The Weekly Update #2

VISION

All Living the Pursuit of Excellence for Lifetime Achievement

MISSION

The Mission of CGUHSD is to inspire excellence by providing globally competitive educational and career opportunities for all students

Our nation’s schools are full of students who possess a desire to go to college and the willingness to work hard, but many of them do not truly have the opportunity to be college-ready. These are often the students who will be the first in their families to attend college and are from groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education. AVID Secondary equips teachers and schools with what they need to help these students succeed on a path to college and career success. To address this need, AVID has developed the AVID Elective course. For one period a day, students receive the additional academic, social, and emotional support that will help them succeed in their school’s most rigorous courses. Districts have the flexibility to decide how many AVID Elective classes to start and which grade levels will implement AVID first. What AVID is . We are offering AVID here on our campus, Ms. Demerest is the teacher and we are looking for YOU to join us! If you are interested, complete the schedule change request form and add AVID. This class is open to Freshman and Sophmores only at this time.

Nationally, there has been a significant spike in cyberbullying and classroom disruptions from cell phones in the classroom. We know that teen mental health continues to decline across the country from excessive screen time and social media. You can read some of the latest research on this important topic here. Our policy is OFF AND AWAY (Cell phones and Earbuds) during classtime.If there are extenuating circumstances, ex. diabetes and need to monitor, a caregiver with severe illness, etc please send Mr. Raymond an email and he and our staff will work with you to come to a solution.

Between classes and at lunch, there is no problem with students having their phones out or listening to music with their earpods, etc.

Nothing worth doing comes without challenges. We have our fair share to overcome in the first week to week and half. I see two major challenges as we approach the beginning of our first full week of school: Schedules, student drop off / pick-up. I agree with the feedback that I have received from many of you that there is work to be done in both of these areas, significant work at that. Let me explain where we are with each, the WHY behind our challenges, and our plan to address these areas of challenge immediately.

Schedules:

We were not successful in creating the master schedule for students. As the principal, this is on me 100%. I do not see anything positive from blameshifting, or not owning this situation. I am the principal and it is my job to fix this, and fix this we will. This is what has been done thus far:

1. Counselors have completed a schedule audit for all 2000 students, this was done on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

2. Mrs. Clement, Dr. Johnson, and our student services team have worked since Thursday to fix any schedules that have holes in them or to fix students who did not have a schedule at all. This impacted over 200 students.

3. Mrs. Clement, Dr Johnson, and our counseling team also began meeting with students to address schedule change requests starting on Friday. As of Saturday, we had 900 schedule change requests. We have processed about 300 of them.

Moving Forward:

1. We will work diligently to fix this as soon as possible. District office has made additional resources available to assist us in this endeavor.

2. If the request is simple to make happen, and for a legitimate reason, counselors will make the change and it will show up on the student's PowerSchool account within 24 hours.

3. If the request involves more challenges, the counselor will contact the student and have them come to the office and speak with them. Together, with parental involvement if warranted, we will work to come to resolution.

4. If a schedule change is denied, the counselor will send an email to the student explaining the reason for the denial.

I continue to ask for your kindness, grace, and patience as we work to resolve this issue.

You have my word as a father, husband, principal, and son that we will not be in this situation again while I am the principal here.

Student Drop-Off / Pick-Up

We have also made some major changes to the traffic flow on campus. I realize that this has caused some unrest and discomfort this week. Here is my request of you, please give us the opportunity to implement this new traffic pattern as it is designed. There was miscommunication with our staff on Friday, which caused a mess in the parking lot. As I have said to you previously, this is on me 100%. We have addressed this gap in communication and this will not occur again like it did on Friday. Our issue has not been that our plan will not work, it has challenge been in effectively communicating how the plan is to work with students and families. We asked all teachers to present our plan to students in Cougar Hour on Friday in order to ensure that they also understand what we are asking of you and them. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated and needed, please keep in mind, our priority is student safety. I will always do all that I can to protect student, parent, community, and staff safety on our campus. Students crossing lanes of moving traffic, lines backed up over half a mile blocking traffic on Trekell is not safe. This plan will work, I humbly ask for your assistance in the implementation.

On Friday with your help, we minimized traffic on Trekkel and were able to safely move over 500 cars through our property safely and quickly. Is this plan perfect? No. Will this plan work to keep students, parents, and community safe? Absolutely. On Thursday afternoon, we cleared campus in 28 minutes. On Friday, even with the miscommunication, we cleared in 26 minutes. I would like to see this process move as quickly and safely as possible and believe that without a doubt we can clear our campus safely in well under 20 minutes. Please help us reach this goal. Again, this was an area that I heard from parents, students, and staff needed to be addressed. Please click here to watch a video on how drop off, student parking, and parent pick up has changed for this school year. This is VERY IMPORTANT.

Any student fines or fees can be paid online. Students can purchase parking passes, pay class fees, technology fines, etc. All of this should be done online. You can access the payment center by doing the following:

You will need a PowerSchool Parent Portal account to access TouchBase.

If you don’t have a PowerSchool Parent Portal account, please call your
student's school office to get an account set up.

Please sign into to PowerSchool to access TouchBase. The steps below
can only be done using an internet browser such as Google Chrome, Internet
Explorer, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Android browser, etc. (computer, tablet, smartphone) and CANNOT be done using the Powerschool Mobile App.

1. Sign in to PowerSchool.
2. Once signed in, click the icon in the left panel labeled Purchases and Payments (see image on left).
   
   You will immediately be taken to TouchBase without having to sign in.

CGUHS Student Responsibilities 2023 - 24

This school year we will be discussing academic responsibilities at length with all of our students. It is important that students not only familiarize themselves with these responsibilities, but that they practice these responsibilities on a daily basis. We reviewed these expectations with students this week. If students follow the guidelines below, they will experience tremendous success at Casa Grande Union High School.

• Acquire Knowledge of Content - Students understand the content they are learning in class.
• Come Prepared for Class - Students bring the needed materials for class.
• Take Notes - Students accurately and completely take notes.
• Ask Questions - Students ask questions when a lack of understanding occurs.
• Complete Homework - Students complete assignments on time.
• Attend Tutoring/Seek Help - Students attend tutoring or seek help when they need it.
• Attend Regularly - Students attend class regularly and arrive on time.
• Take Assessment Seriously – Students bring their best effort possible on assessments.
• Appropriate Work Ethic/Attitude/Behavior - Students display appropriate work ethic, attitude, and behavior.
• Put cell phones and ear buds off and away while in the classroom
• Be Kind

Our counselors and Dr. Johnson will be working closely with Mrs. Clement and our students / families to ensure that students are on track to graduate. Seniors must complete 22 credits in order to graduate. Additionally, every senior must take and pass the AZ Civics test, and must complete ECAP (Education and Career Action Plan). Additional information can be found here. We will be rolling out our ECAP program as well as ensuring that students have opportunities to take and pass the Civics test in the coming weeks.

Student Council is sponsoring Spirit Week this week. Please see the section below to find out what the theme of each day will be. Get involved! We want to change our school culture for the better but cannot do it without your help!

Activities this Week:

7/24

• Spirit Week Day: Barbie & Ken Day
• Freshman Class Meeting in Auditorium during Cougar Time
• 3:20 - Sponsors Meeting in Library

7/25

• Spirit Week Day: Student/Teacher Swap
• Sophomore Class Meeting in Auditorium during Cougar Time

7/26

• Spirit Week Day: Western Wear Day

7/27

• Spirit Week Day: Shore to Shore Day (East Coast/West Coast)
• Junior Class Meeting in Auditorium during Cougar Time

7/28

• Spirit Week Day: Cougar Crazy Day (Wear Cougar colors)
• Senior Class Meeting in Auditorium during Cougar Time

Our First Pep Assembly will be on August 7, stay tuned for details.