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Category: Elementary Schools

Published on

DATE:  
February 1, 2025

TO:
Principals
Special Education Staff
School Secretaries

FROM: 
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
Kim Lloyd, Director of Special Education

SUBJECT:  
Special Education Budget Closeout for the 2024-25 School Year

Please note that Special Education purchase orders/requisitions/reimbursement requests for the 2024-25 school year must be received by Thursday, March 6, 2025 @ 5:00 p.m. Remember that the SLPs/SLTs who received their legislative funds through the SpEd department this year are under these same guidelines and deadlines for those funds as well.

Please remember the following:

  • Budgets are not carried over from one year to the next.
  • Remember to deduct any previously submitted amounts from your Special Education budget (so that you know your balance) before submitting new orders. This includes reimbursements submitted through your school. No orders will be processed that exceed your budgeted allocation.
  • Please check with your school secretary to make sure all Special Education reimbursements have been submitted to the Special Education Department by the March 6th deadline.
  • When ordering supplies, follow Skyward procedures.
  • Be sure to follow the ordering guidelines outlined in the attached budget information page, as you close out your current year budgets.
  • Any purchases that were inadvertently charged to the Special Ed budget or do not qualify using the guidelines should be removed from the budget using a journal entry form prior to March 6th.

Staff will be notified of the new budget allocation amount prior to the start of the new school year. Keep in mind that new purchase orders/requisitions will not be processed until late July.

As you close out your budgets for the current school year, please note the following:

  1. All purchase orders/requisitions, should be routed through Amanda Hamblin in the Special Education Department.
  2. Use the following codes for Purchase Orders/Requisitions, P-Cards, and ECHECKS submitted through the year.

Coding for P.O.s/Requisitions, NPOs, P-Cards, ECHECKS:

FUND TYPE LOCATION PROGRAM FUNCTION OBJECT
10 E (School #) 1295 1090 Use object code

If you have questions regarding your Special Education budget, please contact Amanda Hamblin at
(801) 567-8177.

Published on

TO:
Directors
Administrators
Administrative Assistants

FROM:
April Gaydosh, Administrator, Human Resources

Upcoming Events and Opportunities – LICENSED EARLY NOTIFICATION

Valued Licensed Employee:

The Human Resource Department is contacting you with important information regarding upcoming events and opportunities.

LICENSED EARLY NOTIFICATION (Resignation or Retirement)

Licensed employees resigning/retiring at the end of the current contract year, who give official early notification in SKYWARD – EMPLOYEE ACCESS, will be eligible for a tiered incentive. To qualify, notification must be submitted on or before the following dates:

  • February 15, 2025  $200.00

The incentive will be paid on the last regular paycheck. Notifications of resignation/retirement received after the dates listed above will not qualify for an incentive. The official District “Notice of Resignation” form is found in Skyward Employee Access under “Task Processes”. Please see District policy DP318 for more detailed information regarding resignations. If you do not know your Skyward username or password please contact the Help Desk at 801-567-8737.

Licensed employees who do not submit an official “Notice of Resignation” form in Skyward Employee Access with at least thirty (30) calendar days’ written notice WILL BE FINED $500, which will be deducted from their final check. Informing your principal/school administrator either verbally or in writing is not sufficient. See District Policy DP318 – Resignations - Licensed.

School/District Administrators must submit an official “Notice of Resignation” form in Skyward Employee Access with at least sixty (60) calendar days’ written notice WILL BE FINED $500 in accordance with District Policy DP318A – Resignations-Administrators.

Published on

DATE:     
January 28, 2025

TO:   
All Principals

FROM:   
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
Kim Lloyd, Director of Special Education
Brian King, Ph.D., Assistant Director of Special Education
Mike Trimmell, Ed.D., Special Education Administrator

SUBJECT:   
IEP Notes on Embrace

We are implementing a change in the process for handling Special Education meeting notes.

We encourage you to use the new Embrace Notes starting now, however, the PDF notes on the Forms page will still be available until March 1st. The PDF notes on the Forms page will no longer be available after March 1st. This adjustment aims to simplify our workflow and enhance accessibility to meeting notes.

You can access Embrace through the Google App Launcher. The document is named, “IEP Meeting Notes and Summary”. See the link below for a detailed guide to accessing the Embrace IEP Meeting Notes and Summary document.

If you encounter any access issues, or have questions, please reach out to Brenda Cruz at 801-567-8145, brenda.cruz@jordandistrict.org.

Embrace Notes Guide.pdf

 

Published on

DATE:   
February 3, 2025

TO:        
All Principals

FROM:    
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
Kim Lloyd, Director of Special Education
Brian King, Ph.D., Assistant Director of Special Education
Mike Trimmell, Ed.D., Special Education Administrator

SUBJECT:
SCSC Transitioning Meeting for Elementary to Middle School and Middle to High School

To support the transition of students to their new Self-Contained Support Classroom (SCSC), the Special Education Department is providing an opportunity for SCSC teachers to meet with the teachers or team leads of the new SCSC setting for their students.

The transition meetings:

  • Elementary to Middle School will be on February 28, 2025, from 9:00 - 11:00 am through Zoom.
  • Middle to High School will be on February 21, 2025, from 8:00 - 10:00 am through Zoom.

The schedule and transition paperwork that needs to be filled out for each student transitioning to a new SCSC school have been emailed to all teachers.

Please contact your teacher specialist if you have any questions.

 

Published on

DATE:   
Thursday, February 6, 2025

TO: 
Elementary and Middle School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
AAPPL for DLI Tableau Dashboards Updated with 2024-25 Results

AAPPL for DLI results have been updated in Tableau. The dashboards contain district, school, and individual student data. In addition, viewers will be able to see results by teacher as well as by individual students. Tableau users may filter data by various demographic and student groupings as well.

AAPPL for DLI results may be accessed here:

Explore Menu > Assessments > AAPPL for DLI Analysis > AAPPL for DLI Analysis, 2017-Present

Please contact Ben Jameson in Assessment, Research & Accountability with questions about these dashboards.

Published on

TO:
Elementary Principals
Elementary Administrative Assistants

FROM:
Odette Desmarais, Administrator of Schools
Meredith Doleac, Administrator of Schools
Becky Gerber, Administrator of Schools
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools

Please find your school tab in this Google sheet and complete the Elementary Parent/Teacher Conference Reporting Form within two weeks of your conferences. If you have any questions, please contact Shannel Hooper.

Published on

DATE: 
Thursday, February 6, 2025

TO: 
All Elementary School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:   
Tableau Dashboards for School LAND Trust and TSSA Planning and Reporting

The following Tableau dashboards may be helpful to school administrators as they plan for the 2025-26 school year LAND Trust and TSSA plans. As you look at each of these dashboards, please remember to change the School Name filter to your school.

Assessments:

Acadience Reading Benchmark Status and Pathways of Progress

RISE ELA Proficiency and Growth

RISE Math Proficiency and Growth

RISE Science Proficiency and Growth

WIDA ACCESS Composite Results
Listening Results
Reading Results
Speaking Results
Writing Results

School Accountability:

2023-24 TSI Calculations for All Schools and All Demographics

Breakdown of TSI/ATSI/CSI Identification Data (for TSI/ATSI/CSI schools only)

Other Relevant Data

Attendance

Behavior & Discipline

Demographics

Grades

State’s Data Gateway

School Report Cards

 

Published on

DATE:  
February 6, 2025

TO:  
Principals
Assistant Principals
Counselors

FROM: 
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
Stacee Worthen, School Counseling Consultant

SUBJECT: 
February 2025 School Counselor Training and Professional Development

This memo includes all school counselors’ training and professional development this month.

Highlights

  • February 3 - 7, 2025, National School Counseling Week
  • Ideas to celebrate your school counselors:
    • Publicly recognize your school counselors' hard work through morning announcements, a dedicated email, or a social media post highlighting their impact. A heartfelt message during a staff meeting or a personalized thank-you note from leadership can go a long way.
    • Surprise your counselors with a lunch delivery, coffee, or a favorite snack as a token of appreciation. If budgets are tight, consider partnering with the PTA, student leaders, or local businesses to sponsor a small treat.
    • Give them a small but meaningful token of appreciation, like a "Counselor Appreciation Certificate" or a simple sign on their door that says, “We ❤️ Our School Counselor!” Little gestures like these require minimal effort but can brighten their day.

Training & Professional Development Dates

See the memo below

Published on

TO:
Principals
Teacher Leaders

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning

The Teaching, Leading, Learning Conference associated with CITES will be held on March 20 & 21, 2025 at Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo. Teaching & Learning is able to pay for 1 person from your building to attend. Please use this Google form to submit a name for registration. You may register others for the conference using this link to the conference website. All other registrations should be covered by individual schools or departments. There is a discounted rate for each participant, whether registering as a team or separately, because we are a part of the BYU-Public School Partnership.

The 2025 Instructional Leadership Conference has an incredible line-up of speakers! See the attached information.

Published on

TO:
All Administrators

FROM:
Scott Thomas, Administrator of Auxiliary Services

A Clean Work area is a Safe Work Area.

Good housekeeping is one of the surest ways to identify a safe workplace. You can tell how workers feel about safety just by looking at their housekeeping practices. Good housekeeping isn’t the result of cleaning up once a week or even once a day. It’s the result of keeping cleaned up all the time. It’s an essential factor in a good safety program, promoting safety, health, production, and morale.

See the flyer below for more information.

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, February 6, 2025

TO: 
All Elementary and Middle School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:
RISE ELA and Math Cluster Questions

Principals are encouraged to share the following information with their RISE-tested ELA and math teachers.

Beginning with the 2025 summative assessments, RISE ELA and math question items will be presented to students in a cluster format, similar to the RISE Science assessment. Cluster questions will appear in summative assessments for all grade levels in both content areas. Beginning, February 18th, cluster questions will also be available on the RISE Benchmarks for both ELA and math.

For RISE ELA, students will be presented with reading passages and will be required to answer several sections or clusters of questions that are both related to the passages and to each other. For example, a student will be asked to identify a main idea from the story in one question. Then another question will ask students to select sentences from the passage that support their answer to the first question. In addition, students will be presented with a variety of question types, including multiple choice, multi-selection, sentence selections, drop-down menus, tables, timelines, etc.

Similarly for RISE math, students will be presented with a math task accompanied by several sections or clusters of questions. Question items may be multiple choice, multi-select, drop-down menus, inputting numbers or equations, drag and drop, graphing/plotting, etc.

For a sample of how question items will work, please refer to the Training Tests on the RISE Portal. Please see these step-by-step instructions for accessing the Training Tests.

Recommended next steps to prepare teachers and students for these format changes:

  • Communicate these changes to your teachers as soon as possible. Additional communications will be sent via JEM and directly to RISE-tested teachers.
  • Encourage teachers to view sample items on the Training Tests in the RISE Portal.
  • Encourage teachers to administer the Training Test to students before summative testing day.
  • Encourage teachers to further prepare students for RISE summative testing by administering RISE Benchmarks (see this video for how to administer a RISE benchmark). The benchmarks are aligned to the same standards and presented at the same rigor level as the summative assessments but are shorter. Teachers may preview benchmarks from the RISE Benchmark Previewing Module on the RISE Portal and use the RISE reporting suite to view student responses and aggregate results. The RISE Benchmarks are a great way to assess both student learning and help them learn how to adequately answer questions presented in a cluster format.

For questions about the RISE assessment, please contact Ben Jameson or Kassidy Towery in Assessment, Research & Accountability.

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, February 6, 2025

TO: 
Elementary and Middle School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
RISE Summative Training

The RISE summative testing window is from April 7-May 30, 2025. RISE passwords get reset each year, so please be sure your teachers log in and reset their passwords for this year at utahrise.org.

As testing is nearly underway, please make sure all testing teachers complete the yearly RISE test administration training. Many teachers only use the RISE systems once a year, so yearly training on how it all works is needed. Only teachers who will administer the RISE test need to be trained. For your reference, here is a link to the Testing Ethics Policy.

School administrators are responsible for making sure all testing teachers get trained in RISE test administration. Should you choose to hold a training at your school, this fulfills the training requirement. Teachers have two additional options to be trained for RISE testing:

RISE Canvas Course
The RISE test administration training requirement can be fulfilled by completing the Canvas course online. All teachers in grades 3-8 have been added to the course, should you choose to have them complete the training through this method. A certificate of completion for relicensure points will be available for download at the end of the course.

Zoom RISE Training
Teachers can attend one of the following Zoom RISE trainings to fulfill the training requirement.

Here is the Zoom link for these trainings:
https://uetn-org.zoom.us/j/5266134800
Meeting ID: 526 613 4800

  • Friday, March 7 @ 8:45 AM or 1:30 PM
  • Friday, March 14 @ 8:45 AM or 1:30 PM
  • Friday, March 21 @ 8:45 AM or 1:30 PM
  • Friday, March 28 @ 8:45 AM or 1:30 PM
  • Friday, April 11 @ 8:45 AM or 1:30 PM
  • Friday, April 18 @ 8:45 AM or 1:30 PM
  • Friday, April 25 @ 8:45 AM or 1:30 PM

For questions about RISE training or test administration, please contact Kassidy Towery in Assessment, Research & Accountability.

Published on

DATE: 
January 29, 2024

TO:
Principals
Assistant Principals
School Safety Specialists

FROM: 
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
Matt Alvernaz, School Safety Coordinator

SUBJECT: 
Monthly Drill Preparation (SECURE)

Our monthly drill preparation will be held on February 5th at 3:00 PM with a second session at 3:30 PM. This month we will be covering SECURE. Each School Safety Specialist is expected to attend along with administrators assigned to oversee school safety. All other administrators are welcomed to attend as well. The meeting is also opened to any staff who may be interested.

After each monthly training all school staff should be trained by the administrator over school safety and the School Safety Specialist. After being trained each month, teachers should educate their students on each safety drill. Additionally, schools should communicate with their patrons regarding Standard Response Protocol(s) (SRP) and the drill being conducted each month. Videos, handouts, and other resources can be found at the link(s) below.

Information regarding the SECURE response protocol can be found in the Jordan School District Safety Manual on pages 8-11. We will discuss how to implement and execute the drill. This will be an opportunity to ask questions and share ideas amongst the schools.

We will be holding this meeting over ZOOM so please join using this link.

Published on

TO:
Administrators

FROM:
April Gaydosh, Administrator of Human Resources

Following the release of the 2025-26 FTE V2.0 enrollment projections, the HR Department will provide training for all principals who may need to complete a Reduction in Staff (RIS).

See the document below for all the details and the LINK to sign up for the training.

 

Published on

TO:
Elementary Administrators
Teachers in Grades 3-6
Instructional Coaches

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Michelle Lovell, Elementary Language Arts Consultant

RISE Writing Field Test Volunteers Needed!

With the changes to the literacy core this past year, it has been necessary for USBE to update the benchmark and RISE assessments, including RISE Writing. In order for the scoring engine to be trained, each new writing prompt requires 5,000 student responses. Teachers and students in Jordan District are invited to test the prompts and get a sneak peek into the benchmark that may be used in the future. If you choose to participate, the benchmark prompts will be available on the RISE portal from February 18-June 6, 2025. Here’s what you need to know:

  • All grades (3, 4, 5, 6) may participate.
  • Students can take one informative and one argumentative.
  • The window opens February 18 - June 6, 2025.
  • There will be no automatic scoring - responses will be used to train the scoring engine.
  • No grading of student essays will be required to participate.
  • Automatic scoring of benchmarks will resume in the 2025-2026 school year.
  • USBE needs 5,000 student responses per grade and per benchmark.
  • Writing benchmarks will not be offered next year if there are not enough student volunteers.

If you are interested, please complete the survey to participate in the Writing Benchmark Field Test.

 

Published on

TO:
Elementary Administrators, Teachers, Coaches

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Michelle Lovell, Elementary Language Arts Consultant

Join us for a special Wit & Wisdom workshop where we will be diving into Wit & Wisdom’s Multilingual Resources. Language and Culture services will be joining the literacy team for this special workshop that you will not want to miss! See the attached flyer for additional information.

LINK to Register

Published on

TO:
Elementary Principals

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Rebecca Smith, Consultant in Teaching & Learning

Please see the attached document for registration and other information for the Elementary Math Tournament, hosted at Daybreak Elementary. Registration is due Friday, February 28 and can be submitted via this Google Form. Please contact Rebecca Smith (88368) with any questions you may have.

 

Published on

TO:
Elementary Principals

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Rebecca Smith, Consultant in Teaching & Learning

ALPS testing will be conducted during the school day at local schools from February 3 - March 14. The GT office and/or the proctor for your site will contact you to schedule dates and times for your school. Please contact Rebecca Smith (88368) with any questions you may have. Thank you for accommodating the ALPS testing at your sites.

Published on

TO:
Elementary Principals
Elementary Assistant Principals

FROM:
Garett York, JAESP Committee
Kaleb Yates, JAESP Committee
Ann Pessetto, JAESP Committee
Megan Cox, JAESP Committee

JAESP is proud to announce our 2025 Award Winners to the following, and all-around amazing, elementary administrators!

National Distinguished Principal - Jessica Stowe
National Distinguished Assistant Principal - Kirt Davis

Student Advocate Principal of the Year -Yajaira Martinez
Instructional Leader of the Year - Melissa Beck
Principal Mentor of the Year - Ronna Hoffman
Rookie of the Year - Baylee Lansford
Innovator of the Year - Amy Adams
Community Leader of the Year - Buddy Alger
School Improvement Leader of the Year - Keith Klein
Principal Supervisor of the Year- Becky Gerber

Congratulations! Members of the JAESP Committee were impressed by this year's nominees and want to thank each of them for their hard work, dedication, determination, empathy, and skill. Additionally, we would like to thank each person who took the time to submit nominations.