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Category: Elementary Action Required

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, November 19, 2020

TO:    
Elementary Principals
Elementary Administrative Assistants

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

SUBJECT:  
MOY 2020 Acadience Reading Testing – In-person and Online Students

Acadience Reading Benchmarks are once again required this year by the state – both students receiving their instruction in-person and online. USBE has extended the middle-of-the-year testing window by one week to Friday, February 5, 2021. This memo contains information on how the benchmark administration will be accomplished for both.

Students Receiving Instruction In-person:
Principals should have received an updated Monday-Thursday schedule of when district testers will be in schools to administer the state-mandated K-3 Acadience Reading Benchmarks. For questions about scheduling, please contact Shannon Johnson at 801-567-8873 or shannon.johnson@jordandistrict.org.

There will be 7-8 district testers during your assigned testing time. We also ask that the instructional coach, who was trained in September on Acadience Reading testing, assist with testing students as well. To better be able to social distance between individual testing areas, we are requesting that schools use one of two room options:

  1. Schedule the media center.
  2. Schedule two classrooms that are close together. This allows classes to be easily funneled into both classrooms.  It also allows team leads to gather cards easily and assist with technology glitches quickly to minimize lost testing time.

If neither of these room options is possible, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243 to make other arrangements.

Each district tester is equipped with an 18x18 plexiglass shield along with their Chromebooks and student materials. For this reason, student desks do not provide enough table space for everything. We are requesting tables with chairs to accommodate our testers’ equipment.

For information on the cleaning and disinfecting procedures district testers will follow after each student, please see the document entitled Acadience Reading Testing Protocols and Procedures for COVID-19 that accompanies this memo.

Besides the changes listed above, our district testers will follow a similar routine for testing that they have followed in the past.

Students Receiving Instruction Online:
We are required to administer the Acadience Reading Benchmarks to all students – including our students who have opted to learn online this year.  Parents of online students can choose to have their student tested in-person at their boundary school or virtually via Zoom.  Testing of online students will take place on Fridays at each elementary school.  Evaluation, Research & Accountability will be sending a small team of 4-5 district testers to meet with and administer the benchmark assessments in-person to online students (principals have already been notified if their assigned Friday).  We are requesting that schools set aside a location for the testers to administer the benchmarks that will have access to larger table spaces to accommodate the plexiglass shield, Chromebooks and student materials.

Evaluation, Research & Accountability will schedule online students for a testing appointment.  Schools will not need to schedule anything themselves.  If parents of online students or online teachers request the link to schedule a testing appointment, schools may provide the following link:
https://jordandistrict.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5mYuLUZcEtt9QOx

Please contact Ben Jameson with any questions or concerns.  We look forward to working with you on a smooth Acadience Reading test administration.

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If your building has extra PPE that is going unused or if your building desires extra PPE currently located at another building, please let Kris Wishart in Purchasing (x88708) know. She will try to match up any existing surplus with existing desires across the District.

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Administrators: Please encourage your Educational Support Professional employees to attend this fun event. They do not need to be off contract time.

We invite you to join us as we celebrate Educational Support Professionals Day with the help of Utah Jazz star Thurl Bailey.

Mr. Bailey will share his inspirational story during a special event honoring Jordan School District ESPs for their hard work and dedication supporting students and education.

Please RSVP for one of four sessions at 8:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 18 or Friday, December 4 at Copper Hills High School.

You can RSVP at the link below:

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Dear Principals,

Sign templates are available for schools to print:

  • To create hallway traffic flow patterns
  • To encourage proper handwashing
  • To encourage proper use of face coverings

Attached below is a PDF package containing the templates.  New signs were added on Nov. 12, 2020.

If you would like them customized with your school logo and colors please contact Chad Margetts in the Office of Communications. 801-567-8201.

The Instructional Support Center is available to print traffic flow signs for those who would like to purchase through ISC.

 

Published on

DATE:
Friday, October 30, 2020

TO:  
Elementary Principals

FROM:  
Shelley Nordick, Ph.D., Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability
Rebecca Smith, Consultant over ALPS/Gifted and Talented

SUBJECT:     
Universal CogAt Testing of 6th Grade Students Training and Test Administration

Time Sensitive:  Principals are asked to share the following information with their school test coordinator and 6th grade teachers.

Dates and Times for training are:

  • Mon, Nov. 2, 2020 11:30 AM - 12:25 PM MST
  • Tue, Nov. 3, 2020 1:30 PM - 2:25 PM MST
  • Wed, Nov. 4, 2020 8:00 AM - 8:55 AM MST
  • Thur, Nov. 5, 2020 3:30 PM - 4:25 PM MST
  • Mon, Nov. 9, 2020 1:00 PM - 1:55 PM MST
  • Tue, Nov. 10, 2020 3:00 PM - 3:55 PM MST
  • Wed, Nov. 11, 2020 12:30 PM - 1:25 PM MST

Please see more information on the memo below, as well as the Parental Exclusion form.

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In an effort to effectively and efficiently provide access to report cards for all families, but especially our online families, Info Systems will be adding the report cards to Skyward Family Access on November 9th. This is typically only done at the end of each school year. Online teachers are not able to print report cards of students outside of their homebase school. The teachers will be asking parents to access report cards through Skyward Family Access.  

Please direct families to follow these steps to access the report cards. 

  1. Log in to Family Access
  2. Scroll toward the bottom and click on Report Card/Academic Progress
  3. Select the current term report card file to open a PDF of the report card.

Please remind teachers that all grades must be finalized by November 6th.  

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Attention Administrators,

The deadline for employees to complete the Crucial Policy review is fast approaching. As of today, 79% of administrators, 83% of licensed employees and 79% of ESP employees have completed the required Crucial Policies review, which includes the new required Title IX and Human Trafficking training. However, only 34% of miscellaneous employees have completed the Crucial Policy Review. The Crucial Policy review is required of all employees, with the exception of minor sweepers/student assistants. The Crucial Policies Review is accessed in Skyward Employee Access.

Administrators and Administrative Assistants may access the Crucial Policy Review Report for their location by following the instructions below:

Website link:  https://is.jordan.k12.ut.usOpens in a new window

Click: Documentation
Click: Human Resources
Click: Crucial Policy Review Report Instructions

Please run your report and notify each employee of this requirement. The HR Department is tasked with monitoring these reports for compliance and will be contacting principals as needed. If any employee listed in this report is no longer employed, please email your HR feeder assistant.

Employees needing assistance in accessing Skyward Employee Access are directed to contact the Help Desk at 801-567-8737.

Regards,

Human Resources

Published on

DATE:   
Thursday, October 22, 2020

TO: 
All Principals

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

SUBJECT:   
WIDA ACCESS 2.0 Test Administration Training for Schools

Please see memo below regarding the mandatory training to be provided and who should attend.

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Dear Administrators,

A populated copy of your Compliance and Assurances Report will be sent to you by the Teacher Specialist assigned to your school. Due dates are Dec. 17 and April 15. A couple of things to keep in mind:

1. The document is current as of Nov., 2020. As new EL students enroll in your school, you will need to add those students to the report. You can check your monthly language proficiency report to determine who the new students are.

2.  There will be virtual administrative workshop times where the ELS team will be available to offer support in report completion. Please bring a list of ESL endorsed teachers at your school.  We will be looking up student information with you.

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Dear Administrators,

The ELS department would like to continue to support our students who are distance learning and provide an opportunity for them to get a free student desk and chair from the warehouse surplus. Supplies are limited and should be reserved for students participating in distant learning. Please have your secretaries, parent liaisons, ELD leads and anyone else who works with our online students reach out to get a school total. Once you have a total, send the request over to Steven Oldham over at the warehouse. Steve can have the desk delivered to your school or patrons can pick up a desk from the warehouse at the ASB. Know that supplies are limited and on a first come first serve basis.

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/

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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.  

 

 

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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.

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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.

 

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.