Skip to content

Category: Middle School Action Required

Published on

Several years ago, some of our schools had the opportunity to attend coaching professional development with Lisa Lawrence. Lisa is willing to provide coaching training for more of our schools if there is interest. Participation involves an administrator from the school and three teachers attending two sessions with Lisa. The dates are to be determined and training will take place dependent on interest. If you would like to participate in coaching training, please contact Noreen Samowitz at 801-567-8367.

Published on

The Jordan Education Foundation was given tickets to the Deseret News Home Show for this weekend. Each ticket gets one adult in for free. Tickets will be available at the District Office reception desk tomorrow, October 13th, from 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. The tickets will be handed out on a first come, first serve basis.

Please share this information with your staff.

Published on

College & University Information Fair

Thursday, November 2, 2017
4:00-5:30 p.m.
Auxiliary Services Building - Auditorium (north end)
7905 S Redwood Road, West Jordan

Principals:  Please share this information and flyer with your teachers.

Published on

The Office of Governor Gary R. Herbert and the Utah Board of Juvenile Justice invite
students to participate in Utah’s Eighteenth Annual Do the Write Thing Challenge.

The challenge is for 7th and 8th grade students. The deadline for entries this year is December 8, 2017.

Principals, please pass this information on to the appropriate teachers.

The Governor's letter along with the packet of instructions can be found below.

Published on

DATE:
September 18, 2017

TO:  
All School Principals
All School Financial Secretaries

FROM:
John Larsen, Business Administrator
Daniel Ellis, Director of Accounting, Budgets and Audits

SUBJECT:
Quarterly School Financial Report for July, August and September 2017

Each school is asked to report the quarter end account balance and transaction detail with the Apple Volume Purchase Program and return with your bank reconciliation.  If your school has no Apple account, please so indicate and return.

Please include the account balance with Apple on the reconciliation sign off form and print a report or screen shot(s) of the balances and quarterly transactions from Apple’s website.  If you need assistance, please contact your Curriculum Technology Specialist – Bonnie, Deana, Harrison, Nancy, Jay, and Raimee.

Please photocopy the selected elements and send to Accounting by October 20, 2017.

Please include:

  • The signed attached memo to Accounting
  • A copy of your July, August and September 2017 Reconciliation Worksheets
  • A copy of your July, August and September 2017 Bank Statements
  • A copy of your July, August and September 2017 Skyward Balance Sheets
  • A copy of your July, August and September 2017 Outstanding Check Reports
  • Screen shot(s) of your September 30, 2017 Apple Volume Purchase Program transaction history and balance

If you have questions or need assistance, please call Liz Robins at (801)567-8267.

Thank you.

Cc:
Michael Anderson, Administrator of Schools
Jill Durrant, Administrator of Schools
Anthony Godfrey, Administrator of Schools
Brad Sorensen, Administrator of Schools
Teri Timpson, Administrator of Schools

Published on

Principals:

The course catalog committee will be recommencing on Tuesday, September 26. If you would like to add a new course to the Jordan District Secondary Course Catalog, please complete the “Secondary Course Request Application” and submit it to the Course Catalog Committee for review through the established audit process for Jordan School District. The final Course Catalog Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 21. If possible, please have all new course request applications submitted to Holly Bell before that time. If requests are not received by then, there is no guarantee that we will be able to complete an out-of-committee audit in time to have the course approved and included in the printed edition of the 2018-2019 Secondary Course Catalog.

Included is a file attachment for the committee calendar:
The fillable form for the Secondary Course Request Application link is as follows: http://jordandistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/fgen_Secondary_Course_Request_Application.pdf

It may also be located on the Jordan District website, under Resources/Forms and Documents/General, or at the following link:  jordandistrict.org/resources/forms/general/

Published on

DATE:
September 21, 2017

TO:
Jordan District Contract Employees

FROM:
Dr. Patrice A. Johnson, Superintendent of Schools

SUBJECT:
Change of Schedule for Spring Break

A week-long spring break is scheduled for the 2017-18 school year. Students and teachers at both traditional and year-round schools, as well as staff on a 10-month/206-day classified contract or a 225-day licensed contract, will be out of school Monday-Friday, April 2-6, 2018.

Currently, employees on a 12-month/242-day or 12-month/245-day contract are scheduled to work Monday-Wednesday (April 2-4) and off on Thursday and Friday (April 5-6). With Easter falling on April 1st, we are implementing a change in the employee calendar to accommodate time off closer to the holiday. Employees in these two groups will have Monday and Tuesday, April 2-3, for spring break and will return to work on Wednesday, April 4th and work through Friday.

If anyone in your department has already made plans based on being off April 5-6, please work with them to resolve any hardship this change may cause them.

 

Published on

Attached is a copy of Superintendent Johnson's Power Point from the September 12th Principals' Meeting.

As a reminder, please be prepared to bring an assessment to the November 7th Principals' Meeting.

Published on

Principals:

Please announce this and post in your school and on your website. Share with your School Community Council and PTA members.

Do You Know What's on Your Child's Smartphone?
Thursday, September 28, 2017
7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
West Jordan Middle School

Published on

Principals:

Please share the attached flyer with your School Community Council members. As a reminder, new principals and new chairs are required to attend one of these trainings. An online video will be provided for training all other members during a SCC meeting. Watch JAM for information of when the video will be available.

Published on

Administrators:​

Please remember that all JSD schools are required to conduct a fire drill within the first 10 days of the start of school, and then again within the first 10 days after winter recess.  Emergency drills are reported electronically and information compiled on the Compliance Report for our Administrators of Schools and the Risk Management Coordinator.  Attached are instructions, including the link to the report form and also a review of the process and list of other emergency drills requirements.

The report can also be accessed in the shared Google Drive file:  ASB - Website Doc and Forms, Safety/Security, Reports/Forms/Documents.

Below is the link to the Report of Emergency Drills:

https://goo.gl/forms/NAEiaB69QE5B9p712

For questions, please don't hesitate to contact Peggy Margetts at 801-567-8753 or at peggy.margetts@jordandistrict.org.

Published on

Please be reminded that each school, along with the School Community Council, must provide digital citizenship and internet safety training.

Please see attachment for information regarding the rules and regulations.

 

Published on

DATE:
August 24, 2017

TO:  
All Principals

FROM:  
Laura Finlinson, Administrator of Curriculum and Staff Development
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:  
Upcoming Changes to UTIPS

USBE has been working to update the UTIPS system to be aligned with the Utah Core.  The item bank for English language arts is 100% updated and aligned with the core, the math item bank is 75% completed, and the science item bank will be updated later this fall.

Teachers will now need to check their assessments on UTIPS to be sure that they are aligned to the Utah Core as well.  The standards bank in UTIPS will be updated in mid-September and all obsolete standards will be removed from the system.  This will affect any teacher-created assessments that are not aligned to the current core.

We ask that all principals pass this information on to their faculties so that teachers may take the appropriate actions to ensure that they will still have access to their assessments on UTIPS and that those assessments are aligned to and assessing the current Utah Core.

If you have any questions, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243.

Published on

DATE:
August 24, 2017

TO:
All Principals

FROM:
Laura Finlinson, Administrator of Curriculum and Staff Development
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:
2017 SAGE Data Release on USBE Data Gateway

Beginning August 25, 2017, the 2016-17 SAGE proficiency results will be released on USBE’s Data Gateway for principals, schools, and districts to review.  The URL for the Data Gateway is https://datagateway.schools.utah.gov/.  The login prompt is in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

We ask that principals log into the Data Gateway and review their school’s SAGE results for accuracy as soon after August 25th as possible.  The intent of the review is to address any data errors before the mid-September public release date.  Please report any concerns or inaccuracies to the Evaluation, Research & Accountability department at 801-567-8185.

It is anticipated that USBE will release accountability data and school report cards in mid-September for principals, schools and districts to review.  While the release date is still tentative, schools will have an opportunity to review their accountability data prior to public release.

If you need assistance navigating the Data Gateway or logging in, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243.

Published on

DATE:
August 24, 2017

TO:
Secondary Principals

FROM:
Laura Finlinson, Administrator of Curriculum and Staff Development
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability
Pam Su’a, Consultant, Social Studies

SUBJECT:
U.S. Civics Test and UTIPS

In order to facilitate record keeping more easily and lessen the burdens of social studies teachers, we will be administering the U.S. Civics test required for high school graduation (see Utah Code 53A-13-109.5 and Board Rule R277-700-8) via UTIPS.

The plan for administering the U.S. Civics test is as follows:

  • Students will continue to take the test starting in 8th grade as part of their U.S. History course. Seniors will also be given a chance as needed to pass the test through their required U.S. Government and Citizenship course.
  • Social studies teachers of all grades can give the test.
  • Testing results will be entered in Skyward under Educational Milestones so that counselors can continue to track this graduation requirement. A ‘passed’ indicator will then print on student transcripts.  The Evaluation, Research & Accountability department will facilitate this process.  Individual schools and school personnel will no longer need to input Civics test scores into Skyward.
  • The Civics test will be administered online through UTIPS: https://jordan.utips.org/.
  • Students can take and re-take the test as needed in order to pass under a teacher’s direction or in a school computer lab/testing center.
  • If an IEP team determines a student qualifies for an alternate assessment, the teacher can administer a 10-question oral exam where the student only needs to pass 6 questions correctly, following the same process as we have in the past. In this case, that student’s score will need to be entered into Skyward by the school.
  • On January 1, 2018, all graduating seniors become eligible to take a 10-question version of the test with a 60% passing threshold. This 10-question version of the test will be posted and available on UTIPS by January 1st.

Social studies department chairs have already been trained on this updated process.  Teachers have already received updated UTIPS accounts, with demo accounts, so that they can see what the student sees.  They have also received the instructions and materials to administer the Civics test as needed.

Building principals will be receiving an individual email in the near future from the Evaluation, Research & Accountability department with individual UTIPS usernames and passwords.  This account access for principals will allow for another level of completion tracking for this graduation requirement, at each principal’s discretion.

For more information on the Civics test administration, please visit the district’s assessment website under Assessments tab and US Civics Test: http://assessments.jordandistrict.org/assessments/citizenship-test/.

Please call the Evaluation, Research & Accountability department with any concerns or questions you may have at 801-567-8017.

Published on

DATE:
August 23, 2017

TO:
All Principals

FROM:
John Larsen, Business Administrator
Laura Finlinson, Administrator of Curriculum & Staff Development
Ron Bird, Director of Information Systems
Michael Heaps, Support Services Manager, Information Systems
Mark Sowa, Instructional Technology Consultant

SUBJECT:
Canvas Licenses

Many of you may have heard that Canvas licenses have been purchased by the State for all students in Utah public schools. This is accurate. However, funding has only been committed for the current school year. There is no current plan or guarantee that the State will pay for licenses after this school year.

If you are interested in using Canvas at your school under the current free licensing, please contact Michael Heaps or Steffany Ellsworth in Information Systems (801-567-8140) for more information and instructions on how to begin this process.

You will also want to consider a professional development component to implementation. To discuss this further, please contact your respective Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist.