 EMAIL SENT TO SUSD PARENT FROM PRESIDENT OF SUSD GOVERNING BOARD ON FEBRUARY 28th, 2018
Dear SUSD Parents, I write to let you know that our school district's Governing Board has named Dr. Amy Fuller to serve as Acting Superintendent while Superintendent Denise Birdwell is on administrative leave. The action was taken last night. Those of you in the Coronado Learning Community may recognize Dr. Fuller's name: she is the District's administrator in charge of overseeing the Coronado Success Initiative, which began last year at Coronado High School. She will continue in that capacity while serving as Acting Superintendent. The Governing Board and I are most grateful that Dr. Fuller is willing to take on this assignment at this time. We are confident she will serve your students and schools, our staff and SUSD well, and know that the impressive progress that has been made at Coronado during the past year will continue. I also want to let you know that the Governing Board voted formally last night to suspend the proposed Hohokam Elementary School and Central Kitchen projects. We also instructed our legal counsel to pursue action to terminate the contracts for both projects. Lastly, the Governing Board wants you to know that we continue to work collaboratively with the Attorney General's Office to resolve claims in the legal complaint it filed last week regarding work underway at Cheyenne Traditional School. Thank you for taking time to read this letter. While the District is undergoing some difficult times right now, please know that your Governing Board is fully committed to restoring community confidence and pride in SUSD. Sincerely, Barbara Perleberg President SUSD Governing Board
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Special Kid Field Day, is a very special day when SUSD self-contained students with special needs in kindergarten through eighth grade come together to attend an event built to support their specific individualized needs. Special Kid Field Day takes place at a local park, using the park and recreation facilities. There are over thirty stations with modified activities, facilitated by high school student volunteers (including but not limited to student council members, student leadership, cheerleaders, athletic teams, etc.), also community members including, Scottsdale Police Department (i.e. mounted police, K-9 unit, motorcycles, etc.), fire department, local sports mascots (i.e. Big Red from Cardinals, Suns' Gorilla, Baxter from the Arizona Diamondbacks, etc.), the Shriners, therapy and service dogs, and much more. The event addresses each students, social, emotional, sensory regulation, gross motor, fine motor, communication, math reasoning, ELA, science, and social studies goals and standards. The event takes place for two to three hours. Special Kid Field Day is truly a life-changing event for so many students and provides them an opportunity to be successful and experience so many amazing achievements that they otherwise might miss out on. Unfortunately, so many times people with special needs feel isolated and separated, and this is their chance to be able to be fully integrated leaders and productive members of a cohesive team. Frequently, this is the highlight of, not only the students' year, but the special education staff's as well. For this outstanding event to take place, we are in need of having 70-80 typical high school students to assist in running the different station and mentoring the different students with special needs. We are reaching out to all the high schools to seek the outstanding student leaders and different groups to assist in our wonderful day. These students can be from different backgrounds (i.e. the band, color guard, student council, national honor society, etc.).  This is Miss Vitale’s second year as a teacher in Arcadia’s Math Department. She teaches Geo Trig H and Algebra I. Arcadia is lucky to have such an energetic, dedicated and passionate teacher in the math department! In the spring of her first year, she even volunteered to be part of the team that accompanied the AB and BC Calc students to Prescott for a weekend of Calc Camp. It was three days of tutoring almost 200 students in preparation for the annual AP Calc exam. She plans to go again this year! Her education background includes:
· BA in Secondary Education, Mathematics ASU Miss Vitale has always wanted to be a teacher. When she was younger, she loved helping other students. She was a math tutor in high school at Desert Mountain and in college at ASU’s Math Tutoring Center. Initially, she planned to earn a degree in engineering (her dad is an Electrical Engineer). However, after the first year, Miss Vitale realized she should pursue her passion… teaching!. She truly enjoys working with and helping students learn math. So, she switched majors, did her student teaching at Saguaro High School, and applied for a job in SUSD. Students in Miss Vitale’s class look forward to learning through a variety of teaching methods and strategies. In addition to traditional lectures, review and practice, Miss Vitale helps students master concepts utilizing technology and programs like Kahoot. She also mixes it up with scavenger hunts, gallery walks, and relay race activities to get the kids up and moving and working with each other. Miss Vitale gets excited about finding and trying new Project-Based-Learning strategies, realizing that learning can be enhanced when students become actively involved in the learning process. FAVORITE THING ABOUT WORKING AT ARCADIA: The freedom to be yourself. I can “nerd out” about math all day and be an individual. HOBBIES OR FAVORITE THINGS TO DO WHEN NOT WORKING I love to read, go to the gym, listen to music and go to concerts. I go to a lot of Ska Concerts. DOG OR CAT? Dog. Have never had a pet yet, though. WHAT MAKES YOU PROUD? Those light bulb moments when a student “gets something” that was difficult for them. A RANDOM FACT ABOUT MISS VITALE I played saxophone in the 2011 New Year's Day Parade in London. Submitted by Amanda McCauley Spring 2018 ARCADIA STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL MAY 14 – SPONSORS & DONATIONS NEEDED
The ever popular (and always sold out) Arcadia Student Film Festival is slated for Monday evening May 14 at the Harkins Shea 14 Theaters. The Arcadia ANN/Film students will showcase their talents at this annual event, under the direction of Instructor Eric Luse. This is the Arcadia Media Communications Program’s biggest fundraiser of the year. There are multiple ways that individuals and local businesses can participate - ranging from sponsorships to donating goods/services to the Film Festival raffle. Sponsorship levels include: Preferred Sponsor $400 – Full Page Ad in Film Festival Program Gold Sponsor $200 – Half Page Ad Silver Sponsor $100 – Quarter Page Ad Business Sponsor $50 – Business Card Ad Ideas for raffle donations include gift cards from local businesses, movie tickets, sporting event tickets, concert tickets, museum tickets, Botanical Garden tickets, camera or film equipment or services, Behind the Scenes Tours of Local TV or Radio Stations, gift baskets of food, wine or other items, stay at weekend homes – anything and everything is welcome. For further information on Film Festival sponsorships or the raffle, please contact Heidi McNeil Staudenmaier at hstaudenmaier@swlaw.com or Rhonda Suder at rksuder@gmail.com. Thank you for supporting the Arcadia Media Comm Program students. Boys Soccer celebrated a great season with their Team Banquet this past Sunday. The Boys have made it to the State Championship Tournament for the last three straight years. The Senior Players were honored at the banquet and will be greatly missed: · Sebastian Gutierrez (Co-Captain) · Jack Spier (Co-Captain) · Ben Kiggins · Marco Martin · Brandon Naranjo · Luis Rodriguez · Jacob Staudenmaier · Anthony Soto · Isaac (Twinkie) Vasquez · Angel Saucedo (Team Manager) Thank you to our terrific coaches – Hayden Klarfeld (Head Varsity Coach), Gino Belassen (Assistant Varsity Coach) & Tom Gabriele (Head JV Coach).
GO TITANS! Website: http://arcadiaboyssoccer.wixsite.com/soccer  from ARCADIA NEWS on January 1st, 2018 by Nick Smith see here
Arcadia News "TEACHERS WE LOVE WINNER" for February 2018: Angie Berk, Arcadia High School Nominated by: Cathy Massimi What was your path to becoming a teacher? I’m from right in the middle of Illinois and moved here in 1980. I went to Chandler High School and then to ASU, where I got my degree in Mechanical Engineering. I worked in that field for a while and then spent time raising my children. Engineering was never really my passion though. Science was. So, I wasn’t always happy with my job. My parents were both in education, so I was familiar with that career, and I’d spent a lot of time helping out in science classrooms when my kids were in school and I remember really liking it. I did my student teaching at Desert Mountain and taught at Chaparral for six years before coming to Arcadia. You teach both Biology and Physics. How do you balance teaching two different subjects? Everybody thinks it’s a weird combination, but science is science. I bring a lot of biology knowledge into physics class, and vice versa. As an example, we were learning about terminal velocity in physics and using a falcon as an example. We got to learn about how they fly from a biology standpoint, so there are fun crossovers like that. Are there methods of teaching that you have moved away from as you became more experienced? When I first started teaching, I made power points for everything, especially in physics. It was a new technology and everyone thought “look, animation”, you know? I had grown up with chalkboards, so it seemed cool to me! But I noticed that I didn’t get a ton of excitement with it from the students. I was taking some modeling classes at ASU and learning about that method completely changed the way I teach. The modeling curriculum is almost Socratic in the sense that a teacher stays out of it as much as possible. You ask leading questions, but let the kids discover things. I think science should be hands on! If I could do labs every single day, I would do it. Now obviously that’s not always possible, but I’ll always try to look at my schedule and make sure that we do labs several days each week. So instead of saying, here’s the equations, we do a lab where the students collect data, make graphs, and come up with the equations on their own. I like everything to be as hands on as possible. What do you enjoy about teaching at Arcadia High School? I love that Arcadia has such a community feel about it. I talk to kids whose parents, and sometimes even grandparents, went to the school. That’s rare enough, but especially in Phoenix! The kids are proud of being here, you can feel that excited vibe when you go to assemblies and games. It’s a great place to teach!  Thursday, February 1st, 2018, American Mountaineer Alison Levine visited Arcadia High School to speak to all Arcadia students about leadership. Ms. Levine is an American mountain climber, sportswoman, explorer and leadership consultant. She lead the first all female expedition to the top of Mount Everest. She is author of On the Edge and the executive producer of a documentary, The Glass Ceiling. She has ascended the highest peaks on every continent and also skied to both the North and South Poles. In 2010, she completed the Adventure Grand Slam by reaching the summit of Mt. Everest. She serves as an adjunct instructor at the U.S. Military Academy. She spoke to the students of Arcadia about her fascinating expedition up Mount Everest and the lessons she learned that she's applied to her own life.
Thank you to Ms. Levine for coming to AHS and sharing her inspirational story and advice with our students. To learn more about Ms. Levine, or hear a presentation similar to the one she gave at Arcadia, please watch the YouTube video below.
The Arcadia Boys Soccer Team made it to the Sweet 16 for the State Soccer Championships, but had their amazing season stopped short last Wednesday night by talented No. 2 Independence (who will play in the State Semi-Finals this week). The Titans finished their regular season 6-5-1. The JV team ended their season with a 7-5 record. Way to go, Titans! Year-End Banquet - Boys Soccer will celebrate their stellar year on Sunday night, Feb. 11 at 6 PM at Arcadia High School (Mt. Olympus). The banquet is FREE to all Players, Coaches & their Families. For more information, contact Heidi McNeil Staudenmaier athstaudenmaier@swlaw.com Return Uniforms - All players should return their uniforms/backpack to Equipment Manager Terry Blaker as soon as possible. State Play-In Tournament - Titans Beat Glendale, 3-2 On Jan. 25, the Titans hosted Glendale in the State Play-In Tournament Game. After being down 0-2 at halftime, the Titans rallied behind three goals in the second half by Senior Co-Captain Sebastian Gutierrez to earn a thrilling come-from-behind victory and grab a spot in the State Championship Playoffs. All- District Honors – Congratulations to Senior Co-Captains Sebastian Gutierrez and Jack Spier on earning All District Honors from the Scottsdale School District. Congratulations to Nick Bourgeois – Nick, an Arcadia Junior, was named to the 2018 ODP West Championship Best 18 Soccer Players. Nick, who was a member of the Titans’ soccer team his Freshman and Sophomore years, plays for the SC Del Sol 01 Club Team. GO TITANS! |
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