Author: shooper

DATE:
April 24, 2025

TO:
Elementary Principals
Head Administrative Assistants

FROM:
Odette Desmarais, Administrator of Schools
Meredith Doleac, Administrator of Schools
Becky Gerber, Administrator of Schools
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools

SUBJECT:
Elementary Administrative Assistants Trade Days and Summer Hours

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Elementary administrative assistants are calendared to work 206 days in a school year, including 5 days in which students and teachers are not in the building. These days generally occur the Friday after parent-teacher conferences (2) and on grade transmittal days (3). The PTC days can already be traded for the Friday compensation day if the administrative assistant works both evenings of the PTC. They are also allowed to be paid for up to 10 additional optional days during the summer months, which are not included in their 206-day contract. These days are intended to provide additional pay for them to keep up with work, such as student enrollments, over the summer.

Beginning immediately, greater flexibility may be provided to Elementary administrative assistants by:

• Trading up to 5 non-student/teacher work days during the school year to work in the summer months, and/or
• Converting up to 5 optional summer days into pool hours for office assistants to work additional hours from July 2025 to June 2026.

Option 1
Elementary administrative assistants may choose to trade up to 5 contracted days (three grade transmittal and two PTC compensation days) to use as additional work days the following summer. This could provide up to 15 additional work days in the summer.

Option 2
Elementary administrative assistants may choose to convert up to (5) five of their optional summer days into additional pool hours for their office assistants to work July 2025 - June 2026. For every full day that is not used as an additional day by the administrative assistant, 10 hours will be added to the pool hours to be used by the office assistants to work from July 2025 to June 2026.

Option 3
Elementary administrative assistants may choose to do a combination of options 1 and 2, not to exceed 5 trade days in the school year and not to exceed 5 converted pool hour days to use for office assistants.

Tracking
For Option 1 - Administrative assistants will have an option in the Skyward Time Off System to log the grade transmittal day as a “Trade Time - Days” with the reason code “Trade Time Day Taken Off” for building principals to approve. When they work the day in the summer, they will need to log it in the Skyward Time Off System as a “Trade Time - Days” with the reason code “Trade Time Day Worked”. This information will also need to be documented on the Pool Hours spreadsheet.

For Option 2 - A Google form will be available in the checkout materials to declare the number of optional days that will be converted to pool hours for the upcoming school year. These hours will then be documented and tracked in the Pool Hours spreadsheet by the district AOS administrative assistants.

A Google form will be distributed as part of Principal Checkout. Building principals will need to approve these converted days on the Google form and submit it as part of the checkout process.

DATE:
March 27, 2025

TO:
Elementary Principals

FROM:
Anthony Godfrey, Superintendent
Odette Desmarais, Administrator of Schools
Meredith Doleac, Administrator of Schools
Becky Gerber, Administrator of Schools
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools

SUBJECT:
Updated Requirements for the Use of Inflatables at PTA-Sponsored School Events

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Utah State Risk Management's Liability Policy now excludes bounce houses and related items. Specifically, the policy states: "No coverage under this coverage agreement shall apply to any bodily injury resulting from the use of any recreational inflatable or trampoline except when the use of a trampoline is supervised by a trained instructor as part of the covered entity’s designated programs."

As the school administrator, if your PTA chooses to include inflatables as part of a PTA-sponsored event at your school, you are required to provide documentation of the following items prior to your PTA representative signing a contract. If you already have contracts in place for this school year (2024-2025), you will need to provide this documentation 15 days prior to the scheduled event.

The PTA must contract with a private vendor and provide current documentation of the following from the contracted vendor:

• A current business license 
• A current insurance policy that includes ALL of the following:
  • A current certificate of insurance with a minimum coverage of $1,000,000 per person and $3,000,000 aggregate in relation to a single occurrence.
  • The certificate of insurance listed above must list Jordan School District as an additional insured entity on the policy.
• A written verification from the contracted vendor that they and/or their employees will set up and run the inflatable equipment for the entire event. Your school employees and volunteers cannot run the inflatable equipment at any time during the event. Your employees and volunteers may not be covered for accidents that occur.

Your PTA may choose to purchase an additional liability policy for this event to provide additional coverage in the event of an accident.

All documentation listed above must be sent to the Elementary Administrator of Schools Office prior to signing an event contract or at least 15 days prior to the event if your PTA has already contracted for an event this school year (24-25).

Send all documentation to shannel.hooper@jordandistrict.org.

You will receive an email verification when the documentation has been received and verified, notifying you that you may proceed with the requested event.

DATE:
Thursday, March 6, 2025

TO:
Elementary School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:
Research Project

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

Project Title: Development of a Narrative Language and Reading Comprehension Program for Students with or At Risk for Language and Literacy Difficulties

Applicant: Sandra Gillam, 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. 

This is a two-year study where teachers and researchers will co-develop model intervention lessons and then teachers will implement the intervention lessons and then assist in evaluating their usability, feasibility, and efficacy.

Thank you for your assistance.

DATE:
Thursday, March 6, 2025

TO:
Elementary School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:
Research Project

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

Project Title: Elementary Teacher Beliefs About Curricular and General Autonomy:
Exploring the intersection of belief and praxis

Applicant: Laura Wheeler

The project has been approved by the District Research Review Committee. Participation in the study is at teachers’ discretion. If you have questions or concerns relating to participation, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243. 

The project will involve a survey that is sent to elementary teachers. Teachers may choose to participate in the survey and may also opt into a follow-up interview.

Thank you for your assistance.