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DATE:  
Thursday, August 29, 2019

TO:     
All Principals

FROM: 
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Superintendent of Schools
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:    
Utah Compose Rostering Delay


We received word from USBE that Utah Compose is not yet ready for classroom use.  They asked us to disseminate the following message to all educators that could potentially use Utah Compose:

USBE was notified by Measurement Inc. that the Utah Compose upload is continuing slowly. Courses and students continue to be added but users will still see incomplete class rosters and/or missing courses. All courses and students will be loaded by Monday, September 2. In an effort to expedite the upload process, all school and district administrative functions have been suspended until the teacher and student accounts are complete. No school or LEA-level reports will be available until that time. Thank you for your patience. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact Kim Rathke kim.rathke@schools.utah.gov

We have sent this information to teachers as well. Please contact Ben Jameson or Kim Rathke at USBE with any questions or concerns you may have. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Regional Conference & Exposition - October 16-18, 2019 in Salt Lake City

Connect with colleagues in the math education community, share knowledge, and learn about the resources, tools, and classroom best practices you can use to enhance your teaching and drive student success.

Whether you're a Pre-K to Grade 12 classroom teacher, math coach, administrator, math teacher educator, preservice teacher, or math specialist, this is your unique opportunity to access superior math resources right on your doorstep.

Early Bird registration ends September 11, 2019. Get a discount for groups of 5 or larger.

https://www.nctm.org/saltlakecity2019/?ref=button

SUU is hosting a writing conference on Sept. 19-20th that will cover creative non-fiction and essay writing. This is a great opportunity for you to offer TSSA funds to teachers who would like to participate. Information on the conference will be sent out to ELA Department Chairs on Friday.

DATE:
August 22, 2019

TO:
All Principals

FROM:
Administrators of Schools
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Superintendent of Schools
Travis Hamblin, Planning and Student Services

SUBJECT:
1st Day Enrollment vs. the Estimate
All Schools, traditional and YRE


Please see memo below.

DATE:
August 22, 2019

TO:
District Administration

FROM:
Administrators of Schools
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Superintendent of Schools
Travis Hamblin, Planning and Student Services

SUBJECT:
1st Day Enrollment vs. the Estimate
Year-round Schools, Tracks A, B, C & D
(based on August 21, 2019 count)


Please see memo below.

As we start the 2019-20 school year, schools are preparing to keep a clean and healthy environment.  The District does not supply hand sanitizer or disinfectant wipes.  These products often contain alcohol or bleach and may cause skin and eye irritation or injury, intoxication, illness, and may be flammable.  Schools that purchase or receive donations of these items are advised to take the following precautions:

  • Obtain non-toxic products if possible
  • Keep hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes locked up, inaccessible to students
  • Obtain a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) from the manufacturer; usually by Googling the name brand, product SDS
  • Keep the SDS on file and readily available for proper handling, protective equipment advisory, first aid, and other safety information
  • Use these products with staff supervision
  • Be aware of allergies and sensitivities

The Utah Council for the Social Studies annual fall conference will be held Saturday, Nov. 2 at South Jordan Middle School, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.  Registration is through Eventbrite at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ucss-2019-conference-tickets-68293697287  Registration options include: Individual registration $30, You & a friend $50, Social studies department or grade level team $100. Lane change credit will be given and breakfast and lunch provided.

The keynote speaker is a former POW, held in a Vietnamese prison. For details on other sessions, see attached flyer.

District level resources for Blended and Digital Learning will be provided to each school through a Google shared folder named "Blended Learning (school name)." Access to the folders will be sent to each school administrator within the next week. The folder will include resources to support your digital learning efforts. The Blended and Digital Learning team would like to support school efforts to build the technology capacity of teachers through the Center for STEM and Digital Learning, the Trending Classrooms Badging program, and the Digital Teacher Leader program. Information regarding these programs will be included in the folder.

If you have any questions please contact Ross Menlove. ross.menlove@jordandistrict.org

DATE:   
August 20, 2019

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:   
A.S.P.E.N. Training for all Special Education Staff 2019-2020


A.S.P.E.N. 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 2019-2020 school year. A.S.P.E.N. is a positive, preventative, and proactive approach to managing aggressive student behavior.

Although not required, instructional assistants working in any other special education setting may choose to attend at the discretion of their building administrator.

Those who participated in A.S.P.E.N. training during the 2018-2019 school year do not need to take the full course, but should instead plan on taking an ASPEN re-certification class.

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 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. Staff should register for a training session through JPLS.

Mandt training will continue to be required at Kauri Sue Hamilton and River’s Edge School and staff at these schools will not need to attend A.S.P.E.N. 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. A Mandt training schedule will be forthcoming.

A.S.P.E.N. training dates and times are attached to this memo.

For questions, contact:
Daveed Goodrich at daveed.goodrich@jordandistrict.org or
Cassidy Hansen at cassidy.hansen@jordandistrict.org

Attention Administrators:

One of the key responsibilities of the Purchasing Department is to help the District work as efficiently as possible and control our expenses. We are pleased to announce that we will be transitioning our Amazon Business account to an Amazon Business Prime account.

For those of you that use Amazon Business now for your purchasing needs, not much will change. In fact, for some of you the change will be nearly unrecognizable. Currently some schools or departments have one user pay for one Amazon Prime account of $127/year to order from. With this change any authorized person (set-up and authorized by your administrator) in the building can access Amazon Business Prime and get free two-day shipping at no cost.

Initially, the number of authorized users will be limited to 5 at elementary schools, 10 at middle schools, 20 at high schools, and 2 at each district department. This can be increased later if desired by the administrator. Of course, these accounts should only be used for business purposes and not personal use. Purchasing will pick up the Amazon Business Prime annual fee for the entire district, saving thousands of dollars in prime account fees and shipping costs each year.

Administrators will have the ability to approve or decline purchases and/or delegate approval to their custom workflow of staff. Detailed emails will be sent out and Kris Wishart in Purchasing will be contacting each school/department for initial set-up of users and workflow.

Stay tuned for more news on this as we go forward. Secondary schools and District departments will begin the process very shortly. Elementary schools will follow after things settle down some.

The Utah Literacy Association will be holding its annual conference on October 3rd at the Mountain America Expo Center. The theme this year is "Empowering Students with Literacy Super Powers." Our presenters will be focusing on teaching writing and using effective interventions for struggling readers through engaging strategies. See flyer below for more details.

 

 

DATE:  
August 1, 2019

TO:   
All Principals, Directors and Supervisors

FROM: 
John Larsen, Business Administrator
HR Administrators

SUBJECT: 
Classified Part-Time Employee Work Hour Maximums


Historically, classified part-time employees have been limited to working 17 hours/week to avoid retirement eligibility.  With the increasing difficulty in recruiting and retaining qualified part-time classified assistants, assistants working in designated positions are now allowed to work up to 25 hours/week, with principal/director approval.  School funds must be used to pay the additional hours worked.

Please see guidelines below.

 

Through HB 373, Jordan District was awarded funds to add additional school-based mental health services. Six experienced mental health clinicians have been hired with these funds. Each clinician will be assigned to support a feeder. Over the next few weeks, these mental health clinicians and members of the health and wellness team will be dropping by briefly to discuss ways that they can support student and family mental health needs in your school community. If you have questions or concerns regarding these additional mental health supports, please contact McKinley Withers, 801-567-8245.

DATE:   
Thursday, August 15, 2019

TO:   
High School Principals
Middle School Principals

FROM:  
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Superintendent of Schools
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT: 
2019 AP Data Available on Principal Tableau Viewer Accounts


2019 AP performance data are now available on principal Tableau Viewer accounts. School administrators will be able to see AP exam participation, average scores, score distribution and pass rates for the district and school as well as student groups for the past three school years. In addition, school administrators will be able to see AP performance by AP teacher for the past three years as well as student-level performance for the 2018-19 school year.

To access the Tableau login page, please follow this link: https://sso.online.tableau.com/public/idp/SSO

As a reminder, principals may share their Tableau login credentials with their assistant principals. If principals or assistant principals have questions about how to navigate Tableau or their AP data, they are encouraged to contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243 or via email at ben.jameson@jordandistrict.org.