Jordan School District
As the end of the month approaches, schools receiving grant funds from HB513 for Early Literacy Software Programs (Lexia, Success Maker and iReady), may want to run an Instructional Usage Report. Reviewing this report will give you an idea of the average time students are using the program and if it falls within grant guidelines. If it doesn't, there is time to adjust. If it does, keep up the good work!
Attached are the DIBELS BOY parent letters. All 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students should receive the appropriate letter based on their Fall DIBELS Composite score. The State required deadline for sending letters home is October 15. Remember, letters are not sent home with Kindergarten students.
All administrators invited. Feel free to invite staff members. See flyer for more details.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
2-4 p.m.
ASB Presentation Room
Mandatory attendance for all Youth In Care assistants. All other classroom assistants invited. See flyer for details.
Please be aware that all educators and administrators are required to click the 'Start' button to begin their evaluations (full or interim). If teachers have not clicked the 'Start' button administrators will not see them under 'Evaluation of Others.' Please contact the JES office if you have any questions."
The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) is taking steps to assess the quality of professional learning throughout the state based on the Utah Professional Learning Standards. Learning Forward is supporting this effort by inviting all educators to participate in the Standards Assessment Inventory (SAI), a 58-item survey that will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. Participating schools will have access to data reports and an extensive series of “Resource Briefs” that include activities and resources to address the Utah Professional Learning Standards that could be used in school improvement planning. Please encourage your teachers to participate in the SAI from October 10 – 21. All educators will receive an email once the survey is available. A FAQ sheet from Learning Forward is included as an attachment. If you have questions, please contact Shelley Nordick at shelley.nordick@jordandistrict.org or 801-567-8110.
Please check that your teachers have completed an SLO pre-assessment. Elementary teachers have the option of using math, reading, or writing to measure student growth. All SLO assessments are available in Mastery Connect. The process for reporting SLO ratings will be similar to last year; however, teachers will not be required to turn scores into folders. Details and instructions for completing this process will be available at a later date. For now, please have teachers make sure that the pre-test score is recorded in Mastery Connect. Thank you for your efforts to support this process. If you have questions, please contact Shelley Nordick at shelley.nordick@jordandistrict.orgor 801-567-8110.
DATE:
September 26, 2016
TO:
Elementary Principals
FROM:
Laura Finlinson, Administrator of Curriculum and Staff Development
Clyde Mason, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability
SUBJECT:
Research Project
The Research Review Committee has reviewed a research project in which your school has been asked to participate.
Project Title: “Fundamental Features of Fostering Teacher Collective Efficacy: Principals’ Attitudes, Behaviors, and Practices”
Applicant: Shelley Nordick
The project has been approved by the District Research Review Committee. The applicant has been directed to contact you to discuss the extent of the project and to obtain your permission to conduct the study at your school. If you have questions or concerns relating to participation, please contact Clyde Mason at 567-8243.
Thank you for your assistance.
See document below for important dates and reminders.
DATE:
September 13, 2016
TO:
Principals
School Psychologists
FROM:
Laura Finlinson, Administrator of Curriculum/Staff Development Lisa Robinson, Special Education Director
SUBJECT:
Invitation to A.S.P.E.N. Behavior Training
All school administrators and school psychologists are invited to attend one of the following courses on the A.S.P.E.N. Behavior Management Training. This training provides strategies for school personnel to effectively manage and de-escalate aggressive student behavior in the school setting. Two training times will be provided to allow for multiple personnel in the school to attend.
Please register in JPLS so we can plan for the appropriate materials. If you can attend at the last minute please feel free to come, however, because we are providing certification for attendance, it is important that you do attend an entire session. This course will be offered to other educator groups in the future or could be customized for your individual school staff needs. We look forward to seeing you there!
A.S.P.E.N. Behavior Management Training
JATC-South Auditorium
Wednesday, October 12th
Session 1: 8:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Session 2: 12:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Sign up through JPLS for ASPEN Behavior Management Session 1 or Session 2
DATE:
September 21, 2016
TO:
High School Principals
FROM:
C. Brad Sorensen, Administrator of Schools, Herriman K-12 Feeder
Holly Bell, Secondary Counseling Specialist
SUBJECT:
24-Credit Diploma through Valley High School
Currently, all seniors who are deficient in the credits required for the traditional 27-credit Jordan District diploma, as outlined in the Jordan District Credit Guidelines, have the option of transferring to Valley High for the second semester of their senior year in order to complete a 24-credit diploma.
It was determined, as an alternate option, that Jordan District students who meet the Utah State graduation requirement of 24 credits, may be eligible to receive a Valley High School diploma at the conclusion of their senior year while remaining enrolled in their boundary school. Students who meet the qualifications required to access this option will work with their counselor and the boundary high school principal, the same way they do with an SEP, to apply for a 24-credit Valley High diploma.
The attached application will be made available to seniors, through their counselor, who have fallen short of meeting the Jordan School District graduation requirements, but plan to remain at their boundary school throughout their senior year. Students who apply for this diploma will acknowledge and commit to the following, as will their parents, counselor, building principal, and appropriate Administrator of Schools.
Students who have met the 24-credit state requirements will have the option of immediately receiving a Valley High diploma by transferring their credits to Valley 3 days prior to graduation in order to participate in the Valley High graduation ceremony. Students may otherwise choose to continue to pursue their 27-credit boundary school’s diploma through the summer following their senior year in order to meet the requirements. At a designated date, which cannot be later than September 15th of their graduation year, a boundary school diploma or a Valley High School diploma will be issued if all requirements are met.
See attached list of classes that will be held throughout the year.
JSD Administrators:
Due to scheduling conflicts, the HR Administrators have REVISED the voluntary 2016-17 HR Administrator Training sessions. Please refer to the attached REVISED schedule, which is also available for view on AdminOnly.
These sessions will provide you with information you will find helpful as laws, policies and practices continue to evolve. The first session on October 5th will address a progressive discipline plan for both licensed and classified employees.
We look forward to seeing you at each of these three training sessions.
See flyer for details. The flyer lists the registration date as September 20, 2016 but they will take registrations at the door.
DATE:
September 15, 2016
TO:
All School Principals
All School Financial Secretaries
FROM:
John Larsen, Business Administrator
Heather Ellingson, Director of Accounting, Budgets and Audits
Daniel Ellis, Accountant/Internal Auditor
SUBJECT:
Quarterly School Financial Report for July, August and September 2016
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.
Please photocopy the selected elements and send to Accounting by October 17, 2016.
Please include:
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
DATE:
September 19, 2016
TO:
Secondary School Principals
Secondary School Registrar Secretaries
FROM:
John Larsen, Business Administrator
Luann Leavitt, Consultant of Planning and Student Services
Daniel Ellis, Accountant/Internal Auditor
SUBJECT:
October 1 Head Count Reports
As October 1 approaches we wanted to remind schools of the report which should be used by the auditors for the head count. The report is titled Student Enrollment Count by Entity, and can be found in Skyward Student under: Students, Jordan Programs, Entity Reports. See attached documentation for Instructions on running the report.
This report should be used to ensure the numbers the auditors use to count match the student count numbers Luann Leavitt sends to the State. If there are questions on how to run the report please contact Denise Smith at (801)567-8258.
Thank you.
At the beginning of the school year a document was sent to all secondary principals discussing changes to student Active Directory accounts and passwords. – As a reminder a student’s Active Directory account is what students use to login to Windows and Mac computers. – Due to the number of student password reset calls still coming into the help desk and the low numbers of students who have enrolled in the Self Service Reset Password Manager (SSRPM) we are sending out that document as well as additional instructions on how students use SSRPM to reset their passwords after they have enrolled. Please make sure that all teachers who make use of school labs and mobile carts in their classes receive a copy of these two documents which are attached to this message.
Additionally, principals need to designate two members of their staff to reset student passwords. Principals should submit a request to the help desk for these individuals to be given the necessary securities and training to reset passwords by Oct 31. Suggested staff members to give this permission to are; Media Center Coordinators, Head Secretaries, Registrars, etc. It is unadvised to give this permission to teachers as they would be unavailable to reset passwords during classes. This is being done to reduce the number of calls coming into the help desk for student password resets and hopefully reduce the amount of time a student who has forgotten their password is out of class.
Please contact the help desk at 801-567-8737 or your school tech for any questions.
See posts below for information regarding the upcoming Power of Prevention Conference to be held October 10-15, 2016.
See document below for the when, how, who and what of handling truancy referrals.
DATE:
September 6, 2016
TO:
All Principals
Administrative Assistants
FROM:
Laura Finlinson, Administrator of Curriculum and Staff Development
Nancy Ward, Coordinator of Educational Support Services
Jordan School District Nurses
SUBJECT:
Medication Administration Training
All new employees who may be administering medication in school must attend a training. As a review, other employees who administer medication may wish to attend this training. A memo is attached.
