Laguna Elementary School Virginia G. Piper Boys & Girls Club Completes Facility, Programming Refresh for Summer Camp Reopening

Laguna Elementary School

News From Laguna

By Brooke Williams Principal

Hello Laguna Community! This has been a challenging time for everyone and a big shift at Laguna. Students ended the school year in online school due to the COVID-19 mandates. Teachers and students did an amazing job connecting with each other and supporting learning in this unprecedented time.

We have missed everyone so much, and we are looking forward to seeing you all in the coming 2020-2021 school year. If you are new to the community, enrollment is open all summer. Registration can be accessed online at www.susd.org, under the enrollment tab. The office will be closed for the summer, but we will be be communicating with families via electronic methods. We hope to see many new families for the 2020-2021 school year!

We look forward to meeting our newest students and will plan a “Meet the Teacher” in August, where students will be able to meet their teacher and drop off supplies. A letter from Mrs. Williams will come out over the summer with specific dates and more information, stay tuned!

Check out our school on social media, we are on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We look forward to seeing you all back at school for another wonderful year! Stay safe and healthy this summer!

Virginia G. Piper Boys & Girls Club Completes Facility, Programming Refresh for Summer Camp Reopening

Anyone who lives in the Scottsdale Ranch Community is accustomed to the look of the neighborhood Virginia G. Piper Branch of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale. Students, teachers, and parents at Laguna Elementary and residents of the surrounding neighborhood see it every day. But as of April, there is something new about the Club.

While being temporarily closed to follow COVID-19 federal guidelines, the Virginia G. Piper Branch underwent a refresh, inside and out. The landscaping was cleaned up and the building’s exterior was refreshed. On the inside, everything from the bulletin boards to the paint on the walls was scrubbed, reworked, painted, and updated—with an eye to the kids the Club serves.

“We wanted our members to know that while we were closed we were thinking about them and preparing for them to come back,” said Deidra Neitz, the Club’s Youth Development Supervisor. “We wanted this place to be exciting and filled with hope for the future—something we all need right now.”

The Virginia G. Piper Branch has served youth in the Scottsdale Ranch area after school and during school breaks since it first opened in 1991.

While the Club closed at the end of March and throughout April, staff kept busy cleaning, organizing and planning for a busy summer camp when Club members occupy the building from 7:00 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. during the week.

“We had a lot of time to plan, so we pulled out all the stops to make sure we have a summer camp everyone will remember,” says Ashley Yee, the Club’s Program Coordinator.

To help fill the gap between the school year, the Club is incorporating reading and literacy activities and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) projects into weekly summer programming. The Club’s youth development staff focus on high yield, hands-on programming to keep kids and teens engaged, learning, and at the same time, having fun.

While the building itself has stood for 29 summers, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale used down time to make everything new this time around—from the program to the paint on the walls.

Learn more about Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale and the Virginia G. Piper Branch or register your child at www.bgcs.org.