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Category: Middle School Action Required

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The following professional development days have been added to this year's calendar.

2023-24 School Year Calendar

Professional Development Day (No Students Attend)
Friday, September 22, 2023
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Friday, April 12, 2024

All employees should work in the building on these days. As you are planning Professional Development in your schools and departments please plan as follows: Principal-Directed School Level Professional Development will be held in the morning hours and optional District-Level Professional Development may begin at 1:00 pm.

Please provide these dates to your employees.
If you have any questions please contact your Administrator of Schools.

Published on

DATE:  
August 24, 2023

TO:   
Principals
Assistant Principals

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

SUBJECT: 
Required Fire Drill Within the First 10 School Days

All schools are required to conduct a fire drill within the first 10 days of the school year. This provides a great opportunity to review plans, emergency response/Incident Command assignments, evacuation maps, outside rally locations, communications, and related supplies.

Please take special care to orient new students and staff, individuals with special needs and younger students that may not have been exposed to fire alarms/strobes and emergency response protocols. Please be sure to clearly announce that it is a “drill”.

Please call the Jordan School District 24-hr. Alarm Response 801-567-8865 at least 30 minutes in advance of the drill, so the fire department is not dispatched.

Use the JSD Incident Command System Manual - Fire Action Plan as your drill guideline. Google Drive link: JSD Incident Command System Manual

Report the drill and any related meetings using the JSD report form on Google Drive. Link: 2023-24 REPORT EMERGENCY — DRILLS, ACTUAL EVENTS, or MEETINGS

Should you have any questions or concerns please contact Matt Alvernaz the District Safety Coordinator at matt.alvernaz@jordandistrict.org or 801-567-8623.

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, August 24, 2023

TO: 
All School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:  
2023-24 Parental Exclusion Forms

2023-24 parental exclusion forms have been released by the state. Elementary and secondary versions may be found attached with this memo. In addition, the forms may be found on the Evaluation, Research & Accountability website.

Parents must notify schools of their desire to opt their student out of a state-mandated assessment on an annual basis. Parental exclusions should be recorded on your school’s opt out log so that both school and district personnel have one source of truth for all parental exclusions. Schools are discouraged from keeping parental exclusion lists that are separate or different from the opt out log received from Evaluation, Research & Accountability.

Please direct questions about parental exclusions to Ben Jameson in Evaluation, Research & Accountability.

Published on

DATE:
August 17, 2023

TO: 
Principals
Administrative Assistants
Attendance Secretaries
Registrars

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

SUBJECT:  
Reporting Completion of 10-Day Accounting

Students who are registered to a District school and have not attended (or been marked absent with a valid excuse) for ten consecutive school days at any point in the school year must be withdrawn from membership. This is particularly important during the first ten days of the school year so that our enrollment calculations and reporting is accurate.

Accurate enrollment counts are used to generate future projections. Projection totals are needed very soon after ten-day adjustments are completed. To assist in preparing projections, we are asking all schools to report the completion of their 10-day drops on a Google Sheet as soon as these drops are processed. Only the staff member responsible for processing the drops should indicate completion status. The Google Sheet is available at this link and will be emailed to attendance staff again close to the 10th day of school.

10 day drops for high schools may be processed at the end of the day on September 1, 2023. Elementary (Grades 1-6) and middle school may process drops at the end of the day on September 5, 2023. Kindergarten drops may be processed at the end of the day on September 13, 2023.

Guidelines for how to process these drops are available at the links below:

Published on

DATE:    
August 24, 2023

TO:  
All Principals
Administrative Assistants

FROM:  
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Jordan District Nurses

SUBJECT:  
Medication Administration Training

Utah State Law and District Policy requires that all school personnel delegated to administer medication to students in schools must complete Medication Administration Training.

New employees who will be giving medication are required to attend the live training on Friday, September 15, 2023. Prior to this meeting, they need to view the online training, click on this link Jordan Nursing Services click on Medications, and then Medication Inservice (use a browser other than Firefox).

Employees who have attended this training and have a certificate of completion will not be required to attend this meeting. However, they will be required to recertify by viewing the online training video and completing the corresponding test available on the district website. (see above)

Please identify staff members that should receive medication administration training. This may include head administrative assistants, office assistants, cluster teachers or aides, counseling center personnel, and the principal if appropriate. Please inform all personnel that have the potential to administer medication to students at school of their responsibilities in this matter.

Medication Administration Training
Friday, September 15, 2023
9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
ASB PDC 101 & 102

 Class size is limited. Please contact your school nurse if you are planning to attend. See attached nurse assignment list. Thank you for your responsiveness and support.

Published on

DATE:
August 24, 2023

TO: 
Principals
Administrative Assistants

FROM:  
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Jordan School District Nurses

SUBJECT:
Immunization Policy and Guidelines, Skyward and USIIS Inservice

Jordan School District Nurses will be conducting this inservice on:

Friday, September 22, 2023
9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
ASB COMPUTER LAB D-112

This inservice is open to all office staff and administrators. It is not required that you attend; however, if you are involved with student registration, this inservice will be of benefit to you since immunization status is an important part of the registration process.

Class size is limited. Please contact your school nurse if you are planning to attend. See attached nurse assignment list for 2023-24.

Published on

Dear Principals,

We've received new guidelines from the State LAND Trust office regarding School Community Councils and Rules of Order and Procedure. In order to update each of you we have scheduled three one-hour training meetings to be held over Zoom. You only need to attend one of the three meetings. You are welcome to have an assistant principal attend if desired, but each principal is required to be in attendance.

We recommend that you do not finalize your Rules of Order and Procedure with your SCC until after attending this training.

The trainings will be held:
September 1st 10:00-11:00 am
September 5th 9:30-10:30 am
September 8th 10:00-11:00 am

The Zoom link will be on the calendar invite you will receive.

Please go to this LINK, find your name, and initial under which date you will be attending. You will then receive a calendar invite. Sign up needs to be completed by Wednesday, August 30th.

Items that will be on the agenda:
Creating School Community Councils and holding the first meeting video - Video
Here’s what’s new Training Video  -  Video
Updated Timeline with Website Information - Timeline
Jordan District - Beginning of Year Documents

 

Published on

DATE:
August 17, 2023

TO:
All Principals

FROM:
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
Kim Lloyd, Director of Special Education
Mike Trimmell, Ed.D., Special Education Administrator

SUBJECT:
Inputting of Goals and Services into Embrace

Until you complete a new IEP in Embrace, please use these steps to both complete progress reports when that time comes, and do Medicaid Logs for applicable services.

As you do so, keep in two things in mind:

  1. The person entering this data should update ALL of the goals and services from the previous IEP, not just their own. (Talk among your team to divide and conquer).
  2. When you start this process - you need to complete all the steps and finalize it for the student the SAME DAY.

STEPS

  1. Create an Annual Review Event using the ORIGINAL IEP DATE.
  2. Select the following two documents
    1. Goals and Objectives Page
      1. Add additional Goal pages as needed
    2. Services Page
  3. Goals and Objectives Page
    1. For PLAAFP – “See IEP dated ________”
    2. Copy the Goals (include all goals in all areas)
    3. Input the Goal data – Accuracy, Baseline, Goal Percentage
  4. Services Page
    1. Include the services and minutes
  5. Save
  6. Make this Event Date the Active IEP

If you need to add additional goals to a student after activating the IEP, you will need to contact Brenda via the EMBRACE REQUEST to unlock that IEP.

 

 

Published on

DATE:
Thursday, August 17, 2023

TO:  
All School Administrators and District Department Directors/Consultants

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

SUBJECT:  
2023-24 Required Testing Ethics Professional Development Procedures for Education Support Professionals

Licensed teachers will do their testing ethics training as part of their annual crucial policies and procedures review. School administrators do not need to train their teachers on testing ethics for the 2023-24 school year; however, administrators will need to conduct a training for any education support professionals (classified employees) who will assist with district, state or federally-mandated testing. This will include 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 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 “2023-24 Principal’s Testing Ethics Checklist for ESPs” form, which is due to the Evaluation, Research & Accountability Department by Friday, September 22, 2023.

As has been done in the past, administrators may provide in-person training on testing ethics using the pdf slide deck attached with this memo. Alternatively, administrators may refer education support personnel to the YouTube video that provides the same ethics training. Once education support personnel have been trained, either in-person or using the video, they are required to sign the “2023-24 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:

  • 2023-24 Principal’s Testing Ethics Checklist or ESPs – This form needs to be filled out and sent to Evaluation, Research & Accountability by Friday, September 22, 2023.
  • Testing Ethics Presentation, 2023-24 – This is the slide deck if principals choose to present the training in-person.
  • 2023-24 Standard Test Administration and Testing Ethics Policy – This document should be distributed to every Education Support Professional that assists with state or federally-mandated testing.
  • ESP Testing Ethics Video – This is the training video that may be used in lieu of in-person training. The video may also be found at this link:

ESP Testing Ethics Video

  • Standard Test Administration and Testing Ethics Training Signature Form, 2023-24 – Administrators should retain a signed copy of this form for all Education Support Professionals who assist with district, state or federally-mandated testing.

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

Published on

Special Education Resource and Self Contained Team Leaders will soon receive a SCRAM report via District Mail of all students who should be receiving services through your school’s special education program(s) at the start of the 2023-24 school year. All team members and service providers need to verify each student on this list as either correct, changed, exited/moved, and/or incomplete. Since only one copy is being sent per “team” (i.e., Resource and Cluster), it is important that resource teams, cluster teams, SLPs, Guidance Specialists and other itinerant providers work together to check and complete the requested information. Please read the memo carefully for instructions on completing the report.

Please have your Scram Reports and corrected SCRAM returned to the District Office by Friday, September 8, 2023.

If you have questions, please contact the Teacher Specialist assigned to your school or Jen Warkentine at (801) 567-8207. Thank you for your conscientious efforts to complete this critical information. Please remember that special education funding is contingent upon the accuracy of this data.

Published on

The 2023 ESSA Updated English Learner (EL) Exit criteria has been approved. Please review your 2022 WIDA ACCESS results and exit all students who received a minimum overall composite score of 4.2 and a minimum score of 3.5 in the speaking domain. Exit letters, based on the updated exit criteria, must be sent within the first 30 days of the LEAs school year.

Teacher-parent-students conferences must be completed by the conclusion of the LEA’s scheduled fall conferences. Students that were exited with a composite of 5.0 or higher in the spring will remain exited. More information will be provided in upcoming listserv memos and in meetings.

Things to adjust:
Class schedule
ESL study skills course
Placing students in the correct LA course
Placing students in any concurrent AP courses that they have applied and
qualified for

How do you print the letters?
Check out how to create and print the letters through ELLevation here.

Mailing letters home is usually delegated to a secretary/registrar with enrollment access
with the help of ELD Leads if needed.

  1. Make 2 physical copies of each ML's 2023 WIDA Scores (Delivered personally
    by the Evaluation, Research, & Accountability department)
  2. Print Letters from ELLevation (be sure to save a copy to student profiles for
    your records)
  3. Print labels for MLs and prepare envelopes
  4. Mail letters and scores to families in English and their home language
  5. Place 2nd copy of scores in students' permanent files

THIS ANNUAL COMMUNICATION IS PART OF COMPLIANCE.

Published on

DATE:      
August 9, 2023

TO:  
All Principals

FROM:   
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
Kim Lloyd, Director of Special Education
Mike Trimmell, Ed.D., Special Education Administrator

SUBJECT:  
Additional Embrace Training Days

We are excited for the new IEP management system, Embrace. Many teachers and administrators attended the Special Education Summer Conference on August 8th and received initial training on the new IEP platform. For those that were not able to attend, there will be two additional training sessions. The content will be the same for both sessions, so you can choose the session that works best for your schedule.

The two training sessions will be held on:
Friday, August 18, 2023 at Riverton High School from 12:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m.
Friday, September 22, 2023 at West Jordan High School from 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m.

You may choose either day to attend. Please sign up on JPLS to confirm your attendance at one of these two training sessions.

The course number is #101959 and the section numbers are:
#127704 @ RHS August 18, 2023 12-3pm
#127706 @ WJHS September 22, 2023 1-4pm

Published on

DATE:    
August 7, 2023

TO:  
All Principals

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

SUBJECT: 
Providing a Consistent Space for Itinerant Service Providers

As the school year begins, please be mindful that the itinerant service providers assigned to your school require a consistent and viable space to work with the students that they are assigned to in your school. Please see attached memo. We appreciate your support in these efforts.

Published on

DATE:  
August 10, 2023

TO: 
School Administrators
District Department Directors
Financial Secretaries
Administrative Assistants

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

SUBJECT:  
Student Data Privacy Resource Review Process

Utah law (53E-9-301, 53E-9-303) requires local education agencies (LEAs) to create a publicly available metadata dictionary that contains a listing of:

  • All personally identifiable student data collected and shared by the LEA
  • A comprehensive list of all recipients with whom the LEA has shared personally identifiable student data, including the purpose for sharing the data, the justification for sharing the data (including if the sharing was required by federal law, state law, or local directive), and how the sharing is permitted under federal or state law.

This means that any third-party resource that receives personally identifiable student data from the District must be cataloged and, where necessary, reviewed for compliance with USBE data privacy expectations.

Prior to making purchases or entering into purchase arrangements, school staff should check the District’s LearnPlatform registry; software listed on the registry as approved can be submitted for purchase without any additional review. Software that is not listed on LearnPlatform must be reviewed BEFORE the purchase request is submitted. Someone with knowledge of the software should submit a review request to Planning & Enrollment using this review request form prior to entering a requisition in Skyward. The individual who will be using the software (and therefore has some knowledge of what the software does and what data it will use) should enter the review request; this is not an assignment that should default to administrative assistants.

Teachers with specific questions about the process should be directed to your location’s digital coach. Administrators and administrative assistants with specific questions about the process may contact Caleb Olson (x88251).

Published on

DATE:  
August 10, 2023

TO:  
Principals
Assistant Principals

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

SUBJECT:  
School Safety Specialist

HB61 requires that each school have a designated Safety Specialist. This person will work with the assigned administrator over safety and serve on the school’s safety committee and is to be selected by the school principal. Administrators should thoughtfully and carefully select a willing individual to be the School Safety Specialist. The School Safety Specialist:

  • Should be a full-time employee
  • Can be from any employee group or type (licensed or educational support)
  • Will receive a stipend for the 23-24’ school year ($3,000 for a full-time employee before benefits/taxes)
  • Serves as a co-chair/backup to the administrator assigned school safety on the school’s safety committee
  • Will be trained and provide training and leadership to school staff regarding school safety
  • Will be trained and a part of your school’s threat assessment team.
    • They will need to be trained in Comprehensive Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG). This training is $85 per person paid for by the school. (Student Services will set up/pay for the training and work with your administrative assistant for reimbursement through a journal entry)
    • It is recommended that all school safety committee members be trained in CSTAG.
  • Will assist with safety assurances and compliance

Identify the administrator assigned to school safety and the School Safety Specialist using this form (also shared with principals via Google Sheets on 8.7.2023) as soon as reasonably possible.

Generally, the administrator assigned to school safety should serve as the school’s safety committee chairperson with the safety specialist serving as the co- or vice-chair. The school committee should meet regularly to discuss, implement, plan, and implement required school safety practices.

The District Safety Specialist will facilitate ongoing training and support. Questions regarding the School Safety Specialist should be directed to Travis Hamblin at travis.hamblin@jordandistrict.org or 801.567.8439.

Published on

Fall Mentor Training will be available online through Canvas July 31 - September 5, 2023. Mentor Training will be provided to new mentors based on administrator recommendation. After checking with potential mentors, please complete the Google Form by Friday, August 11th to add names of mentors you would like to have complete mentor training. We have a limited number of seats. Educators will be added first come, first served. You may add up to three mentors per form. Teachers will get paid $150 stipend for completing the mentor Canvas training.

You can access a list of currently trained mentors on your school’s mentor list shared with you via Google sheets. If you need help accessing your mentor list, please contact Michelle Williams in Teaching and Learning: 801-567-8365.

Fall 2023 Mentor Training Request Google Form Link

Published on

DATE: 
July 27, 2023

TO: 
Secondary Principals
Secondary Media Specialists

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

SUBJECT:
Networking Meetings for Secondary Library-Media Specialists

In order 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, several networking meetings have been scheduled for the 2023-24 school year. The participation of your school’s teacher-librarians in these meetings is appreciated.

The meetings will be held on the following dates from 8:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.:

  • September 13, 2023 (PDC 112-Auxiliary Services Building)
  • October 18, 2023 (Viridian Center)
  • November 29, 2023 (PDC 112-Auxiliary Services Building)
  • January 10, 2024 (Herriman High School)
  • February 21, 2024 (Valley High School)
  • March 19, 2024 (UELMA/UCET Conference)
  • April 17, 2024 (Valley High School)
  • May 15, 2024 (PDC 113-Auxiliary Services Building)

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

Please feel free to 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

For the Admin Assistants: Training for the new Digital English Learner Identification process has been scheduled for Friday, July 28th, from 9:00 - 11:00 am in the Presentation Room at the ASB.

Space will be limited to one in person attendee per school with any additional requests attending via Zoom. Register HERE to receive training documents and access to the zoom link.

We will be available at the end of training for questions and any one on one assistance.

Published on

Attached you will find information and guidelines regarding the Extended Year Stipend that is available to Special Education Teachers and SLP's. Please be sure to read the instructions carefully.

The state has allotted 5.5 extra days to work either two weeks before or two weeks after your contract ends. The eligible timeline for these days this fall is July 31-Aug 4 and Aug 7-Aug 11, 2023. You can work them all before contract, all after contract, or a combination of both. Please keep track of the days you worked in the fall so when spring comes you will know how many you have left.

The days you work are turned in on a Qualtrics survey that the state sends us to generate the payroll information. The link for this survey is included in the attached memo.