Two Phoenix Union Teachers Win Esperanza Latino Teacher Award

Maryvale’s Selina Alonzo and South Mountain’s Guadalupe Meza were selected as 2010 Chicanos Por La Causa and SRP Esperanza Award winners, honoring Latino teachers who inspire students of all backgrounds, play an active role in the school, and demonstrate a true commitment to the community.

The two received the news during surprise visits to their classrooms last week. They will be recognized at a dinner ceremony, October 21, at the Wyndham Hotel Downtown Phoenix. The teachers and their schools will receive a cash stipend, and for the first time, each winner will receive a 50 percent scholarship towards a masters or doctoral program at the Argosy University.

Alonzo has been teaching English for six years. She was named the 2009 Phoenix Union High School District Classroom Teacher of the Year. A graduate of Carl Hayden High School who benefitted from the Hispanic Mother-Daughter program, Alonzo earned her teaching degree and returned to the community where she grew up. Her background has proved invaluable in motivating and inspiring Phoenix Union students and parents. Alonzo has also served as Maryvale’s English Department chair, and volunteered on the Maryvale YMCA Board representing her students. She mentors students and is active with many student groups and clubs, including Panthertown, a program to help students positively impact change on their campus and their community.

“I am extremely proud to represent our district in this honor. I count it a blessing to do what I love in the community that raised me,” Alonzo said.

Meza is a Spanish teacher who also teaches Spanish for native speakers. She is in her fifth year at South. Born in Arizona, she attended grade school in Nogales, Sonora, and graduated from Central High School in the Phoenix Union District. She earned her B.S. in Education from ASU, and is currently taking graduate courses through a dual studies program with the Universities of Oregon and Guanajuato. Meza co-sponsors South Mountain’s MEChA and LULAC clubs. She collaborates with an Hermosillo high school to bring La Rondalla and Folklorico performances to Central High’s International Studies program each year. A few years ago, Meza was instrumental in elevating handball from a campus passion to an organized, sponsored team that competes against other schools, giving some students another reason to stay engaged in school.

Said one colleague: “She empowers her students and inspires her colleagues. She has a strong bond with the young people she works with. They respect her, value her and love her. Ms. Meza is a successful role model.”

Other 2010 Esperanza winners are elementary teachers Jose Fernandez and Josephine Salazar of Chandler and Oscar Olivas of Peoria High School. Vanessa Valenzuela of Carl Hayden was an Esperanza winner last year.

Source: Phoenix Union High School District

Seven Phoenix Union Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

Seven high school seniors from North and Carl Hayden High Schools have been named Semifinalists in the 2011 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Jake Cohen, Kyle Corales, Candace Evilsizor, Colin Madrid, Ryan Muller and Eric Stucky from North, and Katharyn Garcia from Carl Hayden qualified as semifinalists by being among the highest-scoring entrants in Arizona in the 2009 Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT). The six North students are in the school’s International Baccalaureate Program. Garcia is in the Hayden Computer Science magnet program.

The 16,000 semifinalists this year represent less than one percent of the 1.5 million juniors from over 22,000 high schools who take the PSAT. National Merit Finalists are highly coveted as prospective students to every college and university in the country, and the designation often leads to academic scholarships. The NMSC offers 2,500 scholarships, corporate scholarships number 1,000 and colleges and universities honor National Merit Scholars with 4,900 scholarships.

Jake Cohen’s passion is music, whether he is playing bassoon for the Phoenix Youth Orchestra, with the North Band, or entertaining challenged children as “Dr. Bassoon.” He tries “to better the lives of others with my talents.” His creativity extends to the North drama department, where he has acted and built sets. He is also the vice president of the North Film Society, an improvisational actor and a member of the International Thespian Society. Cohen, who works as an office assistant and volunteers at the Humane Society, has more interests. He has competed in fencing and diving and recently attended a leadership forum on medicine. His career interests are engineering or business. He is deciding between Harvard, Yale, Brown, Amherst, and the University of Penn.

Kyle Corales has plans for a military career, public service and becoming an active member of the community. He has been a squadron deputy commander, color guard commander and emergency services officer with the Civil Air Patrol. He has trained in leadership and search and rescue attending Civl Air Patrol encampment with other cadets each summer. He has also attended cadet officer school in Alabama. Corrales, the captain and four-year letterman on the North swim team, hopes to attend the Air Force Academy, but has also applied to Penn, Rice and Emory Riddle, studying biology, biomedical engineering or global intelligence studies.

Candice Evilsizor is a straight-A student hoping to combine a love of school with a love of people. Her favorite subjects are history and foreign language, particularly French. She is an oboist in the Phoenix Youth Symphony, and is involved in her church youth group. Her summer job was with Aquatots, teaching children to swim, and when she babysits, she brings a prepared curriculum for the children. Evilsizor’s goal is to attend a university that has Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies. She is applying to Yale, Columbia, Georgetown, American University and Notre Dame. She hopes to have a career in international peace keeping, perhaps in Africa or working with the U.N. She describes herself as having “a strong sense of justice. In a land where justice rules, peace is not far behind.”

Colin Madrid not only had an outstanding PSAT, but also scored a perfect 800 in critical reading in the SAT exam. He loves physics, understanding how things work, and how to design things in a better way for greater efficiency. He has competed for the North Swim team, and is involved in weight training, wrestling and Brazilian Jujitsu. Madrid would like to major in environmental engineering and enter the field of alternative and renewable energy. He is applying to MIT and ASU.

Ryan Muller scored a perfect 80 in the PSAT math exam and is so advanced in his academics that he took pre-calculus as a freshman, and is independently taking multi-variable calculus through MIT, online. Other classes he has tackled include linear algebra , differential equations and organic chemistry. He is the president of the Creativity, Action and Service club that performs community service, is founder and captain of the revived North Speech and Debate club, and a member of the French club. Muller has participated in cross country, swim team and National Honor Society, and has had perfect attendance. He attends the Chinese Contemporary School of Arizona, learning culture and language and was a Bio Design Research intern with ASU. His career interests are medical, research, advanced math and science. He has applied to MIT, Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Northwestern.

Eric Stucky aced his math and writing PSATs, and had a perfect 800 score in SAT Math Level 2. He is currently taking math independent studies. He says he loves math, loves talking about math, and uses it as a creative outlet. Stucky is the captain of the North Boys Tennis team, is a member of the chess team, the National Honors Society and participates in the Northtown Family of Leaders diversity camp. He works with Social Venture Partners, reading grants and fundraising and has founded his own non-profit organization, Cans Help Others. He has attended summer band camps at NAU and University of Washington. His college choices include Harvey Mudd, Williams (Mass.), Carnegie Mellon, Stanford and Washington.

Kathy Garcia has done it all at Carl Hayden, while maintaining a 4.65 grade point average. She has been a member of the Robotics team, Computer club, Gaming club, National Honor Society, and is the yearbook editor-in-chief. She scored an impressive 34 composite score in her ACT College Entrance Exam. Last year, Garcia was selected as a recipient of the National Center for Women & Information Technology Award for Aspirations in Computing. She hopes to become a computer programmer and independent game developer. She is applying to Yale.

About 90% of semi-finalists become finalists, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC.) North had five National Merit Scholar Finalists last year and six others received NMSC Letters of Commendation. Since 1990, North has had 88 National Merit Scholarship Finalists and 102 Commended students. This year’s Commended students have not yet been announced.

Source: Phoenix Central High School District

Encanto School (K-3) News

Encanto School (K-3)

Giggles, Squiggles, Squirms will meet monthly on Thursdays at Encanto 8:30-9:30am beginning on September 30th meeting in Parent Center. Giggles, Squiggles, Squirms is designed to assist parents of three and four year olds, in being their child’s first teacher. A new read-aloud book is introduced each month accompanied with activities such as counting, sorting, matching, movement, poetry and cooking. The activities are based on state and national early learning standards and include the Giggles of language development and verbal expression, Squiggles of writing and fine motor development and Squirms of physical development and activity. In addition, the program encourages good nutrition and physical activity for the early promotion of a healthy lifestyle and obesity prevention. This program is funded by a grant from First Things First to promote child readiness for school.

Source:

Please contact Kim Westfall for more information 602-707-8301.

Osborn School District News

District Information

Osborn’s after school programs have begun! These classes are supported through special partnerships, grants and tax credit donations. While classes must have academic and enrichment components to assist students with school-day skills, they are also fun and engaging. Osborn students can choose from some of the following after school classes at one or more schools this fall. AeroSpace Challenge, Archery Club, Arts & Crafts, Book Club, Boys and Girls Ballet Classes, Brophy Tutoring Club, Child's Play Theatre - Drama, Computer Club, Cooking with Math, Culinary Arts, Dance & Health Together (ASU), Family B-Ball League, Family Campfire, Fitness Club, Game-A-Rama, Gemology, Gifted Club, Girl Scouts, Girls on the Run (Running Club), Glee Club, Homework Club, Journalism/Yearbook, Kinder Skills, Lego Creations, Math Club, Moovin’& Groovin’ to Hip Hop, Newspaper Club, Open Library, Pink Ladies Careers in Cosmetology, PowerPoint, Pride Store, Reading Club, Rocket Club, Running Club, Science Club, Student Council, Tap Dance, Teen Campfire, Tennis, Tutoring, Volleyball, Yoga, and Fit Kids, a collaborative program with Dr Kristi Samaddar at St Joseph’s Hospital in which students learn hip-hop, karate, games, and tips to have fun and be healthy.

The Osborn School District in Central Phoenix offers unique programs to ensure student success. The International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (candidate status) is at Longview School. Longview offers the only IB program at the elementary level in Phoenix. Montecito School boasts an award-winning A+ Peace Program and an Out-Door Learning Lab. The award-winning Spanish Dual Language Immersion Program is offered from K-8 at Encanto, Clarendon (A+ School Award) and Osborn Middle School. The Osborn Ballet Program (Golden Bell and A+ Awards) is also offered in those schools for students in grades 3-8. Solano School is working toward a Modified Traditional academics program. A Community Garden is also hosted onsite. Osborn students continue to receive Music, Band, Choir, Art, and PE instruction and are well prepared for rigorous academics at the middle school. Osborn Middle School is the only middle school in Phoenix that offers Geometry- a tenth grade course. Please visit OsbornSchools.org or call 602-707-2000 for more information. Los Compadres Mexican Food is partnering with the Osborn School District to encourage students at Encanto, Clarendon, and Osborn Middle School to improve their reading skills. They are offering a free meal to the students demonstrating the greatest growth in reading in each classroom during each trimester. The Valdivia family, who have owned Los Compadres for more than 50 years, attended Encanto and Clarendon and are determined to do something special to make a difference in the schools and to benefit their community.

Principals Sandy Meko and Marty Makar are pleased to announce that 19 Clarendon and 4 Osborn Middle School students from the Osborn Ballet Program were selected for children’s parts in Ballet Arizona’s production of Nutcracker. Five boys were selected to dance in the opening Party scene: Udith Karthikeyan, Darryl Knighton, Isaiah Medina, James Molarski, and Orson Westberg; 17 students were selected to be soldiers and understudies: Raquel Barraza, Leslie Caldera Gomez, San Juana Cruz Escamilla, Heather Dinius, Dulce Escobar, Kalan Hansen, Charidy Hullihen, Lorena Jasso Solórzano, Trinity Lugo, Larissa Morris, Estaphany Nava, Gabrielle Padilla, Trinidad Ramirez, Bobbie Lenae Seechoma, Cinthya Sierra, Gabriela Tola, and Autumn Toms Kennerson; and one student was selected to be an Angel understudy: Anna Barajas. It was an exciting experience. The group did a great job and will be rehearsing every Saturday to prepare for the performances which begin in early December. Ballet Instructor Camden Lloyd is pleased that so many students who worked so hard last year to earn the privilege to audition were selected. Osborn Ballet Program students will be learning from both sides of the curtain-- some for the third time! The Osborn Ballet Program is supported by the Osborn Educational Foundation, AZ tuition tax credit donations to Clarendon & Encanto schools, and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school grant. More information is available at www.OsbornSchools.org/Programs/Ballet.htm.

Across the district, third graders and their parents are attending monthly KidsRead events held in the libraries. Students have breakfast with their family, listen to a story read by a guest reader and go home with a new book! KidsRead was founded 14 years ago by Eileen Bailey Driscol and the Osborn Educational Foundation. The program is designed to improve literacy by modeling reading together and giving third graders books to keep in their home libraries, so that they will have appropriate level reading material in their homes. Twice a year in December and March, all third grade students are given hard-cover Dr Seuss books. KidsRead is supported through donation to the Osborn Educational Foundation. Please visit www.OsbornSchools.org/OEF for more information.

Parents who live in the Osborn School District with concerns about their 2 ½- to- 5 year- old child's development are invited to participate in free screenings. Children will be screened in developmental areas, including: cognitive, language, motor, self-help, and social. Screening will take approximately 15-30 minutes. Please call Becky McNany for an appointment or for more information: (602) 707-2017. The screening dates and locations are: October 29 at Longview, December 3 at Montecito, January 14, 2011 at Solano, February 25 at Longview, March 25 at Montecito, and April 15 at Solano.

Source:

Cynthia Westberg, EdM
Osborn School District

Phoenix Union Honors Employees of the Year

Central Teacher Maria Chacon; Metro Tech Principal Kate McDonald; Camelback Student-Parent Liaison Monica Meza; Cesar Chavez Lead Security Kevin Scroggins, and Suns-Diamondbacks Education Academy Principal Rick Beck were presented with Phoenix Union High School District 2010 Employee of the Year awards by Superintendent Kent P. Scribner at the District’s Opening of Schools Convocation, Tuesday.

Chacon is a social studies teacher who models rigor and relevance and inspires staff and students with her own life story. She has taught for four years, but is Central’s World History Professional Learning Community (PLC) leader, AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) history teacher, and has constructed her social studies curriculum to press students toward excellence in writing. Born in Chihuahua, Mexico and a Central High graduate, she has enhanced cultural awareness on the campus. She created Los Linces, a ballet folklorico group, bringing in a professional instructor, purchasing and making costumes and booking performances throughout the city. The MECHA club sponsor, Chacon is instrumental in the school’s multicultural programs, including the school’s Peace on Earth Day.

McDonald is truly an instructional leader at Metro Tech High School. The school has been Performing Plus for several years, meets Adequate Yearly Progress, and consistently turns in some of the top AIMS scores in the District. McDonald secured the largest school grant ever from Science Foundation Arizona to implement a sustainability program which was infused across the curriculum, and student-driven projects in sustainability have emerged all over campus. Metro Tech opened the state’s first student-run Credit Union on a high school campus and the school’s automotive department has reached the highest certification possible to train aspiring auto technicians. A two-time National Board Certified Teacher, she co-taught a humanities course with her administrative team last semester to stay actively involved in pedagogy and assessment. McDonald has been Metro’s principal for two years. She was the District’s Language Arts Content Specialist, and taught English at South Mountain and Alhambra during her 20 years in Phoenix Union.

Two employees were named Support Staff Employees of the Year. Meza assists English Language Learner students and families with success in school. She makes home visits, facilitates support groups and is a member of the school’s Intervention Team. One colleague says, We feel as though she is an angel on our campus. Meza began her career at Camelback in 1998 as an Instructional Assistant.

Scroggins sets the tone for campus safety, customer service and respect for students and staff at Cesar Chavez, where he has worked for six years. He demonstrates leadership, professionalism, experience and communication skills, particularly with conflict resolution. He goes out of his way to help students, even outside the school environment, working with them in the community. Says his co-workers, he mentors, mediates and guides students as they search for ways to be successful. His position is that when a student fails, he fails.

Beck, Special Achievement Employee of the Year wears all the hats at his small school, Suns-Diamondbacks Education Academy. He is part principal-part staff. He started the school 10 years ago, and has watched it grow out of its original location, as he and his staff have turned over 800 would-be dropouts into high school graduates. He never turns down an opportunity to serve our students and parents. Our school would have never become what it is without him, said one staff member. Beck has been with the District for 23 years as a special education teacher at Metro Tech and South Mountain.

Phoenix Union Certified and Support Staff Employees of the Year were selected by a committee of peers, based on nominations made up of school and site Employees of the Year. Phoenix Union employs over 2800 people, including approximately 1700 teachers. The following is a list of Certified and Support Staff Employees of the Year, by school.

Alhambra: Michelle Gutierrez, Counselor; Joe Sells, Lead Security.
Trevor Browne: Cecilia Moreno, Business Teacher -Instructional Leader; Cookie Byler, SPED Admin. Assistant.
Camelback: Michelle Charles, Nurse; Monica Meza, ELL Liaison.
Cesar Chavez: Rayna Aguilar, SPED Math Teacher; Kevin Scroggins, Lead Security.
Central: Maria Chacon, Social Studies Teacher; Patty Harris, Registrar.
Betty Fairfax: Sandra Baker, Math Teacher - Instructional Leader; Rose Hendrix, Credentials Specialist.
Carl Hayden: Tom Brewer, Science Teacher; Frances Figueroa, IMC Coordinator.
Maryvale: Robert Turley, Instructional Specialist; Sandra Aguilar, Senior Security Assistant.
Metro Tech: Sarah Endres, SPED Teacher; Lizeth Garay, Credential Specialist.
North: John Patrick Doherty, Math Teacher; Chris Montenegro, Campus Operations.
South Mountain: Shannon Sanderson, English Teacher; Rosa Noel, Library Computer Tech Asst.
Small Schools: Yunbo (Crystal) Gu, ESL Teacher, Bostrom; Natasha Foster, Senior Office Assistant, Bostrom
Plant Operations: Tony Scarfo, Quality Assurance Tech.
District Office: Russ Shaffer, Science Content Specialist; Dean Walker, Maintenance Tech.

Achievement Labels and NCLB Designations Released

Bioscience High School earned an Excelling label, North High was Highly Performing and eight of 14 Phoenix Union schools received State Achievement Profiles of Performing Plus or better, according to accountability labels released today by the Arizona Department of Education.

The No Child Left Behind federal accountability measure of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) were also released today.

The rankings are based, in part, on 2010 AIMS Spring results. The District saw a seven-point gain in 10th Grade AIMS Reading, a slight gain in Writing scores, but its Math scores, like scores throughout the state, dropped.

Five schools-Betty Fairfax, Franklin Police and Fire, Metro Tech, Bioscience and Cyber met AYP.

Bioscience earned an Excelling label for the third consecutive year, with 89 percent of its 10th graders passing AIMS Math, 99 percent passing Reading and 92 percent meeting the Writing standards. In Math, 26 percent of the students exceeded the standards.

North High School earned a Highly Performing label, climbing two rankings from last year’s Performing mark.

Metro Tech registered Performing Plus for the third year in a row and was joined by Cesar Chavez, Central, Maryvale, Trevor Browne and Franklin Police and Fire. Every other school was Performing.

The State Achievement Profiles are Underperforming, Performing, Performing Plus, Highly Performing and Excelling. Performing Plus recognizes schools that have enough students demonstrating proficiency to earn a Highly Performing or Excelling profile, but do not have a sufficient number of students who exceed the AIMS standards. Performing means that a school meets the state’s expectations with regard to student proficiency in reaching the state’s academic standards.
The Achievement Profiles are part of the state’s accountability system, Arizona LEARNS, that evaluates school performance based on AIMS results for 10th, 11th and 12th graders, five-year graduation and dropout rates. Credit is also given to schools that meet the federal government’s Adequate Yearly Progress requirement.

Meeting the federal AYP standards means that schools have met achievement targets on the 10th grade AIMS tests in math and reading, four-year graduation rates and have 95% or more test takers in each subgroup. Besides the overall 10th grade population, there are eight sub groups (Hispanic, Black, White, Asian, Native American, English Language Learners (ELL), Special Ed, and low income). For a school to meet AYP, it must meet AYP in each of 63 categories. If a school misses in one of those categories, the school does not meet AYP. The Phoenix Union schools that fell short did not meet achievement targets in Special Ed and/or ELL subgroups.

The District gained 7 percentage points in 10th grade AIMS reading to 67, and 1 point in writing to 57, but fell 9 points in math. The state average for math also dropped 8 points to 58 percent of students passing. Every school except Bioscience saw drops in math, some in double digits.

We are reflective of the entire state with our math scores. This year’s AIMS math test was a new test that was not only longer, but aligned more closely to the national core standards of math, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Accountability Deborah Gonzalez said. The bright spot is that we nearly doubled the percentage of students that exceeded math (from 7 to 13%).

The District’s reading scores moved to 67 percent, with every school making reading gains, except one, which showed no growth. Eleven of the 14 schools improved in both reading and writing scores.

Phoenix Union made modest gains in reaching the state averages in each category, improving reading by 4, math by 2 and writing by 1 point over last year.

One group of students that experienced AIMS success benefited from the AVID program, or AdvancementVia Individual Determination. The program identifies students in the academic middle and places them in an elective class that focuses on college preparation. For the second consecutive year, over 80% of 10th graders in the AVID elective met or exceeded AIMS Reading and Writing the first time, compared to non-AVID students. Reading scores were at 85 percent passing compared to 65 percent non-AVID. Writing was at 85 percent for AVID students compared to 58 percent for non-AVID. At a few schools, there was more than a 30 percentage point difference between the two groups.

2010 Arizona LEARNS Achievement Profiles
Central High School - Performing Plus

NCLB AYP
No

Click here to download the Phoenix Union High School District AIMS 2010 (10th Grade) scores.

Source: Phoenix Union High School District

Phoenix Union High School District Classes Start August 2

Betty H. Fairfax High School’s first senior class as well as over 500 incoming freshmen, Bioscience High School’s new McKinley Hall and a new location for Suns-Diamondbacks Education Academy will highlight the opening of the Phoenix Union High School District’s 2010-2011 school year that begins Monday, August 2 for over 25,000 students at 16 campuses.

Franklin Police and Fire High School will house a complete 9-12-grade school for the first time, and specialty programs will kick off at several schools, including Camelback’s School of Sustainability, Engineering and Architectural Design; Central’s School of Global Business and International Studies and Alhambra’s Medical Arts Pathways.

Betty Fairfax in Laveen will grow to over 2,000 students with a full compliment of ninth through twelfth-graders for the first time. The Class of 2011, which opened the school in August of 2007, will be the first graduating class next May.

Bioscience High School’s campus is complete with the restoration of the original McKinley School and construction of an adjacent building on the two-acre downtown campus to house a Medical Sciences school with five classrooms, a lab, conference room, technology center and student services office. The City of Phoenix provided a $2.4 million Small Schools grant to fund the project. The main school complex was completed in 2008.

Suns-Diamondbacks Education Academy moves to a new building at 2920 N. 7th Street to accommodate the alternative school’s growing enrollment. The school, beginning its 10th year, has rescued hundreds of at-risk students from dropping out with a more personalized accelerated credit recovery program. Suns-Diamondbacks began at 1505 N. Central Avenue, and has graduated over 800 students since 2001.

Phoenix Union schools follow a traditional school calendar. There are 180 instructional days, with 90 days in each semester. Students have fall break, October 4-8, a two-week winter break beginning Friday, December 17, and spring break, March 14-18. Graduation Days are May 18-19.

Students not yet pre-registered can enroll at the schools in their attendance zone. Students need a birth certificate, two proofs of address and immunization records. Incoming 9th graders who have not pre-registered will need AIMS test scores and an 8th grade diploma. Those from other high schools outside the district will need unofficial transcripts from their last school.

Students interested in enrolling in magnet programs offered at six campuses or the magnet high school, Metro Tech can contact the school, or magnet office at (602) 764-1309. Magnet programs and small schools Bioscience and Franklin Police and Fire afford open enrollment to anyone residing in the District.

Source: Phoenix Union High School District