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Author: shooper

Published on

TO: 
Administrators

FROM:
April Gaydosh, Administrator of Human Resources
Amanda Bollinger, Associate Administrator, Teaching & Learning

Join us in celebrating our new educators at the upcoming New Educator Induction event! A special "clap in" session will mark the highlight of this event, where we come together to extend a warm welcome to the newest members of the Jordan School District community.

Event Details:

  • Date: Friday, August 8th
  • Time: 7:30 am to 8:15 am (estimated 8:30 am departure)
  • Location: Outside Bingham High School, Entrance TBD

What to Expect:

This occasion is not just an opportunity to welcome our new educators but also a chance to showcase the spirited community of Jordan School District. Let's make it memorable!

Suggested Activities:

  • Dress to Impress: Wear your school or JSD attire with pride.
  • Mascot Magic: Bring along your school mascot to spread cheer.
  • Capture the Moment: Snap a selfie with a new educator at one of our two selfie booths.
  • Cheerful Welcome Lines: Join the welcome lines to cheer on our new educators.
  • Traffic Assistance: Help direct traffic as new educators find their way to the Bingham Student Parking.

Due to the amount of swag and other takeaways new educators will be receiving, we ask that you do not give them presents of any kind during the clap-in. 

Show Your Support:

We encourage you to attend with your team. If your school has new educators, aim to have two to three staff members present to offer a personal cheer for your new colleagues.

Parking Reminder:

Please gather at the North (back) entrance of Bingham High starting at 7:30 am. To ensure optimal parking for our new educators, consider carpooling and using the South parking lot.

Join us in making Jordan School District the district of choice for the best and brightest educators. Let's show them the warmth and enthusiasm that sets our district apart!

We look forward to seeing you there as we kick off an exciting new academic year.

Thank you, 

Jane Olsen, HR Specialist, JSD HR
April Gaydosh, Administrator of HR

Published on

DATE:
June 19, 2025

TO:
Administrators

FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services

SUBJECT:
Parental Consent Required for Student Surveys

Prior consent from a student’s parent for any non-academic survey must be obtained annually. This includes any survey that is a psychological exam, test, analysis, or any survey, analysis, or evaluation where the student may reveal information, whether personally identifiable or not, concerning the student or student’s family members political affiliation, mental or psychological philosophies, sexual behavior/orientation/gender identity or attitudes, illegal/anti-social/self-incriminating or demeaning behavior, critical appraisals, religious affiliations or beliefs, legally privileged and analogous relationships (such as lawyers, medical personnel, or ministers, or income (except as required by law) (§53G-9-702)

Prior written consent must be obtained at the time a student registers at a school for surveys related to the early warning system (Panorama), surveys that include social emotional learning questions, and school climate surveys. Written consent must be obtained for any student who registers at a school, even when they are transferring from one school in the district to another. Rewards for participation or consequences for non-participation in surveys is prohibited.

The early warning system (Panorama) student feedback survey consent form is included in the registration process. To view the consent form, click here. Surveys not related to the early warning system (Panorama), social emotional learning, or school climate are not required to be included in registration. However, a minimum of two (2) weeks’ notice must be provided prior to the administration of any other survey and only those students whose parents have given written consent may take the survey.

Schools should inform their staff annually regarding parental consent requirements for surveys.

Published on

DATE:
June 19, 2025

TO:
Principals
Assistant Principals

FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services

SUBJECT:
Panorama Users by Role

Panorama, the District’s Early Warning System, will not have usable data from July 1-August 11, 2025, during the annual rollover. Nightly data downloads for the 2025-26 school year will resume on or around August 11, 2025. To ensure that all the appropriate permissions are activated, users by role must be validated by each school.

There are two (2) roles that must be identified:

  1. Administrative Roles:
    1. Have access to all students throughout the school
    2. See all discipline information (number, type, and action of each consequence)
    3. Receive reports about their school and district
    4. Typically, the principal, assistant principal(s), school counselors, school psychologists, and clinical support staff have this access. The administrator may choose others that receive this access (special education team leaders, student trackers, athletic directors, etc)
  2. Survey Coordinator Roles:
    1. Receive reports about the school
    2. Have access to all students throughout the school
    3. Should NOT be the school principal
    4. Coordinate survey administration and messaging

Using the Panorama Administrators and Survey Coordinators, please update (if needed) the names of the users (first and last name), select the role, and enter the user's district email address. Schools should enter this information prior to August 1, 2025, to ensure seamless use at the beginning of the school year.

Schools who wish to have their faculty activated should email Travis Hamblin (travis.hamblin@jordandistrict.org).

Published on

DATE:
June 19, 2025

TO:
Principals
Assistant Principals
School Resource Officers

FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
Matt Alvernaz, School Safety Coordinator

SUBJECT:
2025-26 Required Annual Administrator and School Resource Officer (SRO) Training

The annual administrator and SRO training will be held as shown below. This annual training is required for each SRO and at least one administrator from each school.  Additional administrators are welcome to attend.

Date: Friday, September 5, 2025
Time: 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM
Location: ASB Presentation Room

Please contact District School Safety Coordinator, Matt Alvernaz at matt.alvernaz@jordandistrict.org or by phone at (801) 567-8623 if you have any questions.

Published on

TO:
Kindergarten Teachers
Literacy Coaches
Administrators

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Michelle Lovell, Consultant, Elementary Language Arts
Mandy Thurman, Consultant, Elementary Language Arts

Kindergarten teachers are invited to join us for an optional summer session packed with practical strategies and supplies to help students master all letters and sounds in the first quarter. The first 50 teachers who register will get a backpack full of supplies for their class.

Letter Launch sessions are July 31st from 9:00-11:00, or August 4th from 1:00-3:00 at the ASB.

Register at pd.jordandistrict.org.

Published on

TO:
Administrators

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Jared Covili, Consultant in Teaching & Learning

Power up your technology skills with the Big Six. Join Spencer Campbell and Jared Covili for a six-week technology workshop on Wednesdays at 10 am beginning on June 25. We'll explore how you can use the Big Six efficiently in your daily world. See the attached flyer for the schedule and Zoom link.

Published on

DATE:
June 19, 2025

TO:
All Administrators & Threat Assessment Teams

FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
McKinley Withers, Health and Wellness

SUBJECT:
Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) Level 2 Workshop

Basic CSTAG training consists of two (2) training levels and both levels must be completed one time by all administrators and threat assessment team members. The CSTAG Level 2 workshop is for those who have completed the Level 1 training (the 9-module web-based training from Navigate360) or would like a threat assessment refresher. The Level 2 workshop will build upon your knowledge of threat assessment by providing practical application and implementation of the CSTAG process in your school.

The Level 2 workshop will;

  1. Review CSTAG level 1
  2. Focus on the implementation and use of the threat assessment process
  3. Focus on sustainable ways to use CSTAG in your school.
  4. Review of and training on the CSTAG decision tree
  5. Review the CSTAG forms and best practices
  6. Practice using real-world scenarios.

This July, a CSTAG 2 training will be offered to those who have completed Level 1 and to new administrators and administrative interns.

Select this link to register for this session of CSTAG Level 2 training.

Wednesday, July 30th
District Office Room 129
8:30 am-10:30 am

Should you have any questions, please reach out to Angie Rasmussen at angie.rasmussen@jordandistrict.org.

 

Published on

TO:
All School and Department Administrative Assistants

FROM:
Jeri Gamble, Information Systems Support Services

Please be mindful of the finance year-end deadlines. Click here to see deadlines for June 19-26, along with Skyward rollover and eFunds web payment information.

Published on

DATE:
Thursday, June 19, 2025

TO:
All Administrators

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

SUBJECT:
2024-25 Assessment Results Now in Tableau

All state assessment results for the 2024-25 school year are now available in Tableau.  Viewers will be able to see results for the district, schools and individual students.  Where relevant, viewers may also see results by classroom teachers (except with the ACT, Utah Aspire Plus, and the WIDA Access, which are not connected to classroom teachers).  The links below will help administrators navigate directly to the updated results for each assessment:

AAPPL for DLI

Acadience Math

Acadience Reading

ACT 11th grade administration

6th grade CogAT

RISE (ELA and growth scores will be available in the fall)

Utah Aspire Plus (growth scores will be available in the fall)

WIDA Access (growth targets will be available in the fall)

AP exam results will be available in Tableau by the end of July (pending a release date from the College Board of July 14th).  The state will release DLM results for students with significant cognitive disabilities sometime in the fall.

For questions about these dashboards, please contact Ben Jameson in Assessment, Research & Accountability.  To request additional data or to see these results in another way, please contact the district’s data scientist, Brooke Anderson, in Assessment, Research & Accountability.

Published on

DATE:
Thursday, June 19, 2025

TO:
Elementary School Administrators
Middle 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: Computational Thinking Assessment and Classroom Observation

Applicant: David Feldon, Utah State 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 solicit your participation in a survey. 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 students in 6th-8th grades, who will take a pre- and post-test on computational thinking. The research team will also work with participating teachers to arrange a time to observe a lesson on computational thinking.

Thank you for your assistance.

Published on

DATE:
Thursday, June 19, 2025

TO:
Elementary 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: A Quantitative Study on the Relationship Between Skills Transfer from Professional Development and Teacher Integration

Applicant: Helena Mueller, University of Phoenix

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 solicit your participation in a survey. 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.

You and/or your teachers may be invited to participate in a survey about their learning experiences in the LETRS training and how they have used those skills in their literacy instruction.

Thank you for your assistance.

 

Published on

DATE:
Thursday, June 19, 2025

TO:
Elementary 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: Bridging Capacity and Support: Exploring Elementary Principals’ Perceptions of Instructional Leadership and District Support

Applicant: Heather Balli, 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 solicit your participation in a survey. 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 researcher will contact select elementary principals to request an appointment for an exploratory interview.

Thank you for your assistance.

Published on

TO:  
All Administrators

FROM:
Jordan School District Cabinet Members

The Administrative Leadership Conference is scheduled for Tuesday, August 5, 2025, and Thursday, August 7, 2025, at Fort Herriman Middle School. Please make note of the information listed below.

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

  • Event: Jordan District Administrative Leadership Conference
  • Time: Breakfast at 7:30 AM, Conference begins at 8:00 AM
  • UPDATED Location: Fort Herriman Middle School, 14058 S. Mirabella Dr (6200 W), Herriman

Thursday, August 7, 2025

  • Event: Principal Level Meeting
  • Time: 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
  • UPDATED Location: Fort Herriman Middle School, 14058 S. Mirabella Dr (6200 W), Herriman

AND

  • Event: Leadership Workshops
  • Time: 8:15 AM - 11:15 AM - workshop sessions for all administrators (principals will be in level meeting)
    12:45 PM - 3:30 PM - workshop sessions for all administrators
  • Location: Fort Herriman Middle School, 14058 S. Mirabella Dr (6200 W), Herriman

Administrative Leadership Conference Workshops

See the attached document for workshop descriptions before registering for the sessions you'd like to attend. Please register by June 30th using this Workshop Registration Link.

  • Workshop sessions will be limited to 25 participants. Please register early.
  • Many sessions will require you to bring your own device - a laptop, Chromebook, or iPad
  • Tuesday’s workshops (session 1) will be included as part of the conference schedule.
  • Principals’ level meeting will be held on August 7th from 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM. 
  • Principals will be available to attend 3 workshops after the principal meeting (Sessions 3, 4, 5).
  • All Administrators are invited to attend the workshop sessions 2-5 on Thursday.

Keynote Book Order Information

Just a reminder, the keynote address will feature a speaker from the Arbinger Institute, focusing on the book Leadership and Self-Deception. If you would like a copy of this book in your preferred format, please use the attached Google Form to place your order by June 20, 2025.

Published on

TO:
Principals
Assistant Principals

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Michelle Lovell, Consultant, Elementary Language Arts
Mandy Thurman, Consultant, Elementary Language Arts

  • LETRS is a two-year certification program.
    • All teachers who begin LETRS training are expected to complete both years.
      • If a teacher will not be at your school for two continuous years, please contact Michelle Lovell or Mandy Thurman to discuss individual needs and get guidance.
      • K–3rd grade teachers moving to 4th–6th grade the following year:
        • LETRS provides valuable knowledge for all grade levels. These teachers should still complete both years of LETRS training. 
    • Expansion to 4th–6th grade teachers:
      • Many 4th–6th grade teachers have requested LETRS certification.
      • LETRS is now open to 4th–6th grade teachers interested in the training.
        • Costs and support:
          • Schools cover the cost of books, online materials, and teacher stipends.
          • Teaching and Learning will pay for in-person training and substitutes.

Published on

TO:
Principals
Assistant Principals

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Michelle Lovell, Consultant, Elementary Language Arts
Mandy Thurman, Consultant, Elementary Language Arts

We have developed pacing guides for Wit & Wisdom in direct response to requests from principals and teachers. These guides are designed to help staff plan effectively for both the year and daily lessons, supporting consistent core instruction and standards coverage across all classrooms.

We understand that many teachers may not yet be pacing exactly as outlined. This is normal when implementing new materials, and improvement will come with time and practice. The pacing guides are targets to work toward.  Our goal is to support—not pressure—teachers as they adjust to the new curriculum.

The pacing guides can be found on the elementary literacy website at elemliteracy.jordandistrict.org/ under standards and pacing and then under each grade level. The pacing grade for each grade level is also linked at the bottom of the attached document. A pacing guide for ½ day kindergarten, as well as pacing guides for DLI, will be sent to schools who need them. 

If your teams need assistance, we are available to discuss scaffolded approaches and practical planning strategies. Please contact Michelle Lovell, Mandy Thurman, or your assigned teacher specialist for support.

Published on

DATE:
Thursday, June 12, 2025

TO:
Elementary Principals
Middle School Principals

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Amanda Bollinger, Associate Administrator, Teaching & Learning

SUBJECT:
2025-26 K-8 Grade New Teacher Math Training

Principals,

We are pleased to offer math training sessions for our newly hired 2025-26 K-8 teachers in August before the beginning of school. Teachers will be compensated with a stipend for attending the training.

Kindergarten-5 Grade Elementary New Teacher Open Up Math Training

K-5 teachers will receive two days of training:

  • Day 1: Monday, August 4th
  • Day 2:
    • Thursday, August 7th: Kindergarten and 1st Grade
    • Wednesday, August 6th: 2nd and 3rd Grade
    • Thursday, August 7th: 4th and 5th Grade
  • New teachers can register through Canvas Catalog: K-5 SIGN-UP LINK
  • See the attached flyer for more information.

6-8 Grade Illustrative Mathematics/IL New Teacher Training

  • Wednesday, August 6th: Dedicated training for new 6th-8th grade teachers
    • 8:30-3:30 at the ASB, Room 102 Entrance B
  • New teachers can register through Canvas Catalog: SIGN-UP LINK
  • See the attached flyer for more information.

Please share this information with any newly hired K-6 grade teachers and 7-8 grade math teachers for the 2025-2026 school year.

Published on

TO:
Administrators

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Jared Covili, Consultant in Teaching & Learning

With our recent district upgrade to Google for Education Workspace Plus, Digital Teaching and Learning/Info Systems has started a 60-day pilot to explore some of the new tools in this expanded Google platform. We currently have approximately 30 slots for interested administrators or digital coaches who would like access to these tools before they are released to the entire district. If you have an interest in participating in the trial, please complete the attached form.

Google Pilot Interest Form

Published on

TO:
Elementary Administrators

FROM:
Michelle Lovell, Consultant in Teaching & Learning

On May 22nd, a JAM was sent to inform schools about the available funding for literacy software programs for the 2025-26 school year. If you have not yet completed the form, please do so by June 13th. If you have already completed it, there is no need to resubmit. Please note that failure to submit the form will be taken as a decision not to request a literacy software program for the 2025-26 school year.

Early Intervention Software Program Link