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Author: communications

Published on

DATE:  
May 20, 2019

TO:  
Middle School Principals
Middle School Assistant Principals

FROM: 
Herb Jensen, Director of Transportation
Sula Bearden, Transportation Coordinator
Kittisack Soumpholphakdy, Transportation Activity Specialist

SUBJECT: 
LAGOON DAY – THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019

 We are looking forward to helping you provide an exciting, successful, and safe experience for your students this year. Following the same procedure as last year, as each bus is loaded and an adult chaperone is on board (at least one chaperone is required on each bus), please let it depart for Lagoon.  Your assistance with this process last year helped alleviate some of the waiting on the bus and congestion at the ticket gates.

Please remind your teachers and staff that only 9th grade students from your school and adult chaperones may ride the bus.  In accordance with District Policy AA416, children of chaperones are not allowed to ride the bus.

This year, the rides close at 4:00 p.m. and the park closes at 5:00 p.m.  Several of our buses will be completing their take home routes and navigating possible traffic on the way back to Lagoon, so please be patient.  Buses should arrive around 5:00 p.m.  For the safety of everyone, please have your designated chaperones report to their assigned school bus loading area no later than 4:45 p.m. for a short procedural meeting with Transportation staff.  Students and chaperones may begin loading at 5:00 p.m.  All buses will depart by 5:15 p.m.  As mentioned above, buses will not depart until an adult chaperone is on board.

Lagoon has provided a map and instructions to each of our middle schools, which are intended to be used by your staff traveling to and from Lagoon.  These resources will help maintain a safe environment for all students on this special day.  Please feel free to make copies of the map and instructions for your staff to use that day.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Feel free to contact Sula Bearden at 801-567-8851 or Kitt Soumpholphakdy at 801-567-8809 with any questions you may have.

Published on

DATE: 
May 15, 2019

TO: 
All Principals, Administrative Assistants, and Custodians

FROM:   
Scott Thomas, Administrator of Auxiliary Services
Curtis Hagen, Staff Assistant of Auxiliary Services
Dave Rostrom, Director of Facilities Services
Sandi Abplanalp, Facility Systems Coordinator

SUBJECT:  
Summer Card Access Scheduling

With the end of the school year rapidly approaching, the need to re-evaluate current access levels of your staff may be necessary. Employees with 24/7 access will remain the same, however, access may need to be altered for your teachers, staff and sweepers. Please be aware that if teachers retain their current access levels during summer months their badge will allow them access into the building regardless of whether or not the building has been disarmed. They could potentially trigger the alarm initiating a police response. If your sweepers will be working days, let Sandi Abplanalp know what hours they are authorized to have access.

Please note that District Maintenance workers and District delivery drivers’ access will remain the same (7:00 am-5:00 pm). Please contact Sandi and let her know what days the building will be closed so their access can be removed.

Time zones assigned to the doors will be removed after the last bell on the last day of school. If you want your main door left open or have summer programs running during the summer months, contact Sandi to adjust the schedule. If you have employees that will not be returning in the fall, please collect their badges as part of their final check out and return them to Sandi in the Facilities Services Department. If an employee is transferring, email Sandi their names and new locations as soon as possible so she can assign them to their new location. Please account for all of the lockout/unlock cards, portable passes, recess passes, office passes, elevator passes and substitute passes that are listed in this report.

Please be aware that employees with extended building access will revert back to regular access when the school year ends (with the exception of the head administrative assistants and custodians) and a new Building/Card Access-Administrator Authorization form will need to be submitted when the new school year begins. Please call Sandi with any questions or concerns.

Sandi Abplanalp
Jordan School District
Facility Systems Coordinator
801-567-8616
sandi.abplanalp@jordandistrict.org

Cc:
Jordan School District Cabinet Members

Published on

DATE: 
May 16, 2019

TO:
High School Principals and Head Administrative Assistants

FROM:   
C. Brad Sorensen, Administrator of Schools

SUBJECT: 
2019-20 High School Summer Office Help

Each high school in Jordan School District will be allocated $4,000 to assist in covering summer office hours for the 2019-20 school year. Please note that benefits must be deducted from this amount. Benefits are calculated at 8.45% to include FICA, Medicare, and Industrial Insurance. If you choose to use a full-time school employee that qualifies for retirement benefits, an additional 23.69% (Tier I-before July 1, 2011) or 20.02% (Tier II-after June 30, 2011) must be added to the total cost.

This money may be used for time worked from June 1 through August 31, 2019. Employees are to use True Time when working these hours. True Time hours should be submitted weekly. Please email a list of names of all employees who will be working these hours to Keelee Leulaui in payroll at keelee.leulaui@jordandistrict.org and she will add the pay-code ‘TSMRO - Summer Office Hours’ for them to use in True Time. No money will be carried over from the summer hour allocation. All time worked for your summer office hours will be coded as 10 E LOC 8707 2436 154 and should be recorded each month for Brad Sorensen’s approval on your school’s allocation form.

If you have any questions, please contact:
Cari Minnesota at cari.minnesota@jordandistrict.org, Ph: 801-567-8173 or
Marilyn Smith at marilyn.smith@jordandistrict.org, Ph: 801-567-8166

Thank you.

Published on

DATE: 
Thursday, May 16, 2019

TO:   
All Principals

FROM:   
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Associate Superintendent
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:  
2019 WIDA Reports

Hard copy 2019 WIDA Individual Student Reports (ISRs) will be hand-delivered to schools by Friday, May 24, 2019.  A copy of each student’s ISR printed in English should be placed in their CUM file.

Per state law, a copy of each student’s ISR also needs to be sent home within three weeks of receiving them.  We have included an ISR for the home language listed for each student in Skyward, though the WIDA AMS system does not translate ISRs in all languages.  Along with the ISR, please send home the following documents:

  1. The Yearly Parent Notification for English Learner Status (required by State law)
  2. The Parent/Guardian Guide to the Individual Student Report
  3. The Parent/Guardian Guide to the Individual Student Report for Alternate Testing (only for parents of students that took the WIDA alternate test)

In June, the Evaluation, Research & Accountability Department will disseminate several data dashboards that will allow school administrators to analyze WIDA achievement and proficiency levels using student subgroup filters (i.e., gender, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, absenteeism, etc.) and WIDA subtests.  More information regarding these data dashboards will be forthcoming.

Published on

DATE:  
May 16, 2019

TO:
All Principals and Directors

FROM: 
June LeMaster, Ph.D., Administrator, Human Resources
Administrator of Schools

SUBJECT:
Employee Attendance at Relative's Graduation Exercises

This year, all high school graduation exercises are on Thursday, May 30th, with the exception of Valley High on Wednesday, May 29th.

Principals and Directors are encouraged to direct parents or grandparents who may wish to attend these graduations, but who are scheduled to work in their own locations to District Policy DP335 NEG and DP335B NEG.  This policy specifically states: "Personal leave shall not be taken during the first five days and last five days that students are in school except...to attend to personal or business matters which require the employee's attendance and scheduling is beyond the employee's control."

Since graduation scheduling is beyond the employees’ control, it is desirable that immediate supervisors will cooperate and provide employees who may fall into this category, an opportunity to attend graduation ceremonies of family members.

Licensed employees are responsible for requesting a substitute through the Absence Management system, if applicable.  In the blue “Notes to Administrator” box, the employee should add “graduation” along with his/her relationship to the graduate.

For additional assistance, please contact Juli Martin in the sub office at 801-567-8219.

Cc:
Administrators of Schools

JL/am

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, May 16, 2019

TO:  
Elementary Principals
Middle School Principals

FROM:  
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Associate Superintendent
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:   
2019 RISE Validity and Reliability

RISE Reports on Nextera:
Classroom reports for RISE continue to see delays of up to a week to access accurate information.  When students submit the test, the scale score they see is accurate, but that score will take up to a week to show up accurately on classroom, school and district-level reports.  This means that schools will need to wait for a week after they are completely finished with RISE testing to access accurate raw scores for their school.

RISE Validity and Reliability:
There have been a number of questions and concerns raised about the validity and reliability of the RISE test and the effect that the five outages have had on student scores.  To clarify, validity as used in the assessment world, means that the question items on the test are measuring what they intend to measure.  In the case of RISE where we are using the same question items that were in SAGE, we can be confident in the validity of the test because the items have been proven to be aligned with the Utah State Core.  There are five years of SAGE data to confirm this.

Educators often ask, “Were my students able to demonstrate their proficiency as intended?”  This is actually a question of reliability.  In other words, how consistent are students’ scores at representing their achievement when compared with their previous results?  In an email to superintendents across the state earlier this week, State Superintendent Sydnee Dickson said, “Unfortunately, the mounting issues with the operating platform created by Questar bring up many questions that will need to be answered.  The frequency of the problems that have occurred may impact the Utah State Board of Education’s ability to use the results for purposes of statewide accountability…. We believe the results can still be used to inform classroom instruction and individual student learning.  However, we are less confident about overall accountability.”

We recommend that principals be cautious in telling their teachers that their students’ RISE scores are not valid and reliable.  At this point, we do not know this for sure.  Here’s what we do know:

  • We know that the test itself is a valid test as it measures what it was intended to measure.
  • We know that students who were not affected by system outages will have had a similar opportunity to demonstrate their proficiency to that of the previous five SAGE-tested years.
  • We also know that if we filter out students whose scores were affected by outages (we are talking a smaller percentage of students in our district since most of our schools started testing later in the RISE window), we will have more accurate scores – accurate enough that principals and teacher teams may make instructional decisions based on RISE data – along with their own formal and informal assessment data – as has been done in years past.
  • We know that we don’t know how students’ scores were affected; therefore, it would not be appropriate to conclude that the data are invalid. In fact, four of the RISE system outages were issues with the submission of a session of the test after the student had already finished that segment.  Last Friday’s outage was an issue of students and educators not being able to log into the system to take the test.  The outages had less of an impact on students when they were actually testing.

School Accountability:
While we will likely be able to use RISE data for instructional decisions, its use for school accountability has not yet been determined.  The issue lies in the fact that the state accountability system requires that we count all students who participated – even if they were negatively impacted by the system outages.  Questar will be analyzing the RISE results of all students to see if and what the impact may be from the system outages.  The USBE will engage an objective third party to analyze and verify those results.  We will be monitoring this analysis closely.  Depending upon what they find, there are three options:

  1. If the analysis determines there is little impact, the state will move forward with the accountability system as planned.
  2. If the analysis determines there was an impact, there is an option to place an asterisk indicating where there have been testing irregularities that may have skewed the data.
  3. If the analysis determines there was a more significant impact, the USBE may decide to discontinue the accountability system for the 2018-19 school year. Superintendent Dickson indicated that this was a last resort.

Please contact Ben Jameson with any questions you may have.  Please look forward to more communication throughout the summer and fall of 2019 regarding the state’s findings.

Published on

Elementary Principals:

Parent letters for EOY DIBELS are attached. The Evaluation Department will send spreadsheets to Principals when testing is complete. The testing window closes on June 15 and letters must be sent home with ALL first, second and third-grade students on or before the last day of school for A track and traditional calendars. Year-round tracks B, C and D need to send the letters home by June 30. Please do not send this letter home with Kindergarten students, as the reporting law does not apply to them. The parent letter from mCLASShome.com is appropriate to share with all parents. Please contact Michelle Lovell with any questions.

Published on

DATE: 
May 15, 2019

TO:   
Principals
All Certified Special Education Staff

FROM: 
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
Kim Lloyd, Director of Special Education
Julie Brown, Program Specialist
Courtney Titus, Program Specialist

SUBJECT:
Year-End Checkout for Traditional Schools/Year-Round Schools

Please see attached memo.

Published on

All Classified and Certified Administrators:

Please take a moment to fill out the following survey to help us narrow down your interests and needs for training provided at our Annual Administrative Leadership Conference 2019, which will be held August 6 & 7 at South Hills Middle School.

Survey Link for Administrators' Conference Breakout Sessions
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BJB7Z9J

Published on

The USBE is collaborating with Kim St. Martin to offer this year's Literacy Leadership Institute for 6-12 principals and instructional coaches. Dr. Kimberly St. Martin currently serves as the Assistant Director of Michigan’s Integrated Behavior Learning Support Initiative (MIBLSI) and Co-Director of the MIBLSI Promoting Adolescent Reading Success (PARS) Project. Prior to her current appointment, Dr. St. Martin was a school administrator and teacher with experience in urban, urban-fringe, and rural school districts. She works regularly with State Education Agencies, Regional Education Agencies (REAs), and districts across the country to assist them in the successful use of an implementation infrastructure that can scale the components of an integrated behavior and reading Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) model. Dr. St. Martin is the lead author of the Reading Tiered Fidelity Inventory (R-TFI) Elementary and Secondary Editions; measures designed to assist elementary and secondary school teams in the installation and on-going use of the reading components of an MTSS model. In addition, she has collaborated with the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) in the development of implementation capacity assessments at the regional and local district levels that are available for national use.

This 4-day literacy institute is focused on creating the systems and structures that increase literacy outcomes and provide the school-wide organization that ensures an appropriate and improved MTSS educational framework for all students. By putting these systems in place, the job of the principal, coach, and teacher leader transforms from reactive to becoming a high-quality instructional leader.

The Secondary Schools Institute will consist of 2, 2-day sessions (total of four days) from 9-4 each day.

Each session of the institute will be held in the Salt Lake Area (specific locations TBD). Participants will be responsible for their own meals, mileage, and lodging. There is no cost for this institute.

Dates for Secondary Level Literacy Leadership Institute: October 2-3, 2019 and February 5-6, 2020. To register, please use the following form: https://forms.gle/jwZqCNi7kyM3Gmsu5

If you have any questions, please contact Garret Rose at garret.rose@schools.utah.gov

Published on

DATE:   
May 9, 2019

TO: 
Elementary Principals
Elementary Head Administrative Assistants

FROM: 
John Larsen, Business Administrator

SUBJECT: 
Summer Pool Hours for Elementary Head Administrative Assistants

As a reminder, elementary head administrative assistants are given forty (40) hours for  use during the summer months. These hours remain optional and flexible and are to be used as needed in coordination with the school principal.

These hours should be used to address matters that typically build up over the summer months such as mail, voice mail, purchase verifications, timesheets, etc. The hope is that these summer hours will aid the school in a successful opening for the students.

The hours should be reported through True Time under the heading of “Contract Pool Hours” and will be charged to account number: 10 E xxx 0050 2483 152.

JL/jc

cc:
Cabinet
Sarah Palmer, Director of Payroll

Published on

DATE: 
Thursday, May 16, 2019

TO:  
Elementary School Principals

FROM:
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Associate Superintendent
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:
Research Project

The Research Review Committee has reviewed a research project in which your school has been asked to participate.

Project Title:  BTSALP Elementary Art Specialists in Utah: Curriculum and Teaching

Applicant:     Tara Carpenter Estrada

The project has been approved by the District Research Review Committee.  The applicant has been directed to contact you to discuss the extent of the project and to obtain your permission to conduct the study at your school.  Participation in the study is at your discretion.  If you have questions or concerns relating to participation, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243.

The project will involve an online survey link that will be sent to eligible teachers that participate in the Beverly Taylor Sorensen Arts Learning Program.  In addition, a smaller subset of BTSALP teachers will be selected to participate in interviews.

Thank you for your assistance.

Published on

DATE:   
May 9, 2019

TO: 
Principals and Administrative Assistants on Traditional Calendars

FROM: 
June LeMaster, Administrator, Human Resources
Administrator of Schools

SUBJECT: 
Summer Hours for School Personnel

Please review the attached schedule of Summer Hours for School Personnel below, with all designated summer school personnel at your location. Extended school office/business hours are acceptable; however, other adjusted schedules are NOT acceptable because they limit public access to school personnel.

Published on

DATE:  
Wednesday, May 8, 2019

TO:
Administrators of Schools
All Schools

FROM:  
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Associate Superintendent
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:   
Research Project

The Research Review Committee has reviewed a research project in which your school has been asked to participate.

Project Title:     Exploring the Perceptions of Educators Who Are Implementing Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

Applicant:     Elizabeth Cutrer and Ellie Young, Brigham Young University

The project has been approved by the District Research Review Committee. The applicant has been directed to contact you to discuss the extent of the project and to obtain your permission to conduct the study at your school. Participation in the study is at your discretion. If you have questions or concerns relating to participation, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243.

The project will involve an interview of principal supervisors, building administrators, and building leadership teams on their perspective of implementing a multi-tiered system of supports program in schools.

Thank you for your assistance.

Published on

DATE:
Thursday, May 9, 2019

TO: 
All Principals

FROM: 
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Associate Superintendent
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:  
Research Project

The Research Review Committee has reviewed a research project in which your school has been asked to participate.

Project Title:     General Education Teachers’ Self-Reported Response to Overt Student Problem Behavior in the Classroom

Applicant:     Ingrid Shurtleff

The project has been approved by the District Research Review Committee. The applicant has been directed to contact you to discuss the extent of the project and to obtain your permission to conduct the study at your school. Participation in the study is at your discretion. If you have questions or concerns relating to participation, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243.

The project will involve you sending a link to a 7-10 minute online survey to your general education teachers. The survey attempts to explore how general education teachers experience and address student problem behaviors and to what extent they feel equipped to manage those behaviors.

Thank you for your assistance.

Published on

Principals:  Desks, chairs, etc. are needed to fill seven elementary portables. Do you have extra items just sitting around in your building that you could contribute? Please call Curtis Hagen at 801-567-8752 if you have items you can share! Thank you!

Published on

DATE:     
May 7, 2019

TO:  
All Principals

FROM:     
C. Brad Sorensen, Administrator of Schools
Michael V. Anderson, Administrator of Schools

SUBJECT: 
Final Approved Fee Schedule for 2019-20 School Year

The Board of Education has approved the 2019-20 fee schedule which can be found on the district website under the following link fees.jordandistrict.org. Because it is required by the Board of Education to approve all fees charged at schools, only fees listed on the website may be charged for the 2019-2020 school year. Please make sure that every fee charged at your school appears on the approved website. If it is not on the website, do not charge the fee.

We need each school to do the following prior to the beginning of the 2019-20 school year:

  • Place a link of the fee website (fees.jordandistrict.org) on your own school’s website
  • Make sure the website link (fees.jordandistrict.org) is included in all of your registration information and is sent out to your community
  • Encourage each of your teachers/coaches/advisors to include this information at parent meetings and in their disclosure statements
  • Have copies of all approved fee forms on file for review and available for an annual audit which will be done by the appropriate Administrator of Schools

Additionally, in the event a fee was overlooked or not submitted prior to the Board approved fee schedule and you want to appeal for it to be added to the website, the following process has been put in place:

  1. Require a written request from your teacher/advisor/coach explaining the need for a fee
  2. Evaluate your school finances to determine if it can be covered at the school level
  3. Talk with and submit a written request to your Administrator of Schools for consideration
  4. Administrator of Schools will appeal fee request to Cabinet
  5. If approved, the requested fee will be submitted on the Board of Education’s consent agenda
  6. The website will be adjusted and the new fee will be reflected on the school’s fee schedule