Category: Elementary Action Required

TO:
Elementary Principals & Assistant Principals

FROM:
Megan Cox (Rose Creek)
Garett York (Southland)
Jessica Stowe (Bastian)
Ronna Hoffman (Oak Leaf)

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Calling all elementary principals and assistant principals to join JAESP, UAESP, and NAESP.

DATE:     
August 22, 2025

TO:
All Elementary Principals

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

SUBJECT:     
Utah Symphony Performance at Copper Hills High School for 4^th Grade Students

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We are pleased to announce Utah Symphony concerts for your 4th-grade students at Copper Hills High School. The performance dates are November 10 and 11, 2025, at 10:15 and 11:35 a.m. Your school’s date and time for attending a performance are provided on the attached spreadsheet. School groups will be seated upon arrival.

The Utah Symphony will provide study materials to prepare your students before the performance.

Please have your administrative assistant complete a transportation request on Skyward (your school's date and time are shown on the spreadsheet). The number of teachers (which may also include a parent and two chaperones for each class) should be included in your school’s final count. When entering your busing request, please include the correct group name (e.g. Daybreak, 115 Curr). This will ensure that the Teaching and Learning Department will cover the busing fee.

Transportation requests should be completed as soon as possible. Due to the number of buses that need to be used for the Symphony concerts, there will be a moratorium on other transportation requests for these dates.

 

TO:
Elementary Principals

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Amanda Bollinger, Associate Administrator, Teaching & Learning
Nathan Foster, Specialist, Health & PE

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Principals,

It is mandatory for all Health and 4th-grade teachers to complete the Botvin Life Skills training. Please share this information with the applicable teachers at your school. See the attached document for upcoming training opportunities and requirements for this curriculum. Our new Health & PE Teacher Specialist, Nathan Foster (nate.foster@jordandistrict.org) will be emailing a list of employees that need to complete the training.

TO:
Building Administrators
Kindergarten Teachers
Instructional Coaches

FROM:
Michelle Lovell, Consultant in Teaching & Learning

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As we move into the school year, we want to remind schools that the district has a kindergarten goal to have all students know all of their letter names and sounds by the end of the first quarter. We are asking teachers to input their data into Mastery Connect as a benchmark by November 7th. Meeting this goal will set students up for being able to meet the end of year goal of 20 Whole Words Read in Acadience Reading. Whole Words Read is an indication that students can blend closed syllable words proficiently. Acadience Reading is an indicator of risk and research shows that when students end the year as highly proficient (blue) they have a 90-99% chance of achieving subsequent early literacy benchmarks. If students end the year at benchmark (green) they have a 70-85% chance of meeting subsequent early literacy benchmarks.

DATE: 
Thursday, August 14, 2025

TO:     
Elementary School Administrators

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

SUBJECT: 
BOY Acadience Reading and Math Testing Reminders

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The beginning-of-year Acadience Reading and Math testing window opens on the third day of school and closes on Tuesday, September 30th. As we prepare for Acadience testing, there are a few friendly reminders that help the district testing teams be as efficient as possible while they are at your school testing students:

• When possible, it is best to schedule Acadience testing in media centers where the space is large enough to mitigate the noise that comes from 10-11 testers/students all talking at once. Other areas, such as classrooms, kivas, or stages in the multicultural room/cafeteria can be very noisy. Excessive noise can make it hard for testers to hear student responses and be very distracting to students, which may affect the accuracy of their test.
• Your school’s Acadience testing dates were communicated to you last spring. We recommend refraining from scheduling assemblies, field trips, or other events that may impact testing for the day.
• Please avoid scheduling kindergarten and first grade classes back-to-back, when possible. They take longer because assessment assistants are administering both the reading and math measures. Staggering them between second and third grade classes helps the team stay on time.
• Generally, assessment assistants will work to stick to the established testing schedule for the day. However, there may be times where they will need to accelerate their pacing. Please encourage your teachers to be flexible. They need to be prepared to come a little early or late to their allotted time.
• Be sure to have an adult runner available who knows the school and can quickly get the next class to come to the testing area, distribute student cards, and help the testing run as efficiently as possible. If schools don’t have a runner available, a parent who knows where teacher classrooms are is a viable option. If there is no runner, one of our assessment assistants has to do it, which means she is testing less students.

Please contact Ben Jameson or Janice Sperry in Assessment, Research & Accountability with any questions or concerns about these reminders.

TO:
Elementary Principals

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Amanda Bollinger, Associate Administrator, Teaching & Learning
Amy Lloyd, K-12 Math Consultant, Teaching & Learning

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Principals,

Student manuals, center kits, and manipulative kits should have arrived at your school. We’ve noticed that some schools have received extra materials, while others may be missing items.

To help us resolve this, please open the attached document, locate your school’s tab, and record any materials that are missing or extra by Agust 29, 2025. Please note: yardsticks will be shipped separately and do not need to be included on the form.

Thank you! Our goal is to ensure every school has the resources you need for a successful year.

LINK to Material Needs

TO:
Administrators

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Amanda Bollinger, Associate Administrator, Teaching & Learning
Amy Lloyd, K-12 Math Consultant, Teaching & Learning

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Administrators,

Teachers that chose to participate in the optional 3rd Planning Day as part of our Open Up Math Training series have until the August 22, 2025 to submit the form to receive their stipend.

Teachers will follow the directions provided in the attached Day 3 Planning Evidence Form and then upload the attached form into a Day 3 Stipend Google Form. The due date and forms were shared with teachers as well.

 

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

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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.

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

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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!