East Valley School District No.90

It is amazing how quickly the first part of the school year has gone by as we have transitioned from Fall to Winter. We have had a great start to the school year, but as the winter months set in, it can be a challenge for our students to continue to find the motivation to come to school and work hard. Our staff continue to build routines into their classrooms to support students not only academically, but also socially/emotionally. The reinforcement you provide your students at home of these same expectations, are an important part of the home/school relationship that is critical for student success. If you find yourself struggling in how to best support your child, please reach out to your child’s classroom teacher, the building principals, school counselors, or any of our social/emotional staff to get some ideas and let us know how we can best support your family.  

 

I would like to take the opportunity to highlight our work around gathering student input about their experiences in our schools to help guide our decisions for next steps to ensure a positive experience for each and everyone of our students. As you may know, students in grades 3-12 had the opportunity to take a Panorama Survey during the month of  November. This survey is meant to collect the voice of students around such topics as classroom climate, classroom rigor, and the effectiveness of our academic instruction. These student voice surveys are given twice a year to measure our progress to improving students’ academic experience and sense of belonging in our schools.  

 

I am pleased to share that the results of this fall’s survey show that we have continued to grow in almost every category and are well above the national average in each of the survey areas. I am very excited to see this, as it clearly reflects all of the hard work of our staff to grow in these areas, which will increase students’ sense of belonging and the likelihood of academic success. We plan to continue digging deeper into this with individual student voice interviews in the Winter/Spring to continue to gain insight to guide our decision making. I very much look forward to this work and having the opportunity to hear from our students. 

 

I hope that you can clearly see the reflection of this work across the district and what your students share about their experiences in our schools. Thank you for the trust you place in our district and all of your hard work in supporting your student(s). I look forward to seeing you out in our schools or in the community, and having the chance to talk in person.