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Category: High Schools

Published on

DATE:
August 1, 2024

TO:
Administrators
School Safety Personnel 

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

SUBJECT:
National Summit on K-12 School Safety and Security

You are invited to join the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on September 25 and 26 for the 2024 National Summit on K-12 School Safety and Security. This virtual event brings together K-12 school leaders and practitioners to discuss and share actionable recommendations that enhance safe and supportive learning environments.  

Registration is now open for the 2024 Summit. This year’s event will feature panel discussions, sessions and keynote speakers covering topics such as violence prevention, emergency planning, youth online safety, student mental wellness, K-12 cybersecurity and student interventions and support. These sessions are designed to foster a nationwide dialogue on some of the most critical school safety issues, as well as equip school stakeholders and personnel with resources, training and best practices to apply in their local K-12 communities. 

EVENT DETAILS
Dates: Sept. 25-26, 2024
Time: 10:00-1:00 p.m. MDT each day
Location: Held virtually via Microsoft Teams 
Registration: Registration is required and there is no cost to attend. To register, please visit 2024CISASchoolSummit.eventbrite.com. 

WHO SHOULD ATTEND
The Summit is open to anyone with a passion for improving school safety but will be of particular interest to K-12 school and district administrators; principals and superintendents; school-based law enforcement; teachers and school staff; mental health practitioners; first responders; federal, state, local, tribal and territorial government partners; and other school safety and security professionals. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Additional details, including speakers and agendas, will be shared when available. To learn more about the Summit, please visit cisa.gov/news-events/events/2024-national-summit-k-12-school-safety-and-security. 

Published on

TO:
All Principals
All Administrative Assistants

FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Nadine Page, Administrative Assistant

The following instructions are to help you in compiling the timesheets that will be coming to you from your licensed personnel. The complete list of instructions is attached to this JAM.

PRINCIPAL/ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT INSTRUCTIONS 

Principals and administrative assistants have 11 assignments:

  1. Assign a designated person to oversee this program. Add their name to the google sheet.
  2. Make sure the plans are turned in on or before September 30, 2024.
  3. All plans must be logged (with the date received), by the designated person, no later than Oct 31st on the provided google sheet.
  4. Provide time for eligible staff to complete the plan.
  5. Gather and track the timesheets as licensed employees complete them.
  6. Make sure teachers follow through.
  7. Add the actual number of hours the employee worked, (up to a maximum of 32 hours, which is determined by the FTE of the employee) after you receive the timesheet.
  8. Verify that all employees, that are eligible, have turned in their timesheet on or before April 11, 2025.
  9. If an employee works at multiple sites, the school listed as the check location is to track the timesheet for that employee.
  10. If an employee changes locations during the school year, the administrative assistant for the new location must collect the timesheet and log it by the April 11 deadline.
  11. Keep the plans and timesheets on file at your location for auditing purposes.

Eligible licensed personnel must turn in their plan to the principal or administrative assistant (designated person) on or before September 30, 2024.

Principals are asked to give time in a meeting at the beginning of the year for eligible staff to fill out the Professional Hours Plan and turn it in.

A google doc (school name – Educator Directed 32 Hours 2024-25) will be shared to each individual school to be used in tracking the plan as well as the timesheet. Please use this original google doc to track the hours. Do not create your own form. 

    • Administrative assistants, or other designed person will add 
      • the school location, 
      • names of the employees, 
      • employee ID (six digit #), 
      • FTE of the employee (the awarded amount is determined by the FTE of the employee; 1 FTE = 32 hours, .5 FTE = 16 hours,
  • ***the items above will be prefilled. Please double check to make sure all employees are listed correctly for your school, 
    • date that you received the plan, 
    • finally, the date when you have received the timesheet and the hours to be paid (once you have received the final hours worked).

Thank you for your help in making sure all eligible employees receive the correct pay.

Published on

DATE:
Thursday, August 1, 2024

TO:
Middle and High School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:
Summative Testing Changes for 2024-25

Principals are asked to share the following information with their Utah Aspire Plus and RISE tested teachers.

With the change in the ELA core approved by the Utah State Board of Education in recent months, the state’s summative assessments will need to reflect those changes. The changes to RISE and the Utah Aspire Plus are highlighted below:

Utah Aspire Plus

  • The English subtest will no longer be administered. Only the Reading, Math and Science subtests will be administered.
  • Scores will be delayed as the state will need to undergo a standard setting process because of this change. This means that teachers will not have access to Utah Aspire Plus scores when students complete testing. No grade incentive will be possible for the 2024-25 school year for any of the subtests because part of the standard setting process includes the predicted ACT scores, which requires scores from all of the subtests. We expect to receive scores sometime in the fall of 2025.

RISE

  • The ELA RISE assessment and the RISE Writing assessment (5th and 8th grades only) will also be revised according to the new ELA core. We do not expect scores for these assessments to be available either due to the necessity of a standard setting process. No grade incentive will be possible for the 2024-25 school year for these two assessments, though they may still be used for RISE Math and Science.
  • RISE Writing benchmarks will also be suspended for just the 2024-25 school year. USBE is working to field test new RISE Writing benchmarks, but they will not be available until the 2025-26 school year.
  • The Listening and Editing benchmarks will be permanently removed from the RISE system beginning with the 2024-25 school year.

For questions about these changes, please contact Ben Jameson in Assessment, Research & Accountability.

Published on

DATE:   
July 1, 2024

TO:   
Principals
Special Education Teachers (Preschool and School-Age) Speech-Language Pathologists

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

SUBJECT:   
Extended Year Special Educator Stipends 2024-25

The legislation allows a specific group of special educators to work up to 5 additional days for a $200/day stipend (plus applicable benefits). The Bill applies to Special Education Teachers (Preschool and School- Age) and Speech-Language Pathologists only (Speech-Language Technicians are not included). The number of days and stipend amount are based upon the educators assigned FTE equivalent. Please note that eligible staff will only be allowed to work these days two weeks before the first contract day of the 2024-25 school year and two weeks after the last contract day of the 2024-25 school year, not during vacation periods (e.g., holiday recess, Spring Break, etc.). Please see attached memo for more information.

Published on

TO:
Administrators
Administrative Assistants

FROM:
Kurt Prusse, Director of Central Warehouse
Brandon Sax, Warehouse Coordinator

The Central Warehouse is disposing of all its expired hand sanitizer. If any school has expired hand sanitizer, whether it originally came from the warehouse or if you purchased it during the Covid-19 era, the Central Warehouse will dispose of it for you.

After August 7 we will no longer be accepting old hand sanitizer and schools will have to dispose of the rest on their own. We need a final count so we can get quotes from hazardous waste disposal companies that can remove this for us. We are compiling a list of schools so we can coordinate pickup before August 7. Please call Lisa Costanza at x88899 or email her, lisa.costanza@jordandistrict.org, if you have sanitizer you would like picked up.

We would greatly appreciate your cooperation in this effort. If you have any questions please let us know.

Published on

TO:
Administrators
Administrative Assistants

FROM:
Steffany Ellsworth, Support Services Manager in Information Systems

Missed our ParentSquare training for office staff? No worries! We've got you covered with additional opportunities to jump on board, including online sessions! Check out this sign up sheet for a list of dates offered and join us!

For those of you that have already attended a training session, here is the link to access the slides from that training: ParentSquare Training

Published on

DATE:   
Thursday, July 25, 2024

TO:  
High School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
ACT Changes and Enhancements

ACT recently announced changes to the ACT test for both national testing as well as the state-mandated 11th grade administration. The official announcement from ACT may be accessed in its entirety here. Following is a summary of the announced changes:

New National ACT Testing Options

The following ACT test enhancements for national testing will be rolled out starting the spring of 2025:

  • The ACT test enhancements are designed to offer more flexibility and choice for states, districts, and students.
  • The test sections of English, math, and reading will remain as the core sections of the ACT test that will result in a college-reportable composite score.
    • Science will be removed from the ACT test. However, students will have the option to take the ACT, the ACT + Science, the ACT + Writing, or the ACT + Science and Writing.
    • Students can choose to take the science and/or writing section, but they will not be included in the ACT composite score. If the science test is taken, it will be used to calculate a STEM score.
  • The test length will be reduced by up to one-third using shorter reading passages on the English and reading sections and fewer question items in all sections (44 fewer questions in all).
    • The new core test (without science) will take about two hours to complete.

State-mandated 11th Grade Administration

The ACT test enhancements for the 11th grade administration will be rolled out beginning in the spring of 2026 (no changes for the 2024-25 11th grade administration of the ACT):

  • The core ACT test sections of English, math, reading, and science will remain.
  • The test length will be reduced by using shorter passages in English and fewer question items in three of the four sections (44 fewer questions in all).
  • The science section will have the same number of items (40), but more time to complete them (45 minutes).
  • New science content has been added that will relate to the three-dimensional standards, thus helping it align better with the Utah SEED standards.
  • Utah will continue testing science on the 11th grade administration until the end of its contract with ACT in 2027.

For questions about these changes, please contact Ben Jameson in Assessment, Research & Accountability.

Published on

DATE:      
Thursday, July 25, 2024

TO: 
Elementary School Administrators
Middle School Administrators
High School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:     
Fall 2024 Testing Bulletin

Check out your level specific testing bulletin.

 

Published on

DATE: 
Thursday, July 25, 2024

TO:  
Middle and High School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
2023-24 AP Results Updated in Tableau

The AP Analysis Dashboard has been updated with 2023-24 AP exam data in Tableau. School administrators may access both district and school dashboards here.

School administrators will be able to view participation rates, pass rates, and a distribution of scores by school, discipline, and assessment from 2014 to 2024. In addition, the dashboard also contains scores by AP teacher and student.

Please contact Ben Jameson in Assessment, Research & Accountability with any questions about the AP Analysis Dashboard.

Published on

TO:
All Administrators

FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning

The district-wide professional development day is on August 13th, 2024.

All licensed personnel are required to select and attend a keynote speaker in the morning and are required to attend a corresponding session to their assignment in the afternoon.

Please remind your teachers to sign up for a keynote ASAP if they haven’t already.

Please contact your AOS if questions arise about teachers with unique assignments. Administrators who are NOT hosting at a particular location should be in attendance with teachers. Divide your administrative team accordingly.

To register for a morning keynote:

  1. Please choose a speaker and then register for a keynote speaker using this link. Keynote speakers are NOT content specific. The topics and location information for each keynote speaker are included in the registration information.

Review Your Assigned Afternoon Grade Level/Content Area Schedule

  1. Please review the following flyer to see the lineup of presenters at your content area location. The afternoon breakout sessions on August 13th, ARE specific to content area and grade level. You do not need to pre-register for the afternoon breakouts. You will have time to eat lunch and transition to your content location after the morning keynote.

 

Published on

DATE:   
July 26, 2024

TO:
Secondary Principals
Secondary Media Specialists

FROM:  
Administrators of Schools
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning Department
Norman Emerson, Instructional Support Services Consultant

SUBJECT:
Networking Meetings for Secondary Library Media Specialists

To prepare and train secondary library media specialists (teacher-librarians) to effectively provide services to their schools and to build consistency across the District’s library programs, networking meetings have been scheduled for the 2024-25 school year. The participation of your school’s teacher-librarians in these meetings is appreciated.

The meetings will be held on the following dates:

  • September 11, 2024 (Riverton High) 8:00-11:00 a.m.
  • October 30, 2024 (Viridian Center) 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
  • November 13, 2024 (South Jordan Middle) 8:00-11:00 a.m.
  • January 8, 2025 (Copper Mountain Middle) 8:00-11:00 a.m
  • February 5, 2025 (Oquirrh Hills Middle) 8:00-11:00 a.m
  • March 2025 (UELMA Conference, Date TBD)
  • April 16, 2025 (South Hills Middle) 8:00-11:00 a.m
  • May 14, 2025 (ASB Auditorium) 8:00-11:00 a.m

Please share this information with your school’s teacher-librarian.

Please contact Norman Emerson (801-567-8364) if further information is needed. Thank you for your continued support of the library media programs in Jordan District.

Published on

DATE:        
July 25, 2024

TO:   
Principals
Assistant Principals
School Resource Officers

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

SUBJECT:  
District SRO Training

The annual District School Resource Officer training will be held as shown below and is required for each SRO and at least one administrator. Additional administrators are welcome if desired.

Date: Friday, September 6th
Time: 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM
Location: ASB Presentation Room

Please contact District School Safety Coordinator, Matt Alvernaz at matt.alvernaz@jordandistrict.org or by phone at (801) 567-8623 if you have any questions.

Published on

DATE:    
July 18, 2024

TO:  
Administrators
Administrative Assistants

FROM: 
June LeMaster, Administrator, Human Resources
Brent Burge, Human Resource Administrator, ESP

SUBJECT: 
Labor Day Annual-Personal Leave before-after Critical Day

If you are a contracted employee and need to take Annual/Personal Leave on a Critical Day before/after Labor Day 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.

 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
Labor Day Sept. 2, 2024 Aug. 30 and Sept. 3, 2024 July 20 – July 30, 2024

*Critical Days are the first student attendance days before or after a school holiday. If a non-student attendance day falls before or after a school holiday, the Critical Day is the day before or after that non-student attendance day when students are in attendance.

Published on

TO:
Administrators
Administrative Assistants

FROM:
June LeMaster, Administrator Human Resources
Rebecca Eastman, HR Generalist

A friendly reminder for the Employee-Funded Sick Bank Policy,

Employees are automatically enrolled in the sick bank each year through the annual donation of one (1) annual leave day to the sick bank. More information regarding the Employee-Funded Sick Bank can be found in policies, DP326NEG -Sick Leave-Educational Support Professionals and DP 324NEG -Sick Leave-Licensed.

For those who wish to opt out of participation in the Employee-Funded Sick Bank, keep an eye out for instructions starting in the July issues of JEM and JAM.

*First-year Educational Support Professionals and hourly employees are not eligible for sick bank, therefore, a sick bank day will not be deducted (if applicable).

Published on

DATE:
July 18, 2024

TO:
Principals
Assistant Principals

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

SUBJECT:
Early Warning System – Panorama Users by Role

Panorama, the District’s Early Warning System (HB84), will begin nightly data downloads for the 2024-25 school year during the first week of August 2024. To ensure that all the appropriate permissions are activated users by role must be validated by each school.

There are two (2) roles that must be identified:

  1. Administrative Roles:
    a.   Have access to all students throughout the school
    b.   See all discipline information (number, type, and action of each consequence)
    c.   Receive reports about their school and district
    d.   Typically, the principal, assistant principal(s), school counselors, school psychologists, and clinical support staff have this access. The administrator may choose others that receive this access (special education team leaders, student trackers, athletic directors, etc.)
  2. Survey Coordinator Roles:
    a.   Receive reports about the school
    b.   Have access to all students throughout the school
    c.   Should NOT be the school principal
    d.   Coordinate survey administration and messaging

Using the 2024-25 Panorama Administrators and Survey Coordinators sheet select your school, list the names of the users (first and last name), select the role, and enter the users district email address. Schools should enter this information prior to August 1, 2024 to ensure seamless use at the beginning of the school year.

Schools who wish to have their faculty activated should email Travis Hamblin (travis.hamblin@jordandistrict.org).

Published on

Jordan School District Employees are responsible for knowing and adhering to all District policies and procedures. The Crucial Concerns and Policy Review is now available to District employees in Skyward through “Online Forms.” As a condition of continued employment, all employees (i.e. Licensed, ESP, Substitutes, Coaches, Miscellaneous adults, etc.), with the exception of minor students, will be required to complete this training. We ask your assistance in notifying your employees of this required training and ask that this training be completed by November 1, 2024.

A message will appear upon login of Skyward Employee Access for the employee to complete an “Online Form.” Employees can complete the steps at that time or can return to the review at another time by selecting “Online Forms” under “Employee Information.” Attached is a tutorial to assist in completing the review.

Reports of completion will be available through Skyward so you can verify that your staff members have completed this process. A tutorial is attached for your reference. If you or any staff members need technical help, please call the help desk at 801-567-USER (8737).

Note: The Crucial Concerns and Policies review was significantly reduced for the 2024-25 contract year. See the table below.

2024-2025 Estimated Time Required
Administrator Lic. Time Required 2 HR 41 Min 16 Sec
Licensed Time Required 2 HR 37 Min 16 Sec
ESP Time Required 2 HR 4 Min 14 sec
Sub/Misc Time Required 1 HR 42 Min 48 sec

Published on

DATE:
July 18, 2024

TO:
Secondary Principals
Secondary Assistant Principals
Secondary Attendance Secretaries
Secondary Registrars

FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director, Student Services
Caleb Olson, Enrollment Consultant, Student Services

SUBJECT:
Assigning Discipline Officers and Counselors for New-to-School Secondary Students (2024-25)

Each year in August, Information Systems runs a utility to assign secondary students a discipline officer and a counselor in Skyward.

Counselors must be active on each school’s Staff screen in order to be assigned to students. In order to be assigned as a discipline officer, an individual must:

  1. Be a District-appointed administrator or administrative intern. Individuals completing internship hours through an assignment by Human Resources who have not been officially appointed as an administrative intern by the District should not be assigned as discipline officers.
  2. Have the “Discipline Officer” box marked on their individual profile on the school’s “Staff” screen.

This utility will be run in early August to update all students enrolled at that point in time. After the initial utility has been run, Information Systems cannot easily “mass assign” discipline officers or counselors for schools. The utility, if run later in the year, would overwrite any custom assignments made by the school. In order for certain processes to successfully run in Skyward, however, discipline officers and counselors must be assigned for students who enroll after the utility has been run. This should be done as part of the registration process. An individual with responsibility for entering the student into Skyward should verify that the “Entity Info” screen has an appropriate individual assigned under ‘Discipline Officer”, “Counselor”, and “Advisor”. This process will need to be completed for students who are new to the District and for those who are transferring from another District location. Making this a part of the enrollment process will help ensure that discipline can be reported and processed accurately.

For the 2024-25 school year, information on the alphabet assignments for assistant principals and counselors will be taken from the school’s update to the Assistant Principal Directory. In order for the utility to be run in a timely manner, schools should complete updates to the directory by July 31, 2024. The directory can be updated at
this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GIy82OtQIsQ4ul40HcWhfRatxB6NNmKzDNQlddOX5m0/ 

Questions on entering discipline officers may be directed to the help desk in Information Systems at x88737. General questions on recording discipline may be directed to Caleb Olson in Planning & Enrollment at x88251.

Published on

DATE:
Thursday, July 18, 2024

TO:
All School Administrators
District Department Directors/Consultants

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

SUBJECT:
2024-25 Required Testing Ethics Professional Development Procedures for Education Support Professionals

For the 2024-25 school year, administrators will need to conduct a training for all licensed educators as well as any education support professionals (ESPs) who will assist with district-, state- or federally-mandated testing on the state’s testing ethics policy. All licensed educators will need to be trained on the policy. Administrators will want to consider including computer lab assistants who function as the school’s test coordinator, any classroom aides that assist with testing, literacy aides who assist with Acadience Reading or Math testing or progress monitoring, or any office staff that assist test coordinators with district-, state- or federally-mandated testing.

The three required procedures for completing this testing ethics professional development are listed on the “2024-25 Principal’s Testing Ethics Checklist for ESPs” form, which is due to Assessment, Research & Accountability by Friday, September 20, 2024.

As has been done in the past, administrators may provide the testing ethics training themselves using the Google slide deck linked in this memo. Alternatively, administrators may show the YouTube video linked below to school personnel. The video provides the same information as the slide deck. Once school personnel have been trained, either by a school administrator or using the video, they are required to sign the “2024-25 Standard Test Administration and Testing Ethics Policy Training Signature Form.” Administrators are asked to keep these signed forms on file at the school.

There are several materials attached with this memo for your use:

  • 2024-25 Principal’s Testing Ethics Checklist – This form needs to be filled out and sent to Assessment, Research & Accountability by Friday, September 20, 2024.
  • Testing Ethics Presentation, 2024-25 – This is the slide deck if administrators choose to present the training in-person.
    2024-25 Standard Test Administration and Testing Ethics Policy – This document should be distributed to every licensed educator as well as any ESPs that assist with district-, state- or federally-mandated testing.
  • Testing Ethics Video – This is the training video that may be used in lieu of a school administrator providing the training, though it is still recommended that school personnel view the video together. The video may also be found at this YouTube link.
  • Standard Test Administration and Testing Ethics Training Signature Form, 2024-25 – Administrators should retain a signed copy of this form for all licensed educators as well as any ESPs who assist with district-, state- or federally-mandated testing.
  • Testing Ethics Policy FAQ – Administrators should distribute this FAQ document to all licensed educators and any ESPs that assist with district-, state- or federally mandated testing.

Please contact Ben Jameson or Gaylene Miller in Assessment, Research & Accountability with any questions.