January 26, 2007
Scottsdale Named as One of the Best Communities for Young People
For the second consecutive year, the City of Scottsdale is being honored for helping young people succeed, and the Scottsdale Unified School District is proud to be part of that recognition.
The city has been named one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People by America 's Promise – The Alliance for Youth. The quality of education in Scottsdale 's schools was cited as a key factor in the ranking.
More than 1,000 communities nationwide vied for the organization's recognition.
Criteria for selecting the top 100 included community support of children and youth, resources children and youth receive, children and youth outcomes, community innovations in the areas of policy, practice and resources, progress to date and plans for the coming year and broad diversity of American life.
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Yavapai Receives $1,000 Grant from Lowe’s
 Yavapai Elementary School 's Garden Club continues to flourish thanks to a $1,000 grant from Lowe's Home Improvement store of Scottsdale.
The grant money will be used to create a children's tranquility garden on the campus. The club is hoping to team with Arizona State University landscape architecture students to design the garden.
“Thanks to the generosity of Lowe's, Yavapai will continue to expand our after-school Garden Club and beautify the campus,” said Principal Wendy Cohen.
Additionally, Lowe's will be a strong partner for the Yavapai community. They will offer free student/parent workshops on the weekends and gardening activities for parents and will also have a “how to” booth at the school's carnival this spring.
The Garden Club consists of 25 students from third, fourth, fifth and sixth grades, parent volunteers and the Plant Manager Tom Bland. The students and volunteers meet during their lunch and before and after school to water, till, plant and work in the gardens around the campus.
The Garden Club was founded four years ago and is funded by donations. back to top
SUSD Students Win at DECA Competition
Business students from Scottsdale Unified School District competed in the first major DECA competition of the year at Phoenix College on January 10th. Arizona DECA Vice President Tom Swanson welcomed students from Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Cave Creek and Scottsdale to the competition.
The winners from Desert Mountain were:
Ruslan Guseynov won a medal for the competency test.
Noelle Mailhot won a medal in the competency test, and was selected to represent the area in Quiz Bowl.
Waseem Albasha won a medal in the competency test, and with Heba Albasha won 2nd place in Travel and Tourism Management Team Decision Making.
Mary Hou won a medal in the competency test and won 2nd place in the Retail Merchandising event.
The winners from Chaparral were:
Preston Brainerd won 3rd place in Apparel & Accessories Marketing, plus one test medalist.
Saguaro High School also had three test medalists and most of the Central Area Quiz Bowl slots, including three in the top seeds. The winners were:
Nate McCullough won 1st place in Quick Serve Restaurant Management, and was a state qualifier for Quiz Bowl.
Jeff Wille and Mac Christensen won 1st place in Sports and Entertainment Marketing, and was a state qualifier for Quiz Bowl.
Tanner Johnson and Scott McCullough won 1st place in Buying and Merchandising Management.
Shyam Yekanath and Aqib Rashid won 1st place in the E-commerce, and was a state qualifier for Quiz Bowl.
Aquib Rashid and Shyam Yekonoth won 1st place in the E-Commerce Management Team Decision Making.
Mac Christensen and Jeff Wille won 1st place in the Sports & Entertainment Marketing Management Team Decision Making.
Charmaine Morgan won 1st place in Apparel and Accessories.
Richie DeFrancesco won 2nd place in Sports and Entertainment Marketing, and was state qualifier for Quiz Bowl.
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Proposed School Calendars Presented to Governing Board
At Tuesday night's Governing Board meeting, Cathy Rivera, executive director for elementary schools and excelling teaching & learning, and members of the Calendar Committee presented the proposed calendars for 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 and a template of subsequent calendars through 2017.
The Calendar Committee met from Sept. 11, 2006 through Jan. 8, 2007, to work on the calendars, and conducted a survey of parents, staff and students.
The presentation is available on the District's Web site at: www.susd.org/district/govboard/meetings.cfm. The item will be brought back as an Action Item at the Feb. 13 Governing Board meeting. Read more in the January 23rd issue of Board Briefs.
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Cocopah Students Build Futuristic Cities
Cocopah Middle School was one of two teams from Scottsdale that placed in the top five in the Phoenix Region Future Cities Competition.
The Future Cities Competition is a national team-based education program designed for seventh- and eighth-grade students. Working in teams of three, the students are required to create a city of the future.
Cocopah's Future Cities Team was comprised of 12 students on four teams with Jan Speisman, gifted specialist, as the advisor.
- Team Shangrula placed 5th overall in the competition.
- Team Yunana won best essay.
- Team City Square won best abstract, best scale model and the award of distinction.
- Team MarAzul won best use of building materials and the Educational Excellence Award (best effort of a team partnership with families, administration and community partnerships for overall excellence).
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Kiva Celebrates Golden Anniversary
Celebrate 50 years of excellence with Kiva Elementary School from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, February 10th.
The celebration will include a dedication of the Kiva Wall of Fame, photos of years past, memories from former and current teachers and faculty, music from all eras, memorabilia from the 1950s to 2000s and fifth grade story telling directed by Artist in Residence Harriet Cole.
There is no charge to attend the event. A catered spaghetti lunch with birthday cake will be provided for $8 per person. Click here to download the form and RSVP for lunch by Tuesday, January 30th .
For more information, please contact Tami Miller at tamismiller@cox.net or Jana Davis at janasbandanas@cox.net.
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Kindergarten Round-Up
Schools throughout the District will be hosting tours and open houses in preparation for enrolling children in Kindergarten for the 2007-2008 school year. Come visit us to meet teachers and principals and learn about the great features offered by schools in the Scottsdale Unified School District.
To find out the date for a Kindergarten Round-Up at a school in your area, please see the Schedule .
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Supai Mars Student Imaging Program – An Example of 21st Century Learning!  Exploring Mars isn’t new to students at Supai Middle School or to science teacher Bill Gardner. This year, seventh grade students have been discovering the Red Planet in conjunction with the Mars Student Imaging Program (MSIP) at Arizona State University (ASU), including analyzing images taken by the thermal emission imaging system (THEMIS) camera aboard the Odyssey Orbiter satellite.
Last week, students presented their current class project, Simple Channels on Mars, to a group of scientists, mission planners and NASA educators at ASU. The report written by last year’s entire exemplary class is posted to both the MSIP and ASU electronic resources Web sites. Additionally, the Supai Team is one of four teams rated “Exemplary.” They were selected from more than 86 participating teams nationwide.
“The project represented a great deal of hard work on the part of all students in this exploratory class. ASU staff was impressed with our students’ desire to complete the project with a formal presentation,” said Mr. Gardner. “These students were praised for their specific topic focus, use of scientific method, data collection and analysis skills.”
Supai’s participation will be included in an article about the Mars Student Imaging Program in the March/April issue of Teacher Magazine. In addition, last year’s students will be featured in a re-broadcast of the PBS program Dragonfly, which airs on Saturday, February 3rd.
To view the Supai Team results, visit: http://msip.asu.edu/resultdetail.html?selection=302 .
back to top CRMS Student Wins District Spelling Bee  Congratulations to Rachel Bochantin, an eighth grade student at Copper Ridge Middle School, who won first place at Scottsdale Unified School District’s Spelling Bee.
Twenty-nine elementary and middle school students from across the district competed for the title of district champion. Family members gathered at the Scottsdale Civic Center Library to cheer on the students.
Rachel and Steven Lorbeer, a sixth grade student at Pueblo Elementary School, were the final two spellers!
Rachel was declared the winner after spelling the words s-o-p-h-i-s-t-i-c-a-t-i-o-n and j-a-u-n-d-i-c-e-d.
The top seven competitors from the bee move on to the Regional Spelling Bee, which will be held February 12th at the Scottsdale Civic Center Library. They are: Rachel Bochantin; Steven Lorbeer; Austen Yueh, Mountainside; Jessica Sola, Tonalea; Adam Familiant, Arcadia Neighborhood Learning Center; Connor Miller, Cheyenne Traditional School; and Navya Dasari, Cheyenne Traditional School.
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Cherokee's Special Flag Raising Ceremony
 On Dec. 18, 2006, students and faculty were treated to a very special flag raising ceremony at Cherokee Elementary School. One special guest was Sergeant Chris Dodge, the son of Diane Dodge, Speech Pathology teacher. The school's Girl Scouts raised the flag while the choir sang the National Anthem.
The Army presented Principal Jan Howard a plaque and a sword with the name Cherokee engraved on it as a gift of thanks. In 2005, students made "care" packages for the soldiers and sent them to Sergeant Dodge's unit in Iraq. Chris Dodge attended Cherokee Elementary School, Cocopah Middle School and Chaparral High School.
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Cochise Class Adopts a Family for the Holidays
 Mrs. Kaven's 5th grade class at Cochise Elementary
adopted a family for the holidays in lieu of giving a gift to their teacher. Students, if they wanted, brought in a gift for the family. They also brought in food, clothing and household items. Cochise Assistant Principal Mrs. McPherson was very helpful in finding a family for the class to adopt. The project was a great success and students had a great time.
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Cocopah Children's Science Stories
 Students from the Platinum Ponies eighth grade team at Cocopah Middle recently shared science children's stories with the pre-K, kindergarten, first and second grades at Sequoya Elementary. Stories were written about the scientific method, phases of matter, water cycle, genetics and animal adaptations (all eighth grade science standards). For language arts, students also worked on putting personal "voice" into their stories. Students gave each teacher a copy of their story and activity they designed to go with the story. The project was designed by Shannon Thomas and Erin Endreson.
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Coyotes Player at Yavapai
  Phoenix Coyotes Hockey player
Patrick Fischer, and Howler, the team mascot, helped with an assembly about character and positive behavior on December 18, 2006. Fischer and Howler talked with the students in grades 2-5 about eating right,
exercise and the importance of safety gear. They also chose a student to help
demonstrate the importance of safety gear. By the end of their safety gear talk, this
student was in full Coyotes’ uniform.
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Desert Mountain High School Yearbook Honor
  Desert Mountain's Yearbook has been selected, from all of the yearbooks that Herff Jones prints in the United States and Canada, to represent the very best in junior high, high school and college yearbooks. Herff Jones is going to feature portions of the DMHS Yearbook in the Herff Jones Ideas That Fly book. The showcase book is being printed in December of 2006. This is a huge honor and accomplishment for Gary Achtziger, DMHS yearbook sponsor, and his yearbook students.
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