Author: Mr. Jenson

Winter break is only a week and a half away, and we love the attitudes of kindness and giving that come with the winter season. 

Winter Extravaganza

Our wonderful PTSA and staff have put together a range of activities for the last hour and a half on the day before Winter Break. Students will select an activity this week so that we can plan supplies and supervision, and possible activities will include a dance, cornhole, a photo booth, a movie, video games, crafts, scribble society, and many more. We look forward to sending students off to the break with a smile on their faces.

Food Drive Thank You

Our food drive for the Utah Food Bank was a huge success (over 3,300 food items donated), and we want to say thank you to your students, to our staff, and especially to you as the parents who usually actually buy the food that is donated. 

Performing Arts Assembly on Thursday

We will have our annual Winter Performing Arts Assembly on Thursday. You can find our adjusted bell schedule here. So many of you have already seen one of our performing arts groups or more, but we want to ensure all students get the chance to see the great work and incredible talent of their peers.

New to Jordan District?

We offer a number of informational evenings for families new to the area who might need access to help, food, etc. If you have more questions, there is a session tonight at Aspen Elementary School, and more to come after Winter Break. You can check out the flier here (and here, in Spanish).
Ofrecemos una serie de noches informativas para familias nuevas en el área que puedan necesitar acceso a ayuda, comida, etc. Si tiene más preguntas, hay una sesión esta noche en la Escuela Primaria Aspen y más por venir después de las vacaciones de invierno. Puede consultar el volante aquí (y aquí, en español).

SoJo Food Drive Dec 5-9

SoJo is accepting donations for the Utah Food Bank. Students earn tickets for their donations. Those tickets will allow them to participate in activities throughout the week. Please donate Canned Food, Packaged Food, Personal Care Items, and Cleaning Products. The Utah Food Bank cannot accept expired, unlabeled, refrigerated, or damaged items.

Bus Loading Changes

We are going to try and speed up bus loading now that it’s snowing and cold outside. Starting next week – not yet, though – students will simply follow the line of buses until they reach their bus and load, even along the sidewalk to the south of the parking lot. At 3:07 pm sharp, all buses will leave and won’t stop at the front as they have done in the past. If their bus isn’t there yet and the other buses are still there, they should wait at the end of the bus line on the sidewalk for their bus. If the other buses leave and their bus isn’t there yet because it’s late, they should return to the front of the school to wait for their bus.

Again, this isn’t for this week. This starts next week. For now, it’s business as usual. We’ll remind students on the first day (next Monday) at the end of school to make sure they don’t forget.

School Cleanliness

We are fortunate to have an amazing custodial staff who keep SoJo looking great and ready for our use. Thank you to them! We need everyone’s help to make sure our school is both clean and safe. We have too many food spills in the Cafe that students are leaving behind or not cleaning up. We understand, accidents happen. Help SoJo by telling one of the custodians and helping clean up the mess so no one slips and falls. It is all of our jobs to clean up after ourselves and keep SoJo clean and safe.

Students are NOT allowed to sell anything at school

We want to remind our SoJo Community that students are not allowed to sell items during school hours or on the school campus. District Policy limits the type of food that can be sold to middle school students. We also have specific vending contracts that prohibit the sale of any outside food or drink.

Students Attending Bingham Football 6A Semi-Finals on Nov 10

Bingham High School’s football team has once again made it to the playoffs this Thursday at 2:30 pm at Rice Eccles Stadium. Because of the high interest in attending in our school community, we are putting out the following in order to keep the check-out process secure and efficient. We are asking that students attending the game plan to leave at 12:00 pm. This is the same time BHS students are being asked to check out if attending.

Please note that this does not count as a school-sponsored activity, there will be no school-provided transportation, and students will still be expected to complete any missed work.

PARENTS:

• Print out this form and sign it
• Purchase tickets here (tickets can be used to get free transportation on TRAX)
• Expect an absence message from Skyward, as it usually takes several days to input the signed forms for our attendance office

STUDENTS: 

• Bring signed form to class/lunch in order to be excused at 12:00 pm. This is your check-out slip. You will not be allowed to leave without the slip.
• Turn in the signed form to the attendance office as you leave campus. If you don’t, it will count as a truancy.

We wish the football team well. If they win, the championship game will be on Friday, Nov. 18th at 11:00 am. Should they emerge victorious on Thursday, we’ll send out more information next week. Best of luck, Miners!

Musical Starts This Week

It’s showtime! South Jordan Middle School’s long-awaited production of Newsies, Jr. debuts this week. Tickets are free, but must be purchased in advance. You can purchase tickets for November 10, 11, 12, 14, and 15. You can find information here. We can’t wait to see the product of so many of our students and staff, and we hope to see you there!

School Community Council Meeting Nov 14th

Our school community council will be meeting next Monday at 4 pm. Topics will include the school safety/digital citizenship plan, the positive behavior plan, grading, test scores, and next year’s Land Trust and TSSA plans. Meetings are open to the public.

It’s almost Halloween, so we thought we’d send our Skylert out a bit early this week so that we could remind everyone of costume guidelines (below) before you got dressed for the day. Also, remember that Quarter 2 starts tomorrow!

Halloween Dress Guidelines

Halloween is a great chance to see the personality and creativity of our students. We want the day to be fun, and we also want to be able to have a productive day in class. With that in mind, what follows is a list of guidelines to help us do both:

• The School Dress Code and the Student Code of Conduct still apply
• Students should come to school already dressed with any makeup already applied
• Students should avoid costumes that degrade any other group of people
• We must be able to easily see who you are
  • Avoid masks worn on the face, except for use as personal protective equipment
  • Makeup or other costume additions must still allow us to identify you
• We must be able to move in the halls and function in class, including avoiding disruptions to teachers and other students
• Costumes must be safe, and make others feel safe
  • No weapons or facsimiles of weapons
• Footwear must be worn all day

Above all, if you’re aren’t sure you should wear it, just don’t. We can’t wait to see what you come up with, and be sure to check our social media channels for pics of our costume contest.

9th GRADE INDUSTRY TOUR!

Plans are already in the works for our 9th grade Industry Tour coming in April. The Industry Tour is an opportunity for our 9th graders to visit one of our various locations to tour the business, listen to a presentation, and learn more about that industry. 9th graders will earn the privilege of attending the Industry Tour by getting final grades of all Honors (H) and / or Satisfactory (S) in Citizenship for 2nd and 3rd quarter. 9th graders that get any Needs Improvement (N) and / or Unsatisfactory (U) for a final grade for 2nd and / or 3rd quarter will not be eligible to attend the Industry Tour. So we encourage all our students to be kind, be respectful, stay on task and work hard in class so they earn the privilege to attend the Industry Tour.

Tickets Available Now for Newsies Jr.Tickets are now available for Newsies JR. Performances are November 10, 11, 12, 14, and 15. You can find information here.

We have several major things happening this week to be aware of before dancing off to Fall Break. The most crucial is that the quarter ends on Thursday. Please make sure you take a look at Skyward and are aware of grades before they are finalized.

Fall Break begins on Friday of this week for students, meaning there will be no school on Friday. We come back on Halloween, and you can check out the guidelines below for costumes on that front. We also have choir concerts tonight, and band and orchestra concerts tomorrow night. Check out our School Calendar for times and other upcoming events.

As a school, we are also looking forward to focusing on our core values of Kindness, Courage and Respect throughout the rest of the school year. We’ll include summaries of our efforts on that front going forward, so stay tuned!

Halloween Dress Guidelines

Halloween is a great chance to see the personality and creativity of our students. We want the day to be fun, and we also want to be able to have a productive day in class. With that in mind, what follows is a list of guidelines to help us do both:

• The School Dress Code and the Student Code of Conduct still apply
• Students should come to school already dressed with any makeup already applied
• Students should avoid costumes that degrade any other group of people
• We must be able to easily see who you are
  • Avoid masks worn on the face, except for use as personal protective equipment
  • Makeup or other costume additions must still allow us to identify you
• We must be able to move in the halls and function in class, including avoiding disruptions to teachers and other students
• Costumes must be safe, and make others feel safe
  • No weapons or facsimiles of weapons
• Footwear must be worn all day

Above all, if you’re aren’t sure you should wear it, just don’t. We can’t wait to see what you come up with, and be sure to check our social media channels for pics of our costume contest.

Tickets Available Now for Newsies Jr.

Tickets are now available for Newsies JR. Performances are November 10, 11, 12, 14, and 15. You can find information here.

Smith’s Gives Back to Schools

Do you shop at Smith’s? Would you like to reward South Jordan Middle School?

You can link your Shopper Card to give a part of your shopping dollar to our school!

Last week’s college week was exciting, and we have some great events coming up over the next few weeks. Our band, choir and orchestra concerts are next week, and you can see our upcoming calendar of events on our website here.

Digital Citizenship Assembly Tomorrow

We live in an increasingly digital world, and we want our students to be examples of excellent digital citizenship. One of the ways we reinforce that goal is our digital citizenship assembly tomorrow, following this bell schedule. It’s put on by Net Positive (formerly NetSmartz) and has been an annual staple of SoJo for years. It’s a great chance to talk to your kids at home about their online activity, both in terms of what they put out into the world and what they will encounter from others.

Tickets Available Now for Newsies Jr.

Tickets are now available for Newsies JR. Performances are November 10, 11, 12, 14, and 15. You can find information here.

We’re fresh off of parent conferences, and we hope that you were able to communicate with teachers about anything and everything you’d hoped for. If not, please remember that teachers are reachable before and after school, via email, phone or in-person all year long. Here’s what we have coming up at SoJo:

Picture Retakes on Thursday, October 6th

If the picture you got wasn’t what you’d hoped, or you missed the first picture day, we’ll be having retakes this Thursday. There was some confusion with the photographer last time, so hats are allowed as long as they are school appropriate, since they are allowed by the school dress code. 

Tickets Available Now for Newsies Jr.

Tickets are now available for Newsies JR. Performances are November 10, 11, 12, 14, and 15. You can find information here.

It’s College Week!

Just a reminder that this week is College Week. Our counselors have been hard at work putting together everything from door decorating to games and treats every day in the lunchroom. There will even be a student/faculty tug-of-war on Friday! Here’s the schedule:

• Monday: School Shirts – Remember where you come from
• Tuesday: Dress to Impress – Dress like you would for an interview
• Wednesday: Bright Colors – Your future is bright
• Thursday: Wear Blue or Green – USU vs UVU Day
• Friday: Wear Red or Blue – U of U vs BYU Day