Washington Elementary School District

You’re not alone! September is Teen Su***de Prevention Awareness Month, and we want each one of our students to know that they matter.

Parents and guardians – we encourage you to reach out to the teens in your life and remind them that you see them, hear them, and are there to support them. And remember, if a teen has thoughts of su***de, the Teen Lifeline hotline is here to listen and help 24/7 at 602-248-8336.

Happy Labor Day, ! As a reminder, there is no school today, September 2, in observance of the Labor Day holiday. School and regular business hours will resume tomorrow, September 3. We hope you enjoy your holiday!

Congratulations to Lisa Chavez, science teacher at Palo Verde Middle School, who received the Outstanding Earth Science Teacher Award for the state of Arizona from the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT)! Lisa was celebrated during her school’s PLC meeting earlier this week in recognition of her achievement! The NAGT selected Lisa for her innovative and adaptable teaching style, particularly with middle school students at such a pivotal age for fostering a love of science. Her deep involvement in the community extends beyond the classroom, as she actively engages with families and embraces the local culture, showcasing her true dedication to her role. Lisa’s long-term commitment to education is evident in her continuous efforts to refine and enhance her teaching practices and student programs, setting a high standard for K-12 education.

The is very proud of Lisa and appreciates her dedication to science education!

Attention, ! This is a friendly reminder that there will be no school on Monday, September 2, 2024, in observance of the Labor Day holiday. School and regular business hours will resume on Tuesday, September 3. Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

We are thrilled to announce that Jennifer Spector, fifth grade English Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at Desert View Elementary, has been named as one of the five finalists for the 2025 Arizona Teacher of the Year Award®! The five finalists are known as Ambassadors of Excellence and are in the running for this prestigious honor, which will be announced during the 2025 Arizona Educational Foundation Arizona Teacher of the Year Awards ceremony on October 19. Congratulations, Jennifer! The is so proud of you and is rooting for you!

REMINDER: The WESD Governing Board will host a regular meeting today, Aug. 29, at 6 p.m. The meeting is open to the public and will also be live streamed via YouTube at https://youtube.com/live/_ilCCQluYwc.

Sunburst Elementary was in for a surprise this morning during a special assembly featuring Peoria Subaru! Sunburst Principal Jennifer Dial kicked off the event by highlighting the many ways that Peoria Subaru has supported the school over the past two years from volunteering at Read Across America to donating bikes, supplies and candy for its Trunk or Treat event. Then, students representing every grade level were split into two teams for a friendly puzzle competition.

After the fun, Matt Moore from Peoria Subaru shared about the importance of education and the critical role of teachers. He then surprised the school with a check for $15,000 before deciding to double it, donating a grand total of $30,000! It was the highlight of the assembly as it came as an incredible surprise to all and filled the room with excitement and gratitude.

The donation was a part of Subaru Loves Learning®, a national program championed by Subaru of America, Inc. that helps provide funding for teachers at high-needs schools across the country to purchase the school supplies and resources needed to help their students succeed. Benefitting more than 625 students, the donation will provide Sunburst teachers with $500 worth of funding each to purchase supplies for the school year on the AdoptAClassroom.org Marketplace.

A huge thank you to Peoria Subaru for their generous donation and ongoing support of Sunburst and the !

A big shout out to Ocotillo Elementary School and Arroyo School who recently earned 2023-2024 PBISaz Awards! Ocotillo received a Level 3 with tier 1 and tier 2 fidelity award while Arroyo received a Level 2 with tier 1 fidelity. The AZPBIS Awards recognize schools for successful implementation and outcomes with school-wide systems of Positive Behavior Interventions. In honor of their achievements, each school will receive an award poster and a digital badge to display.

Congratulations to Ocotillo and Arroyo on their commitment to building school cultures that are positive, proactive, and supportive for all students!

A special thank you to the Abraham Lincoln Traditional School Guild who assisted the WESD Hearing Team with receiving a $49,000 grant from the Del E. Webb Foundation! Thanks to the help of principal Jennifer Griggs at Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Perkins from the Abraham Lincoln Guild, the Hearing Team will use the grant to purchase 30 new RedCat listening systems for classrooms that have hearing-impaired students. These systems will be used in classrooms throughout the District and will improve the learning experience for hundreds of students within the !

Good evening, ! Visit the following link to read the WESD e-news for August 23, 2024: https://adobe.ly/4dPS6T8. Thank you!

Our summer campus improvement projects continue! Check out the new air conditioner units, ceilings and lighting in one of the wings at Maryland School! This classroom remodel project began over the summer and will also include new window installations when it’s completed before the 2025-2026 school year. The can't thank its community enough for their continued support!

The first Green Day of the school year was held yesterday! What’s a Green Day? It’s a districtwide afternoon of professional learning that allows teachers and staff to attend a variety of sessions based on the content that they teach. Some of the session topics included planning for small group instruction in Language Arts, social emotional behavior supports for social workers, training on the new science materials for fifth through eighth grade teachers, project based learning for art teachers, and so much more!

We are grateful for our teachers and staff for staying current on their practice, and appreciate their willingness to try new things!

We have a couple more new administrators for the 2024-2025 school year to introduce! Congratulations to Ignacio Mercado, new assistant principal at Palo Verde Middle School, and Kamren Bowker, new assistant principal at Lookout Mountain Elementary! They were both recognized at the Professional Learning Academy meeting yesterday. We are very proud to have these incredible leaders as part of the !

The WESD is looking for bus drivers to join our incredible Transportation team and help ensure our students get to and from school safely! We offer great benefits, paid holidays and vacation time, free CDL training, state retirement options, and more. We are also hiring for bus assistants and alternative drivers. Full-time and part-time positions are available. Please share these opportunities with your family, friends and neighbors who may be interested. To apply online, please visit https://jobs.wesdschools.org/.

We hosted our first immunization clinic of the school year over the weekend – and what a success it was! Overall, 79 children were screened and 208 children vaccines were administered. Five adults were also screened with one receiving a vaccine. A big thank you to Cholla Middle School and our friends at the Phoenix Fire Department Baby Shots program for their partnership in hosting the clinic!

The Washington Resource Information Center (WRIC), WESD's one-stop shop that offers free extensive resources to families of children under the age of five, is providing several classes at Ocotillo Elementary School! View the images to learn about their upcoming classes regarding home safety, safe sleep, bike and pedestrian safety, and car seats.

For more information about the WRIC, please visit https://www.wesdschools.org/WRIChome.

More new administrators for the 2024-2025 school year were introduced during the Governing Board meeting earlier this week! Congratulations to Shannon Sixel, new principal of Palo Verde Middle School, and Darren Hiebel, new assistant principal of Washington Elementary! We are so excited to see all that they will accomplish in their new leadership roles!

Don't forget, ! In partnership with the Phoenix Fire Department Baby Shots program, we are hosting a free immunization clinic tomorrow, August 17, from 8 a.m. to noon at Cholla Middle School, located at 3120 W. Cholla St. General childhood vaccines and some adult vaccines will be available. See you there!

Way to go, perfect score students! During last night's Governing Board meeting, students were recognized for receiving perfect scores on the 2024 Spring administration of the Arizona's Academic Standards Assessment! Each of the fifth graders (fourth graders when they took the test) received perfect scores on the Math and English Language Arts portions, while our former eighth grader earned perfect scores on the Math and Science portions.

Congratulations to:
Jayla D., fifth grader at Abraham Lincoln Traditional School;
Rebekah S., fifth grader at Abraham Lincoln Traditional School;
Charlotte S., fifth grader at Sahuaro Elementary School (formerly John Jacobs Elementary);
Savannah A., fifth grader at Lookout Mountain Elementary;
Easton G., fifth grader at Lookout Mountain Elementary; and
Christian Z., former eighth grader at Palo Verde Middle School.

The is so proud of these extraordinary students and appreciates their commitment to academic success! Keep up the great work!

We have some "fresh" news to share! Four WESD schools including Cactus Wren Elementary, Ocotillo Elementary School, Orangewood School and Shaw Butte Elementary were selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) for the 2024-2025 school year! The goal of the FFVP is to introduce children to fresh fruits and vegetables and increase overall consumption of fresh, unprocessed produce among children. Thanks to the program, the WESD Nutrition Services Department will be able to serve students at the four selected schools with free fruits and vegetables in addition to nutritious breakfast and lunch meals.

Congratulations to all!

REMINDER: The WESD Governing Board will host a regular meeting today, August 14, at 6:00 p.m. The meeting is open to the public and will also be live streamed via YouTube at https://youtube.com/live/E0e2fwf8GPY.

We have another campus improvement project to share with you! Check out the newly expanded parking and pick-up and drop-off loop at Chaparral Elementary School! This project was bond-funded and would not have been possible without the support of our community. It also includes a new digital marquee! Thank you for your continued support of the !

The WESD has been named a gold award winner of the Summer 2024 Farm Fresh Challenge by the Arizona Department of Education's Health and Nutrition Services Division! To be recognized in the gold tier, awardees completed all Taste, Teach and Connect activities during the month of June. They also met the criteria of procuring three local menu items, hosting two educational activities, promoting the challenge, and incorporating at least two additional hard-to-reach local food items in their menus.

As part of the challenge, the WESD Nutrition Services Department sourced local watermelons, cantaloupe, hand-rolled burritos and cantaloupe microgreens to serve to students during summer feeding. They even provided signage with nutrition education and posted about their challenge activities on Facebook.

A big shout out to our incredible Nutrition Services Team for working with the vendors to source the items and providing our students with local fresh foods! We are so proud of the work that they do!

UPDATE: This week's WESD Governing Board regular meeting has been changed to Wednesday, August 14, at 6:00 p.m. The meeting is open to the public and will also be live streamed via YouTube at https://youtube.com/live/E0e2fwf8GPY.

Good evening, ! Visit the following link to read the WESD e-news for August 9, 2024: https://adobe.ly/4cl4jhD. Thank you!

The WESD loves its partners! Over the past few weeks, our schools were showered with donations of school supplies, gifts and treats from faith-based and community organizations, local businesses, parent groups and more! A special thank you to all of our incredible partners! We are grateful for your continued support, love and care of the students and teachers within the !

KidSpace, our fabulous before and after-school child care program, prepared for the first day of school last week with an energizing afternoon of professional development thanks to Inspirato Education! Team members participated in a "Pep Rally with a Purpose", engaging in team-building challenges and honing their skills. The orientation brough out enthusiasm and excitement as everyone left ready to make this school year a great one! We appreciate our KidSpace staff and all that they do to support our students!

The WESD KidSpace program is hiring! If you or someone you know loves working with children, please join the KidSpace Team for their open interviews on Mondays from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. at the WESD Welcome and Registration Center, located at 3200 W. Cholla St. For questions, please contact Heather Whiteman, KidSpace coordinator, at 602-896-6971 or [email protected].

As a reminder, the WESD and Phoenix Fire Department Baby Shots program will host a free immunization clinic next Saturday, August 17, from 8 a.m. to noon at Cholla Middle School, located at 3120 W. Cholla St. General childhood vaccines and some adult vaccines will be available. To schedule an appointment, please contact Kim Bradfield at 602-347-4876.

Last week, we were excited to welcome back our outstanding nutrition services staff as they spent the day participating in professional development and preparing for the new school year. We are so grateful for them as they are essential in ensuring our students receive nutritious and tasty meals each day.

As a reminder, the WESD is proud to provide free breakfast and lunch meals to all students throughout the 2024-2025 school year!

Have you heard about the Washington Resource Information Center (WRIC)? Available at three WESD schools, the WRIC offers extensive resources to families of children under age five free of charge. This one-stop shop connects families to community resources for food, clothing and medical services, hosts a variety of parent support programs, workshops and events, and provides early literacy programs such as Laugh & Learn Family Play Group, as well as Love & Logic and Triple P classes.

To learn more and view upcoming events and offerings, please visit https://www.wesdschools.org/WRIChome.