Peoria Unified Sch�l District MARCH 2016 | MONTHLY NEWSLETTER & MENUS PEORI Calendar Highlights: March 2 | Read Across America, Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! March 3 | District Patrio�c Speech Contest March 10 | Third quarter ends March 10 | Governing Board mee�ng, 5 p.m. March 11 | Full Day Staff Development | All schools are closed, district offices are open March 14-18 | Spring Break, all schools and district offices are closed March 24 | Governing Board mee�ng, 5 p.m. March 24 | Elementary Report Card distribu�on March 25 | HS Report Card distribu�on April 2 | Peoria Arts & Cultural Fes�val
Peoria Unified, one of Arizona’s largest unified school districts, prides itself on a 95 percent high school graduation rate, excelling schools, dedicated teachers, award-winning Arts and Career & Technical Educa�on programs, school and student safety and community engagement. WWW.PEORIAUD.K12.AZ.US
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Tax Credits Support Much More for Students Tax credit contributions play a very Overall in 2015, the district received important role to help fund extracurricular $1,635,747, the second highest amount activities for students throughout the to date — $59,000 more than 2014, but district. Arizona tax law allows individuals $4,826 less than the highest record amount in 2013. to make up to a We w o u l d $200 donation and like to thank the those �iling jointly community for to make up to a the incredible $400 donation. support. Our Each year, the students can district makes a ex p e r i e n c e a huge push to build wide variety of awareness of the extracurricular tax credit program activities by reaching out which enriches to our parents t h e i r ove ra l l and community educational members. More than $365,000 of tax credit contribu�ons was directed to field experience. trips in 2015 — such as Jessica Slade’s kindergarten class from Sunset Heights Elementary visi�ng the World Wildlife Zoo.
Community Awareness is Encouraging Don’t look now; it’s legislative season again. Staying abreast of what’s going on at the state legislature is not always easy. But the consequences of decisions made Kathy Knecht Governing Board i n t h o s e few short months can affect our schools, and therefore our children, forever. Parents must stay informed and engaged. For all the talk about “local control,” Arizona’s lawmak-
ers exert a lot of power over school districts, primarily in terms of how much - or how little - funding we receive and how we can use those funds. At the same time, they control how much revenue the state collects to support K-12 public education. Voter beware: lawmakers claim to be for education. For example, lawmakers who cut funding for Career and Technical programs in our schools last year are very busy congratulating themselves for restoring (most of) it this year.
I am encouraged by the rising level of awareness and understanding by parents in our community. People seem to be truly thinking critically beyond sound-bites and political partisanship to truly understand the issues. I am also made hopeful by education rallies at the state capitol and the passage of unprecedented numbers of local school elections in 2015. Two great resources for information on education legislation are Expect More Arizona and www. azednews.com.
EVERY STUDENT, EVERY DAY, PREPARED TO SHAPE TOMORROW