DV Voice September 14, 2018 by Deer Valley Unified School District

SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

IN THIS EDITION  2019-2020 Calendar Update  Who Loves DVUSD?  A Touching Letter from a Parent  What is a Finch-O-Meter?  Humor from the Grammar File

School Name Changes The Governing Board recently approved changing the names of 3 DVUSD schools:   

Canyon Springs School is now Canyon Springs STEM Academy Sierra Verde School is now Sierra Verde STEAM Academy Terramar School is now Terramar Academy of the Arts

Canyon Springs and Sierra Verde have received a state grant and national certification for their Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) focus respectively. Terramar has had an arts focus for nine years. The new names will help identify the focus of the schools. DEER VALLEY VOICE – SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

 Free Books for Kids? You may have heard on social media that DVUSD has formed the Big Kid Book Club for children not yet enrolled in kindergarten. This special club is a way for DVUSD to find families who are preparing to register for kindergarten and share with the them the #Extraordinary success stories of DVUSD! See Page 6 of Deer Valley Voice for details! 1

CALENDAR CORNER  Sept 17 – Constitution Day and Citizenship Our core values are the foundation of our district, essential to our success. Today, we highlight the Core Value of Accountability. Terramar Academy of the Arts Library Clerk Lisa Axelrod was recently nominated by her Principal for a DV Star for showing Accountability: Lisa is one of the many reasons that Terramar has had a solid start to the school year. Her library was ready for kids on day one and all teachers received their technology before the school year even started. Lisa ventures to the office to help the office ladies often. It could be when one of them is out, or just to pop up to help them with tardies. We don't even need to ask. She sees the need and just jumps in naturally. Teachers often have many requests for lamination and things to get ready for their school year. Lisa is always on top of all of that and gives it to them before they even expect it. She is part of our DIBEL team in testing kids and really does practice and believe that all kids can learn and that all kids are the responsibility of everyone. Terramar is amazing because of Lisa and I am just so grateful that she is with us.

Nominate District employees for a DV Star when you see them demonstrating one or more of our Core Values: Respect, Accountability, Integrity, Student-Driven, and Excellence. Visit this page on the Portal located on our Portal Home Page.

I LOVE DVUSD! “I love DVUSD for the new commitment to growing and keeping talent in house. I appreciate the new/revamped focus on developing individuals for leadership roles with a focus on mentors and appropriate development. I believe that the new district mission and focus can help us to educate our students to the best of our abilities.”

--Chris Clute, TOA, Mirage 

Tell us why you love DVUSD at the I Love DVUSD link to receive a lanyard and pin in District mail.

DEER VALLEY VOICE – SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

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Day Sept 25 – Regular Governing Board Meeting, 7:00 p.m. Governing Board Room. Within 24 hours of a meeting Click here to view Agenda Sept 15 - Oct 15 – Hispanic Heritage Month Sept 28 – Classified Job Fair see flyer on Page 9 Sept – National School Success Month Oct 19 – Wellness Fair at District Office 15th Avenue from Noon – 5 p.m. see Flyer on Page 10

2019 – 2020 CALENDAR DVUSD is working to complete the 2019-2020 School Year Calendar with early release dates. In the meantime, we understand that staff and parents want to make plans for the future. Please see page 7 for the scheduled holidays for the 2019-2020 school year. When the calendar is fully complete, it will be emailed to parents included in a future Deer Valley Voice, posted on the DVUSD website, and shared on social media.

TECH TIP FROM ROXI

Roxi Thompson is a fifth-grade Highland Lakes teacher (and Technology Warrior!)

All of the amazing features in @Flipgrid are now completely free! And to celebrate, @KarlyMoura and @SEANJFAHEY created an updated version of “An Educator’s Guide to Flipgrid” eBook! Click here to unleash student voice in your classroom. 2

CONTINUED… COMMUNITY EDUCATION STORY

On July 10, 2018, our Governing Board voted unanimously to utilize the modular building that has previously served our district well. During a period of rapid growth while new schools were being built, it was once located and served as the temporary school office at Canyon Springs. It also housed Diamond Canyon and West Wing offices prior to being moved to the district office where it has been in storage for the past 11 years. This fall, the building will be relocated to the northeast side of the Copper Creek campus where it will continue to serve our community, and will be situated next to the Deer Valley Family Resource Center (DVFRC), which provides resources and services to our community with children age birth through 5. As we continue to expand Community Education programming, our Community Education Division’s support staff, currently located at the District Office on 15th Avenue, will occupy this building. The area of the building generally used for the Health Center and nurse will be converted to DVUSD’s first 2+-year-old learning center. Advantages of this new location include:  The addition of the 2-year-old program which will serve as a bridge from the DVFRC programs of parent-child interactions to the child’s first experience outside their home environment with many options available including 2, 3, or 5 days week, half or full-day.  Beginning in the 2019-20 school year, this central location will provide ease of access to all areas of our district, opening the door for our 2 year old students to transfer into one of eight Community Education preschool programs located throughout the district.  Enable the office support staff to be located directly on a school campus that will showcase the wide range of Community Education programming such as Enrichment, Before & After School Care, Facility Usage, DVFRC, and Prekindergarten. This will also enable staff to be more centrally located to the numerous neighboring schools and Community Education programs The Community Education division is completely self-funded and as with any program offered through Community Ed this relocation and expansion of early childhood programs does not use district Maintenance & Operations (M&O) funds or bond initiatives, nor will it negatively impact any of the Copper Creek School operations. (story continues on next column) DEER VALLEY VOICE – SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

It will be a separate entity and an extraordinary partner in education for Copper Creek. Community Education operates solely through prudent financial planning and management of program funds to best serve our students and community, contributing and complimenting the extraordinary achievement of students during the school day with well-rounded, extracurricular programs to meet the needs of the whole child -- before, during, and after school hours.

INFO FOR 6TH GRADE ELA TEACHERS In the 2018-2019 school year, 6th grade English Language Arts (ELA) is one grade on the report card, which includes reading, writing, speaking and listening and taught as an ELA block. This change has been made to integrate quality reading and writing instruction and promote the spiraling of the AZ ELA standards. This will also be a change for your parent community. This important change will be necessary to highlight with your students and parents. The benefit of this change will be that students will have a strong foundational understanding of how all of our ELA standards play an integral roll in quality communication.

CONGRATS SEPTEMBER DV STAR REGIONAL WINNERS! Susan Ming, Teacher, Stetson Hills, Sandra Day O’Connor Region; Rachel Miller, Teacher, Terramar, Mountain Ridge Region; PJ White, Electrician, Facilities, District Office Region; Heather Majors, Instructional Assistant OCR, Desert Sky, Deer Valley Region; Tricia Graham, Principal, Canyon Springs, Boulder Creek Region; Kristina Leckliter, Teacher, Constitution, Barry Goldwater Region  Nominate a District employee for a DV Star by visiting this page on the Portal located on our Portal Home Page - Under QuickFind.

DR. FINCH… OUT & ABOUT

Follow Dr. Finch @DrFinchDVUSD ICYMI: Hundreds of DVUSD students gathered in the outfield to sing at a recent Diamond Back’s Game:

FOLLOW NOW ON TWITTER

DR. FINCH #500 CLUB UPDATE For the second straight year, Dr. Finch has made a goal of making 500 classroom visits across the District during this school year. We have created a Finch-O-Meter to track his progress!

DEER VALLEY VOICE – SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

DVUSD Health and Wellness is now on Twitter @DvusdW – Follow for health and wellness tips and info… like the tweet below!

FROM THE MAIL BAGâ&#x20AC;Ś

Director of Food & Nutrition Joan Chiarello recently received the following letter from a DVUSD parent. Hi Joan, I'm writing to say thank you. I wanted to express my gratitude to you and DVUSD for the meal assistance program. The program helped us through some very difficult times and allowed my beautiful son to enjoy a good breakfast and lunch when I couldn't afford to make that happen. Things are looking up now and we won't be reapplying this year. I can't help but get a little frog in my throat and a little tear in my eye thinking about how important this program was for our family. Thank you, thank you, thank you. God bless. Wish you the very best.

Humor from the Grammar File (Grammarphile)!

Follow DVUSD on Facebook & Twitter for a daily pick-me-up!

@dvusd DEER VALLEY VOICE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

/DVUSD 5

DEER VALLEY VOICE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; SEPTEMBER 14, 2018