Skip to content

Category: Middle School Action Required

Published on

Dear Principals,

Please share the following Strategic Planning Participation Survey with all of your parents. The survey can be sent separately or as part of other communications to your community tomorrow, Friday, September 1, 2023. The survey closes Wednesday, September 6th at midnight.

Thank you.

=====================

Strategic Planning Participation Survey for Employees, Parents & Students

We are excited to partner with parents and community members to make Jordan School District the very best it can be for the families and students we serve. As we begin work on updating the District’s comprehensive strategic plan for the future, we invite you to be a part of the process.

The strategic planning process will help define our vision and prioritize our resources. We are committed to developing a plan that is inclusive of the strengths, hopes, beliefs, and values of our community.

Please take a moment to share your thoughts and experiences through the survey below, which should take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Additionally, students in grades 7-12 will have the opportunity to take the survey at their school buildings.

Thank you for your continued partnership as we embark on this important process.

Published on

DATE:    
August 30, 2023

TO:    
All Principals

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

SUBJECT: 
Optional Unique & Inspire Professional Development

We are excited to be able to provide two new curricula for our special education teachers this year. Unique provides a convenient, cloud‑based platform for educators to deliver differentiated, standards‑aligned content enhanced by powerful assessments, data tools, and evidence‑based instructional support. Inspire provides a research- and evidence-based intervention curriculum to supplement the core curriculum. There are two optional trainings available on our September 22 Professional Development Day.

  • Unique is for all self-contained classrooms (all grade levels)
  • Inspire is for elementary resource classrooms (secondary content to come soon).

Unique Professional Development (all grade levels for self-contained teachers)

  • Friday, September 22, 2023 at Valley High School from 1:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m.

Inspire Professional Development (All elementary resource teachers)

  • Friday, September 22, 2023 at River’s Edge School from 1:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m.

Please sign up on JPLS to confirm your attendance.

Unique:
Course- 101963
Section- 127735

Inspire:
Course- 101964
Section- 127736

 

Published on

Staff members working in any other special education setting may choose to attend ASPEN at the discretion of their building administrator and at the cost of their school. For questions please contact: cassidy.hansen@jordandistrict.org or daveed.goodrich@jordandistrict.org.

Please see the memo below for all the details.

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, August 21, 2023

TO:  
All School Administrators

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

SUBJECT:
Parent Invitation to Participate Volunteer List

The Parent Invitation to Participate Survey was disseminated to parents throughout the district earlier this month. Parents had the opportunity to indicate their willingness to participate in school community councils and PTA/PTSA organizations for their students’ schools. Parents provided their contact information as part of their survey response.

A list of parent volunteers for each school has been made available in a Tableau dashboard. There is a separate dashboard for each level (elementary, middle and high). Those dashboards may be accessed here.

School administrators are encouraged to provide the PTA/PTSA contact list to their parent organization presidents.

Please contact Ben Jameson in Evaluation, Research & Accountability for questions about the survey or the dashboard.

Published on

As was discussed in principal meeting, this is the survey that all 7-12 grade students should take as a part of our district's strategic planning process. The survey contains 12 questions with additional subquestions plus a couple of demographic questions and one free response. It should take between 5 and 10 minutes for a student to take the survey.

Please pick a time during one period to have all students in your building take the survey. The deadline for survey administration is Thursday, September 7th, 2023.

LINK to Student Survey

Published on

There are two sessions available on Tuesday September 19 so that your campus monitors may attend separate sessions. An Assistant Principal is invited but not required to attend with the campus monitors.

When:
Tuesday September 19, 2023 7:30-9:00 AM or 2:00-3:30 PM

Where:
ASB PDC Room 102, Entrance B 7905 S. Redwood Rd, West Jordan, UT 84084

Published on

The last training session for 2023-24 will be held November 1, 2023.

Please see the zoom link below. A PDF of the presentation used in these trainings is attached for use in training your entire School Community Council. 

All new principals and new SCC Chairs need to attend one of the SCC Trainings for this year. Two trainings will be held in a Zoom format. In order to better coordinate with Parent Teacher Conferences and the election process, we've changed one of the meetings to a later date. For specific questions or topics you would like to have covered, please submit them through email to Nadine Page (nadine.page@jordandistrict.org) before the meeting dates. For any other questions contact Nadine Page, nadine.page@jordandistrict.org or 801.567.8182 (x88182).

September 27, 2023 - 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Join Zoom Meeting    LINK

November 1, 2023 - 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Join Zoom Meeting    LINK

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.