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Category: High Schools

Published on

DATE:    
Thursday, October 20, 2022

TO: 
All School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
2022 RISE and Utah Aspire Plus Tableau Dashboards Updated with Student Growth Data

The RISE and Utah Aspire Plus dashboards in Tableau have been updated with 2022 student growth data. School administrators will be able to see the median growth percentile (MGP) for the district, schools, grade levels and individual teachers. In addition, school administrators will be able to see individual student growth percentiles (SGP) for each student for whom growth could be calculated.

The updated dashboards may be found at the links below:

Here are a few reminders about growth calculations:

  • SGPs are calculated on a scale of 1-99
  • SGPs are a comparison of a student’s progress in a content area (ELA, math or science) relative to the progress of other like-scoring peers across the state
    • The comparison data used to calculate SGPs come from the student’s scale scores for a specific content area on the 2021 and 2022 RISE and/or Utah Aspire Plus assessments
    • For example, if a student earned an SGP of 43, that means that this student scored better than 43% of his like-scoring peers between the 2021 and 2022 assessments
  • The state considers an SGP of 40 to be typical growth
  • Students with low proficiency will need higher growth scores to close achievement gaps
  • An MGP is the median, or middle, score of a group of SGPs (class, grade level, school, or district)
    • MGPs answer this question: How fast is my group of students growing in their learning compared to other groups of students in my grade level, school, district or the state?

Published on

DATE:
October 13, 2022

TO:
School Principals
Directors

FROM:  
John Larsen, Business Administrator
June LeMaster, Administrator, Human Resources
Brent Burge, HR Administrator

SUBJECT:  
Shift Differential – Education Support Professional (ESP)

As part of JESPA negotiations for the 2018-19 contract year, the shift differential was increased effective July 1, 2018 as follows:

Swing Shift – The employee’s shift must begin between 12:00 p.m. (noon) and 10:00 p.m. The employee must work a full eight hours. The additional rate of pay is $0.50 per hour.

Graveyard Shift – The employee’s shift must begin between 10:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. The employee must work a full eight hours. The additional rate of pay is $1.00 per hour.

If an employee normally assigned and normally working the swing or graveyard shift is asked to temporarily work earlier in the day in order to help cover for another employee who is absent, the swing or graveyard employee will receive the shift differential for that day.

Only ESP, benefit-eligible employees are eligible for shift differential. Please follow the current process to submit for shift differential pay.

Published on

DATE: 
October 13, 2022

TO:  
In-Person Elementary, Middle, High School Principals

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

SUBJECT:   
Preparation for Permits 2023-24

Utah Code 53G-6-402 (which governs the out-of-boundary permit process) was amended in the 2022 Legislative Session. The major change is a shift in dates for the permit windows, as outlined below:

Window Description Old Dates New Dates
Open Enrollment Permits awarded by Board lottery priority; seats available based on school capacity. December 1 to third Friday in February November 15 to first Friday in February
Late Enrollment Permits awarded first-come, first served; seats available based on 2.0 FTE allocation space. Third Friday in February through June of the next year. First Friday in February through June of the next year.

In preparation for the opening of the permit window, the following items must be completed by the building principal no later than November 1, 2022:

  1. Access your school’s enrollment dashboard. There is a new tab for the 2023-24 school year. In the permit section, enter the names and authorizations of all individuals who should be allowed to process permits at your school for the 2023-24 school year. Names have not been copied from previous years due to high turnover at many schools.
    • Elementary permit information begins on row 124
    • Middle permit information begins on row 170
    • High permit information begins on row 198
  2. When permit names and authorizations have been updated, click the checkbox to the right side of the permit section to signal your school’s completion.
  3. Review your school’s anticipated open enrollment permit seat total, shown just below the permit staff names and authorization section. These are anticipated numbers and are subject to change until they receive final authorization by the Jordan Board of Education.

If your school has new staff responsible for permit processing or there are administrators new to the process who need training or review, please communicate the following training information to them:

Permit Trainings
When: Wednesday, November 2, 2022
Where: District Office, room 129
Times: 9:00 AM-11:00 AM or 12:30 PM-2:30 PM
Who: Staff new to the permit process and any staff/administrators who need refresher training.

Attendance is NOT mandatory this year; only those who need training must attend.

Seating is limited to 30 per session. Please sign up using the link below. If both session fill, additional sessions will be added.

Link to Sign Up

Published on

We are excited to offer our annual Utah Skyward User Conference in person this year! The conference is scheduled for Wednesday, November 16th at Alpine School District. Please see the attached agenda for additional details.

This conference is an opportunity to learn about Skyward directly from the source as most sessions are being presented by Skyward staff. There are some fantastic sessions being offered this year, including Admin Bootcamp, Communication Tools, Discipline, Data Mining for Beginners, Data Mining for Advanced Users, and Skyward Tips & Tricks.

During these sessions you will have the opportunity to ask questions, however, if you have a problem that will take a bit longer to resolve, we suggest you call our help desk to get further assistance.

As always, we hope you get the best out of this year's conference and are able to see new things, learn new tips and tricks, get some of your questions answered, and see some of the new possibilities in Skyward. If you have any questions about attending the conference, please feel free to call Support Services at ext 88737.

Published on

DATE: 
October 10, 2022

TO: 
Principals and Assistant Principals

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

SUBJECT: 
October Attendance Flyer 2022

Principals and Assistant Principals,

The end of the first quarter is near. We hope things are going well in your schools. This month our attendance awareness message focuses on the social and emotional benefits of attending school regularly. Research shows that routines, such as a structured school day, support healthy social emotional development leading to optimal mental health over time. Researches in Texas have also found that when people feel more connected to others they have lower levels of anxiety and depression.

Included is the October flyer sent out to parents on PeachJar. It would be wonderful to make this available in your schools as well. We will continue to send out a new attendance flyer each month as we strive for better attendance.

We hope your attendance in showing some improvements from the last couple of years.

Published on

DATE:   
October 7, 2022

TO: 
Principals
All Special Educators and Related Service Providers

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

SUBJECT:  
Important Deadline--Please Read Immediately
SCRAM Data Due by the end of day Monday, November 7, 202
Updating SCRAM for December 1 Funding Count

We are fast approaching our December 1 SCRAM count deadline. Resource and Cluster Team Leaders will soon receive a SCRAM report via district mail that includes all students who are currently receiving services through your school’s special education program(s). All team members and service providers need to verify each student on this list as either correct, changed, exited/moved, and/or incomplete. Please check that the names, entry dates, scram school, service patterns, weekly minutes and providers are correct for each student on the printout. If a correction needs to be made, a new scram document should be submitted. 

All Corrections and SCRAM reports are Due:
By 5:00 p.m. on Monday, November 7, 2022
to Jen Warkentine at the Special Ed Office

Special Education funding and, therefore, school staffing/assistant allocations, etc. are contingent upon the accuracy of this data. Your timely and accurate response is critical! Thank you for all your efforts to get us the correct information in a very short time period.

Published on

State LAND Trust
October 20, 2022 Deadline:

  • Hold your first SCC Meeting
  • Update the State website with your council members
  • Electronically sign the Principal Assurance portion (on the page where you update the council members)
  • Update your school website with the required information (see information below)

The State Office will begin looking on October 20th to see if Jordan School District has completed these items. Please make sure everything is updated and completed, both on your school website and the State LAND Trust website.

Thank you!

Published on

The November Assistant Principal meetings will be held on November 1 (8:00-11:00am) and November 3 (8:00-11:00am). All meetings will be held in-person at the JATC-S. All assistant principals and intern assistant principals are invited. A beverage service will be provided, beginning at 7:30 am at each of the meetings. As a reminder you only need to attend one of the sessions offered per month. Both sessions will provide the same information. Please CLICK HERE and it will take you to the Google Doc to sign up for which day you would like to attend. If you have any questions please call Nadine Page at 801-567-8182 (x88182). Thank you!

Published on

The Jordan Ethnic Advisory Committee (JEAC) is hosting an employee open house on Wednesday, Nov. 2 at JATC South from 3:30 - 5 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. Come share your ideas, solutions and celebrations. Your voice is important.

Can't make the meeting? Your suggestions are always welcome. Please contact jeac@jordandistrict.org.

Published on

Each October, schools, preschools, workplaces, and individuals across Utah celebrate National Farm to School Month by crunching into Utah-grown apples. October 19th, Apple Crunch Day is a way to get excited about delicious local produce, help students understand where their food comes from, and support local farmers. Across the state, students taste-test different apple varieties, take field trips to local farms, and participate in other apple-themed learning activities.

This year, JSD Nutrition Services has purchased apples from Tagge's Famous Fruits in Brigham City and will be participating in the Utah State Apple Crunch Day on Oct. 19th. Get with your kitchen manager for fun ideas on how to celebrate Apple Crunch Day at your school.

Published on

DATE:     
October 6, 2022

TO: 
All School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
Comprehensive Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) Practices and Resources

JSD schools are increasingly becoming fully trained in Comprehensive Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG). The following information will assist you in accessing and storing the documentation, upcoming training opportunities, and suggestions for creating threat assessment teams in your schools.

How to access forms

  • There are several CSTAG forms that can assist with determining what kind of threat and how to respond to a threat. There is a Microsoft Word option as well as a fillable PDF option.
  • A copy of these forms can be found in your schools CSTAG google drive. You can make a copy of the fillable forms and then same them after you edit them for each threat assessment. You can also use the copy of the word documents to edit them to best fit your school’s needs.
  • Forms can also be found on the Student Services website.

Where to store documentation of your school’s threat assessments

  • Every administrator has been given “content manager” access to a CSTAG shared drive for their school. This means that you can create additional folders (within the drive), copy and save documents, scan and upload documents, add users from your threat assessment teams, and change the name of the folder.
  • This drive is a common place for all schools to store documentation for completed threat assessments and assist in accountability and liability of investigating threats.
  • If you are struggling to find your shared drive in google, please reach out to Angie Rasmussen.

Upcoming trainings for CSTAG Level 2

  • For those completing CSTAG level 1 or have other school personnel you are adding to your threat assessment teams, there will be additional level 2 CSTAG training opportunities in the upcoming months.
  • There will be more information about these training sessions as the dates get solidified. Ideally there will be a training offered in January and March, and then again in July.
  • To sign up for CSTAG level 2 training on November 4th go to JPLS.

Creating Threat Assessment teams in your schools

  • If you are interested in having other faculty members at your school complete the CSTAG training, please send an email with their first name, last name and district email address to Angie Rasmussen.
  • Each participant costs the school $85. Once an email is received, the training will be set up by Student Services who will reach out to your school for reimbursement. The participant will then receive instructions via Navigate 360 on how to begin the online training.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Angie Rasmussen.

Published on

DATE:  
October 5, 2022

TO:  
School Psychologists and School Psychology Interns

FROM: 
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
Fulvia Franco, Program Specialist – Guidance

SUBJECT: 
October School Psychologist Guidance Meeting

A meeting for school psychologists and school psychology interns has been scheduled for Friday, October 14, 2022, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Auxiliary Services Building (7905 South Redwood Road). Juliana Peterson, doctoral student in the Clinical/Counseling Psychology Program at Utah State University, will provide us with a 3-hour presentation on ACT Clinical Skills. We had originally scheduled Dr. Tyler Renshaw from USU to do this presentation but he unfortunately had to cancel last week due to some other commitments.

Part-time Staff: I would appreciate it if you could adjust your schedules in order to attend this meeting.

cc:
Principals

 

Published on

School/Department Administrators:

With your great input, we have simplified the process for hiring licensed employees through Frontline. These changes include:

  • A video screening/interview feature
  • Interview documentation simplified
  • Reference forms simplified

Please schedule a training time to see these important modifications. This training is available to administrators and administrative assistants, especially those who are new to Frontline Recruiting/Hiring.

All trainings will be at the District Office room #129. Two sessions will also be on Zoom. Please bring a laptop or have one available for the hands-on training. For available dates/times and to schedule a training session, visit the link below. Space is limited in each session. Additional sessions will be added as needed.

Frontline Training Schedule for Appointments

Also available on HRConnections and HRAdminOnly are the training videos and tutorials. Contact Brent Burge at #88224 if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Human Resources

Published on

Attached you will find a copy of the presentation given at the Jordan School District annual School Community Council trainings.

All new principals and new SCC Chairs need to attend one of the SCC Trainings for this year. The last training scheduled for 2022-23 is tonight, September 29th. Please see the meeting link below.

If you have any questions contact Nadine Page, nadine.page@jordandistrict.org or 801.567.8182 (x88182).

September 29, 2022 - 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Join Zoom Meeting    LINK