DVUSD - Around Our Schools - February 7 - 11, 2011

Deer Valley Elementary Schools

On Friday, February 4 Andy Mandell from Cave Creek Forest Service, Smokey the Bear and Woodsey Owl visited Constitution to help Kindergarten students plant a tree on the Constitution campus.  Kindergarten students have been learning about ecology, care of forests, and fire prevention.   Donations from Desert Tree Nursery and Easley’s Fun Shop helped make the day possible, and Kindergarten students are continuing to collect aluminum cans to raise money to pay for the mulch and vitamins for the new tree.  This event has been an annual tradition on the Constitution campus for 27 years.

The Constitution Physical Education Department will be turning the gymnasium into the Constitution Lanes for Family Bowling Night on February 25, 5-8 p.m. 

The annual "Jump Rope for the Heart" and "Hoops for the Heart" fund raiser was held at Highland Lakes on January 27-28.  The students and staff did a great job collecting pledges for the American Heart Association!   

Students in grades K-3 practiced for several weeks building their strength and cardio endurance during PE classes and did a wonderful job in the spot light when it was their time to shine on January 27!  Grades 4 - 6 participated in both Hoops for Heart as well as Jump Rope for Heart.  During a basketball unit in PE student select their own 3 person team and competed to find the top team for the class.  That team then represented their class at the Hoops for Heart competition on January 28.  Parents and students cheered their team on with posters. 

On January 28 the elementary students at Highland Lakes had a very special treat!  Ronald McDonald came to visit!  He helped the students understand the importance of being a good friend, cooperating and not being a bully!  The children really appreciated what Ronald had to say!   Thank you Ronald McDonald! 

On February 3 students and staff took part in a very special ceremony held in honor of Mr. Micah Kaplan.  Mr. Kaplan was an amazing person, a much loved teacher and friend at Highland Lakes who died suddenly in a car accident on December 12, 2010.   In the weeks that followed, students and staff held a fund-raiser selling "Be Like Micah" T-shirts and donated over $1,600.00 to Micah's wife.

On the day of the ceremony, February 3, which also was Micah's birthday, everyone wore their shirts.  Principal Mark Anderson opened the ceremony with a very touching speech about Mr. Kaplan and a tree was planted with a special plaque at its base in his memory.  Daryl Treadwell, a 7th grader at Highland Lakes, sang a beautiful song and Mrs. Kaplan shared her feelings.   It was a beautiful ceremony that will be remembered always, as will Mr. Micah Kaplan.

Eighth grade students in Mrs. Sarah Crabtree's language arts class took part in a gallery walk to read each other's original poems. Students spent time, identifying poetic elements as part of the lesson, while enjoying their peer's creativity.

Ms. White’s 6^th grade General Music Students will be going on a field trip to the Musical Instrument Museum on Feb. 16.  Students will get to see and hear music throughout history and from around the world.  Students will be learning about China and India in history, so they are hoping to supplement their learning with tangible, musical artifacts from those regions.

Third grade is doing a Project Based Learning unit in social studies.  The students have to design a product, write a persuasive paper, and make a poster and then present to class.  The class should have fun with this economic unit!!

The Library has challenged all students to write a Fairytale and change and twist it into a new version of an old classic one.  Legend Springs has a lot of creative students on campus and the stories have been pouring in.  A free book is this month’s incentive.

February is Kids at Hope month at New River Elementary.  During this month children will be doing activities and reading stories that remind them of what it means to be a Kid at Hope.  Friday, February 11 will mark the annual Kids at Hope Report Card Day. 

Student Council sixth graders and Advisor, Karen Hynes, recently attended the Superintendent’s Annual Summit.  The summit gave the students the opportunity to meet with students from other schools and take part in activities encouraging them to be leaders. The theme was “Leadership – Common People Doing Uncommon Things!” The day began with a dynamic talk from Warren H. Stewart,Jr.  He told the students that “Leadership is taking the initiative to do what others won’t notice.”  Some fun activities and sharing completed the day.  Each school will now work on a plan to present what they learned to the students at their own school.

New River is providing its students with a special attendance incentive program awarding students a new bicycle each semester. All students with perfect attendance will be eligible. This program is made possible by a generous donation from Jeanne Getz of the Horace Mann Companies.

Congratulations go to Sierra Verde student Jasmine Kaur who was the winner of the Southwest Airlines and the Phoenix Suns "Symbol of Freedom" Art and Essay contest. Jasmine and nine other winners will travel to Boston, MA with a parent on an all expense paid trip to tour the national museums and historical landmarks and watch the Phoenix Suns at the Boston Celtics game She and a parent will be a guest of the Phoenix Suns at the February 13 game and watch the game from the suite along with the other contest winners. 

Reading Specialist, Anne Thiebeau and Library Media Specials Karla Olofson worked together to organize an author visit for students in grades K-5. Dow Kump will visit Sierra Verde's campus on March 1, during "Read Across America Week". He is the author of "Project-00".   Each student will have the opportunity to reserve a signed copy of Project-00, which will be delivered on March 1. For more information on Mr. Kump visit at www.dowkump.com

Sierra Verde would like to congratulate two students who have had their art work published in the Keep Arizona Beautiful calendar. 5th grader Palnati, Sainamitha from Mrs. Wann's class and sixth grader Wilhelm Hunter from Mr. Hart's class.

Sierra Verde's Sardella's Pizza night was a huge success. Total sales from the event were $946.99, Sardella's is a making 15% donation for a whopping total of $142.05. Money raised will go toward STEM funding. Congratulations to Ms. Willis' students who won a classroom pizza party for having the most students supporting this great event and eating out at Sardella's.

Bingo night on Friday, February 4, 2011 brought out Sierra Verde families.  The night was a huge fund raiser for the PTSO. A huge shout-out goes to Michelle Duke, who organized the event.  Thank you to all Sierra Verde families who supported this wonderful event. 

Deer Valley High Schools

The Goldwater Speech and Debate team competed this weekend at the largest state tournament this school year. With close to 500 students representing 43 schools in nearly 900 individual event slots, to make the cut to semi-finals in an event was challenging. Senior Shantanu Bala not only made semi-finals, but also made finals and placed 8th in a field of nearly 200 for Impromptu Speaking. Senior Danny Soto, Sophomore Reed Oberlander and Freshman Chase Jennewine also competed in Radio Broadcasting, doing very well in this new event.

Barry Goldwater High School Academic Decathlon results: Team: Rookie of the Year; 2nd Place for Essay: Anuvind Menon; 2nd Place for Math: Zarah Holbert. The sponsors are Leigh Bondrole and Diette Oshrin

Barry Goldwater finished 9th overall as a team, out of 16 schools. We brought 13 wrestlers and 5 of which were freshman (Arron Scott (1 win), Troy Vandall (3rd Place finish), Ben Bermuchi (1 Win), David Zamora, John White). 

Placers in Sectionals and Qualifiers for the State Tournament. These students will go to the State Tournament and Represent Barry Goldwater; Troy Vandall -112 lbs, Austin Crawford - 145 lbs

Aurillio Ortega - 152 lbs

Barry Goldwater HS EL students have been selected to be participants in a state-wide Arizona Department of Education video.  A representative from the AZ Dept of Ed is facilitating and actual lessons are being taught by them.  This film will be used state wide as an example of how to effectively teach EL students.  Stacy Hoffman can give you further details as well.

The Barry Goldwater High School men's soccer team defeated Perry high school in the 5AII semi-final match by a score of 3-2.  This puts our team in the finals on Saturday.  This is the first time in BGHS history that any sports team has been in the state finals.  To celebrate this incredible accomplishment, we will have a special pep assembly to commemorate this.  We will forward the details and schedule to you ASAP.  Please congratulate all of our soccer players.  They've represented BGHS well pursuing victory with honor.

Awareness Walkthrough and Silent Auction: Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) will be hosting a walkthrough and silent auction. The walkthrough is a life-size diorama depicting the stories of three trafficked girls. The walkthrough exists to bring awareness about sex slavery to high school students so that fewer students will be susceptible to coercion into the sex trade.

When:  On Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Where:  Barry Goldwater High School,

2820 W. Rose Garden Lane Phx, 85027 (Practice Gym)

Time:  2:15- 3:30 (Walkthrough) 

Open again for the walkthrough and silent auction at 5:30-7:30

The Boulder Creek HS Choir and Marching Band are hosting carwashes on the following dates:

Sat. Feb. 26:  Car Wash  Noon to 5pm  CVS Daisy Mountain and Gavilan Peak

Sat. Mar. 5:  Car Wash Noon to 5pm  CVS  Anthem Way and Gavilan Peak

The funds raised from these carwashes will help pay for meals, transportation of students and equipment. We over 150 students performing at the Heritage Music Festival.

If anyone wants to make a donation for this trip, feel free to contact, Mr.Glen Hart or Mr.Kirk Douglas at 623-445-8600. The goal is to raise at least $2,000.

The Confucius Institute and the School of International Letters and Cultures at ASU along with Boulder Creek High and Gavilan Peak School will host the “Experience Chinese Culture” day. Thisis a great opportunity for students to experience Chinese culture. Students who sign up for this class will participate in a Chinese Painting and a Chinese Craft class. Chinese painting is an ancient art form that dates back thousands of years. Artists use these brushes to create

images of nature and people. In the Chinese craft class, students will learn to make traditional Chinese crafts. February 24, Thursday, 9:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., ASU Tempe Campus, Memorial Union, Chinese Painting Santa Cruz 229, Chinese Craft Graham 226

Boulder Creek High School had 10 students make the North Central Region Honor Band. Congratulations to:
Arielle Romano - Flute, 11th Chair
Danielle Lackey - Oboe, 4th Chair
Caterina Lake - 1st Clarinet, 7th Chair
Jacob Buhl - 3rd Clarinet, 3rd Chair
Michael Gregoire - Alto Saxophone, 3rd Chair
Jeff Englis - Alto Saxophone, 4th Chair
Bill Fitzgibbons - 1st Trumpet, 1st Chair (Top Chair Overall!)
Holly Haas - 1st Trombone, 3rd Chair
Adam Soper - Tuba, 1st Chair (Top Chair Overall)
Randy Thomas, Tuba, 4th Chair

Boulder Creek High School had 5 students regional Honor Choir

Athena Stowers - 23rd chair, Alto

Jordan Woods - 5th chair, Tenor

Jacob Bentz - 10th chair, Tenor

Devin Leming - 4th Alternate, Tenor

Steven Langenhorst - 13th chair, Bass

On February 4-5th, 2011 Boulder Creek High School Academic Decathlon participated in our Regional Competition against 25 other teams. The team earned 20 individual medals and 4 trophies, and were only a few points away from ranking in the top three teams.

Please congratulate:

Brendon Mcnicholas - medals in Art, Economics, Math, Social science, Speech, Music, Language and Literature and Geology. He received the trophy for the top scoring student in the entire competition and had a standing ovation.

Rick Kearney- medals in Economics, Art, Speech, Language and Lit., essay. He received a trophy for Most Outstanding Essay, and Top Scoring student in the Scholastic division.

Jessica Schildt- Gold medal in essay with a perfect score

Cameron Howard- Gold medal in math

Alicia Rodriguez - Bronze medal in Interview and Silver medal in Social Science

MRHS Academic Decathlon sponsored by teachers Natalie Aaspas and Elisabeth Borchers  is celebrating a huge win: a Gold Medal in Math by ninth grader Hansen Qiu in Regionals. 

MRHS Band sponsored by George Hattendorf was very successful during the All-State 30 MRHS band members made All-Region, 2 are alternates and of that 30 students, 5 were freshman!  The students are listed below: Adrian Abeyta(12), Gabe Berry          (12), Jameson Berry (11), Alex Brooks(11), Danny Carrera(10), Brian Carter(12), Lindsey Conklin(12), Martin Duarte(9), Samantha Fay(11), Alex Guyton(12), Ha Neul Han(12), Madison Jay(9), Jun-Young Kim(12), Colin LaSharr(11), Jordan Lillie(12), Matthew Loehr(12), Maggie Lopez(10), Mary Kate Lusson(12), Emily Mahoney(10),  Kacie McChesney(12), Shanie McChesney(12), Mia Moran(12), Desmond Ng(12), Alexandra Pallad(9), Rachel Price(9), Kylie Scartozzi(10), Michael Skidmore (12), Nicholas Sutter(12), Chris Vraney(9), Shelby Weldon(12).

Best Buddies, sponsored by Mr. Schmitt, is organizing a fundraiser called “A Night with the Stars” on February 7.  From 6:00 till 8:00 PM, the club will provide an opportunity to meet and get the autographs of Jordin Sparks, JJ Putz of the D-Backs, Matt Thorton, White Sox, Neil Rackers and Jon Weeks of the Texans.

The Ridge Army Club sponsored by Brooks Scofield, Cheer Squad, and Boys Basketball program are sponsoring the Second Annual "Ridge vs Cancer Basketball Game" Tuesday evening February 8 at the boys basketball game against Willow Canyon.  The boys basketball teams will be wearing shirts (for warm-ups), socks, and shoe laces in one of three colors to represent different forms of cancer; blue for prostate cancer, pink for breast cancer, and purple for all forms of cancer.   All proceeds will be donated to Cancer organizations.