School board honors students, staff

The Maricopa Unified School District honored students for their participation in the annual art walk and Academic League competition, as well as staff from the Business Department for earning the Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting during their meeting on Wednesday.

The students involved in the Academic League were honored first. Each elementary school was spotlighted for both their fifth and sixth grade competitors. Maricopa Elementary school won for the fifth grade competition, and Butterfield took home the traveling trophy for the sixth grade.

Honors for the art walk participants were handed out to the top three pieces from each grade level. In the elementary competition, Kenny Ponce Gonzalez was awarded third place, Monique Fierro was second and Cayden Buck won the first place ribbon. For middle school, Matthew McKee took third place, Kobi Weimer second place and Tasha McMillian first place.

For the high school, Hannah Coyne was third, Tempest Fischbach was second and Rueben Mattia was awarded the top prize. Each first-place recipient also received a $50 gift certificate to Hobby Lobby.

The board also introduced Loraine Conley as the new principal of Santa Cruz Elementary School. Conley currently works as the principal of Dunbar Elementary in the Phoenix Elementary School District.

“I am thankful for the opportunity to serve families and students at Santa Cruz Elementary School,” Conley said. “I am excited about the possibilities of developing strong partnerships and the ability to collaborate so we can get the resources we might need.”

The Governing Board then heard a presentation from Santa Rosa Elementary School, as well as the annual food service department update from the district’s Food and Nutrition Department.

“We serve breakfast and lunch that is available to all of our students at all nine schools,” Food and Nutrition Department Director Suzette Moe said. “We do special diets as well. We have a lot of students that have medical conditions that we have to make special meals for, as well as a lot of students who have allergies.”

Since the school year began, food services have passed out 107,651 breakfast meals, and 529,539 lunches across the district. The district also provides snacks for kindergarten classes, and will providing meals during the summer.

Among the student body, 61 percent qualify for free or reduced meals. In an attempt to put less strain on the budget, the district also offers catering services. For parents who would like to surprise their children on their birthday, the school will deliver U.S.  Department of Agriculture-approved treats to their classroom so parents don’t have to buy anything that could potentially be turned away by the school.

All food brought in from the outside that an entire classroom shares must meet USDA standards. However, these rules only apply to food and activities on school grounds during school hours, as well as a half hour after class dismissal.

“We’re real proud of the fact that we do salad bars at all the schools,” Moe said. “We do lots of vegetables, as well as fresh and canned fruits every day. We have introduced pineapple and mango this year, and we try to offer our students as much fresh fruit as we can.”

The board unanimously approved the changes to the personnel schedule (including resignations, reassignments and new hires), as well as the first reading of the new salary schedule policies, and the budget revisions for the 2014-15 fiscal year.