It was the summer of 2018 when Anasazi, under Principal Waldron’s newly established leadership, undertook the arduous process of transforming itself into an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme school.

That journey is now complete, with the certification late last month of Anasazi as an official IB P-Y-P World School, certified by an organization respected worldwide for providing a rigorous framework for students from preschool to high school to actively engage in their own learning and transforming the way teaching is delivered.

Anasazi is one of just 8 IB PYP elementary schools in all of Arizona! With Anasazi’s certification, Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) now offers the complete IB curriculum, from kindergarten through high school.

Nearby Mountainside Middle School and Desert Mountain High School have offered IB’s Middle Years Programme (MYP) to 6th – 10th grade students since late 2020, and Desert Mountain has provided IB’s Diploma Programme to 11th and 12th grade students since 1999.

Congratulations, Principal Waldron, and congratulations, Anasazi teachers and staff, for seeing this through.  You are truly making a difference for your students!

Our new and renewing National Board Certified Teachers were honored at last week's Governing Board meeting.

• Laura Mitchell, Hopi Elementary
• Brandy Wilson, Navajo Elementary
• Nancy Cavenaugh, Redfield Elementary
• Brianna Maxwell, Hohokam Elementary
• Heather Robinson, Desert Canyon Middle School
• Patty Malley, Cochise Elementary
• Susan Leonard, Ingleside Middle School and
• Dr. Tammy Dias, Saguaro High School

National Board Certification is a voluntary process that some   educators choose to undertake.  Here in SUSD, our teachers have the support of not only the district as they pursue certification, but also strong community support from the SUSD Foundation, the Scottsdale Charros and the K-12 Center. These teachers are dedicated to their profession and want to be even better teachers for their students.

It’s a process that can take up to three years to complete, then must be undertaken again after several years.

SUSD is proud to be home to more than 80 National Board Certified Teachers.

We are so pleased to congratulate these teachers on their National Board Certifications, whether they have successfully maintained their certification, as Nancy, Brianna, Heather, Patty, Susan and Tammy have done, or whether they are certified for the first time, as Laura and Brandy now are.

At SUSD, we are WAY into Robotics!  From elementary school through high school, robotics programs are the perfect blend of science, math, critical thinking and working collaboratively to design, build and operate robots of varying sized and abilities.

The fun part comes when school teams take their robots to regional and state competitions.  If you’ve never been to a robotics tournament, it is intense, loud and FUN!

This year, Desert Canyon Middle School’s DC Voltz robotics team put together an impressive series of accomplishments, culminating in taking part in the state FIRST Lego League State Championship at ASU last month, along with 40 or so other elementary and middle school teams from around Arizona.

At its conclusion, the DC Voltz team was recognized with the 1st place trophy for being the team that best exemplified FIRST’s Core Values and philosophies of Gracious Professionalism and Co-oper-tition: that’s cooperation and competition combined!

Mr. Bloom reports that these students and this team display extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit, recognize that they can accomplish more together than they can individually, and show respect for each other and other teams at all times.  That’s impressive! 

Of course, that spirit has much to do with who is leading it, and that’s Mr. Bloom, who was honored with the state FLL tournament’s Coach/Mentor Award for inspiring the Voltz to succeed, both as a team and as individuals:  Leadership and guidance at its finest.

Congratulations, DC Voltz and Mr. Bloom.

(Members of DC Voltz: Hailey Ahart, Eric Burchard, Johndavid Cannon, Dax Janson, Jude Larsen, Issiah Mariscal, Brayden Nelson and Griffin Stalzer)

Saguaro High School is proud each January to host an event connected with the city of Scottsdale’s Martin Luther King Junior celebration, the MLK Youth Voices event.  This guest speaker at this year’s 23rd annual event was Dr. Benjamin Chavis, a longtime leader in this nation’s civil rights movement.

The event also features student speakers from the Saguaro student body and this year’s speakers –  Aarohi Ghorpade, CJ Ballard and Ezekiel Feliciano – spoke from the heart about their experiences with cultural insensitivity, feeling marginalized and not knowing where they fit in.  It takes a special kind of courage to take any stage to share those kind of personal, painful experiences, and especially with your own classmates.

We want to congratulate these students on their bravery, on their resilience and let them know that we support them.

Each year, the Flinn Foundation recognizes outstanding high school seniors from around Arizona for their outstanding achievements in the classroom and the leadership roles they have taken on at their schools and in their communities.

The application process began way back in September, with more than 1,000 seniors submitting applications.  In January, the list was whittled to 80 and, earlier this month, to 39. Two of those 39 are members of SUSD’s Class of 2023, Saguaro’s Baraa Abdelghne and Desert Mountain’s Zack Okun. Both students have an outstanding list of impressive achievements and inspired visions for their futures.

Baraa and Zack have Flinn Scholarship hurdles yet to overcome, with final interviews this month. We wish them both the best of luck! We know the Flinn Foundation can’t go wrong with choosing our students for an all-expenses-paid, $130,000 scholarship to one of Arizona’s three public university Honors Colleges!  

Nurse Will Graham, Health Assistant Bobbi Treadwell, 3rd grade teachers John Avianantos and Amber Lindsey were honored at February's Governing Board meeting for recently saving a parent's life.

Meanwhile, Kiva Elementary School teacher Alexandria Hawley and school nurse Kelley Eckhauser were recognized at the meeting for helping a choking student. SUSD is proud to have a registered nurse on staff at each of its 29 schools.

Earlier this month, the Arizona School Public Relations Association ‒ ASPRA ‒ recognized the SUSD Communications department for its development and execution of our ongoing “Legacy of Success” campaign that you see on district social media that highlights the many, many successful SUSD graduates who are making a difference in our community and world. Communications also received ASPRA awards for the design last year of our Strategic Plan publication, the creation of our monthly SUSD Source blog, and three photography awards.

Congratulations to Desert Mountain Class of 2019 graduate Jack Frus, who has been selected as one of the Navy Federal Credit Union’s three ROTC All-American Scholarship Program Students of the Year for 2022. The program recognizes rising senior ROTC students who best embody the pillars of the program: Leadership, Military Excellence, Scholarship and Service. Jack, a senior at Arizona State University, majoring in Political Science and Civic and Economic Thought, will receive a $6,500 scholarship from Navy Federal. His ASU ROTC program will also receive a $5,000 grant. Jack graduates in May and will deploy with the U.S. Army soon thereafter. Go Wolves!

Echo Canyon 7^th grader Emily Avalos has had an eventful week!  Not only did her entry into Governor Katie Hobbs’ Inaugural Art Contest receive first place honors, Emily was chosen to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at yesterday's inauguration ceremony at the state capitol for Arizona’s newly elected state officeholders. Emily’s drawing will be on display on the 9^th floor of the capitol’s Executive Tower.

Midtown Phoenix streets hosted the annual Fiesta Bowl Parade on Dec. 17. Joining in the festivities leading up to the big game between TCU and Michigan were our very own marching bands from Desert Canyon Middle School and Saguaro High School. Next up for these musicians, and other SUSD schools, too, is the Feb. 4 Parada del Sol in downtown Scottsdale.

Read more at The SUSD Source