Skip to content

Author: npage

Published on

DATE:  
July 28, 2025

TO:  
Secondary Principals
Secondary Media Specialists

FROM:  
Administrators of Schools
Carolyn Gough, Administrator, Teaching and Learning Department
Norman Emerson, Instructional Support Services Consultant

SUBJECT:  
Networking Meetings for Secondary Library Media Specialists

To ensure that secondary library media specialists (teacher-librarians) are equipped to continue delivering excellent services and to promote uniformity throughout the District’s library programs, a series of networking meetings has been arranged for the 2025-26 school year. We greatly appreciate the participation of your school’s teacher-librarians in these meetings.

Scheduled Meeting Dates:

  • September 26, 2025 (USLA Conference)
  • October 15, 2025 (Mountain Creek Middle) 8:00-11:00 a.m.
  • November 19, 2025 (Herriman High) 8:00-11:00 a.m.
  • January 21, 2026 (Viridian Center) 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
  • February 4, 2026 (West Jordan High) 8:00-11:00 a.m.
  • March 11, 2026 (Joel P. Jensen Middle) 8:00-11:00 a.m.
  • April 15, 2026 (Hidden Valley Middle) 8:00-11:00 a.m.
  • May 13, 2026 (Valley High) 8:00-11:00 a.m.

Please ensure this information is shared with your school’s teacher-librarian. For any additional details, feel free to contact Norman Emerson at 801-567-8364. Thank you for your continued dedication to supporting the library media programs in Jordan District.

Published on

DATE:
July 26, 2025

TO: 
Elementary Principals
Elementary Media Assistants

FROM:  
Administrators of Schools
Carolyn Gough, Administrator, Teaching and Learning Department
Norman Emerson, Instructional Support Services Consultant

SUBJECT: 
Quarterly Training Meetings for Elementary Media Assistants

To ensure that our elementary library media assistants are well-equipped to provide exceptional service and maintain consistency across our library programs, training meetings have been scheduled for the 2025-26 school year. It is both appreciated and expected that both of your library assistants attend these sessions, which are to be included in their weekly 17-hour work schedule. Except for August 19, 2025, all meetings will be held on Fridays.

Meeting Schedule:

  • August 19, 2025 - ASB Auditorium, 8:30-10:30 a.m.
  • October 10, 2025 - Viridian Center, 8:30-10:30 a.m.
  • January 9, 2026 - Juniper Elementary, 8:30-10:30 a.m.
  • April 24, 2026 - JATC South, 8:30-10:30 a.m.

Please ensure this information is shared with your school's elementary media assistants. For any additional details or clarification, feel free to contact Norman Emerson at 801-567-8364. Your ongoing support of the library media program in the Jordan School District is greatly appreciated.

Published on

TO:
All Administrators

FROM:
Scott Thomas, Administrator of Auxiliary Services
Brandon Conti, Risk Management Coordinator

Safety cans, as their name suggests, provide a safe means to store and dispense small quanti-ties of flammable and combustible liquids. In the college or university setting, they are most likely to be found in science laboratories. But, they are also used to store solvents and cleaning agents in the main-tenance shop and to store fuels for small powered equipment, such as lawn mowers and leaf blowers used by the grounds keeping crew. Please see tips and hints below.

Published on

DATE:        
August 7, 2025

TO:   
School Administrators
Elementary Administrative Assistants
Secondary Attendance Secretaries
Secondary Registrars

FROM: 
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director, Student Services
Caleb Olson, Enrollment Consultant, Student Services

SUBJECT: 
Annual Reminder of Memos from Planning & Enrollment

School staff are requested to review the following memos that contain reminders of time-sensitive information from Planning & Enrollment. The content of these memos has not changed and remains applicable to schools.

Published on

DATE:  
August 7, 2025

TO: 
School Administrators
Elementary Administrative Assistants
Secondary Attendance Secretaries
Secondary Registrars

FROM:   
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director, Student Services
Caleb Olson, Enrollment Consultant, Student Services

SUBJECT:   
Third Party Information Release Opt-Out

Parents (and students over the age of 18) have the right to opt-out of the release of their student’s directory information to third parties. This right is communicated to parents annually in the FERPA, PPRA, and Directory Information notices in the online “Registration for Schools” process.

Please see the memo below for all the details.

Published on

DATE:      
Thursday, August 7, 2025

TO:  
All Middle and High School Administrators

FROM:   
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Assessment, 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: Perspectives from the Classroom: A Qualitative Analysis of the Helping and Hindering Incidents Associated with Implementing Effective Classroom Management Strategies

Applicant: Ellie Young and Rachel Seminario, Brigham Young University-Provo

The project has been approved by the District Research Review Committee. The research team will email potential participants directly to recruit them for the study. Special education teachers will be asked to participate in a brief online interview. Their 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.

Thank you for your assistance.

 

Published on

DATE:   
Thursday, August 7, 2025

TO:  
Elementary Administrators

FROM:  
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Assessment, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:  
Acadience Reading Training Options

District assessment assistants will administer the Acadience Reading benchmarks for students in grades K-3 as in years past. Schools should already have their benchmark testing dates for all three windows for the 2025-26 school year.

Any school personnel that will be involved in administering the Acadience Reading benchmarks in grades 4-6 and/or progress monitoring probes in grades K-6 should be trained in test administration procedures on an annual basis. There are several training options depending on the employee’s work assignment.

Classroom Teachers and Instructional Coaches
Teachers and coaches need complete only one of the following options:

  • Training Option 1: USBE Canvas Course
  • Training Option 2: In-person training – Please sign up using this link. The in-person course is a half day. Schools will need to cover the cost of the sub.
  • Training Option 3: JSD Training Course

ESP Employees
ESP employees should complete one of the following options as part of their regular contract time:

  • Training Option 1: In-person training – Please sign up using this link. The in-person course is a half day. Schools will need to cover the cost of the sub.
  • Training Option 2: JSD Training Course

Please note that ALO account access will be granted once ESP employees successfully complete one of the two training options listed above.

For questions about Acadience Reading training, please contact Janice Sperry in Assessment, Research & Accountability.

Published on

DATE: 
Thursday, August 7, 2025

TO:     
Middle and High School Administrators

FROM:  
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Assessment, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:  
Fall 2025 Assessment Updates

There are several assessment updates of which middle and high school administrators should be aware:

RISE ELA and Writing Scores, School Report Card, and TSI/ATSI/CSI Designation Delays
The RISE ELA assessment was updated to match the new ELA core recently approved by the USBE. Whenever an assessment is changed, it must go through a standard setting process. USBE is currently conducting that standard setting process, which will delay the release of RISE ELA and writing scores until sometime in September or October. The delayed score release will also delay the release of school report cards and new TSI/ATSI/CSI designations and exits until January 2026.

Currently designated TSI/ATSI/CSI schools should continue implementing their school improvement plans for the duration of the 2025-26 school year.

Grades 9-10 Summative Assessment
SB 39 was passed in the 2025 legislative session, which mandates the transition back to a standards assessment for grades 9-10. This means that the Utah Aspire Plus will be administered for the last time in the spring of 2026 and then will be retired.

Cambium Assessment (CAI), the current RISE grades 3-8 vendor, won the RFP for the new standards assessment for grades 9-10, which means middle and high schools will now participate in a grades 3-10 RISE summative assessment using a single testing platform. Student participation on the RISE assessment will be based on course enrollment rather than grade, similar to the way it was done when we had SAGE. Actual tested courses in 9th and 10th grades are still being determined.

Grades 9-10 RISE summative testing will begin in the spring of 2027. RISE Benchmarks and Interims for grades 9-10 will also be developed but will likely not be available during the 2026-27 school year.

Civics Exam Graduation Requirement
With the passing of HB 381, which took effect on July 1, 2025, students no longer have to take and pass a civics exam to graduate from high school. Instead, students will need to take and pass a US government and citizenship course. While the removal of the requirement to take a civics exam goes into effect beginning with the 2025-26 school year, the required government and citizenship course applies to the freshman class of 2026-27 to give USBE time to develop course standards and schools time to hire personnel. Thus, the classes of 2026, 2027, 2028, and 2029 do not have to pass the civics exam nor take the government and citizenship class to graduate. The new government and citizenship course requirement will apply first to the class of 2030.

USBE is still working on this issue; thus, more updates will be released as they become available.

RISE ELA and Writing Benchmarks
The RISE ELA and writing benchmarks based on the new ELA core for grades 3-8 will be available beginning November 4, 2025, except for the 7th grade informational writing benchmark, which will not be available for the 2025-26 school year. The 7th grade informational writing benchmark pilot did not receive enough responses to validate its usage.

RISE math and science benchmarks are currently available.

New DLI Assessment
The state’s contract with LTI and its AAPPL assessment for DLI classes ended with the 2024-25 school year. Avant’s STAMP assessment won the new contract and will be implemented beginning with the 2025-26 school year. Assessment, Research & Accountability will release additional updates as we receive them from USBE.

Please note that AAPPL for world language testing in the spring will continue as in years past.

For questions or concerns about any of these changes, please contact Ben Jameson in Assessment, Research & Accountability.

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, August 7, 2025

TO:  
Elementary School Administrators

FROM: 
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Assessment, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:   
Fall 2025 Assessment Updates

There are several assessment updates of which elementary school administrators should be aware:

RISE ELA and Writing Scores, School Report Card, and TSI/ATSI/CSI Designation Delays
The RISE ELA assessment was updated to match the new ELA core recently approved by the USBE. Whenever an assessment is changed, it must go through a standard setting process. USBE is currently conducting that standard setting process, which will delay the release of RISE ELA and writing scores until sometime in September or October. The delayed score release will also delay the release of school report cards and new TSI/ATSI/CSI designations and exits until January 2026.

Currently designated TSI/ATSI/CSI schools should continue implementing their school improvement plans for the duration of the 2025-26 school year.

RISE ELA and Writing Benchmarks
The RISE ELA and writing benchmarks based on the new ELA core for grades 3-8 will be available beginning November 4, 2025.

RISE math and science benchmarks are currently available.

New DLI Assessment
The state’s contract with LTI and its AAPPL assessment for DLI classes ended with the 2024-25 school year. Avant’s STAMP assessment won the new contract and will be implemented beginning with the 2025-26 school year. Assessment, Research & Accountability will release additional updates as we receive them from USBE.

Please note that AAPPL for world language testing in the spring will continue as in years past.

For questions or concerns about any of these changes, please contact Ben Jameson in Assessment, Research & Accountability.

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, August 7, 2025

TO:  
High School Administrators

FROM:  
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:    
Fall 2025 Testing Bulletin

School administrators may view the most up-to-date testing bulletin, complete with test administration and survey administration windows, by clicking on ‘High School’ under the heading Testing Bulletins on the front page of the website for Assessment, Research & Accountability. See the memo for the link and all the details.

Published on

DATE:   
Thursday, August 7, 2025

TO:   
Middle School Administrators

FROM:  
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT: 
Fall 2025 Testing Bulletin

School administrators may view the most up-to-date testing bulletin, complete with test administration and survey administration windows, by clicking on ‘Middle School’ under the heading Testing Bulletins on the front page of the website for Assessment, Research & Accountability. See the memo for the link and all the details.

 

Published on

DATE:      
Thursday, August 7, 2025

TO:  
Elementary School Administrators

FROM:    
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:  
Fall 2025 Testing Bulletin

School administrators may view the most up-to-date testing bulletin, complete with test administration and survey administration windows, by clicking on ‘Elementary School’ under the heading Testing Bulletins on the front page of the website for Assessment, Research & Accountability. See the memo for the link and all the details.

Published on

DATE:   
Thursday, August 7, 2025

TO:  
All School Administrators

FROM:  
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Assessment, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:   
2025-26 Parental Exclusion Forms

2025-26 Parental Exclusion from State Assessments forms have been released by the state. Elementary and secondary versions may be found attached with this memo (including Spanish versions for each level). In addition, the forms may be found on the Assessment, Research & Accountability website.

Parents must notify schools of their desire to opt their student out of a state-mandated assessment on an annual basis. Parental exclusions should be recorded on your school’s opt out log so that both school and district personnel have one source of truth for all parental exclusions. Schools are discouraged from keeping parental exclusion lists that are separate or different from the opt out log received from Assessment, Research & Accountability.

Please direct questions about parental exclusions to Ben Jameson in Assessment, Research & Accountability.

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, August 7, 2025

TO:  
All School Administrators

FROM:   
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Assessment, 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: Online Mental Health Training to Improve Physiological Stress Outcomes in Schoolteachers: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Applicant: Katelyn Jackman, Brigham Young University-Provo

The project has been approved by the District Research Review Committee. The applicant will contact teachers via email directly to invite them to participate in the research project. The applicant has been directed to contact principals to discuss the extent of the project and arrange a private area in which to meet with teachers. 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.

Thank you for your assistance.

Published on

TO:
Building & District Administrators
Administrative Assistants

FROM:
Caleb Olson, Consultant, Planning & Enrollment

The 2025-26 updates of the “Assistant Principal Directory” have been finalized and are available below.

These links will be valid all year and any updates will be saved to these locations.

If changes or corrections need to be made, you may contact Caleb Olson in Student Services or make the changes on the web version of the directories at the link below.

Link to the Web Version of the Directory to make changes

 

Published on

DATE:     
August 7, 2025

TO:   
Elementary Administrators

FROM: 
Steffany Ellsworth, Support Services Manager, Information Systems

SUBJECT:   
Save Valuable Time with Chromebook Badges for K-2 Students

Elementary Principals, are your K-2nd grade teachers losing valuable learning time because they are helping students log into their Chromebooks? If so, Clever Badges may be the solution! Clever Badges allow students to login to their Chromebooks using a QR code held up to the camera. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it allows teachers to focus on curriculum, not login issues.

Discover the magic of Clever Badges! This short 1 minute video gives an overview of Clever Badges.

If you are interested in implementing Clever Badges at your school, please let Information Systems know by filling out this brief Google Survey.

More information on Clever Badges

  • Teachers have the ability to print Clever Badges, void and regenerate badges as needed.
  • Clever Badges are specific to individual students, and anyone with the QR code can access their Google account. Thus it is important to protect the badges like a password and keep them in a secure location.
  • Implementing Clever Badges at your school is fast and easy. Once you’ve completed the request form, we’ll contact you with instructions to get your teachers started.

Published on

TO:
All Principals
All Administrative Assistants

FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Nadine Page, Administrative Assistant

The following instructions are to help you in compiling the timesheets that will be coming to you from your licensed personnel. The complete list of instructions is attached to this JAM.

PRINCIPAL/ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT INSTRUCTIONS 

Principals and administrative assistants have 11 assignments:

  1. Assign a designated person to oversee this program. Add their name to the google sheet.
  2. Make sure the plans are turned in on or before September 30, 2025.
  3. All plans must be logged (with the date received), by the designated person, no later than October 31, 2025 on the provided google sheet.
  4. Provide time for eligible staff to complete the plan.
  5. Gather and track the timesheets as licensed employees complete them.
  6. Make sure teachers follow through.
  7. Add the actual number of hours the employee worked, (up to a maximum of 32 hours, which is determined by the FTE of the employee for work that is not already compensated, e.g. contract time or other paid time) after you receive the timesheet.
  8. Verify that all employees, that are eligible, have turned in their timesheet on or before April 10, 2026.
  9. If an employee works at multiple sites, the school listed as the check location is to track the timesheet for that employee.
  10. If an employee changes locations during the school year, the administrative assistant for the new location must collect the timesheet and log it by the April 10, 2026 deadline.
  11. Keep the plans and timesheets on file at your location for auditing purposes.

Eligible licensed personnel must turn in their plan to the principal or administrative assistant (designated person) on or before September 30, 2025.

Principals are asked to give time in a meeting at the beginning of the year for eligible staff to fill out the Professional Hours Plan and turn it in.

A google doc (school name – Educator Directed 32 Hours 2025-26) will be shared to each individual school to be used in tracking the plan as well as the timesheet. Please use this original google doc to track the hours. Do not create your own form. 

    • Administrative assistants, or other designed person will add 
      • the school location, 
      • names of the employees, 
      • employee ID (six digit #), 
      • FTE of the employee (the awarded amount is determined by the FTE of the employee; 1 FTE = 32 hours, .5 FTE = 16 hours,
  • ***the items above will be prefilled. Please double check to make sure all employees are listed correctly for your school, 
    • date that you received the plan, 
    • finally, the date when you have received the timesheet and the hours to be paid (once you have received the final hours worked).

Thank you for your help in making sure all eligible employees receive the correct pay.

Published on

TO:
All District Administration

FROM:
Anthony Godfrey, Superintendent
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent

Please take the time to fill out the requested survey. See the information and links below regarding the facts for this survey.

What: The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) is conducting a brief survey of local education agency (LEA) school and district administrators to assess the Utah Educational Leadership Standards and determine whether a revision process should be considered.

Who: District Superintendents, Charter School Directors, appropriate District Directors, Principal Supervisors, and school-based administrators, including Principals, Assistant Principals and Administrative Interns.

When: The survey will be open for responses through August 8th, 2025.

Information: 

As required by state code, it is noted that this survey response is being requested to seek input on the Utah Educational Leadership Standards, but it is not a survey that is required by federal or state code. The information being requested is not available elsewhere.

For more information, please reach out to Julie Lundell, the USBE School Leadership and Improvement Specialist.

Published on

DATE: 
July 31, 2025

TO:   
Elementary School Administrative Assistants

FROM:  
Scott M. Thomas, Administrator of Auxiliary Services
Paul Bergera, Director of Transportation
Stephanie Erickson, Special Education Route Coordinator

SUBJECT: 
Busing Requests for Sibling Riders

It is a pleasure for us to provide safe, reliable and efficient transportation for our students. As we embark on a succesful launch of the 2025-26 school year, we at Transportation are preparing our routes to accommodate changes throughout the district for special education transportation.

Attached is the 2025-26 Special Education Busing Request form for sibling riders, which is used for all sibling riders and must be renewed each year. We ask you to please provide assistance to parents by helping them understand that the school principal’s signature is needed prior to the form either being sent to Stephanie Erickson at stephanie.erickson@jordandistrict.org or by opting to send a hard copy to Stephanie through district mail.

Copies of the individual bus route complete with student stop locations and estimated stop times are provided to our bus drivers for each special need student attending your school. Therefore, if a sibling rider is on a bus, the driver has appropriate information either prior to the first day of school or as we receive completed and approved forms throughout the school year. A bus list is then provided to the special education teachers at your school.

As student information changes throughout the year, an updated list will also be provided to the special education teachers.

Thank you for your support. We look forward to a great school year together!

Published on

DATE:
July 31, 2025

TO:
All Administrators
All Administrative Assistants

FROM:
John Larsen, Business Adminhistrator
Daniel Ellis, Director of Accounting and Audits
Natalie Grange, Accounting Administrator

SUBJECT:
2025-2026 School Allocations

The 2025-2026 School allocations have been provided for your review. See attached file for allocations, your carryover balances, and estimated headcounts. An explanation of changes to supplies budgets and staff appreciation and PD meals being moved to to in lieu are included in the memo.

School allocations will be updated in November after the October 1 headcounts are finalized by the State. Budgets will not be adjusted for the virtual schools.

Budget transfers can be submitted, using the attached form, to Natalie.Grange@jordandistrict.org.

If you have questions please contact Natalie Grange at 88312 or at Natalie.Grange@jordandistrict.org.