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'Tis the Season
It's the season for end-of-the-school-year concerts, recitals, festivals, performances, shows, etc. 
Last week, for example, Arcadia High School hosted that learning community's annual Agora Arts Festival.
This week, it's the 4th Annual SUSD Fine Arts Festival at First Baptist Church, 7035 E. Osborn Rd. 2D and 3D art is on display representing all SUSD schools and all grade levels. You can also catch performances by many of the District's music groups.
Also this week, Chaparral High School presents its spring musical, Singin' in the Rain. Next week, it's Desert Mountain's turn with Spamalot and Arcadia's CMAS program is in concert.
So make sure you're checking your school's website for the dates and times of your student's fine arts activities. A lot of hard work has gone into these displays of learning!
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SUSD Robots Roll into Final Tourney 
This week, robotics teams from all five SUSD high schools - Arcadia, Chaparral, Coronado, Desert Mountain and Saguaro - will take part in the Arizona West Regional robotics tournament at Grand Canyon University (GCU) in Phoenix.
Forty-one Arizona teams will gather at the GCU Arena for the FIRST® Power Up competition. The final challenge of the three-day tournament will see qualifying teams form three-school alliances to defeat a video game 'boss.'
This is the last tournament through which an Arizona high school robotics team can qualify for the FIRST® Championship in Houston, Texas, April 18-21. Last year, students from Chaparral and Desert Mountain were amongthe thousands of students from around the world who competed.
Robotics has become a staple of SUSD STEM - science, technology, engineering and math - programs in recent years, with teams based at elementary, middle and high schools. District PreK-12 Science Curriculum Academic Coach Barb Reinert says the activities involved combine many skill sets. "Robotics helps to develop 'Future-Ready Skills,' such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication. It is also suitable for students with a wide range of abilities, making it an inclusive activity."
Go, SUSD!
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 MVP Foundation Camp
The last weekend of March found a group of Tonalea K-8 students up in chilly Williams, Arizona, taking part in a MVP Foundation camp to support youth leadership development.
Founded by former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Webb, the MVP Foundation seeks to provide educational opportunities, interactive programs and resources that foster positive connections between family, school and community.
The organization does this by leveraging the power of professional sports to motivate, empower and encourage youth to achieve academic excellence, develop personal skills and make positive decisions that will help them as they grow older.
Tonalea English Language Development Instructional Support Specialist Raul Vargas reports the students took part in team-building and small group, decision-making activities during the retreat, and were excited to meet and hear from former Arizona Cardinal and local sportscaster Ron Wolfley (right).
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Charros to Celebrate 2018 Outstanding Teachers, Students,
 Scholarship Winners
The Scottsdale Charros will round up 34 SUSD teachers and 13 graduating seniors at their annual celebration of teaching and learning in our district. The April 20 event at the Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa will also feature SUSD musicians: Desert Mountain High School's Jazz Combo will provide music at the reception, a drum line from Coronado High School will call guests to dinner and the National Anthem will be sung by the Cocopah Middle School Jazz Choir. It has all the makings of a wonderful celebration!
This year's Charros Outstanding Teachers are:
Julie Trappen
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Kindergarten |
Anasazi |
| Shannon Paloma |
History |
Arcadia |
Richard Krzyzanowski
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Math |
Chaparral |
| Brenda Nelson |
Learning Resource |
Cherokee |
| Christen Anderson |
4th grade |
Cheyenne |
| Renee Wilson |
6th/7th grade ELA |
Cheyenne
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| Patty Malley |
Kindergarten |
Cochise
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| Cathy Saraniero |
Visual Arts |
Cocopah |
| Kristine Vogel |
3rd grade |
Copper Ridge |
| Tyler Kozimor |
7th grade Science |
Copper Ridge |
| Dr. Austin Nichols |
Science |
Coronado |
| Mickaela Solway |
1st grade |
Desert Canyon ES
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| Pam Morfitt |
Math/Gifted |
Desert Canyon MS |
| Cathy Sherry |
Honors/AP/IB Math |
Desert Mountain |
| Lisa Burchard |
3rd grade |
Echo Canyon |
| Stacey Gibson |
6th grade ELA/Social Studies |
Echo Canyon
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| Randi Alpers |
6th grade |
Hohokam |
| Molly Pont-Brown |
4th grade |
Hopi
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| Ann Engle |
7th grade Social Studies |
Ingleside
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| Bonnie Bezon |
Music/Choir |
Kiva |
| Abbey Bobbett |
4th grade |
Laguna |
| David Coronado |
7th grade Math |
Mohave |
| Tamara Johnson |
P.E. |
Mountainside |
| Jeanette Young |
Music |
Navajo |
| Tamara Schultz |
5th grade |
Pima |
| Aryana Good |
2nd grade |
Pueblo |
| Kelly Miles-Vandenheuvel |
2nd grade |
Redfield |
| Jennifer Harmon |
Spanish |
Saguaro |
| Whitney Johnson |
1st grade |
Sequoya |
| Claudia Vickers |
Kindergarten |
Tavan |
| Susan Ferguson |
Kindergarten |
Tonalea K-8 |
| Julia Hostal |
8th grade Science |
Tonalea K-8 |
| Brianna Maxwell |
2nd grade |
Yavapai |
This year's Charros Outstanding Students are:
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Mitch Arndt
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Arcadia |
| Emma Lieberman |
Arcadia |
| Maya Noto |
Chaparral |
Thompson Vipond
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Chaparral |
Taeler Jones
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Coronado |
Lucas Richard
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Coronado |
Daniel Frasco
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Desert Mountain |
Kara Sherman
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Desert Mountain
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Joseph Corte
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Saguaro |
Sarah Perleberg
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Saguaro |
The 2018 Scholarship winners are:
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Ashley Zubiate
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Arcadia |
Future Teacher Scholarship
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Lilly Tritch
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Chaparral
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Future Teacher Scholarship
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Suzanne Eley
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Coronado |
Scottsdale Community College Scholarship
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Many congratulations to these terrific teachers and stupendous students - you so deserve this recognition!
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Designing Her Future
As part of the planning for this year's Charros Awards Banquet, we asked Bernie Fritts' Graphics Design III students at Desert Mountain High School to design the cover of the banquet program. The Charros chose the design on the left created by junior Allie Cole. Her design was also the basis for the Charros' invitations.
The Charros must have recognized something in Allie's abilities: this week, she won the gold medal for advertising design at the state SkillsUSA competition at the Phoenix Convention Center! SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry, working together to ensure America has a skilled work force in the future. SkillsUSA Arizona does its part toward that end through a structured program of citizenship, leadership, employability, technical and professional skills training.
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Google It!
SUSD teachers were among hundreds who gathered at Grand Canyon University last month for the sold-out 2018 Arizona Google Summit for educators. In some cases, they were learning from some of our own Google experts, Vicki Anderson and Amy Downs!
Our educators took part in sessions covering the apps in the G Suite for Education (Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drawings, YouTube, Classroom, Maps, etc.) that they can implement in their classrooms. They also learned about best practices in educational technology and great teaching that will help them provide our students with the instruction they need to be successful in school today and in their professions tomorrow.
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March Parent Forums
Acting Superintendent Dr. Amy Fuller held open forums in each of the SUSD's five Learning Communities last month. She asked that a recap of those Q&A sessions be created to share with parents, staff and the community. They can be found below, as well as
on the
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From Nashville to Morocco: Spring Break Adventures
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t was time to close the loop over Spring Break, as a dozen SUSD students who hosted students from Morocco back in November traveled to Marrakech to visit their world.
The trip was made possible by the Scottsdale Sister Cities Association, which, with the support of the city of Scottsdale, has cultivated partnerships with eight different cities on five continents through student, educational, cultural and economic development exchanges.
Taking advantage of this tremendous international opportunity were:
Kassidy Gardner, Pierce Gardner, Kyle Polen
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Chaparral High School |
Kayte Arvizo, Leslie Ortiz, Kylie Strickland
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Coronado High School |
Molly Opheim, Magnolia Pena
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Desert Mountain High School |
Felipe Carceller, Isabel Haas,
Maeve Kuzel-Lehn, Samarrah Stephan
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Saguaro High School |
Desert Mountain senior Molly Opheim says the trip was life-changing. "I will never forget the incredible friendships I've made. Being able to experience life in another culture gave me a different perspective to appreciate."
The group was accompanied by Coronado Spanish teacher Dr. Yvonne Pasek, Desert Mountain French teacher Veronique Rader and Sister Cities Youth Committee chair Max Rumbaugh.
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Meanwhile ... Stateside ....
Arcadia High School students earned one of the top awards at the Student Television & Film National Competition held in Nashville, Tennessee during Spring Break.
Seniors Jacob Staudenmaier, Nick Forney, Dallas Greene and Narsah Khamis joined forces with juniors
Christopher Smith, Rachael Schulman, Lindsay Formica, Max Swiergol, Dash McDonald and Alexa Teneyck to create, write, film, produce and edit a short documentary in 8 hours or less for the "Crazy 8s" Documentary Film Competition. The Titans were awarded one of the highest recognitions from among the hundreds of middle and high schools from the U.S. that competed.
In addition to the documentary competition, the Arcadia students, under the direction of Film and TV instructor Eric Luse, were required to showcase their skills and talents in TV news & broadcasting, film writing, cinematography, editing and production, based upon certain themes/prompts, specific time constraints and stringent rules. Walter Cronkite would have been proud of you ... and we definitely are!
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Scottsdale Unified School District values our partnerships with local business. Businesses now have the opportunity to support SUSD through the purchase of monthly advertising in SUSD newsletters that are distributed to the families of more than 23,000 SUSD students and more than 3,000 employees.
Additionally, SUSD offers several other opportunities for businesses to support the District through event sponsorships and school wish-list fulfillment.
Businesses interested in learning more about opportunities to support SUSD can contact the SUSD Communications Department at
[email protected]
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| Tax Credit Contributions Benefit SUSD Students |
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Tax Credit
Tax Credit contributions can be made anytime throughout the school year. Anyone who pays Arizona state income tax can give. Please click HERE to learn more about making a tax credit contribution to SUSD.
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Upcoming Events
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April 2-15
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International Baccalaureate Art Exhibition, Palomino Library, Desert Mountain High School campus, 12575 E. Via Linda, Scottsdale - April 5: Artists' Reception, 5 p.m.
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April 5-6-7:
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Annual SUSD Festival of the Arts, First Baptist Church of Scottsdale, 7025 E. Osborn Rd., Scottsdale
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April 5-6-7:
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Chaparral High School Spring Musical,
Singin' in the Rain,
7 p.m., Auditorium,
6935 E. Gold Dust Ave., Scottsdale
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April 11-12-13
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Desert Mountain High School Spring Musical,
Spamalot,
7 p.m., Auditorium, 12575 E. Via Linda, Scottsdale
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April 12:
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Mandarin Dual Language Immersion program information meeting, 9:30 a.m., Conference Room, Desert Canyon Elementary School, 10203 E. McDowell Mountain Ranch Rd., Scottsdale
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April 12:
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SUSD Governing Board Study Session, 3 p.m., Mohave District Annex, 8500 E. Jackrabbit Rd., Scottsdale
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April 17:
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SUSD Governing Board Regular Meeting, 5 p.m., Coronado High School, 7501 E. Virginia Ave., Scottsdale
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| May 2: |
Early Release - All grades - Professional Development |
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CONNECT TO SCOTTSDALE STUDENTS AND STAFF
THROUGH OUR MONTHLY DIGITAL NEWSLETTERS!
Support your own business by supporting Scottsdale Schools.
We have two monthly newsletters with ad space available - one to the parents of our 23,000 students and one to our 3,000 employees. Every dollar you spend advertising with us goes back into promoting our amazing students and schools!
SHARE YOUR PASSION FOR EDUCATION BY BECOMING A SPONSOR!
Scottsdale Unified School District is always looking for new community partnerships. From sports to science and from fine arts to robotics, our school teams can always use more support. If you are looking for a way to help our students and promote your business at the same time, ask us about our sponsorship opportunities!
Contact our representative today at 480-484-6223 for more information.
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