Teachers and students throughout Jordan School District are benefiting in a big way from the kindness and generosity of donors and the Jordan Education Foundation. This year donors helped to fund a record $176,894.78 in JEF classroom grants, money that will go directly to support education. The grants will be used to purchase things like STEM supplies, language immersion libraries, guided reading books, Chromebooks, applied science materials, math manipulatives, sensory items, software and much more.

The JEF Classroom Grants:

• Impact more than 31,000 students in 48 schools
• Range from $100.00 to $2,021.00
• Fund 274 projects

Thank you to the Jordan Education Foundation and its donors for making an impact in our classrooms each and every day.

Members of the Board of Education recently met with local elected officials to talk about the Board’s 2019 Legislative Priorities.

The legislative priorities are as follows:

High Quality Instruction
We will continue to encourage quality instruction, focusing on providing our teachers the coaching, professional development and resources to help our students learn at the highest levels. This includes:

• Continue to implement innovative salary options that attract and retain high quality teachers.
• Encourage professional development funds for competency based education at all schools.
• Provide funding for instructional coaches for our teachers.
• Expand the Digital Teaching and Learning Grant and increase tech support and technology coaches at our schools.

Mental Health
We need to continue to increase student access to mental health resources and services. Students with mental health challenges experience difficulty at school for many reasons, especially academic and social areas – both of which are critical to the success of students. This includes:

• Increase mental health support and training in our schools.
• Provide additional counselors in our secondary schools.

Safe Schools
We must continue to provide resources and training to school staff, parents, students and community members to ensure the physical safety of every student. The lead role should be taken by school boards working with state and local officials.

• Allow for local solutions to meet the unique needs of each LEA.
• Increase funding for safety initiatives, including additional School Resource Officers.

A WPU increase, funding for enrollment growth, and equalization will help us meet the needs of our District.

As we head into the winter weather season, we’d like to remind everyone about District procedures and guidelines regarding snow closures or delays.

• Schools in Jordan School District will remain open, if at all possible, on all scheduled school days, even in winter weather conditions.
• You will only be notified if there is a delayed start or if school is closed or cancelled. No notification means school is open.
• School closure or delayed start information will always be posted no later than 6:30 a.m. on the Jordan School District website at jordandistrict.org, through social media, and local news outlets.
• Please know that parents may decide to keep children home due to adverse weather conditions. Schools understand and respect this decision and will work with families.

Full Emergency Communications & Snow Closure Guidelines can be found at jordandistrict.org/resources/emergency.

Jordan Hills Elementary School celebrated its 20-year anniversary this week by opening a time capsule, which students and staff sealed when the school was dedicated back in 1998.

Inside the capsule, they found old photographs of some of the 1,070 students who attended on the very first day of school, a VHS tape, cassette tape, newspapers from 1998, a beanie baby and more.

But one of the most exciting finds in the time capsule was a video produced by students and staff on the first day of the school. It’s a video that had never been seen before – until now.

This is the 1998 video tour of Jordan Hills Elementary School, its students and staff.

WATCH and ENJOY!

After a week of Halloween holiday candy consumption, you might be thinking about some things to do with your kids to inspire health and wellness.

The Jordan School District Health & Wellness team, along with researchers at BYU, both say some of the healthiest things you can do for your family might surprise you. They say getting out and socializing with friends and neighbors is probably one of the healthiest activities for children and adults to do on a regular basis. In fact, research indicates that loneliness and social isolation are likely to be greater health risks than things like obesity. Health and wellness experts say if you want to live longer, spend more time with friends and family and encourage your children to do the same.

Researchers say the top two things that contribute to health and wellness in our lives are:

• Social Integration
• Close Relationships

So, have a great weekend enjoying the company of family and friends!