February 2025

I've enjoyed going out to all the school districts during January to swear in school board candidates. Every district is a little different and it is great to see what you are all doing for Yuma's young people.

February is the month when we have two big county wide events.

First is the Yuma County Science and Engineering Expo. The final award ceremony will be on February 13, but before that so many students have opportunities to share their experiments and research. We are always amazed at the quality and originality of projects.

February 12 is the county spelling bee! Last year a fifth grader won the whole event, so who knows what will happen this year. More than sixty schools send a participant to this stressful morning at Arizona Western College and we can't wait to see who spells their way to the top.

Emily Brown and Heather Anderson from Arizona Department of Education spent the day with school counselors serving all different grade levels. We learned about how to collect and measure data about what your role looks like as a school counselor. It's a challenging job where you can get pulled in many directions.

The three domains for school counselors include academic achievement, managing emotions, and helping students plan for the future. The average ratio in Arizona is one school counselor for each 667 students.

We had a full house for these two training sessions and hope to make this an annual event. Want a quick tip? Check out The Eisenhower Matrix on YouTube.

This is a growing resource from the Arizona Department of Education aligned to state standards. You can explore by course to find lessons, videos, and activities that correspond. It takes a little exploration to get comfortable but we highly recommend trying it out.

The Educator Retention Report, commissioned by Governor Hobbs' Educator Retention Task Force, is now available. Explore the key findings and solutions to Arizona's educator retention challenges.

STAR Autism was in town on January 27 providing two PACKED training sessions for paraprofessionals working in special education. We learned about behaviors--growing some, reducing some, and how to support students while they grow in independence.

STAR also has training available for instructional coaches to help them support and communicate with teachers about exceptional student service needs. These trainings are available free of charge, on site, if you coordinate with Eliana Osborn.

You may have read about our January 3 training with a team from Center for the Future of Arizona. Gila Vista Junior High in District 1 has already gotten started with a project! We're excited to be partnering with them to have students work across the school to come up with project proposals to make it a better place. Our $2000 start up fund is being matched by Gila Vista, so kids are in the early stages of coming up with $4000 projects to be voted on.

If you are interested in learning more or trying out school participatory budgeting, please reach out! A big thanks to Gila Vista's Cynthia Morago, Teresa Perez, and Principal Frank Nunez for making this happen.