Glendale Union High School District

GUHSD schools make America’s top list

Since its inception in 2007, all nine Glendale Union High School District (GUHSD) high schools have consistently been

WHS students Jasmyn Delgado, Herman Mendoza Bustos and Daniela Valdovinos will each receive a Dorrance scholarship.

ranked by U.S. News & World Report for Best High Schools. This year is no exception — all nine high schools have once again been ranked among America’s best high school by the publication.

Sunnyslope senior receives academy appointment

Sunnyslope High School senior Samuel MacDonald has received an appointment to the United States Merchant Marine Academy, which is a federal service academy that graduates leaders who serve the nation as licensed merchant marine officers and commissioned officers in the Armed Forces.

The appointment is equivalent to a scholarship worth approximately $290,000 over a four-year period.

WHS seniors awarded Dorrance scholarships

Thunderbird High School’s Titan Voices participated in many events during the 2021-22 school year.

Three Washington High School seniors have been awarded the Dorrance Scholarship to attend ASU, NAU or UofA.

Jasmyn Delgado, Herman Mendoza Bustos and Daniela Valdovinos will each receive this competitive scholarship, which provides money for tuition and an orientation and summer bridge program, a dedicated advisor and tutoring, international travel to Europe and cultural enrichment events.

Thunderbird’s Titan Voices shine at choir concert

Thunderbird High School’s Titan Voices participated in many events, such as the CC fest, VE fest, Men’s Fest, and Jazz Madrigal Festival at NAU. Vocal Ensemble received an excellent rating on their performance of “Sicut Moses” by Heinrich Schutz, which they performed at this year’s Spring Concert.

Students performed a wide variety of music, including compositions in Swahili and Latin and top hits by Billie Eilish, Billy Joel and Maroon 5.


Madison Elementary School District

Camelview to receive Piper grants

Madison Camelview will receive Back-to-School Grants from Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. These $2,300 yearly grants will be provided for the next three years and will be used to support Madison students in the classroom.

One of the many presentations at April’s STEAM night at Madison Park (submitted photo).

Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust is a private foundation supporting organizations that enrich health, well-being, and opportunity for the people of Maricopa County. The Trust focuses its grant making in six core areas: healthcare and medical research, children, older adults, arts and culture, education and religious organizations.

Madison Park hosts STEAM Night showcase

Madison Park Middle School’s STEAM program provides students with a curriculum that places an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, arts and math, giving them an advantage when entering a STEAM High School.

Students are taught to engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate, and are provided a three-year engineering curriculum that includes hands-on learning labs with 22 engineering lab stations that include 3-D printing, pneumatics, rockets, robotics and more.

Madison Park showcased this program during STEAM night in April. The event included projects and displays from the classes Medical Detectives, App Creators, Automation and Robotics, and Flight and Space. Student science projects on Earth’s biomes, cell models, research projects and various maker’s projects were also exhibited.


Osborn Elementary School District

Montessori classrooms meet furry friends

Montessori students at Montecito Community School met a variety of farm animals in May (submitted photo).

The Primary Montessori classrooms at Montecito Community School in the Osborn School District had a week full of fun and furry visitors in May.

The classroom of Montessori guide Tere Obrochta was introduced to farm animal friends while extending their learning of farms and the farming lifestyle. Savannah Coyle from the Humane Society, along with her husband Anthony, brought rabbits and chickens to show and discuss care and animal husbandry for the children during the first week of May. Children learned information first-hand about raising animals they may see on or off a farm and the care and love it takes to be a pet owner.

In other activities, members of Xavier’s EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) program dropped by for a visit and to donate a composter to the Montessori program, which will be used to help create compost for all of the gardens on campus.

Enrollment is being accepted for 3, 4 and 5-year-olds and first and second graders for the 2022-23 fall school year. Interested parties can reach out to jsingh@osbornsd.org or call 602-707-2500 for more information or to schedule a tour. Visit www.osbornnet.org for additional information.


Phoenix Union High School District

Camelback student nets $1M in scholarship offers

Shiwee Cruz is a “million-dollar” scholars this year.

Shiwee Cruz, a senior in the Camelback Montessori micro-school at Camelback High School, is one of Phoenix Union’s few million-dollar scholars this year, which means that she has received more than $1 million in scholarship offers from the schools to which she has been admitted.

Cruz participated in the STEP program, which helps first-generation students who want to attend college out of state. A member of the Navajo Nation, she has been dancing at Pow Wows and competing in dance competitions since she was young and is learning the Navajo language from her grandmother. She hopes to do her part to keep her culture and language alive. Cruz also said that she is inspired by the work that Maria Montessori did and has loved being a part of a Montessori school.

Cruz plans to attend either Brown University or Bowdoin College to study dermatology. Her goal is to combine holistic practices from her Navajo culture with modern medicine learned through her studies.


Washington Elementary School District

L-R: Julia Herman, Philip Liles, Marcy Hyde and Dr. Christopher Thuman

WESD announces new administrators

The Washington Elementary School District (WESD) has announced new administrators for the 2022–23 school year.

The district welcomed new principal of Mountain Sky Junior High, Julia Herman; the new principal at Mountain View School, Philip Liles; the new assistant principal at Shaw Butte Elementary, Marcy Hyde; and the new director of Fiscal Analyst, Dr. Christopher Thuman.

Herman comes to the WESD from the Phoenix Union High School District where she is currently an assistant principal for instruction.

Liles has been the principal at Arroyo School for the last 11 years. During his 26 years in WESD, he has been a CCB teacher, intervention specialist and assistant principal.

Hyde is currently the instructional coach at Tumbleweed Elementary and previously taught second, third and fifth grade in the district.

Thuman is filling a new role in Business Services, the director of Fiscal Analyst, that has been created to meet the current and future needs of the WESD. Thuman is coming to the district with 20 years of school district experience including teacher, school administrator, a community education director and district-level administrator.

The administrators will begin their respective roles on July 1.


Private And Charter Schools

BASIS Phoenix ranked one of the ‘Best’

The U.S. News & World Report 2022 Best High Schools rankings, which evaluates nearly 24,000 public high schools across the country each year, were released at the end of April.

Out of those 24,000 schools, BASIS Phoenix ranked #52 in the nation this year. This is the fourth year in a row that the school has ranked in the top 100; only one other school in the city of Phoenix ranked in the top 100 nationally, BASIS Ahwatukee (#45).

The BASIS schools in Arizona are a tuition-free public charter school system that offers a K-12 curriculum focused on college preparation.

BASIS Phoenix (grade 6–12) is located at 13231 N. 22nd St. For additional information, call 602-595-9870 or visit www.basised.com.

Junior creates bilingual healthcare search website

Nicolas Cevallos provides families from a local school with training on how to use the website to find affordable health care on April 12 (submitted photo).

Brophy College Preparatory Junior Nicolas Cevallos created a website dedicated to helping uninsured individuals find affordable or free care in their area of residence.

His idea was sparked by the stories his mom, a frontline health care worker, told him about patients, who could not get proper post-COVID-19 care due to lack of insurance. In many cases, a language barrier made it even more challenging to find low-cost healthcare and navigate healthcare system.

Nicolas created the website, “Healthcare You Can Afford/Salud Que Puedes Pagar” after researching and collecting information about affordable medical, dental and mental health clinics across Metropolitan Phoenix. The website, www.saludquepuedespagar.org, is a search instrument, both in English and Spanish, that allows users to search for medical, dental and mental health clinics using the city or ZIP code where they live. Also included is information about free COVID-19 testing and vaccines, as well as flu vaccines, as well as direct links to some clinics that give free care and that help Spanish-speaking people, regardless of immigration status.

Nicolas hopes to expand the number of clinics in the database as well as the number of individuals served. He can be contacted about making presentations at a community organization and adding clinics to the website at ncevallos23@brophybroncos.org.

Kelly to return as Brophy soccer head coach

Brophy principal Bob Ryan announced in April that former head coach Marc Kelly will return to the helm of Brophy’s soccer program. Kelly, a 1987 Brophy graduate, coached the Broncos from 2001 through 2013, leading the team to state titles in 2008, 2011 and 2013 and amassing a record of 242-21-5.

Kelly, who teaches ceramics and sculpture in Brophy’s art department and serves as the technical director in the theater department, played soccer at Brophy and at Gonzaga University. He has coached with the Arizona Olympic Development Program and at the community college level. In 2012, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America named him the Region 4 (nine western states) High School Coach of the Year.

Three athletes sign letters of intent

In April, three Xavier College Preparatory student-athletes signed their National Letters of Intent. The event was the culmination of many years of hard work and commitment to their respective sports. The event was held at Xavier’s Performing Arts Center.

This was the 21st year that the ceremony was held for student-athletes, and Xavier was the first school in Arizona to hold the event for girls’ sports. Also, 21 Xavier student-athletes have signed National Letters of Intent this school year.

Xavier seniors who signed letters of intent on April 28 are Avery Allen, Track & Field, Montana State University, Psychology; Grace Hull, Swimming, Loyola Marymount University, Psychology; and Theresa Romero, Volleyball, Trinity International University, Political Science.

Pictured at the May 5 Brophy solar project dedication are (L–R): Cooper Davis, faculty member; Fr. Bill Muller, S.J.; Biplove Baral, Class of 2021 and former SCC president who started the project; Brophy president Adria Renke; Sergio Arvizu, student, Class of 2023, who now leads the SCC; and Daniel Hunter, executive with project partner Ameresco (photo by Jake Kelly).

Brophy dedicates campus solar project

Brophy College Preparatory dedicated its completed campus solar project May 5, with administration, faculty and students participating. The project, which includes carport solar systems across 118 parking spaces, as well as rooftop solar panels, will provide 911.25kW DC or 736.0kW AC of power and offset about 48 percent of Brophy’s annual electricity consumption.

Brophy’s Student Climate Coalition (SCC), led by alumnus and faculty member Cooper Davis, was the primary force initiating the project. The students researched the cost and benefit and presented their results to Brophy’s board of trustees, who approved project funding last year. Brophy contracted with Ameresco, Inc., a cleantech integrator based in Framingham, Mass., for the development and installation of the solar arrays around campus.

Drone Racing team attends championship event

In mid-May, Madison Highland Prep’s (MHP) Drone Racing teams attended their first ever World Championship event in Dallas, Texas. MHP sent two teams, Team A (Jack Sanders, Joseph Arias, Riley Falk and Jaden Hamilton) and Team B (Mason MacArthur, Evan Marske and Jeshelle Reyes), with coach Nicole Gomez.

A total of 67 teams competed at the RADC World Championships. MHP’s Team A finished 10th in the skills rankings, 18th during the qualifying rounds, and made it to the quarter final round before being eliminated. MHP’s Team B finished 23rd in the skills ranking and just missed the elimination round.

Enrollment at Midtown charter now open

Phoenix Modern, a public charter school, is experiencing a growing demand for its innovative K-8 learning community in Midtown.

“There are a few open spots and a waitlist at some grade levels,” said Andrew Collins, founding director.

The school opened in 2019 with a “completely reimagined, whole child approach to learning where children age 5–13 explore, create and prepare for a life of possibility through academic workshops and hands-on projects.”

Phoenix Modern is located at 200 E. Mitchell Dr., Phoenix. Families can learn more and apply now through summer at www.phoenixmodern.org. Call 480-779-3117 for additional information.

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