The Maricopa Unified School District Governing Board honored the January Maricopa Rotary Club Students of the Month as well as the participants in the 2016 Future City competition.
The Future City students were separated by school and brought up one by one to receive recognition in front of the board and their parents.
The board also heard a presentation from Pima Butte Elementary School on their academic focus and what challenges they face in achieving their goals of maintaining an “A” rating.
“We would like to do more extracurricular activities after school,” Principal Randy Lazar said. “In fact, that was a big discussion during our academic focus meetings. We ended up doing this school day activity, but we would still like to add extracurricular activities.”
Pima Butte staff and students showcased their progression in science, technology and art.
Sixth grade students have been tutoring third grade students to help with science comprehension, and the success was shown when 84 projects were entered into the school’s science fair this year. The school has also added dance lessons to expand its art program and use Chromebook laptops to help keep students involved in the classroom.
The board also heard a presentation from Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc. to authorize the issuance and sale of refunding bonds of the district. In 2006, MUSD passed a $56 million bond to assist in the construction of facilities. The district will continue to pay off the bonds for 10 more years, but the potential refunding of district bonds could result in significant savings of approximately $2 million, or 6.3 percent of the refunded principal amount, for district taxpayers.
“Any time we can save money for the district and our stakeholders can save money on their tax bills seems like a win-win situation,” MUSD Governing Board President Patti Coutre said.
The Governing Board will reconvene on March 9 at 6:30 p.m.
