Jordan School District
DATE:
Thursday, April 24, 2025
TO:
Elementary Principals
FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Amanda Bollinger, Associate Administrator, Teaching & Learning
Amy Kinder, K-12 Math Consultant, Teaching & Learning
SUBJECT:
Elementary Math Expression Surplus
Principals,
Please see the attached memo for directions on how to surplus Math Expressions materials at the end of the year.
TO:
All Principals
FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Amanda Bollinger, Associate Administrator, Teaching & Learning
Amy Kinder, Consultant for Math, Teaching & Learning
Principals,
All K-5 teachers have the opportunity to participate in an optional Day 3 Planning Day as part of our Open Up Math Training Series. Teachers may choose to earn a $400 stipend for planning off-contract time during the summer (by August 5th) or have T&L cover the cost of a substitute during contract time before the end of the school year.
In order to receive the stipend or have the substitute covered, principals will need to sign the attached evidence form. Teachers will then upload the attached form into a Day 3 Stipend/Substitute Submission Google Form.
DATE:
Thursday, April 24, 2025
TO:
All High School Administrators
High School Testing Coordinators
FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Assessment, Research and Accountability
SUBJECT:
11th Grade ACT Retests, Vouchers and UTC Sites
Over 7,000 vouchers were requested by LEAs across the state for students who want to retake the ACT because of the testing platform’s outages on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. As a result, all of the listed national testing sites that were available in June and July are full, which leaves the vast majority of students without a way to retake the ACT and use their vouchers to waive the registration fee.
Since the national testing centers are full, ACT will allow schools to set themselves up as an Unlisted Testing Center (UTC). Here is what it means to be a UTC according to USBE:
If your school is interested in becoming a UTC, please email the following information to Scott Roskelly (scott.roskelly@schools.utah.gov) at USBE by April 30, 2025:
For questions about this information, please contact Ben Jameson in Assessment, Research & Accountability or Scott Roskelly at USBE.
DATE:
April 22, 2025
TO:
School Psychologists and School Psychology Interns
FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
Fulvia Franco, Program Specialist – Guidance
SUBJECT:
May School Psychologist & School Psychology Interns Meeting
A meeting for school psychologists and school psychology interns has been scheduled for Friday, May 2, 2025, from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m. at the Jordan Applied Technology Center—South (JATC-South). The address is 12723 South Park Avenue (2080 West) in Riverton. We will start at 12:00 p.m. with a pot luck luncheon. Kristin Francis, M.D., Child and Adolescent psychiatrist at Huntsman Mental Health Institute, will provide us with a presentation on recognizing eating disorders in young people.
Part-time Staff: I would appreciate it if you could adjust your schedules in order to attend this meeting.
cc:
Principals
DATE:
April 24, 2025
TO:
All Administrators
FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director, Student Services
Sharon Jensen, Consultant, Student Support Services
Caleb Olson, Enrollment Consultant, Student Services
SUBJECT:
Save the Date: Summer 2025 Discipline Trainings
See information in the attached memo on discipline training opportunities in the summer.
DATE:
April 22, 2025
TO:
All Jordan School District Principals (with bus route students)
FROM:
Scott Thomas, Administrator of Auxiliary Services
Paul Bergera, Director of Transportation
Kathy Jones, Transportation Trainer/Risk Coordinator
SUBJECT:
State Required Bus Evacuations and School Bus Safety 2024-2025
State required semi-annual school bus evacuations have been scheduled for this spring. This applies to those students that ride the bus daily to and from school.
The evacuations will be conducted during the week of:
Monday, April 28 through Friday, May 2, 2025
Your school’s regular bus drivers will perform this evacuation as they drop your students off in the morning, one day during that week. This procedure will take place at your school and within the students’ regular bus drop off/pick up zone. All professional school bus drivers that transport students are required to perform evacuation procedures in case of an emergency. Bus evacuation will be through the rear door, side door, front door or any combination of the three. Students will then, under the direction and supervision of the bus driver, evacuate and meet in a safe place approximately 100 feet away from the bus.
Your assistance is welcome but not mandatory to complete this required evacuation drill quickly, safely and effectively.
We appreciate all you do to help us safely transport your students.
TO:
Elementary Principals
Elementary Assistant Principals
Elementary Administrative Assistants
FROM:
Garett York, JAESP Committee
Kaleb Yates, JAESP Committee
Ann Pessetto, JAESP Committee
Megan Cox, JAESP Committee
Get ready to celebrate the superheroes of our schools! Mark your calendars and prepare for a midday fiesta on June 9, 2025, at 12:00 PM!
We're throwing a special lunch bash to shower our incredible Elementary Administrative Assistants with appreciation. You are the backbone, the magic-makers who keep everything running smoothly, and frankly, we'd be lost without you!
Principals, Assistant Principals, and Administrative Assistants, consider this your official save-the-date to join the fun and raise a fork (or two!) in honor of these amazing individuals. Let's make this a celebration they truly deserve! Circle June 9th in bright red and get ready to party!
DATE:
April 24, 2025
TO:
Elementary Principals
Head Administrative Assistants
FROM:
Odette Desmarais, Administrator of Schools
Meredith Doleac, Administrator of Schools
Becky Gerber, Administrator of Schools
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
SUBJECT:
Elementary Administrative Assistants Trade Days and Summer Hours
Elementary administrative assistants are calendared to work 206 days in a school year, including 5 days in which students and teachers are not in the building. These days generally occur the Friday after parent-teacher conferences (2) and on grade transmittal days (3). The PTC days can already be traded for the Friday compensation day if the administrative assistant works both evenings of the PTC. They are also allowed to be paid for up to 10 additional optional days during the summer months, which are not included in their 206-day contract. These days are intended to provide additional pay for them to keep up with work, such as student enrollments, over the summer.
Beginning immediately, greater flexibility may be provided to Elementary administrative assistants by:
Option 1
Elementary administrative assistants may choose to trade up to 5 contracted days (three grade transmittal and two PTC compensation days) to use as additional work days the following summer. This could provide up to 15 additional work days in the summer.
Option 2
Elementary administrative assistants may choose to convert up to (5) five of their optional summer days into additional pool hours for their office assistants to work July 2025 - June 2026. For every full day that is not used as an additional day by the administrative assistant, 10 hours will be added to the pool hours to be used by the office assistants to work from July 2025 to June 2026.
Option 3
Elementary administrative assistants may choose to do a combination of options 1 and 2, not to exceed 5 trade days in the school year and not to exceed 5 converted pool hour days to use for office assistants.
Tracking
For Option 1 - Administrative assistants will have an option in the Skyward Time Off System to log the grade transmittal day as a “Trade Time - Days” with the reason code “Trade Time Day Taken Off” for building principals to approve. When they work the day in the summer, they will need to log it in the Skyward Time Off System as a “Trade Time - Days” with the reason code “Trade Time Day Worked”. This information will also need to be documented on the Pool Hours spreadsheet.
For Option 2 - A Google form will be available in the checkout materials to declare the number of optional days that will be converted to pool hours for the upcoming school year. These hours will then be documented and tracked in the Pool Hours spreadsheet by the district AOS administrative assistants.
A Google form will be distributed as part of Principal Checkout. Building principals will need to approve these converted days on the Google form and submit it as part of the checkout process.
DATE:
April 17, 2025
TO:
Elementary Principals
FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator, Teaching & Learning
Norman Emerson, Instructional Support Services Consultant
SUBJECT:
Elementary Media Assistants Guidelines
As part of our ongoing effort to enhance library services and support the District’s goals, guidelines for the work of elementary library assistants are provided below. They are designed to ensure a consistent and effective library experience for all students and staff across our district.
The primary responsibility of elementary school media assistants is administering the school library. The entire 17-hour weekly allocation is typically needed for this. As a result, additional duties outside the library should generally not be assigned.
Please adhere to the following guidelines:
If assistants work beyond 17 hours per week, the additional time must be pre-approved by the principal and funded using school-based budgets.
Assistants scheduled to work over five hours in a single day are entitled to a 30-minute duty-free lunch break, which is not counted as part of the 17-hour paid schedule.
Four training meetings are held each year. Please work with your school’s assistants to make arrangements so both can attend each two-hour meeting.
Please contact Norman Emerson at 801-567-8364 if you have any questions about these guidelines.
DATE:
April 17, 2025
TO:
All Administrators
FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
McKinley Withers, Health and Wellness Consultant
SUBJECT:
Important MHAP Updates
Due to changes in funding, the following updates to the Mental Health Access Program (MHAP) will take place in the spring and summer of 2025.
If you have any questions, please reach out to McKinley Withers (mckinley.withers@jordandistrict.org, 88245) or Kevin Mossel (kevin.mossel@jordandistrict.org).
DATE:
April 16, 2025
TO:
Middle School Principals
FROM:
Scott Thomas, Administrator of Auxiliary Services
Paul Bergera, Director of Transportation
Kitt Soumpholphakdy, Field Trip Coordinator
SUBJECT:
Lagoon Day – Wednesday, June 4, 2025
We are looking forward to helping you provide an exciting, successful, and safe experience for your students this year. Following the same procedure as last year, it is okay to load the first bus at your school and let it depart without waiting for the other buses to arrive. As each bus is loaded and a chaperone is on board, please let it depart for Lagoon. Your assistance with this process last year helped alleviate some of the waiting on the bus and congestion at the ticket gates.
Your driver may ask you to verify the condition of the bus before boarding students, then again at Lagoon and when it returns back to the school. This is to ensure nobody or nothing is left on the bus. Please take everything off the bus. It is very likely that you will not be on the same bus at the end of the day.
This year, buses will arrive at Lagoon at approximately 5:00 p.m. For the safety of everyone involved, please ask the individuals you’ve designated as chaperones to report to their assigned school bus loading area at 4:45 p.m. Students will load at 5:00 p.m. All buses will depart by 5:15 p.m.
As a reminder, there will be instructions and signs posted on the north side of Lagoon in the employee area. Look for your school sign, which will be placed on a large cone at the same location where buses unloaded students at Lagoon during morning drop off. Similar to last year, a hand-held paddle will be issued to a school advisor. When at least 50 students and one advisor are ready to board, they will be next to board. As students and the advisor are asked to board, the advisor will then pass the paddle to the next advisor.
Thank you for your cooperation and support.
TO:
Administrators
Administrative Assistants
FROM:
Bonnie Brennan, Director of Insurance Services
We have a new process to report your volunteer hours. You will click on the link below to start the process. Use your district email address as your account. You will need to answer each of the questions before it will let you submit your report. If you don't have any hours to report in one of the categories you must enter a "0". We have listed many of the common programs that the amazing volunteers have taken on in the past. If there is another activity that is not listed, please click on "other" and provide more details.
Once you have all of the information added to the form, click "Submit" at the bottom and you are done. This report is due by Friday, May 2nd.
We hope this process makes your job a little easier. If you have any questions, please contact Bonnie Brennan (801) 567-8285, bonnie.brennan@jordandistrict.org.
DATE:
April 17, 2025
TO:
Elementary Principals with Self-Contained Support Classrooms
FROM:
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
Kim Lloyd, Director of Special Education
Brian King, Ph.D., Assistant Director of Special Education
Mike Trimmell, Ed.D., Special Education Administrator
SUBJECT:
2025 Elementary Unified Sports Day
Unified Sports Day will be held over two days this school year (May 28 & May 29).
Location: Riverton High School
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
May 28, 2025 - Daybreak, Eastlake, Mountain Shadows, River’s Edge, Rocky Peak Virtual, Rose Creek, South Jordan, Terra Linda
May 29, 2025 - Antelope Canyon, Golden Fields, Heartland, Kauri Sue Hamilton School, Monte Vista, Mountain Point, Riverton, Riverside
This memo is for your information. Your self-contained support classroom teachers will handle the organization of the event for your school (as has been done in years past). The following documents will be sent to your self contained support classroom teachers in preparation for the events.
Sample letter for the general education peer
For questions about Unified Sports Day, please contact Ashley Calhoun at (801) 567-8208 or ashley.calhoun@jordandistrict.org
TO:
Administrators
FROM:
Carolyn Gough Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Chris Richards-Khong, Associate Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Utah State Board of Education and the AP Program invite interested AP educators to a day of observation and collaboration this summer at Salt Lake City’s AP Reading event on Monday, June 2nd from 8:00am-4:00pm (breakfast available starting at 7:00am).
During the event, AP educators will get the opportunity to participate in a variety of immersive experiences that showcase the rigorous assessment scoring and calibration process that takes place at our AP readings. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for the day.
The event is open to AP teachers of all subject areas and AP district administrators who are interested in learning about how participation in AP Assessment Reading events can benefit their AP staff and students. Below is a list of the subjects that will be having assessment readings in Salt Lake City:
Art and Design
Art History
Comparative Government and Politics
English Literature
Research (current & prospective teachers are welcome to fill out the form)
Seminar (current & prospective teachers are welcome to fill out the form)
US Government and Politics
Please encourage any interested educators to fill out the interest form no later than Friday, April 25th. They will have a max capacity for each subject, so they will be reviewing all interested attendees and ensuring that they have a diverse number of schools, districts, and experience levels in the final attendee list. If they are not able to accommodate you, they will create a wait list and notify you of any last-minute opportunities as they arise.
The reading will take place at the Salt Palace Convention Center, SLC.
TO:
All Administrators
All Administrative Assistants
FROM:
Steffany Ellsworth, Support Services Manager
Please see the document below.
DATE:
April 17, 2025
TO:
Principals
Assistant Principals
Panorama Survey Coordinators
FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
SUBJECT:
Spring Panorama Student Feedback Surveys
The spring Panorama Student Feedback Survey window is Friday April 18, 2025 through Friday May 16, 2025.
Panorama (Early Warning System) and social-emotional surveys may only be administered to students whose parents have opted-in. Parents are asked to opt-in to the student feedback survey during the registration process. When the online registration process closes schools should manually enter the opt-in information into Skyward. Student opt-in lists are provided to Panorama prior to survey administration along with a mid-window upload will also occur.
The following information is provided to inform and assist you as you administer student feedback surveys:
Survey coordinators and administrators should view the Administering Panorama Survey presentation for information, instructions, and guidance regarding the student feedback surveys. Other Panorama information may be found on the Student Serves website here.
Other survey information including the Spring survey window may be found here.
Should you have any questions please reach out to Travis Hamblin (travis.hamblin@jordandistrict.org) or Michelle Reyes (michelle.reyes@jordandistrict.org).
TO:
Principals and Department Heads
FROM:
Mike Haynes - Director, Jordan Education Foundation
Outstanding ESP nominations are open! Is there someone in your school or department who goes the extra mile? Someone who works behind the scenes making everyone else's job easier? Nominate them today for Jordan Education Foundation's annual ESP Awards. To submit a nomination, go to our website: Education Support Professional Recognition
Nominations close on April 30th, so get your nominations in today!
DATE:
Thursday, April 17, 2025
TO:
Elementary School Administrators
Norm Emerson, Fine Arts Consultant
FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Assessment, 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: Best Practices for Elementary Fine Arts Specialists
Applicant: Rachel L. Wadham, Brigham Young University
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 solicit your participation in a survey. Participation in the study is at your discretion. If you have questions or concerns relating to participation, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243.
A survey will be distributed to elementary arts specialists and art teachers to discover best practices for instruction and classroom management in the fine arts classroom.
Thank you for your assistance.
DATE:
Thursday, April 17, 2025
TO:
Middle and High School Administrators
FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Assessment, 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: Effective Collaborative Practices in Transition (Secondary) IEP Meetings: A General Educator’s Perspective
Applicant: Christopher Liechty, Grand Canyon University
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 solicit your participation in a survey. Participation in the study is at your discretion. If you have questions or concerns relating to participation, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243.
Your teachers will receive an email invitation to participate in either a survey or interview that will solicit information about how they collaborate as part of an IEP meeting.
Thank you for your assistance.
DATE:
Thursday, April 17, 2025
TO:
All School Administrators
FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Assessment, 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: Exploration of the Male Student Achievement Gap
Applicant: Korie Bellamy, Weber State University
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 solicit your participation in a survey. Participation in the study is at your discretion. If you have questions or concerns relating to participation, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243.
The research will involve 20-minute one-on-one interviews with language arts, math, science and social studies teachers.
Thank you for your assistance.
