As part of our continued commitment to student safety and in alignment with Utah State Board of Education and the Utah Division of Risk Management, please be advised of the following updates regarding field and activity trip scheduling:
No field or activity trips shall begin between the hours of 11:00pm and 4:30am.
All field or activity trips must conclude (school bus returned to transportation) by 1:30 am.
If a trip cannot be completed by 1:30am, an overnight stay is required.
These time restrictions are effective immediately and must be adhered to for all current and future trip planning. Thank you for your cooperation in ensuring the safety and well-being of our students and staff. I would also like to direct your attention to the attachment addressing general trip procedures and specific time restrictions for areas out of the Salt Lake Valley.
If you have any questions or need further clarification, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Thank you
Ken Martinez
Transportation Director
Previous Guidelines
School bus drivers and schools are expected to adhere to the following procedures:
Departure Times: School bus must leave at the scheduled time.
Bus Loading: Ensure the school bus is fully loaded and prepared for departure at least 5 minutes in advance of scheduled departure.
Communication: Maintain regular communication with coaches/leaders regarding departure schedules and any potential delays related to events or weather.
School bus drivers must complete:
Pre-Trip Inspection: Conduct a thorough pre-trip inspection one hour before departure. Should any issues arise, promptly contact Ashley or the service team for assistance.
Adhering to these procedures ensures smooth operations and safety for all involved.
The following areas have specific guidelines: Departure times. No later than.
Logan Area
10pm
St. George Area
7pm
Moab Area
7pm
Vernal Area
8pm
If a bus is unable to leave by the designated time, students, leaders, and school bus driver will have to spend the night and return home next day.
Happy April! Hope you are enjoying the warmer weather and looking forward to some spring break plans or already enjoyed your spring break! Below you will find some helpful attendance information and resources.
Utah Attendance Success Stories/Celebrations
This month we want to highlight Jordan School District and all of the amazing work they are doing to increase daily attendance and decrease chronic absenteeism across their district. They have developed social media posts that schools and district leaders are regularly posting to help remind students and parents about the importance of being at school every day. They have also developed a district attendance committee which includes the director of student services, an attendance/prevention specialist, a health & wellness specialist, a counselor specialist, an assistant high school principal, an assistant middle school principal, an assistant elementary principal, and two representatives from their information systems department. They worked hard to develop an attendance flowchart that is beneficial to all schools across their district. Thanks for being such a great example to districts all over the state!
We would like to highlight Maria Montessori Academy for all of their efforts to increase daily attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism. They send weekly newsletters with updates in them about attendance goals and offer transportation support to families. They also sent a survey to parents about their beliefs around the importance of attending school and asked them to individually identify what motivates their children to come to school. They also have a school attendance team which includes the school nurse, the student success specialist, the director, and the attendance secretary. This team works hard to collaborate with families to reduce barriers for their students. Thanks for your example to schools on engaging with stakeholders and keeping everyone included when it comes to attendance!
Attendance Legislative Update
Senate Bill 279 was passed during this last legislative session. Please read this bill and update your lists of valid excuses to include the “competition in a rodeo sanctioned by an international, non-profit organization dedicated to the development of sportsmanship, horsemanship, and character in youth through the sport of rodeo;” Let us know if you have any questions regarding this piece of legislation.
Attendance Webinar
We loved seeing so many of you at our attendance webinar last month. Our next webinar is coming up on May 12th at 10:30am. We will send out more information later this month with the zoom link and topics that will be covered. We hope to see you there!
Statewide Attendance Campaign
We are so excited to announce that our slogan for our Statewide Attendance Campaign is going to be “Every Day Counts!” Thank you to everyone for your input and for helping us decide on our slogan. We will be developing resources and ideas to share with every LEA across the state to distribute this coming summer. If you want to be a part of the planning and creating of this campaign, please email Megan Menlove at megan.menlove@schools.utah.gov.
Helpful Articles/Podcasts
Spring Slide Ideas- there are a lot of challenges in the spring with absenteeism. This is a great time to run a targeted campaign and remind parents and students of the importance of being at school every day.
Part of increasing attendance in our schools is creating a positive school climate where students feel connected to others. One way schools across Utah are starting to increase the positivity in their schools is through “Kindness Walls”. See more information at https://youuplift.com/ and this KSL article.
*2025-2026 Tier 1 Engagement and Attendance Cohorts- if your LEA is participating in our cohorts for the 2025-2026 school year, we are scheduling our onboarding meetings this month.
*May 12, 2025 at 10:30am- 2025 Attendance Webinar Series #3.
*July 16, 2025 at 10:30am- 2025 Attendance Webinar Series #4.
We appreciate all you do. Please let us know how we can best support you and your schools.
Prior to spring break, we had some individuals who were not district employees try to access a server/networking room at Washington Elementary. We have had this occur in the past at Rose Park Elementary as well.
The only persons who are authorized to access a server/networking room in the district office or school building are the individuals listed on these websites:
If the individual requesting access is not pictured on these websites, they must be accompanied by an individual whose picture is on these websites. Otherwise, no one should be permitted access to the server/networking rooms. If someone not listed on these websites tries to access one of these rooms, please contact Sam Quantz.
As we approach the summer months, we want to share some important information about our summer work schedule. During this period, our workweek will shift to four 10-hour days. This schedule provides a great opportunity for extended weekends while maintaining productivity.
Please keep in mind that if you need to take time off, PTO must be used for any hours not worked. Working only five hours in a day will not be considered a full workday. If you need to adjust your schedule, please coordinate with your supervisor to ensure coverage and compliance with our policy.
We appreciate your dedication and commitment, and we hope this schedule allows you to enjoy a bit more flexibility during the summer months. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
In order to support the Board priority of Social Emotional Learning, we offer SEL curriculum to each school who wants to use it to teach SEL skills to their students. As a school leader, you may choose to use other methods to teach these skills. Please think through your options and decide what will work best for your staff and your students then complete this form by April 22 to communicate how your school will support SEL instruction in the 25-26 school year.
Teaching SEL to every student is not optional! Regardless of the method, it is an expectation that every student in our district will receive direct instruction in SEL skills and that they will experience our Signature Practices every day. Please work with your Area Director if you need support making this happen.
Before continuing to the form, familiarize yourself with the three programs available through district funding:
Inner Explorer - Inner Explorer programs are audio-guided and require no training or preparation from school staff. The “press play” format allows school communities to easily implement and maintain a daily mindfulness practice on any device. Our practices build on traditional Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) framework, utilizing daily mindfulness as the foundation and creates foundational support across all aspects of a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS). Additionally, Inner Explorer programs are approved by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and recommended as one of the top ten programs for increasing executive function by Brain Futures.
Move This World - This platform is designed to ignite a powerful transformation in students, teachers, and families, empowering them to embrace and implement essential social emotional skills that transcend the boundaries of traditional education. Their dynamic, participatory approach to Student and Educator wellness, merges the esteemed CASEL core competencies with evidence-based research and the visionary expertise of a team of educators, innovators, and mental health experts.
Second Step - Committee for Children’s research-based Second Step® programs give teachers an easy-to-implement, engaging way to teach social-emotional skills and concepts. Second Step programs are designed to help children thrive and be more successful in school—ultimately setting them up to be thoughtful and productive adults.
Discover Second Step, an evidence-based social-emotional learning curriculum that fosters students' emotional intelligence, empathy, and problem-solving skills.
We are excited to share our SLS Summer Learning Series with you! Throughout this summer, we want to support you with learning opportunities addressing the needs we are seeing in our schools. Each session is optional, but we would love to get an idea of how many folks to expect, so please register via Kickup asap.
SLS Summer Learning Series
Time: 2:00PM – 4:00PM Location: District office, room 1016
Date
Title
Description
Facilitator
June 19
Supporting students with habitual disruptive behaviors
This session will focus on understanding the process to support students with habitual disruptive behaviors including using your SSC, creating/evaluating behavior plans, and accessing district supports.
Alli Martin
June 25
Addressing bullying
Learn how state law has changed the way we document and address allegations of bullying. This session will focus on developing practical SEL skills and tools to improve school climate.
Alli Martin
July 9
S-3/discipline processes
New admin are highly encouraged to attend! We will review guidance for log entries vs incidents and practices around S-3 violations.
Alli Martin
July 16
De-escalation and trauma-informed discipline
This session will focus on how trauma impacts student behavior and how to develop restorative disciplinary practices that lead to positive behavioral change.
We will be launching StudentSquare for students in grades 9-12 in the next couple of weeks. Students will receive an invitation email from parent square that looks like this.
This is the next step in our ParentSquare rollout. Teachers and staff will be able to send monitored/logged direct messages to students.
As we approach the end of the 2024-25 school year, Human Resource Services is requesting that you complete hiring processes for all school-based hourly employees by April 15th. If you have any open positions, please be sure to submit recommendations to hire those positions on or before April 15th.
Hiring for contract positions will continue per standard procedures/timelines. Please remember that PTPS for internal teaching positions takes place now until the last day of school on May 30, 2024.
Please contact a Human Resource Services professional with any questions. 801-578-8340
