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DATE:
January - February, 2017

TO:
All Principals

FROM:
Ron Bird, Director of Information Systems
Mark Sowa, Instructional Technology Consultant

SUBJECT:
Encryption of Hard Drives on Specific Systems


In order to better protect HIPPA and FERPA data on Jordan School District PCs and laptops, hard drives will be encrypted on systems used by employees with the following job functions.

  1. Psychiatrists
  2. Speech Language Pathologists
  3. Occupational Therapists
  4. Physical Therapists

The encryption will be done by the Instructional Support Technician who is assigned to your school. The technician will provide some training on what encryption means and what will change on the systems that have the hard drive encrypted.  Some systems have already been encrypted throughout the school district. Users have reported that encrypted systems function normally as they did prior to being encrypted.

It is anticipated that encryption will take place at each school during the months of January and February.

Thank you for your support and understanding of this important effort to protect student data.

RB

Principals:

​Several inquiries have been directed to our office regarding proper protocol when a school is having heating and/or air conditioning issues.  Please adhere to the following steps and take a minute to share this information with your administrative assistant and head custodian.

  • T​he first step is to have the custodian submit a work order.
  • ​If a work order has been completed and the problem continues, or if ​one of our HVAC technicians hasn't yet diagnosed the problem and the temperature is affecting the learning environment, the second step is to call the maintenance department directly​ at 801-567-8862.
  • ​Please refrain from having teachers contact the maintenance office, as this can create multiple work orders for the same issue.
  • When contacting the maintenance department, the call should come from ​the principal, administrative assistant, head​ custodian, or ​assistant/​sub custodian.

In addition, ​please help us be as efficient as possible by making sure teachers and staff ​at your school involve the head custodian when maintenance issues need to be resolved.  The head custodian should be the point of contact between the school and the maintenance department.  Perhaps this could be an agenda item for your next faculty meeting.​

​Have a wonderful holiday season and t​hanks for your cooperation.

 

The School Board has approved the purchase of mobile labs for each elementary school.  You may expect to receive 30 MacBook Air laptops and a storage cart early to mid-January.  Secretaries should contact Corie Fuller to asset tag all devices prior to having your tech complete formatting.

You will, also, receive 30 Microsoft Office Suite licenses (1 per device).   We are unsure if download information will come via email OR disc in the regular mail.  Either way, know they have been purchased and techs will be able to load it for you.

Principals:

As you recall, we held a series of Focus Groups in late October followed by site visits to neighboring districts.  Based on the information gathered, it was determined the benefits of professional development would be greater if the support were tailored to the needs of each school, sessions were mostly held on site, and all teachers could attend.  To this end, in addition to online courses and district-sponsored workshops, we are moving forward with the following action steps:

  1. The grade level sessions for team representatives scheduled for February and April are being cancelled.
  2. Literacy specialists will create updated PD modules that can be tailored to the needs of individual schools and delivered in a format determined by the requesting school.
  3. Teacher and Principal Advisory Groups will be formed and meet regularly over the next several months to provide input into supporting resources for schools.

Teachers who have previously registered on JPLS for the February and/or April trainings will receive an email indicating the cancellation of these sessions.  Please let others involved, who may not have registered yet, know of this change.  Also, be certain that scheduled substitutes are cancelled.

I am very appreciative of each of you, your teachers, and the honest insightful feedback that has been shared over the past couple of months.   The mission of the Literacy Team is to assist and inspire teachers as they implement effective literacy instruction within a professional learning community.  We will continue to accept feedback and make adjustments in our effort to provide schools the literacy support needed to achieve your goals.

As always, please contact me with any questions that arise.

Thank you for your support.

Becky

Facility Access During Winter Recess

Please submit Card Access Scheduling requests in Sprocket to have doors open for activities that will occur during Winter Recess, when the facility is normally closed.

Principals that would like to keep the exterior doors locked and allow employees to have badge access will need to submit a Card Access Scheduling request indicating the applicable dates and times.

Remember to submit a Sprocket Heating and Cooling request to correspond with the time the building will be occupied.

Call Alarm Response at 801-567-8865, in advance of any unscheduled opening and closing.

Please call Sandi Abplanalp with any card access and door scheduling questions: 801-567-8616.

DATE:
December 12, 2016

TO:
Principals
All Provisional Special Educators

FROM:
Laura Finlinson, Administrator of Curriculum, Staff Development & Special Programs
Lisa Robinson, Director of Special Education

SUBJECT:
Assessment Analysis Class


The Special Education department is providing training for provisional special education teachers to assist in analyzing tests administered in Jordan. The teachers will be exposed to multiple tests that are given by other service providers.

This class is primarily for new special education teachers. If other special educators in your building need this training, please contact Michelle Chavez. The attendance is at the discretion of the building principal and special educators must arrange for a substitute. Substitutes may be requested by using the program code 1292. Teachers should register through JPLS (JPLS: #114628 USBE (.5) Credit Available).                                     

Date:
January 5, 2017, 8:00 a.m - 4:00 p.m.
January 30, 2017, 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.                                    

Where:
District Office, Room 129

The Utah Retirement Systems will be providing a presentation on the Tier 2 Retirement program for all employees who are in their first year of retirement eligible employment. Attendance is highly encouraged. P

Please pass the attached flyer on to employees in your school/department that may be interested.

DATE: 
December 6, 2016

TO:  
All Principals

FROM: 
Administrators of Schools
June LeMaster, Ph.D., Human Resource Administrator
Travis Hamblin, Human Resource Administrator-Licensed

SUBJECT: 
Underqualified Educators – Academic Pathway to Teaching (APT) and Letter of Authorization (LOA)


See attached memo and APT Flowchart.

Curriculum will pay for one administrator per school to attend the Instructional Leadership in the 21st Century Conference sponsored through CITES on March 23 and 24, 2017. If registration is requested before Dec. 22, two registrations per school will be paid by curriculum. If you would like to attend, please contact Noreen in Curriculum.

We have an auction on PublicSurplus.com which will end on Tuesday, December 6th. It will be the last one before the Winter Break. Please take a look and see if there is anything you need for your building.

Also, just a reminder that your school needs to do their surplus paperwork and turn it in with all signatures if you want to be scheduled for pick up. Please do not delay in getting your paperwork in so that we can see how soon we can schedule our next surplus pick up.

As always, thank you for all your help and cooperation with this request.

Happy Holidays from Fixed Assets and the Surplus Warehouse

Principals:

With the arrival of winter weather conditions, please take time to review District procedures for snow closures and delayed starts.

When severe weather is forecast, District personnel will monitor conditions on roadways throughout the night. Superintendent Johnson will determine if school closures or delays are necessary by 5 a.m. All decisions regarding closures or delays will come from the District.

No announcement means normal school operation.

School closure or delayed start information will be posted on the District website and through social media no later than 6:30 a.m. The information will also be broadcast on local news outlets.

Please remember that parents can keep children home when weather is extreme. We ask that you respect this decision and work with families.

Full Emergency Communications & Snow Closure Guidelines can be found at http://jordandistrict.org/resources/emergency/