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Jordan School District is now offering an easy-to-use mobile app called Zonar MyView. The app provides parents and administrators the option to check on the location of a particular school bus. While the best course of action may be for schools to continue contacting dispatch to inquire where the bus is, you now have the ability to look at the Zonar GPS data in order to identify the precise location of the bus.

Schools interested in participating in the new app program need to do the following:

  • Download the Zonar MyView app from the App Store or Google Play
  • Enter the School Access Code (JOR0431)
  • Identify one student on the designated bus the school wants to track (all schools have access to student ridership on each bus at their school), then enter the student's Skyward student ID number
  • Create alert zones around drop-off and pick-up points

That's really all there is to it. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact Deb McKinlay at deborah.mckinlay@jordandistrict.org.

The first lady is hosting a virtual symposium focused on educator mental health and would love to extend an invitation for school secretaries and staff to attend. Please share this with the teachers and staff at your school.

Dear Friends,

I want to sincerely thank you for the incredible work you do in Utah’s schools. While I am in the unique position of first lady, I want to do all I can to uplift and sustain the educators of our state. We received great feedback from our first ever in-person educator wellness conference last summer and will be hosting an upcoming virtual event to continue the conversation about educator wellbeing.

I am thrilled to invite everyone in your school to The Show Up for Teachers Virtual Symposium on November 12, 2022 from 8:30-11:30 am. Please share this invitation with your school community.

Kim Strobel, an internationally-known speaker and expert on the science of happiness will be our keynote speaker. In addition, we will hear from local education and government leaders and enjoy a live Q&A with a licensed therapist.

Registration is free to ALL educators and school staff. USBE will offer three relicensure credits to qualified attendees. For registration, please go to www.ShowUpUtah.org/wellness.

-Utah First Lady Abby Cox

Just a reminder that our annual Utah Skyward User Conference is scheduled for next Wednesday, November 16th. The conference will be held in person this year at Alpine School District.

This conference is an opportunity to learn about Skyward directly from the source as most sessions are being presented by Skyward staff. There are some fantastic sessions being offered this year, including Admin Bootcamp, Communication Tools, Discipline, Data Mining for Beginners, Data Mining for Advanced Users, and Skyward Tips & Tricks.

Please see the attached agenda for additional details. We hope to see you there!

  • Kindergarten Night Out will be held on November 9th at 4:15 in the ASB auditorium. Kindergarten teachers, coaches and administrators are invited to attend.
  • First-Grade Night Out will be held on November 16th at 4:15 in the media center of South Jordan Middle School. First-grade teachers, coaches and administrators are invited to attend. 
  • The last sessions for LETRS training for Unit 4 through USBE for teachers who started LETRS training last year will be held on November 4th, 9th, and 30th. The Midas course number is 60079. Please remind teachers to sign up for a training if they have not done so already. The book work and online work should be completed prior to attending the full-day training. 
  • The training date for LETRS training for new elementary administrators has been changed to November 18th. Administrators involved will receive an email from Sara Henderson. The Overview section of the book work and online work should be completed prior to attending the full-day training. 
  • The IT department will be changing the usernames and passwords for Lexia on November 7th. If there are any questions about this process, please contact Michelle Lovell. 
  • USBE is asking for some feedback from coaches. They are asking all coaches to fill out a brief survey. Please share this link  with your building coaches.    SURVEY LINK    

DATE:  
November 1, 2022

TO:  
District Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
Fall Enrollment as of October 1, 2022 - REVISED


Attached to this memo is District enrollment as of October 1, 2022.

These totals are revised and approved by the State Board of Education.

 

Ideally most emergencies and disruptions to a school day can be addressed during the normal hours of operation and on school premises.

Other incidents may require releasing students to authorized parents/guardians either earlier or later than the normal end of school time, or from a secondary evacuation location. The Jordan School District Incident Command Reunification Action Plan is utilized when a school is required to conduct this type of controlled release of students. Life safety and accountability are the two main priorities. Maintaining current Student Skyward records is a key part of this.

Elementary and middle schools may have to reunify an entire student body. High schools may only have to reunify preschool children, students in special education, students with special circumstances, that have been traumatized, or need assistance getting home.

The Reunification Action Plan is available in the Incident Command Manual on Google Drive, link: JSD INCIDENT COMMAND MANUAL
You can find Student Reunification Checkout Cards in English and Spanish on the Drive as well. The plan includes the proper reunification protocol, identifies roles and responsibilities, and use of effective communication to safely account for and release students to authorized parents/guardians.

There is a Reunification Video for parents/guardians on the Auxiliary Services Incident Command Webpage, link: Auxiliary Services Incident Command Webpage
Schools are encouraged to share this educational video with parents/guardians in advance of a potential emergency.

Please contact Emergency Operations Manager Lance Everill with questions, concerns, or ideas: 801-567-8623, lance.everill@jordandistrict.org

Distracted driving is any non-driving activity a person engages in that has the potential to distract him or her from the primary task of driving and increases the risk of crashing. While all distractions can endanger drivers’ safety, texting is the most alarming because it involves all three types of distraction.

See the flyer below for more information.

GRAMA HandoutAnyone with a GRAMA request must submit the request by visiting the State of Utah Open Records Portal for Jordan School District or by visiting openrecords.utah.gov and selecting the K-12 link.

For anyone who needs help navigating openrecords.utah.gov and filling out the GRAMA request form, we are providing an information card. Principals and staff can print the card and share it with those making a GRAMA request.

Here is the information card to print and cut in half.

TRAINING FOR COUNCIL MEMBERS: If you haven’t already had a training for your council members, our (State LAND Trust office) annual live online council member training will be held on the following dates. Email invites will be sent out to all council members on October 21st (following the Oct. 20th deadlines).

    1. Nov. 9 (12-1 pm)
    2. Nov. 9 (7-8 pm)
    3. Nov. 14th (12-1 pm)
    4. Nov. 14th (7-8 pm)

DATE:    
Thursday, October 20, 2022

TO: 
All School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
2022 RISE and Utah Aspire Plus Tableau Dashboards Updated with Student Growth Data


The RISE and Utah Aspire Plus dashboards in Tableau have been updated with 2022 student growth data. School administrators will be able to see the median growth percentile (MGP) for the district, schools, grade levels and individual teachers. In addition, school administrators will be able to see individual student growth percentiles (SGP) for each student for whom growth could be calculated.

The updated dashboards may be found at the links below:

Here are a few reminders about growth calculations:

  • SGPs are calculated on a scale of 1-99
  • SGPs are a comparison of a student’s progress in a content area (ELA, math or science) relative to the progress of other like-scoring peers across the state
    • The comparison data used to calculate SGPs come from the student’s scale scores for a specific content area on the 2021 and 2022 RISE and/or Utah Aspire Plus assessments
    • For example, if a student earned an SGP of 43, that means that this student scored better than 43% of his like-scoring peers between the 2021 and 2022 assessments
  • The state considers an SGP of 40 to be typical growth
  • Students with low proficiency will need higher growth scores to close achievement gaps
  • An MGP is the median, or middle, score of a group of SGPs (class, grade level, school, or district)
    • MGPs answer this question: How fast is my group of students growing in their learning compared to other groups of students in my grade level, school, district or the state?

DATE:
October 13, 2022

TO:
School Principals
Directors

FROM:  
John Larsen, Business Administrator
June LeMaster, Administrator, Human Resources
Brent Burge, HR Administrator

SUBJECT:  
Shift Differential – Education Support Professional (ESP)


As part of JESPA negotiations for the 2018-19 contract year, the shift differential was increased effective July 1, 2018 as follows:

Swing Shift – The employee’s shift must begin between 12:00 p.m. (noon) and 10:00 p.m. The employee must work a full eight hours. The additional rate of pay is $0.50 per hour.

Graveyard Shift – The employee’s shift must begin between 10:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. The employee must work a full eight hours. The additional rate of pay is $1.00 per hour.

If an employee normally assigned and normally working the swing or graveyard shift is asked to temporarily work earlier in the day in order to help cover for another employee who is absent, the swing or graveyard employee will receive the shift differential for that day.

Only ESP, benefit-eligible employees are eligible for shift differential. Please follow the current process to submit for shift differential pay.

We are excited to offer our annual Utah Skyward User Conference in person this year! The conference is scheduled for Wednesday, November 16th at Alpine School District. Please see the attached agenda for additional details.

This conference is an opportunity to learn about Skyward directly from the source as most sessions are being presented by Skyward staff. There are some fantastic sessions being offered this year, including Admin Bootcamp, Communication Tools, Discipline, Data Mining for Beginners, Data Mining for Advanced Users, and Skyward Tips & Tricks.

During these sessions you will have the opportunity to ask questions, however, if you have a problem that will take a bit longer to resolve, we suggest you call our help desk to get further assistance.

As always, we hope you get the best out of this year's conference and are able to see new things, learn new tips and tricks, get some of your questions answered, and see some of the new possibilities in Skyward. If you have any questions about attending the conference, please feel free to call Support Services at ext 88737.

DATE: 
October 10, 2022

TO: 
Principals and Assistant Principals

FROM: 
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
Sharon Jensen, Consultant Student Support Services
Michelle Reyes, Prevention Specialist

SUBJECT: 
October Attendance Flyer 2022


Principals and Assistant Principals,

The end of the first quarter is near. We hope things are going well in your schools. This month our attendance awareness message focuses on the social and emotional benefits of attending school regularly. Research shows that routines, such as a structured school day, support healthy social emotional development leading to optimal mental health over time. Researches in Texas have also found that when people feel more connected to others they have lower levels of anxiety and depression.

Included is the October flyer sent out to parents on PeachJar. It would be wonderful to make this available in your schools as well. We will continue to send out a new attendance flyer each month as we strive for better attendance.

We hope your attendance in showing some improvements from the last couple of years.

DATE:  
Thursday, October 13, 2022

TO: 
Elementary School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
2022 BOY Acadience Reading Dashboards in Tableau


Beginning of the year Acadience Reading data and results are available in school administrator Tableau Viewer accounts. Administrators may view aggregate student participation, benchmark proficiency, and measure proficiency by school and grade level over time (2016-present). In addition, school administrators may view individual student and teacher data for the fall of 2022. Demographic filters are also available to help school administrators drill down to the data they wish to see.

The following dashboards are available:

School Acadience Reading Analysis, 2016-Present
Explore > Acadience Reading & Early Literacy > School Acadience Reading Analysis, 2016-Present > 2-School Acadience Reading Analysis, 2016-Present

2022-23 BOY Teacher and Student Level Data Dashboard
Explore > Acadience Reading & Early Literacy > School Acadience Reading Analysis, 2016-Present > [School Name] 2022-23 BOY Student Level Data Dashboard

As a reminder, schools have at their disposal a Tableau Viewer account that teachers can access to see aggregate data only for the school and their grade level. No individual student or teacher data are available with this account. Please contact Ben Jameson in Evaluation, Research & Accountability for more information about this tool and to obtain login credentials.

The Jordan Ethnic Advisory Committee (JEAC) is hosting an employee open house on Wednesday, Nov. 2 at JATC South from 3:30 - 5 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. Come share your ideas, solutions and celebrations. Your voice is important.

Can't make the meeting? Your suggestions are always welcome. Please contact jeac@jordandistrict.org.