 See YOU at Cocopah!
It's the third annual SUSD Showcase, coming up Saturday, Oct. 21
at
Cocopah Middle School!
We've got a great line-up in store for you as we celebrate all things-SUSD, from outstanding music and theater performances to the stroll-through Art House. Add some bouncing, face-painting and food trucks to that, and you've got yourself a great gathering!
Every school in our five learning communities will be there to tell you about the great things going on at each campus, and how we bring out the best in our students with challenging academics, performing and fine arts, and exceptional extracurricular activities.
So stop by on
Oct. 21 from
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and find out why we're excited about the Scottsdale Unified School District. Everyone's invited!
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Volunteers Pitch In 
SUSD schools were proud to host
volunteers from several Valley faith organizations
and companies on their campuses last weekend for the annual 'Love Our Schools Day.'
And did we ever put them to work, tending gardens, making new garden beds, planting flowers, writing thank you notes, building rock river beds, and creating a sidewalk multiplication table and alphabet line, and painting playground hopscotch courts.
Thank you to last weekend's helpers and to all SUSD volunteers ALWAYS! We appreciate your ongoing support!
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Mayor's Constitution Contest
SUSD students stood tall in the 2017 Scottsdale Mayor's Constitution Contest. Mayor Jim Lane announced the names of the grand prize winners at a ceremony this week at the Mountain View Park Community Center.
Students in grades 1-5 were asked what the Constitution means to them. Sixth through 8th grade students were asked why the Constitution is important to American society. High school students were asked to present their thoughts on how the Constitution safeguards a democratic republic. Entries could be essays, pieces of art or videos. The city received more than 400 submissions to this year's contest.
SUSD recipients are:
| Kara Fancy |
7th |
Mohave |
Essay grand prize winner |
| Jaylyn Krenzen |
7th |
Mohave |
Essay finalist |
| Abby Locke |
6th |
Mohave |
Essay finalist |
| Cora McClory |
7th |
Mohave |
Essay finalist
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| Natalee Esposito |
12th |
Coronado |
Essay finalist
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| Danielle Fisher |
11th |
Desert Mountain
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Essay finalist
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| Lizbeth Quiroz Acosta |
5th |
Navajo |
Art finalist |
| Melody Cordes |
5th |
Navajo |
Art finalist |
| Ava De Campo |
5th
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Anasazi |
Art finalist |
| Adriana Perez |
5th
|
Navajo |
Art finalist |
| Brody Petersen |
2nd |
Cheyenne |
Art finalist |
| Tate Leventhal |
6th |
Cocopah |
Art grand prize winner |
| Sadie Almhjell |
7th |
Mohave |
Art finalist |
Grace Bonham
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7th |
Mohave
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Art finalist
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| Hudson Towler |
7th |
Copper Ridge |
Art finalist
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| Ellie Winn |
6th |
Mohave
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Art finalist
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| Abby Gootman |
11th |
Chaparral |
Art grand prize winner |
| Leah Deniger |
11th |
Chaparral
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Art finalist
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| Lauren Flores |
12th |
Chaparral
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Art finalist
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| Emily King |
11th |
Chaparral
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Art finalist
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| Leilani Valenzuela |
11th |
Chaparral
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Art finalist
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* Other SUSD winners' families have opted not to have their students' names shared publicly.
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Early Don Grad
Hearty congratulations go out to recent Coronado High School graduate Taylor Dixon. Taylor completed his junior year in May of this year, and, after taking four additional classes over the summer, officially graduated from Coronado on July 25, nearly a year ahead of his class!
Taylor earned an unweighted grade point average of 3.357, along with 22 college credits in just three years. Furthermore, 20 of those credits were not dual-enrollment credits that counted towards high school, but additional credits he earned by taking regular classes at Scottsdale Community College (SCC) through the Maricopa County Community Colleges' Hoop of Learning bridge-to-college program for Native American high school students.
Taylor had strong family support along the way. He is currently enrolled at SCC and plans to transfer to ASU to pursue a degree in engineering. When Taylor isn't going to school, he is an artist and an author.
We are so proud of you, Taylor, and wish you every success!
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 SUSD Scholars 'Merit' Recognition
Thirteen Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) high school seniors have been named Semifinalists in the 63rd annual National Merit® Scholarship Program. The students became Semifinalists by taking the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®) last October. About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools nationwide took the test, which served as an initial screening of program entrants.
Additionally, 43 other SUSD seniors will receive Letters of Commendation from the National Merit® Scholarship Program in recognition of their exceptional academic promise. These students also took the PSAT/NMSQT® in October 2016 and placed among the top 50,000 scorers. 
"We commend our seniors for their hard work and dedication to learning," said Superintendent Denise Birdwell. "It is a privilege for our teachers and learning communities to provide students with the kind of rigorous learning environment that opens up multiple avenues for success when they graduate."
The following SUSD students are Semifinalists for 2018 National Merit® Scholarships:
Arcadia High School: Argon Stern
Chaparral High School: Ann Chang, Kaila Frohna, Katherine Hostal, Kyle O'Connor, Christina Wang
Desert Mountain High School: Hannah Bernier, Samantha Chu, Logan Farrington, Kevin Liang, Justin Pederson, Serena Schein, Tyler Yurek 
The 13 SUSD Semifinalists are among 16,000 students nationwide who will now have the opportunity to continue in the competition for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $32 million that will be offered next spring.
These SUSD students have received Letters of Commendation from the National Merit® Scholarship Program:
Arcadia High School: Falan Alpert, Allison Binsfeld, Dallas Greene, Jonathan Hake, Lena Halden, Emma Lieberman, Elle Overs, Hal Owens, Matthew Soza, Aidan Weber
Chaparral High School: Kaitlyn Alvarez, Camden Beal, Shannon Bloom, Nicola Buskirk, Joseph Castillo, Justin Dubnow, Ian Fanning, Cole Gibson, Adam Gonen, Kai Hespeler, Karsten Householder, Katelyn Itano, Matthew Muscheid, Milena Santiago, Kelly Su, Julia Wanger
Desert Mountain High School: Dylan Angle, Edward Chang, Katherine Charette, Riley Doan, Nicole Falls, Benjamin Gerber, Alexandra Guatney, Medha Jasthi, Radhika Khosla, Emma Rymarcsuk, Yasmine Sarraf, Kara Sherman, Mark Short, Jennifer Wong, Barrett Yueh
Saguaro High School: Logan Spatola, Alessandra Young
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 Getting Back to Basics
In preparation for the transition next year to a 'traditional' curriculum, teachers at Pima Elementary School spent a recent professional development afternoon honing their phonics skills. The hallmarks of a traditional school are Spalding reading, Saxon math and teacher-driven instruction. Pima will become SUSD's traditional school in the southern part of the district next school year.
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IB/MYP Information Night 
As you may have heard, some exciting things are in store for SUSD's International Baccalaureate (IB) program. The district is preparing to grow the IB program housed at Desert Mountain High School to Mountainside Middle School, next door, with the IB Middle Years program (MYP).
The IB program is world-renowned for its preparation of students for higher learning and challenging them with rigorous academics that create world-class, global citizens.
SUSD's IB program is open to students district-wide and, by open enrollment, to non-district students.
If you're the parent of an 8th grade student this year, or if you just want to find out more about what an IB education holds in store for your student, click here for the scoop on
the
I
B/MYP meeting on
Wednesday, Nov. 1 at
6:30 p.m. in the
Desert Mountain High School Auditorium.
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Grant Helps Fill Library Shelves 
If at first you don't succeed, apply, apply again ... and again. The third time was the charm for Hohokam Elementary School Title I instructional specialist Linda Tardie, who bought 75 new books for Hohokam's library with a $500
Barbara Park Memorial Literacy Grant.
Park is the late Paradise Valley author of the entertaining
Junie B. Jones book series for young readers.
New titles on Hohokam's library shelves include titles that support elementary units of study, as well as titles from Mo Willems' Elephant and
Piggie series, which are very popular with the youngest readers. Tardie says she tried to be sure to hit all reading levels of student interest, including non-fiction titles.
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The Early Bird Gets the Rye Seed
While we're away, enjoying fall break next week, SUSD grounds crews will be putting down winter rye grass on the district's baseball and softball fields. They started last weekend at Desert Mountain High School and won't finish until the fourth week of October.
It's a lot of hot, dusty work, but we're pretty sure SUSD athletes appreciate the lush, green fields they get to play on. We do!
The fields crews receive more than just our thanks, however. This past school year, Arcadia's baseball field was named 'All-Region Field of the Year' for 5A baseball, thanks to SUSD's Robert Heinrichs and booster club volunteer Don Macwilliams; Desert Mountain's varsity field, tended by Mark Voisard, won 'All-Region Field of the Year' honors for 6A baseball; and under the guidance of Mark Plinski, Saguaro's 4A baseball field picked up the 'All-Region Most Improved Field of the Year' award and its softball field was named 'All-Region Field of the Year.'
Congratulations to Greg Skelton's crew, and thank you for your hard work on behalf of our student athletes!
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Laguna Hits the DEK ... Hockey Rink, That Is
They're playing street hockey up Laguna way, between the elementary school and the Boys and Girls Club next door. It's a joint project between SUSD, the Boys and Girls Club, the Arizona Coyotes, the National Hockey League and KuKaZi, all aimed at growing the sport of hockey and keeping kids active. As the initiative says, "No ice, no skate, no problem!"
The outdoor DEK hockey rink was dedicated this week. Special guests included Coyotes President and CEO Steve Patterson, SUSD Governing Board President Barbara Perleberg and Board member Sandy Kravetz, Coyotes team captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Coyotes mascot Howler and, of course, Laguna Principal Dr. Katie Root and SUSD Athletic Director Nathan Slater.
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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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October 9-13:
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Fall Break |
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Early Release - All grade levels - Professional Development for teachers & staff
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SUSD Showcase, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., Cocopah Middle School, 6615 E. Cholla St., Scottsdale
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Early Release - All grade levels - Professional Development for teachers & staff
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Early Release - K-5 & K-8 Schools - Parent/Teacher Conferences
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Early Release - Middle Schools - Parent/Teacher Conferences
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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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