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Category: Elementary Action Required

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, October 15, 2020

TO:  
All Principals

FROM:  
Shelley Nordick, Ph.D., Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT: 
Reading Inventory (formerly SRI) Update

Principals are asked to pass this information on to their teachers who will be using Reading Inventory.

We are very happy to announce that Teaching & Learning has now completed the purchase process for SRI, and it will be available to teachers this week. SRI is no longer run by Scholastic, and is now just Reading Inventory, or RI.  It is a product of Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt.

To access the SAM server to view student scores and run reports, go to this link: https://h100005970.education.scholastic.com/

As schools begin to use RI, Information Systems would like you to remember the following information:

For Chromebooks, IS has pushed the link https://h100005970.education.scholastic.com/ to the Chromebooks. It will show as RI.  Schools that want to use RI on non-Chrome devices will need to see if their tech can put the link above on whatever device will be used.  They’ll need to be aware to use that exact link and not the redirect.

If you find any missing courses, cannot log in, or have other problems, please contact Kira Jensen at kira.jensen@jordandistrict.org. As so many students change enrollments at the beginning of the year, Info Systems will upload another round of rosters at the beginning of each quarter.

Students and rosters can be managed manually as well. For more information on how to manage class rosters, add students, and view reports in RI, please use the video tutorials:

Additional information about RI may be found on the Evaluation, Research & Accountability website:
https://assessments.jordandistrict.org/assessments/ri/

Published on

Dear Administrators,

The Utah Department of Health, under the direction of Governor Herbert, has approved adjustments to the 14-day quarantine. Students and employees who have been quarantined due to an in-school exposure, while wearing a mask, may return to school if they are symptom-free, and have a negative test result after day 7 of quarantine. The test may be taken on day 7. State officials and medical experts indicate that this new guidance aligns with the best medical practice. 

The following are key points provided by the State:

  • Masks are effective at preventing transmission in classroom settings
  • This only applies to mask on mask exposure
  • Only applies to exposures that occurred in school
  • % of individuals who will develop symptoms do so on: 
    • Day 7 -75%, 
    • Day 9 - 90% 
    • Day 11- 95%
    • Testing picks up positive cases two days before symptoms onset; therefore, testing on day 7 means there is less than a 10% chance that an individual will contract after day 7
  • This is for individual exposures, and does not pertain to the threshold recommendations for classroom or school virtual learning 

The COVID-19 School Manual will be updated to reflect this change but the change takes effect immediately. 

Please carefully read the attached Low Risk Test and Return guidance document found below.  

More information will be forthcoming as it becomes available.  

 

 

Published on

Administrators, Special Education teachers, those that work with building access, those that deal with 504's, and other compliance issues please take special note of this document.

The document below is from the Officer for Civil Rights and is regarding K-12 public schools in relation to meeting the needs of all students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Published on

DATE:  
October 1, 2020

TO:   
Principals
Assistant Principals
Administrative Assistants
Secondary Registrars & Attendance Secretaries

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

SUBJECT:
2021-22 Permit Updates and Trainings

It is time to begin preparation for the out-of-boundary permit application season. As a reminder, the open enrollment window runs from December 1 to the third Friday in February (February 19, 2021). Permits will again be accepted and processed through PowerSchool.

Please see memo below for information regarding training opportunities.

Published on

The Board of Education has approved $4 million for the Educator Grant program.  Please make your faculty aware that all licensed educators can now apply for pandemic and innovative work grants.

As part of the pandemic work grant application, Principals will need to verify the pandemic work completed in the Spring of 2020, so we want you to be aware of this process:

1)    The individual applies for a Pandemic Work grant.

2)    They must request Principal Confirmation of work completed.

3)    This form in the grant application will automatically send you an email to verify their work. You will be able to click on a link to a description of the work and then click to confirm that the work was completed within the Pandemic work period.
The deadline for Principal Confirmation is October 30, 2020. We ask that you complete these quickly, as applicants will not receive a pandemic award if there is no verification by this date.

4)    If you are not the Principal that was working with this individual during the Spring of 2020, please forward this Principal Confirmation email to the correct Principal.

For more information please see the memo below.

 

Published on

Administrators, we appreciate all that you are doing as lead learners in your buildings. Thank you!! We are opening up some additional times for support with FTE audits. In addition, USBE has extended the funding deadline allowing us to extend the FTE audit deadline to October 9, 2020. If you would like to schedule a Zoom meeting for support with your audit please click in the link below. If none of these times work for you please reach out to one of the Human Resource administrators below.

Schedule an FTE meeting

Brent Burge  Kim Gibson  Wyatt Bentley

Published on

In order to maintain safety for all students, we will not be having Halloween parades this year. All activities need to maintain social distancing and contact tracing guidelines.

School Halloween activity ideas might include:

  • Virtual parades
  • Students wearing their favorite Halloween shirt to school
  • Activities in the classroom run by the teacher or a volunteer

If you have further questions, please contact your Administrator of Schools.

Published on

You are invited to share the following parent outreach information with your school community as you see fit.

  • Jordan’s Health and Wellness team will be conducting a mental health screening event on October 7th. You are invited to forward this flyer to parents in your community as you see fit.
  • Jordan’s Health and Wellness team has been conducting Tuesday Wellness Tips live meetings for parents to attend a virtual “lunch n’ learn” for less than 30 minutes every Tuesday at 12pm. You are invited to forward this flyer to parents and families in your community as you see fit.

Published on

Please review the attached guidelines for students returning to school from mental health treatment, suspension, or other, high-need absence.

The purpose of the re-entry (or “return to learn”) process is to empower students and their support system to enhance social, emotional, and academic wellness throughout the transition back to school

If you would like more information on implementing these guidelines or follow-up please contact McKinley Withers. This follow-up could include:

  • In-person visit to an MTSS or School Mental Health Team Meeting to talk through the guidelines with your team
  • A staff training on “EveryDay Strong” which would take less than one hour to give your entire school staff a foundational understanding of how to meet student’s social and emotional needs. This is foundational to every transition plan.
  • Making an individual “student wellness plan” with your school team for a student who is returning to school or who has been suspended to familiarize you with the process

Published on

Our District has access to quality training covering the following topics:

  • Understand the impact that trauma, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, has on our students.
  • Learn proactive strategies and tools to implement with students in all grade levels.
  • Gain insights into the “language of trauma” and how to successfully de-escalate students.

Any staff member can sign up who is interested and will be able to earn credit for attending. We invite you to share the registration link and flyer with individuals in your school who could benefit from this training.

 

Published on

Principals:

ARTS, Inc., now in its fifty-ninth year of operation, was founded in 1961 and has provided performances in all forty-one school districts in Utah, reaching more than 250 schools each year with professional arts and education programming. Jordan District elementary audiences have enjoyed performances by Sounding Brass, Tunes and Tales Trio, and Vocal Dimension, to mention just a few of the artists in their roster.

This year, while striving to keep everyone safe and while maintaining the importance of a live performance, they would like to do two 20-minute live-stream performances per school (one for upper grades and one for lower grades). The performances would be scheduled as they have been in the past, but schools would be provided with a link for them to log on when it is time for their "assembly".

In order to facilitate the planning process for this year's ARTS, Inc. performances, please take a moment to answer the questions in this survey.

Thanks,
Norm Emerson

Published on

Administrators, please share with parents and guardians:

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Our 5th grade maturation program as part of our health and wellness curriculum for 5th grade will be held online for the 2020-2021 school year. Our maturation program is presented in an online video format presented by health care providers. While this is not a mandatory program, this is presented as an opportunity for you to watch the program together. Students are encouraged to talk to their trusted adults for questions or concerns that they may have. Our presentation can be found online at:  https://pe.jordandistrict.org/healthandwellness/

Sincerely,

___________________________________

Published on

Administrators, please share with parents and guardians:

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Due to COVID-19 and attempts to decrease the possible spread of the virus, the Utah Department of Health has recommended that mass vision screenings be suspended for the health and safety concerns related to COVID-19 for the 2020-2021 school year. Parents are encouraged to take their child to their physician for a thorough eye screening. Students who are in special ed., getting a new special ed. evaluation, or a re-evaluation will be screened using appropriate distancing guidelines. Parents and teachers may contact their school nurse to request a vision screening on all other students that they may have a concern about.

Published on

In an effort to support students, teachers, and administrators in online learning, T&L will provide an extra contact to encourage participation for students who are not engaged in the learning process. Teachers who have students who are not participating in class meetings, who have not logged into the Canvas course, and who have not responded to teacher communications are asked to complete this FORM. Efforts will be made to contact the parents. Schools will be notified if there are special circumstances or other important information. It is expected that a teacher uses multiple methods of communication prior to completing the form. If you have questions, please contact Kimberly Navratil at kimberly.navratil@jordandistrict.org or 801-567-8131

Published on

DATE:   
September 5, 2020

TO: 
All Principals
All Special Education Staff

FROM:    
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
Kim Lloyd, Director of Special Education
Brian King, Principal, River’s Edge

SUBJECT:   
ASPEN Training For Special Education Personnel 2020-2021

ASPEN training will continue to be required for all licensed special education teachers, SLPs, school psychologists, elementary school counselors, and for all instructional assistants in SEB and Autism self-contained support classrooms during the 2020-2021 school year. First year staff and staff that have not completed the full certification ASPEN training should register for the training on JPLS. Training dates and times are attached to this memo.

Although not required, instructional assistants working in any other special education setting may choose to attend ASPEN at the discretion of their building administrator.

If you have more than one teacher or instructional assistant that needs to attend, please consider having them attend on separate days in order to maintain adequate coverage in your school. The Special Education Department will cover the costs of substitutes for licensed special education teachers that will be attending the full certification under budget code 1292. Instructional assistants will be asked to use True Time to record their typical workday hours on the day of the training. Any additional hours spent in the training above their typical workday will need to be recorded on a time sheet.

Class sizes for the full certification will be limited based on the location of the training in order to promote physical distancing. Participants will not be engaging in the physical components associated with ASPEN training at this time. Participants should plan on wearing a mask while attending the class.

Staff that participated in a full certification ASPEN training during the previous school year should plan on taking an ASPEN recertification class that will be offered online. Those who completed the ASPEN recertification course last school year should plan on participating in the third step of ASPEN, which will be offered via Canvas. More information regarding these recertification courses will be forthcoming.

Mandt training will continue to be required at Kauri Sue Hamilton and River’s Edge School. Personnel at these schools do not need to attend ASPEN. Others wishing to keep their Mandt training current may do so; however, participation is not mandatory and teachers and instructional assistants will not be compensated for their attendance.

For questions please contact:
Daveed Goodrich at daveed.goodrich@jordandistrict.org or
Cassidy Hansen at cassidy.hansen@jordandistrict.org

Published on

DATE:  
September 10, 2020

TO:     
Principals
Assistant Principals
Administrative Assistants
Attendance Secretaries
Registrars

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

SUBJECT:    
2020-21 Attendance on Fridays and Learner Validated Attendance for Virtual Students

Please see the attached memo.

Published on

Cultivating SEED in Diverse Environments
UTSTA 2020-21 Yearlong Virtual Conference

The virtual Utah Science Teacher Association (UtSTA) conference starts in October. This is a great opportunity for teachers to become familiar with and expand their understanding of the new SEEd standards. Funding will need to be provided through individual school however a grant opportunity is available. You can easily apply for a grant to attend this conference.

Please see flyer below for information on how to apply for a grant and registration information.

 

Published on

DATE:  
September 17, 2020

TO: 
Administrative and Office Staff of Schools and District Departments

FROM:  
John Larsen, Business Administrator

SUBJECT: 
Business Department Training for District and School Office and Administrative Staff

Please see the memo and agenda below for information about the optional training being conducted by the Business and Auxiliary Services Departments.

Published on

Parent Teacher Conferences are fast approaching, and many of you will find your school in need of one or more interpreters in order to serve the needs of your parents. Mirsa Joosten is happy to find an interpreter in each language you need, but this can be extremely difficult when there is not sufficient time for her to make arrangements. The virtual format can make finding interpreters even more difficult. For these reasons, we ask you to please request your interpreter right away by completing the Interpreting and Translation Services Request Form available on the Equity and Compliance webpage, if you have not already done so.