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Category: Elementary Action Required

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.

Published on

DATE:    
September 8, 2020

TO:
Elementary Principals

FROM:   
Shelley Nordick, Administrator, Teaching and Learning
Norman Emerson, Instructional Support Services/Fine Arts Consultant

SUBJECT: 
JSD-Arts Representatives for 2020-21

This year we will continue to have two District Arts Representatives (DARTS) represent your school throughout the 2020-21 school year. We have appreciated the work of past DARTS representatives and how they have helped strengthen arts instruction in your schools. Meaningful progress toward a greater level of arts integration has been made, and we wish this to continue.

DARTS meetings will be held on the following dates: September 16, October 14, November 18, January 20, February 17, March 10, and April 21. The meetings will be held online from 4:30-6:30 p.m.

Please assign two teachers to serve as your school’s DARTS representatives by either selecting a grade-level team, or two teachers from different grade levels. The DARTS representatives will meet once a month for two hours to learn and collaborate. Teachers will be paid at the inservice rate. (Note: In addition to the two regular classroom teachers, your school's BTS arts educator will also be attending the DARTS sessions).

Please email the names of your choices for the JSD DARTS Team for the 2020-21 school year to linda.gold@jordandistrict.org as soon as possible.

Published on

DATE:  
September 10, 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

Optional training will be provided by the Business and Auxiliary Services Departments on October 1, 5, and 15 via Zoom or Google Meet. This training opportunity is for school or department personnel including principals, assistant principals, administrative assistants, clerks, aides or others with responsibilities correlating with the Business or Auxiliary Services Departments. Please see the memo below for detailed information.

 

Published on

Utah Education Network is working to provide a ZOOM Pro Plan for Educators.  Within the next two weeks you will receive an email (sample below) from ZOOM with an invitation to approve a request for a new account through UEN. If you would like the Pro Plan for Zoom, you will have 30 days to approve the request. Please share this.

Published on

Now that all Elementary students have been placed in virtual or in-person classrooms, a procedure has been created for online requests for new move-in students.

If a family requests virtual learning for a new student when registering at an Elementary School, the Administrative Assistant must complete the following form:

https://forms.gle/WranSUEVAa6vwySL8

Once this form is filled out by the Administrative Assistant, the request will be reviewed and schools will receive information about placement within a few days. This will allow us to carefully balance the amount of students in virtual classes.

If the student was in a virtual class at another Elementary school within our district before the move into a new school boundary, every effort will be made to keep this student with the same virtual teacher.

This procedure applies to New Move-In students who have requested online classes only. If a student would like to attend school in person, standard class placement procedures should be followed.

Published on

The flyer below was posted in JEM earlier this week. Attached below is a PDF copy that you can print and hang throughout your school or building. Let's work together to keep our schools open. What we do makes a difference.

Published on

Register in JPLS by September 18, 2020 for the UETS-Based JPAS online training for administrators!

Training will be held September 29-30, 2020. See more information on the flyer below.

Published on

DATE:
September 3, 2020

TO:
All Administrators
All Financial Administrative Assistants

FROM:
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Superintendent of Schools
John Larsen, Business Administrator

SUBJECT:
Discretionary Staff Funds

Please see memo below.

Published on

DATE:   
August 26, 2020

TO:   
All Principals

FROM:  
John Larsen, Business Administrator
Dan Ellis, Director of Accounting, Budgets, and Audits
Derek Anderson, Director of Accounting, Budgets, and Audits

SUBJECT: 
School and Teacher COVID Allocations for PPE

Last night the Board of Education discussed and approved the $500 allocation per in-classroom teacher and the $10 allocation per in-classroom student for needed supplies and PPE. Once calculated, the allocations will be placed in account 32 E XXX 9932 4510 612 for each school. However, in-classroom teachers and schools may begin to utilize their allocations immediately. Schools will track individual in-classroom teacher allotments up to the $500 allotment. Use of the funds will follow regular District policy and procedure (i.e. proper receipts, approvals, etc.) and may utilize P-Cards, Purchase Orders, NPOs, inventory requisitions, or check request reimbursement to facilitate the fastest and easiest option for the circumstance.

If you have questions or need assistance, please call Dan Ellis at x88389 or Derek Anderson at x88275.

Thank you.

Published on

DATE:    
Thursday, August 27, 2020

TO:  
Elementary Principals

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

SUBJECT:  
Acadience Reading Administration Training for Instructional Coaches

Evaluation, Research & Accountability will be training instructional coaches during the Instructional Coaching Institute on Friday, September 4th at 11 am on how to administer Acadience Reading Benchmarks. There are several reasons why this training is important:

  • By knowing how the test works – how individual literacy skills are assessed – instructional coaches can better assist teachers in understanding and analyzing the resulting assessment data and implementing interventions that strengthen literacy skills.
  • Once trained and having gained some experience testing, coaches will then be able to train teachers and classroom aides to administer the benchmarks, which is especially beneficial as aides in particular are hired throughout the school year.
  • Coaches will be able to assist the district testing team on the day of benchmark administration at your school if they are short-handed.
  • In past years, the district testers have come back to schools on Fridays to test students who were absent on the day of testing. Since students will not be in schools on Friday, coaches can ensure that absent students get tested.

Due to limited space available and the need for social distancing, we request that principals send only one instructional coach to the training. It is recommended that the principal send the coach that will oversee Acadience Reading testing and absent testing for the school. Future trainings, including a self-paced Canvas course, will be available in the coming weeks for the other coaches.

Please contact Ben Jameson (801-567-8243) or Shannon Johnson (801-567-8873) with questions.

Published on

IMPORTANT!

School Emergency Drills During the 2020-21 School Year

On August 20th, the Utah State Legislature passed H.B. 6004 School Emergency Drills Amendments https://le.utah.gov/~2020S6/bills/static/HB6004.html  – stating that schools are not required to hold actual fire evacuation drills before March 1, 2021, due to Covid-19.

Schools are required to:

  • Teach age-appropriate fire evacuation instruction (instead of going outside) in lieu of actual evacuation drills, until February 28, 2021.
  • Conduct the first fire evacuation instruction within 15 days of the start of the school year.
  • Alternate conducting fire instruction with other emergency safety drills, such as: lockdown or lockout for violence, shelter-in-place for chemical spills and severe weather, bomb threat and earthquake drills.
  • Conduct the first other emergency safety drill by October 1.
  • Conduct a fire evacuation instruction within the first 10 days of the new calendar year, in January.
  • Teach Covid-19 precautions/considerations in relation to drills and actual emergencies.

Elementary schools are still required to conduct an instruction or exercise every month, for a minimum of 9 throughout the school year (5 fire, 4 other emergency safety drills).

Secondary schools are required to conduct a minimum of 6 instruction or exercises throughout the school year (4 fire, 2 other emergency safety drills).

Schools are encouraged to conduct actual evacuation drills, if comfortable doing so, and appropriate Covid-19 precautions can be maintained.

Regular fire evacuation drills (going outside) will resume on March 1, 2021.

Questions, contact:  Lance Everill, Emergency Operations Manager 801-567-8623, lance.everill@jordandistrict.org

Published on
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