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Category: High Schools

Published on

DATE:      
September 10, 2025

TO: 
All Jordan School District Principals (with bus route students)

FROM:   
Scott Thomas, Administrator of Auxiliary Services
Paul Bergera, Director of Transportation
Kathy Jones, Transportation Trainer/Risk Coordinator

SUBJECT: 
State Required Bus Evacuations and School Bus Safety 2025-2026

State required semi-annual school bus evacuations have been scheduled for this fall. This applies to those students that ride the bus daily to and from school.

The evacuations will be conducted during the week of:

Monday, September 22 through Thursday, September 25, 2025

Your school’s regular bus drivers will perform this evacuation procedure as they drop your students off in the morning, one day during that week. The procedure will take place at your school and within the students’ regular bus drop off/pick up zone. All professional school bus drivers that transport students are required to perform evacuation procedures in case of an emergency. Bus evacuation will be through the rear door, side door, front door or any combination of the three. Students will then, under the direction and supervision of the bus driver, evacuate and meet in a safe place approximately 100 feet away from the bus.

Your assistance is welcome but not mandatory to complete this required evacuation procedure quickly, safely and effectively.

We appreciate all you do to help us safely transport your students.

Published on

DATE:  
September 9, 2025

TO:  
Principals and Assistant Principals

FROM: 
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
McKinley Withers, Health and Wellness Consultant
Michelle Reyes, Attendance/Prevention Specialist, Student Services

SUBJECT:
Proactive Tools for Addressing Attendance Throughout 2025-26

Districtwide data indicates that chronic absenteeism is a growing problem. Throughout the school year, Student Services will be providing resources, tools, and reminders to help our District address this critical issue. Research consistently shows that regular school attendance is directly linked to higher academic achievement, improved social-emotional development, and a greater likelihood of on-time graduation. When students are present, they are more engaged in learning, build stronger relationships with their peers and teachers, and don’t fall behind on foundational skills.

In short, attendance is important! Together, we can make an impact on students’ futures by addressing attendance. As part of this collective effort, using the State’s Every Day Counts Attendance Initiative, we’ve developed the following attendance theme:

Attendance Campaign Theme: “We’re Better When You’re Here”
(Use this link for PDFs to print or email Michelle for prints)

September 2025 Attendance Resources and Reminders

  1. Proactive Communication on the importance of attendance is essential and impactful at the beginning of the year, use one of these links to communicate with your school community.
    1. Attendance Essentials (Spanish)-Parent handout with essential attendance information
    2. Stay At Home Checklist (Spanish)
    3. Beginning of the Year Attendance Nudge/Social Media Message (Spanish)
  2. Review current data.
    1. Start by reviewing the previous school year's attendance records. Look at metrics like average daily attendance (ADA), chronic absenteeism rates (students missing 10% or more of the school year), and attendance rates by grade level, demographic group, and teacher. This data will serve as your baseline and help you identify specific problem areas. For example, you might find that chronic absenteeism is higher in a particular grade or among a certain student population.
    2. Employing Panorama to acquire and review attendance data is the most efficient way to access chronic absence rates and drill down into attendance issues with certain demographics. Find a Panorama attendance how-to guide here.
  3. Review additional resources relevant to your school’s needs!

Questions? Contact Michelle Reyes at michelle.reyes@jordandistrict.org or 801-567-8205.

Published on

DATE: 
Thursday, September 11, 2025

TO:  
All School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
Earbud Orders for State Testing

Students will have the option to have text read to them on the RISE Summative and Utah Aspire Plus Summative testing systems once again this year. Principals or their designee are encouraged to place an order for student earbuds. Please place your order by Friday, October 17th.

To place an order, please click here.

Earbuds may be used for other district- or state-mandated tests, but schools will need to create a system by which the same student uses the same earbuds throughout the year as there is no additional funding to purchase more than one pair of earbuds per student in grades 3-10.

If schools wish to purchase additional earbuds for other uses, school administrators are welcome to contact Gaylene Miller in Assessment, Research & Accountability at 801-567-8185 who can share the purchasing information and quotes used to acquire these earbuds.

Published on

DATE:    
Thursday, September 11, 2025

TO: 
High School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
Shmoop Access for the 2025-26 School Year

School administrators are encouraged to forward this information to their ACT prep teachers.

USBE has once again made available a free ACT prep online program for all high school students from 9th grade and up. Students may access this free program at this link: schools.shmoop.com

The Magic Word for the 2025-26 school year for students to complete the login process is: FRYSAUCE.

Teachers may access Shmoop by creating an account using their single-sign-on via Canvas. Check out this YouTube video for how to do this.

For more information about Shmoop, including instructions for students to set up their own Shmoop account, please see this information page.

For administrators interested in an online or in-person training on how to use or implement Shmoop in your school, please fill out Shmoop’s training request form.

Here are some other resources for making the most of this great ACT prep resource:

For questions about the ACT or Shmoop, please contact Ben Jameson in Assessment, Research & Accountability.

 

Published on

DATE:     
September 08, 2025

TO:  
High School Principals
Assistant Principals Responsible for District/School Suburbans

FROM:      
Brad Sorensen, Administrator of Schools

SUBJECT:   
Change in Terminology for District/School Suburbans

Beginning September 08, 2025, the terminology related to our district/school vehicles previously referred to as "Suburban(s)" will now be designated as "Large SUV(s)."

Action Required:

  1. Form Updates: Updated versions of the relevant forms provided by the District are attached and will be implemented immediately.
  2. School-Level Forms: Update all school-level forms and documents by replacing the term "Suburban" with "Large SUV".
  3. Old Forms: Delete any outdated forms that have not been revised to prevent any potential confusion.

Your help in implementing these updates promptly is greatly appreciated.

All involved school personnel are asked to review the Jordan School District Large SUV documentation to ensure you are familiar with the guidelines for their use. This will help maintain consistency and clarity across all communications and operations.

 

Published on

TO:
All Principals

FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent

The state has made some changes to the requirements for the Rules of Order and Procedure this year. Please use the attached template, update anything in red, and change the font color back to black to post on your website. You are welcome to add anything to this template that your SCC council would like to include. This needs to be approved at your first SCC meeting this year.

Remember, the state is auditing us this year on the Rules of Order and Procedure, so we need to make sure we're using this updated form. Reminder that the deadline for the school website update is October 20, 2025.

Thanks!

LINK to Template

Published on

The following are new administrative assignments:

New Administrative Internships for 2025-26:

  • Sarah Burton, instructional coach at Copper Canyon Elementary assigned administrative intern at Bastian Elementary.
  • Tori Domaleski, teacher in Canyons School District assigned administrative intern at Columbia Elementary.
  • Kimberlee Hill, instructional coach in Granite School District assigned administrative intern at Heartland Elementary.
  • Addie Lund, teacher at Hawthorn Academy assigned administrative intern at Majestic Elementary Arts Academy.

Published on

DATE:
September 4, 2025

TO:   
All Administrators
All Registrars

FROM: 
Steffany Ellsworth, Manager - Information Systems
Steven Harwood, Manager - Information Systems

SUBJECT:
Dropout Cohort Cleanup Report

In an effort to improve our graduation and dropout statistics at the State Board of Education, it is important that we correctly account for each student’s enrollment. Each school’s current dropout cohort cleanup report will be provided to registrars by Monday, September 8th. The report will come from JSD Information Systems through MoveIT. This is a report of students who are currently counted as dropouts for your school for the 2024-25 Cohort. Registrars review each record on this report to determine whether or not an existing dropout exit code can be changed (thus lowering your dropout rate).

Please connect with your registrars to ensure they are working to enter the corrected information and return the report in the same electronic format as was sent via MoveIT to Carrie Norris (carrie.norris@jordandistrict.org) in Information Systems by September 26, 2025. They should also send a cc copy to Stacee Worthen (stacee.worthen@jordandistrict.org) in Student Services and Brooke Anderson (brooke.anderson@jordandistrict.org) in Assessment, Research and Accountability.

Information Systems will be providing training for registrars on September 12th at 1:30 p.m. at the District Office, Room 129. This training will provide registrars with the information and tools needed to review the dropout cohort report and make changes as necessary. If your registrar is new to this report, or just needs a refresher, please ask them to attend this training.

Feel free to contact the Information Systems Help Desk at (801) 567-8737 with any questions as you work through this process. The UTREx system is a great help in locating students. If your registrar doesn’t have access to UTREx, principals may request access for them by emailing a request to ishelpdesk@jordandistrict.org.

Published on

DATE:
September 4, 2025

TO:
All Principals
All Licensed Staff

FROM:
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
Kim Lloyd, Director of Special Education
Melanie Dawson, Program Administrator of Behavior

SUBJECT:
ETT: Cultivating Classroom Management Skills

Effective Teacher Training (ETT) is available for a Fall 2025 cohort! Seats are capped at 50 and are only available to licensed educators who have never taken ETT previously. This course is not currently available to ESPs. This course is designed for: All general education and special education teachers. Also welcome: Specialists, interventionists, and mental health providers
(Not available to ESPs) Please register on Canvas Catalog to save your spot. See the attached memo for information.

Published on

DATE:  
September 4, 2025

TO:
All School Principals
All School Head Administrative Assistants

FROM:    
Cabinet Members

SUBJECT: 
Required Finance & Accounting Rules Training

Cabinet members would like every school principal and the head administrative assistant to receive training on District finance and accounting rules. This is a required training and both the principal and administrative assistant should attend together, side-by-side.

Please use the following form to sign both of you up for a training session:

LINK to Sign Up

Available Dates:

DATE TIME LOCATION
Friday, October 3, 2025 12:00 – 3:00 pm District Office, room 129
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 12:00 – 3:00 pm ASB Auditorium
Tuesday, January 20, 2026  1:00 – 4:00 pm ASB Auditorium
Friday, February 13, 2026  1:00 – 4:00 pm ASB Presentation room
Friday, March 6, 2026  1:00 – 4:00 pm District Office, room 129
Friday, April 17, 2026  1:00 – 4:00 pm JATC South

 

Published on

DATE:  
September 2, 2025

TO: 
Secondary Principals
Elementary Principals

FROM:  
Carolyn Gough, Administrator, Teaching and Learning Department
Norman Emerson, Fine Arts Consultant

SUBJECT:  
Ballet West 2025-26 Student In-Theater Presentations

Ballet West is again providing free presentations of the following ballets in the Capitol Theater:

  • Romeo and Juliet (Grades 3-12)
  • The Dream (Grades 1-12)
  • The Nutcracker (Grades K-12)
  • Peter Pan (Grades 1-12)
  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Grades 2-12)
  • West Side Story Suite (Grades 4-12)
  • Choreographic Special: Spotlight Utah! (Grades 4-12)

Each program begins with an educational introduction and is followed by a portion of the repertoire currently being performed for the general public.

Further information may be found at Ballet West Student In-Theatre Performances and in this flyer.

If any of your teachers are interested in having their classes attend any of the performances, please have them contact Michelle Bailey at michelle.bailey@jordandistrict.org or 801-567-8296. Seating is limited and performance slots will be filled on a first-come come first-served basis.

Transportation fees and bus scheduling are covered by individual schools. Neither Ballet West nor the Teaching and Learning Department will cover transportation costs.

Published on

TO:
School Principals

FROM:
Michelle Love-Day, Director of Language and Culture Services

The first ELD Task Force meeting is next Thursday, Sept. 11th, from 1:30 to 3:30 at the ASB Auditorium.

This meeting is for the admin over MLs, you as the ELD lead, an upper-grade teacher, and a lower-grade teacher. Instructional coaches are also welcome to attend. Admins, please invite the teachers on this Task Force. The half-day sub code for teachers is 7628.

If you need to be added to the ELD Lead Google calendar or if you (or your task force members) need to be added to the ELD Lead and Task Force course on Canvas, please reach out to your Language Teacher Specialist so we can add you.

Published on

TO:
All Administrators
All Administrative Assistants

FROM:
April Gaydosh, Administrator of Human Resources
Rebecca Eastman, HR Generalist

If you are a contracted employee and need to take Annual/Personal Leave on a Critical Day before or after Fall Recess for any reason not listed in policy DP335NEG or DP335B, you must submit a request as follows:  

How to Request

During the window, the employee must send the request through email. Please include your name, school, position, and the date you are requesting the leave. Requests left on voicemail or over the phone will NOT be accepted.

Licensed employees submit their request to licensedpersonalleave@jordandistrict.org

Education Support Professionals submit their request to classifiedpersonalleave@jordandistrict.org

The employee will receive an email confirmation within two working days after submitting the request. If the employee does not receive a confirmation email, then Human Resources has NOT received your request and your leave will not be approved.

School Holiday Date of Holiday Critical Days Window
Fall Recess
Licensed		 October 21-24, 2024 Oct. 17 and 27, 2024 Sept. 6 – Sept. 16, 2024
Fall Recess
ESP		 October 23-24, 2024 Oct. 17 and 27, 2024 Sept. 8 – Sept. 18, 2024

Licensed Annual/Personal Leave Taken on a Critical Day 2025-2026

ESP Annual/Personal Leave Taken on a Critical Day 2025-2026

Published on

DATE: 
Thursday, September 4, 2025

TO:   
All School Administrators

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

SUBJECT: 
TSI/ATSI Workshops and Funding

School improvement planning workshops for schools designated for targeted support and improvement (TSI) or additional targeted support and improvement (ATSI) will once again be offered during the 2025-26 school year.

See the memo below for all of the details.

 

Published on

DATE: 
September 4, 2025

TO: 
All School Administrators

FROM:  
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
McKinley Withers, Health and Wellness

SUBJECT:  
FREE Mental Health Education for Parents and Caregivers

Jordan District has partnered with the Cook Center for Human Connection to provide ongoing mental health education for parents and caregivers. This collaboration offers FREE access to live, virtual educational sessions covering various topics. Please share the following resources with your school community:

  • A calendar for September’s Mental Health Series sessions is attached. Sessions are offered in both English and Spanish. Previously recorded seminars can be accessed through a comprehensive library of sessions and resources for each topic. You can access the library of recorded sessions at any time by visiting this site: https://parentguidance.org/mhsindex.
  • Ask a Therapist live virtual event. This is an anonymous opportunity to ask questions from a licensed family therapist about your child’s mental health. It is a live event on 23rd at 6 pm with access to the recording afterwards. Registration Link: https://cookcenter.info/ATLSept23
  • Included in the mental health series this September is a "Watch Together Series" to highlight for families. While the Mental Health Series is designed for parents, these “Watch Together” events are for the whole family, especially teens and young adults. In this series, each month, you'll meet a new animated character facing real challenges that teens and young adults experience. Together, you and your family can watch their story and learn how to start meaningful conversations at home.
    • First Event: Meet Amie from My Life is Worth Living. Amie is a bright, ambitious student who worked hard in school. But beneath the surface, she struggled with feelings of guilt and shame that led to a suicide attempt. Her journey shows how hope, support, and honest conversations can help teens find their way forward.
    • Wednesday, September 10 | 6pm MT REGISTER NOW

Please share the attached flyers/resources with your school communities. Should you have any questions please reach out to Angie Rasmussen at angie.rasmussen@jordandistrict.org.

Published on

DATE:   
September 4, 2025

TO:    
All School Administrators

FROM:  
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
McKinley Withers, Health and Wellness

SUBJECT:  
Suicide Prevention Training Video and Staff and Parent Resources

September is suicide prevention month.  

Schools play a critical role in suicide prevention for current and future students. It is important that we expand our knowledge about the warning signs of suicide and how to facilitate opportunities to strengthen connections. Remember: These suicide prevention activities can all be included as part of your schoolwide prevention plan.

In accordance with the Utah State Legislature's Administrative Code (53G-9-704), Student Services has created this short training video for ALL District employees. Here are some ideas on how to show the video to school staff: Send the link in an email and instruct your staff to watch it, show it at a faculty meeting, or allow time during early release/late start

We have also created new guidelines for Secondary Suicide Prevention Classroom Lessons, which can be reviewed at this link: Suicide Prevention Classroom Lesson Guidelines

Here are additional, important Suicide Prevention Resources that can be used as part of your prevention plan:

Published on

TO:
Principals, Assistant Principals, Panorama Survey Coordinators

FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services

The Fall Panorama student feedback survey window will open on Monday, September 8, 2025 and will close on Friday, October 10, 2025. Student Services provides the opt-in list to Panorama the week prior to the window closing and at least one time midway through the survey window. Survey response rates may be accessed through your Panorama login and results are typically available the week following the last day of the survey window.

The winter survey window is January 29, 2026 - February 27, 2026
The Spring survey window is April 20, 2026 - May 15, 2026

Schools wanting additional Panorama training should reach out to Travis Hamblin (travis.hamblin@jordandistrict.org).

Published on

DATE:  
September 2, 2025

TO:   
Secondary Principals
Secondary Assistant Principals

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

SUBJECT:  
Fall 2025 Campus Monitor Training

Fall 2025 Campus Monitor Training will be held in two sessions on Monday, September 15, 2025. The morning session will be held in the ASB presentation room from 7:30 -9:00 am. The afternoon session will be held in the ASB presentation room from 1:30 -3:00 pm.

Please coordinate with your team on meeting attendance. All Campus Monitors are required to attend one session. Assistant Principals, interns, & administrators are welcome but not required to attend.