WESD Celebrates Read Across America Week

Our district had a fantastic time celebrating Read Across America Week. This annual celebration brings awareness to the importance of reading in education and inspires children to read all year long. An excellent job to all of our students, teachers, staff and administrators who showed their love for reading by participating with spirit weeks, door decorating contests and other exciting reading activities. I also want to extend a special thank you to all of the guest readers who visited our schools including Maricopa County School Superintendent Steve Watson, Former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman, Author JoAnne Nelson, WESD Leadership and Governing Board members and several of our community partners and volunteers. I am proud of the entire WESD Family for continuing this fun tradition of celebrating reading.

To view more pictures of our Read Across America celebrations, please visit the WESD Facebook page.

Arroyo, Cholla and Sunburst Share Highlights at February 22nd Board Meeting

Another great feature of school highlights took place prior to the February 22nd Governing Board meeting. This time, Arroyo School, Cholla Middle School and Sunburst Elementary School presented highlights of their schools. They were all introduced by their Administrative Coach, Carol Patterson. I appreciate them sharing what makes their campus so special with the WESD Family.

To watch the schools' shared highlights, please click here.

WESD Provides Math Mid-Year Update

At the February 22nd Governing Board meeting, a report was shared summarizing the progress of our students in the area of math as measured by our district and state assessments. As partners in increasing academic outcomes for our children, we would like to share key points of the information that was included in the presentation.

At the middle of the year assessment, we would hope to see students at least halfway toward their typical growth goal for the year. In December, all grade levels measured at least halfway to their goal with sixth grade and eighth grade both over 70% of the way to their goal. More than one fourth of our students have already passed the amount of growth we projected for them to achieve by the end of the year.

All populations of students are demonstrating growth including English Learners who are within 5% of the average district growth and students receiving special education services who are within 8% of the average district growth. Nearly 40% of our students have increased at least one grade placement level since the beginning of the year.

In classrooms, we are seeing increased student math talk with both whole class and partner discussions. Students are sharing their math strategies and are engaged in learning. We see classes and students tracking their progress and growth throughout the school year.

As schools review the data from the assessments, they will use this information to make decisions as to how to best support learning and instructional practices in classrooms. The following are specific examples of how schools are acting on the data:

• Monitoring use of My Path which is a collection of digital lessons that are unique to each student to support their unfinished learning,
• Meeting regularly about student growth and progress to set action steps for each child, and
• Use of small group lessons so that each child receives personalized instruction.

To review the full presentation, please click here. For questions regarding the math results, please email Paula McWhirter at Paula.McWhirter@wesdschools.org.

Teach for the WESD

The WESD is looking for passionate teachers to join our award-winning district. Our upcoming Teacher Interview Fair is on Saturday, March 9th, from 8:00 to 11:30 a.m. at Arroyo School, located at 4535 W. Cholla St. We are currently hiring elementary, middle and special education teachers, as well as a speech language pathologist and teacher of visually impaired.

Our District offers competitive salaries of $53,000-$83,950 (including $3,000 approx. for performance pay), student loan forgiveness, multi-layer teacher support, professional development, school-age child care discounts, a wellness program and EAP, medical, dental and vision benefits, employer-matched contributions to Arizona State Retirement and much more.

Please share this exciting opportunity with your friends, family and neighbors who are teachers or soon-to-be-teachers. Those interested can preschedule an interview by calling 602-347-2622 or emailing Teach@wesdschools.org.

Register for Jumpstart Classes Beginning March 25th

Parents and guardians of incoming kindergartners can help their children gain the tools they need to be successful by registering them for WESD Jumpstart, a free, four-week, half-day kindergarten readiness program. Available at 27 locations in the WESD, the program will be offered this summer from May 28th to June 20th. During the program, children will make friends, learn kindergarten routines and practice kindergarten readiness skills. Free breakfast and lunch are also included. Registration for Jumpstart classes will open on Monday, March 25th. To participate in the program, children must be registered for kindergarten for the 2024-2025 school year. To register your child for kindergarten online, please click here. Kindergarten registration can also be completed in-person by visiting the WESD Welcome and Registration Center, located at 3200 W. Cholla Ave. For more information regarding the Jumpstart program, please call 602-347-2641.