District

Dialogue

For employees of the Laveen Elementary School District March 28, 2014

The District Dialogue is issued on the second and fourth Friday of the month.

A+ committee visits Trailside Point School

The Arizona Education Foundation’s A+ School of Excel-

lence committee conducted their site visit of Trailside Point

School this week.

The site visit was the second

step in the application process

for the distinction.

A+ winning schools will be

announced at the end of April.

Both Trailside and M.C. Cash schools are candidates for

the award.

Board adopts English language arts curriculum

The Laveen Governing Board approved new English lan-

guage arts curriculum to be implemented next school year.

From August 2013 through January 2014, a committee of

44 teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators re-

searched, reviewed, and evaluated English language arts pro-

grams aligned to Arizona’s College and Career Ready Stand-

ards.

“Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards call for an

integrated approach to teaching reading, writing, language,

speaking and listening,” said Laveen’s Executive Director of

Academic Services Kathy Davis on the need for the updated

curriculum.

Committee members selected the following items:

Grades K through 3, Reading Wonders, published by

McGraw-Hill

Grades 4 and 5, Reading Street, published by Pearson

Grades 6 through 8, Common Core Literature, pub-

lished by Pearson

In addition to English language arts, new math curriculum

will also be implemented in the fall. That curriculum was ap-

proved by the board in May 2013. Both the math and English

language arts curricula feature a digital platform giving stu-

dents the ability to access resources, activities, and other

online tools.

Teachers are participating in numerous professional de-

velopment opportunities over the next several months to

prepare for the upcoming school year.

The new curriculum adoption was made possible by the

capital override approved by Laveen residents in 2012.

Laveen to participate in PARCC field testing

Arizona is among a group of states that are in the Part-

nership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers

(PARCC) Consortium. PARCC is conducting field tests on their

assessment around the country in randomly selected class-

rooms, and the Laveen School District has been chosen to

participate.

Each Laveen school will

have six to ten classrooms par-

ticipating in a portion of the

PARCC field testing, which is

aligned to Arizona’s College and

Career Ready Standards.

The district’s participation allows for those developing

the assessment to “test the test” and to ensure student tech-

nology devices used for the test work properly. Because the

focus of the field test is not on measuring student achieve-

ment, no student scores will be provided.

By taking part in the field tests, teachers and students will

play an important role in the development of next generation

tests. It will allow Laveen to become more familiar with this

new assessment, as our state works to align testing to Arizo-

na’s College and Career Ready Standards.

PARCC field testing in Laveen will take place on March 31

and May 14, 2014.

10 instructional days until AIMS

PAGE 2 March 28, 2014

Lions recognize penny drive

Classrooms that donated the most pennies to the Laveen

Lions Club’s annual drive were rewarded with a pizza party.

The Lions’ Mario Espericueta and Sharon Anderson deliv-

ered the pizzas to the following winning classrooms:

Desert Meadows — Todd Morgan

Rogers Ranch — Andrew Hudgins

Trailside Point — Alan Manka

M.C. Cash — Michelle Sawyer

Vista del Sur — Janette Rashedi

Cheatham — Luz Salgado

Laveen — Jeanette Hoskovec

Funds from the penny drive go to support the Lions’ holiday

toy and food drive.

Kroc Center welcomes student club

The Kroc Center opened a little ear-

ly one recent afternoon to welcome

members of Cheatham’s Rock

Climbing Club.

Twelve students are part of the

club that is sponsored by Cheatham

teacher Ms. Stephanie Zaleski and

Superintendent Bill Johnson.

Design revealed for Cheatham additions

The design for Cheatham’s upcoming building ad-

ditions were shown at this month’s board meeting.

Director of Support Services Eric Peterson provided

the design by EMC2 Architects.

A gymnasium will be added to the southeast cor-

ner of the campus . When Cheatham was originally

built, it was a K-6 school and did not need both a caf-

eteria and gym. Having since been reconfigured to K-

8, a gym is needed to support the larger campus in-

cluding grades 7 and 8.

Also, planned in the project, are the addition of

art and science rooms—facilities that weren’t neces-

sary in the K-6 setting. The library and computer lab

will also be enlarged. Playfields and basketball courts will be rearranged to fit nicely on the remodeled campus. These addi-

tions will bring Cheatham up to the district standards that other Laveen campuses currently meet.

The projects are funded primarily through proceeds from bond sales approved by voters in 2008.

Future Site of Additions

Vista parents learn about internet safety

Vista’s PTO hosted a presentation by the notMYkid organi-

zation on internet safety this

week.

Representatives from not-

MYkid presented information on

the dangers of sexual solicitation

and cyber bullying and the impact

of social media. The meeting gave

parents valuable tools to prevent

internet misuse at home.

This presentation was the sec-

ond in a three-part series that the

Vista PTO has hosted.

Saturday, April 26 First Pitch 8:00 a.m.

M.C. Cash Fields

Sign up with your team captain.

Eating a nutritionally balanced breakfast can help your child do their best every day. Our breakfasts include whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Milk and 100% juice are always offered.

Served free to all students, every day.

It’s a good start to a great day!

BREAKFAST: the most important meal of the day.

Join us in the cafeteria 30 minutes

before school.