community, and kindness. | |
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Equitable Performance Management Virtual Training will be offered on Friday, 10/14 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. on Zoom. It will be facilitated by Melanie Rivera, CEO of Breaker28, who works to build leaders and organizations with H.E.A.R.T. - healthy, equitable, anti-racist, real and trust-centered. She has developed a suite of tools, practices, mindsets, and approaches to equity, inclusive, and H.E.A.R.T.-capable management that produce exceptional results while creating an environment that helps their teams (and themselves) thrive.
Register in Auzmor
Nuts & Bolts of Supervision is a training program designed for supervisors of paid CIS employees (not AmeriCorps members or interns this time) and includes reviews of and discussions about organizational policies, procedures, systems, standards and templates that a supervisor should be familiar with. In addition to policies and procedures, topics include supervision standards and expectations, approving timesheets and leave requests in EWS, setting SMARTIE goals with your supervisees, safety issues and incident reporting, equal opportunity at work (EEOC) and Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). The next “Nuts & Bolts” basic training is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 14 from 9:00 to noon in person at the central office. New supervisors are required to attend this session but any supervisor feeling the need for a little “refresher” is welcome to join us!
Register in Auzmor
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Employee Excellence Nominee: Tara Domasco, Program Manager at Crockett High School | |
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“Tara has embodied the CIS mission of helping students achieve in life. She took time out of her busy schedule to help support two students who recently graduated. She attended support meetings, and helped one student get the required documentation to enroll and start classes at ACC. She never hesitates to lend her support, and made sure that our CIS alumni had the tools and on-going support needed to continue achieving in life. Tara also provides support to her peers, whether it’s helping a staff member onboard an intern while out sick, or sharing creative strategies and templates to help support programming.” Thank you Tara for being #allinforkids!
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Finance & Accounting Reminders and Updates
Finance is closing out Fiscal Year 2021-2022 and preparing for our Annual Audit
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Submit any pending invoices for Fiscal Year 2022 by Monday, October 10th
DIVVY
Mileage Form
Contacts
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Questions regarding Accounts Payables, DIVVY, Mileage Reimbursements contact Coralei Brown, Sr. Accountant at [email protected]
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Questions regarding Amazon purchases and workflow contact Veronica Reyes-Ibarra, Purchasing at [email protected]
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Fall 2022 Quarterly Pulse & Goals Worksheets
The first QP for the 22-23 year is available now in Members Only/Human Resources/Quarterly Pulse_22-23. A guide for completing the QP is also posted. All employees will be completing the QP three times this year:
- QP1 due by Nov. 15 with your completed goals worksheet
- QP2 due by March 15
- QP3 due by June 15 with your completed goals assessment worksheet
Department and position goals for 22-23 are being completed by department leaders and will be available in Members Only/Human Resources/Goals Worksheets_22-23 as soon as they are finalized.
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RECEIVING A TRANSFER CALL “vs” RECEIVING A DIRECT CALL
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Important Mandatory Training from IT
Communities In Schools of Central Texas (CIS) is committed to fair, inclusive, and equitable allocation and usage of technology resources. To advance this goal, CIS has adopted policies on computer and data usage. These policies define the general terms and conditions for access and usage of CIS Technology Resources. The goal is to have a secure and responsive information infrastructure that promotes the mission of Communities In Schools of Central Texas.
These policies are located on Auzmor for you to review as a course
You will also receive an assignment email message from Auzmor.
Important
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This course is mandatory
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Please read the policies in Auzmor & submit to complete the course by October 14th
- All staff are required to take it, and this course will be incorporated into the IT On-Boarding process for all new employees.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel reach out to Jim Thompson @ [email protected]
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Play Therapy Techniques for CISters: A presentation on play therapy techniques to use to address self-regulation and anxiety with students across the grade levels. Ragan Aaron, LPC-S, RPT-S will be sharing an overview of play therapy and leading participants through activities that can be used in your work with students. The presentation is open to all staff and interns. Field Instructors, please share with your interns. Questions will be monitored in the chat, with the presenter fielding more advanced practice questions. It is virtual but there will be opportunities to practice the activities. Materials to have handy: Paper, markers, crayons, pencils (something to draw/write with)
Sign Up in Auzmor!
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ATTENTION
Licensed social workers
There have been a number of changes related to training to meet licensure requirements. I have included a summary provided by NASW Texas. You can visit the Behavioral Health Executive Council website for complete revisions to the rules. The Mental Health and Wellness team and Campus-Based Services will collaborate to plan relevant training to meet staff needs.
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POWER IN NUMBERS!!
We have an opportunity to get a group discount for an ethics training, “The Ethics of Self-Care & Sustainability: Addressing Staff and Leadership Vicarious Trauma,” through The University of Texas Steve Hicks School of Social Work, scheduled for November 17th. Though we cannot pay for the training, we can get a code that you can apply toward your registration. The larger the anticipated group, the better the discount. Please send an email to [email protected] by October 12, to let us know if you are interested in attending. Once we receive the group discount code, I will send it out to those who expressed interest. Here is the link to the training for more information. UT Austin School of Social Work events
Note: CEUs: 3.0 Ethics CEUs/3.0 Contact hours and is approved for Social Workers, LPC, LMFT and Psychologists
| - Dorothy Z. Garza, LCSW-S | Sr. Director of Mental Health Services | |
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Hello CIS Community! This Saturday the College and Career Success Department will be hosting their first in-person Meet and Greet with the CIS Alumni Network. Please come out and support! There will be games, food and fun.
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Micro Grant opportunity:
Category 3:
Teacher Training
Title:
Be a Beacon – LGBTQIA+ Competency Training for K-12 Staff (a program of Out Youth)
Description: Research shows that when LGBTQIA+ youth view school personnel as
supportive, they feel safer, have fewer absences for safety reasons, report
fewer school-related problems, and have higher grades. Additionally, studies
show that when school personnel intervene to stop negative comments, students
are more likely to feel that their schools are safe for LGBTQIA+ students. They
also hear fewer LGBTQIA+ related slurs, experience less LGBTQIA+ bullying,
participate more in school, and report more caring relationships with teachers.
https://beabeacon.lgbt/
If you are interested in learning more about bringing this training to your school through a Micro-Grant, please complete this Interest Form, and we will reach out to provide additional information and supportive guidance on completing the micro-grant application.
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CIS AmeriCorps Members will attend their AmeriCorps Swearing In Ceremony on Thursday, October 6th from 3-5pm at Austin Achieve High School!
Site Supervisors, please be aware of the following for your Member(s):
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Attendance is required for North, Central, and South Austin Squads.
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Attendance is optional but highly encouraged for San Marcos, Hays, and Lockhart-Elgin-Bastrop Squads.
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Attendance is optional but highly encouraged for ASPIRE & EAO Members.
- Members carpooling from a service site (campus) to the event can count service hours for travel and be reimbursed for mileage.
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The winner in last week's Apple drawing for a CIS Hoodie was Sara Reeves! | |
Leticia Self, PM at Bonham PreK in SMCISD, secured an ongoing children's clothing donation from from Rhea Lana Resale Shop in Schertz. Thank you for having such a servant’s heart and dividing these clothes amongst your team to have a larger reach within CIS programs in SMCISD! #StrongerTogether | |
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2022-2023 Partnership Kickoff
On September 20 we hosted a virtual Partner Kick off meeting with all of our group services providers and invited their direct service facilitators. This was an opportunity for partners to connect to one another, learn more about the work we do, our strategic partnerships model, and how to best partner with Program Managers. Thank you to Sharon Vigil for welcoming our partners to this new school year, and for sharing a land acknowledgement. We wrapped up our kick off with an opportunity for our partner network to share “why” they do their work, and “for whom” they do their work. See the image below for some beautiful reflections from our partner facilitators. Big thanks to our campus-based staff for welcoming partners to your campuses and working collaboratively to serve students!
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Program Manager Cayla, dressed up for breast cancer awareness week and delivers a generous hygiene donation from Flo Code products to the nurses at Lehman HS | |
Overton CIS team had a event filled September which started with a Teacher Appreciation month raffle where each month, one teacher wins a gift card as a token of appreciation. There was a Kona Ice fundraiser at Overton and the CIS team were able to enjoy free sno-cones! They started the UT SEEK program and the kids loved it! A honorable donation from Home Depot of 21 bags of soil for the community garden at Overton. And Lastly, back to school night and where Program Manager Makayla provided resources, prizes and free coffee from Starbucks to Overton staff and families. | |
Program Manager Carolyn Midboe set up a school-wide performance of The NED Show to teach Mina students about growth mindset. NED's Mindset Mission is a character education program that centers around three important messages that have lifelong relevance: Never give up, Encourage others, and Do your best. A NED Zone was created on the playgrounds for students to practice their NED skills through yoyoing at recess. | | |
Live Oak Academy, CIS PM Jade Fields is getting festive for October. The students are coming into the room to work on homework assignments and getting into the Halloween spirit! | |
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Students at Camino Real Elementary played Loteria, Toma Todo and tried to play the balero game during their recess to celebrate
Hispanic Heritage Month.
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Our Strong Voices training group did an incredible job this week!
Joe Bazler, Casey Branthoover, Marina Lichtenberger, Yoatzin Galvan, Keyanna Maxwell, and Meghan Williams
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Our wonderful Sanchez ES parent volunteers were joined by Facebook employees who were in town for a few days (conference), and signed up on a volunteer matching site! They were a great help as we prepared approx. 190 sets of fresh produce (one bag of fruit/one bag of vegetables) to be distributed to Sanchez families. (pictured: Sanchez ES parent volunteers, Facebook employees, Sanchez ES Parent Support Specialist, and CIS PSS support staff Nicole Partin ). | | |
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Program Manager Madeline Finchum is celebrating and appreciating the custodians for Custodian Appreciation Week at Harris ES. Every student in the school got to write a little note/picture on a heart and they are now being showcased in the hall on the custodians’ door. |
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Communities In Schools of Central Texas surrounds students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. | | | | |
