Last year, the first day of school for students in the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District included a helping of confusion and stress.
Before the 2018-2019 school year, the district closed one of its schools, Cottonwood Elementary School, and reapportioned students to its other schools as part of a district-wide realignment. The first day featured students and parents dealing with new campuses, new bus routes and the resulting difficulties.
For the first day of school this year, COCSD administrators happily say that those problems have been solved.
“It was, as far as I’m concerned, night and day from last year, where there was so much we didn’t know with the realignment,” Matt Schumacher, principal of Cottonwood Community School said of the K- 8 school’s first day this year. “So this year, the systems were in place. Things clicked. You didn’t have any situations with new students coming in, where there were unknowns about their needs and supporting them. Really I think the morale, and the sentiment across campus and the energy, was great.”
“2018/2019 was a very big year for us and there was a huge unknown in our student population,” Jess Vocca, principal of Dr. Daniel Bright, wrote in an email. “We weren’t entirely sure what to expect opening the doors. We learned how to function as a full kindergarten-to-eighth-grade campus and were able to turn our learning experiences into opportunities to improve and open for this school year. Opening the doors this year we knew exactly what to expect, and it was very comforting to see our families return. Of course we still have plans to expand our school to accommodate all of our students and families — our job is never done.”
With the realignment feeling solidly over, school district leaders felt they were more able to focus on the everyday tasks of running the schools
and working on existing programs. A grant has allowed each school to be assigned a full-time counselor to implement the Focus Zones program, helping students deal with behavioral issues through mindfulness practices.
The school district boasts an expanded Bright Bears program, the continued Bridgeway Alternative Classroom for non-traditional learners and a new Rise program for autistic students featuring a former employee at Cupertino. The school district is considering partnerships with sports teams at Mingus Union High School, bringing in a different team of high school athletes to each school to coach and inspire the kids.
But beyond the special programs, the main focus of the school district for the coming year remains instructing students.
“We are going to be going through the STEM [science technology engineering math] certification process in December, when we’ll get our review,” Oak Creek School principal Naya Persaud said. “So that’s going to be the biggest thing — to work on that review with the teachers, the staff and the students.”
Persaud said that in addition to bolstering the school’s STEM certification, the teaching staff had spent the summer in professional development.
Even with the difficulties of last year resolved, the schools face the normal difficulties of running any district. According to Superintendent Steve King, the biggest issue that COCSD faces at the beginning of the year is a dearth of bus drivers, meaning slightly fuller buses and longer routes. He attributed the staffing difficulty to the economy and low unemployment and hopes that as the year continues, the district will be able to fill the positions.
The principals expressed the importance of community partnerships as a way to improve the schools.
“I am also looking forward to continuing to build a strong partner- ship with our families and community to offer the best supports for our students,” Vocca wrote. “Schools are about kids and their needs, and it is our duty to help families prepare them to become educated citizens in our community. However, it takes a village to support a child not only academically but emotionally as well, and the staff at Dr. Daniel Bright School is ready and prepared for that very important task.”
“We really want to see family engagement,” King said. “We want to see families on our campuses. We really want them involved in the education of their children, partnering with us and looking at us as partners. I think that’s a perceptual kind of thing, and I think that’s going to take some time.”
