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SUSD Education Expo Recap
thumbnail of various schools at the susd education expo

Couldn't make it to the SUSD Education Expo? No problem! Check out our recap video to see the highlights and discover why Scottsdale Unified School District is the perfect choice for your family. With 30 incredible schools, unique programs, and endless opportunities, there's something for every learner. Enrollment is always open, and we’d love to welcome you to tour a school and learn more. Ready to get started?

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  • District-Story
Scottsdale school becomes first in Arizona to be 'blue zones' approved
Scottsdale school becomes first in Arizona to be 'blue zones' approved

Echo Canyon School is contributing to a healthier Scottsdale and setting the bar for other local schools by recently achieving Blue Zones Approved™ status. Part of the Blue Zones Project Scottsdale, this prestigious recognition marks a significant milestone in Echo Canyon’s commitment to foster a culture of well-being and better health within its school community.

“Today is really important because we are celebrating one of the features of Echo Canyon that makes it really extraordinary in terms of its learning environment,” said Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) Superintendent Dr. Scott Menzel, who serves on the Blue Zones Scottsdale steering committee. “When the Blue Zones project was starting and they were talking about community gardens and schools, the first place I recommended they visit was Echo Canyon.”

Echo Canyon School, a K-8 school located at 4330 N. 62nd St. in Scottsdale, began the process of becoming Blue Zones-approved in December 2023. Thanks to the hard work of teachers, staff, parents, students, and community partners, Echo Canyon was able to demonstrate the many Blue Zones Project Scottsdale principles that it already embodied. Principal Kat Hughes called the journey to becoming a Blue Zones Approved™ School both inspiring and transformative, enhancing the well-being of its students, staff, and families alike.

“Through the use of our gardens, our Chef in the Garden program, learning activities in our classrooms and outside, our wonderful café staff, and our great business partners, we were able to highlight everything we do to help support students to make healthy food and drink choices, have a sense of belonging, keep moving, tune out and destress,” Hughes said. “We are fortunate to have many activities and resources for our students to grow great habits that will help them to live better, longer.”

Echo Canyon’s collaborations have cultivated a supportive environment that encourages healthier choices and positive lifestyle habits community-wide.

“Echo Canyon School has been fully engaged since our early conversations, as they already had extensive programming focused on promoting healthy living," shared Danielle Anderson, Organization and Well-Being Lead for Blue Zones Project Scottsdale. "Their commitment is evident through initiatives, such as their community garden and Chef in the Classroom program with Blue

Watermelon Project. This initiative connects students with local chefs who teach them the process of growing food from scratch and preparing nutritious meals using their own produce."

SUSD recognizes the importance of helping kids make informed decisions about eating right and staying healthy. The district continues to partner with the Blue Zones Project and will be rolling out some Blue Zones-approved menu items in school cafeterias next school year.

  • Echo-canyon-story
International Baccalaureate (IB) Service at Anasazi Elementary
Anasazi IB Service Day
 

The IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) nurtures and develops young students as caring, active participants in a lifelong journey of learning. The PYP’s inquiry-based curriculum framework creates a community of future-focused learners that is able to engage critically and meaningfully across subject matters. As part of being an authorized IB PYP school, Anasazi Elementary School provides a world language offering of Spanish as a specials class for all students kinder - 5th grade.

The International Baccalaureate® aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring students who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. Inquiry learning helps students learn while building on what they already know. Students create meaning through a hands-on approach to learning, gaining understanding, and having student agency and providing action. Our goal is to develop lifelong learners through the process of inquiry. Through the IB curriculum, students become independent learners capable of in-depth critical thinking and reflection. 

  • Anasazi-Story
  • International Baccalaureate
Annual District Spelling Bee 2024
Annual District Spelling Bee 2024
 

It was 13-year-old Nina Bhatia who emerged as the champion of the January 19 Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) Spelling Bee, spelling the word “indemnity” correctly.

Among the words she also had to spell were “megaron,” “coccidiosis” and “innards.” How did the Cocopah Middle School eighth grade student prepare for the 2024 Bee? “For the easier words, I usually just skimmed over them and made sure I practiced them,” said Bhatia.

“For the harder words, though, we had to kind of associate with the picture and also definitions. It took a really long time for the hard words,” she added.

Bhatia credited her mother with helping her study and shared that she doesn’t plan to change her approach for the Region II Spelling Bee that SUSD will host at Coronado High School on February 9. There, she will be joined by the district bee’s five runners-up:

  • Gabriel Roxas, fifth grade, Hohokam Elementary School
  • Dhruv Bansal, sixth grade, Desert Canyon Middle School
  • Raquel Charlesworth, eighth grade, Mountainside Middle School
  • Jak Boudi, fifth grade, Hopi Elementary School
  • Promise Elhassan, fourth grade, Yavapai Elementary School

Bee winners from the Cave Creek, Deer Valley and Paradise Valley Unified School districts, as well as northeast Valley charter, private and homeschools, will also participate in the Region II Bee. The regional bee winner will head to the March 16 Arizona Spelling Bee at the Madison Center for the Arts in Phoenix. The state bee champion will be Arizona’s representative in the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee which will be held May 26 – June 1 in National Harbor, Maryland. As for Bhatia, she reads more nonfiction than fiction these days. Her favorite fiction author is J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame. Her favorite Harry Potter character? Gryffindor’s Hermione Granger, but, she added, “I’m a Slytherin.”

A day earlier, SUSD conducted its second middle school Spanish Spelling Bee. Eighth graders swept the top three spots.

Echo Canyon School’s Adrián Fernando Alvarado Padilla out-spelled 16 other students, winning with the word “embarazoso.” Cocopah Middle School’s Matias Lagos Pucllas finished in second place; Ingleside Middle School’s Angel Gomez finished third.

 
 
  • Cocopah-Story
  • DCMS-Story
  • Elementary-Story
  • Hohokam-Story
  • Hopi-Story
  • Mountainside-Story
Pueblo Elementary - Spanish Dual Language Immersion (DLI)
Pueblo DLI Student Video Thumbnail

Learn to speak, read and write in two languages!
Pueblo Elementary is proud to provide children in Scottsdale and the surrounding community with an opportunity to develop multilingual expression. This public school program offers parents an opportunity for their child to learn Spanish as a second language, at a time when children learn best.
 
 
 
  • DLI
  • Pueblo-Story

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