Hello Thunder Families,

As you receive this newsletter full of back-to-school information, I hope that you had an enjoyable summer spending quality time with family and friends or doing whatever brings you joy.

It is going to be a fun-filled year, packed with lots of learning and new adventures. I am so happy to welcome you to the 24-25 school year where Excellence Through Performance continues to be our SuperPower.

The 2024-25 school year starts on Wednesday, July 24th, which means we are getting closer to being back to school. We anticipate over 2900 students on the first day of school and we are super excited to WELCOME those that are new to DV and those that are returning to the DV campus. The first day of school there is NO EARLY RELEASE.

As you are all very aware, the Ahwatukee area has been enduring extreme heat for the past few weeks. Please rest assured that our planning for this school year has also included planning for the excessive heat. Preventative maintenance on our HVAC units and other measures have been taking place since school ended in May.

While we are confident that our classrooms are ready to welcome students back, we recognize that any heat advisory requires extra preparation measures. Out of an abundance of caution, there will be designated “cool” zones on campus for students to avoid being outside longer than necessary both before school and during lunch. There are also water stations around campus that allow students to fill/refill water bottles or tumblers to stay hydrated during the school day.

Our cool zones are in the Cafetria and Library. Our additional water stations are located:

• B and C building Breezeways,-upstairs and downstairs,

• Between E and Cafeteria, and

• Outside Cafeteria

DV Hospitality Parent Committee is looking for donations for the first event they are hosting for our amazing staff on 8/7. If you are interested in donating, please reach out to Erica Rathje at

ericarathje@yahoo.com

Please take the time to read this entire newsletter as it contains essential information for a successful start to the school year for both students and families.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call the front office, 480-706-7900. Go Thunder!

Sincerely,

Stacy White

Principal

• Principal White - snielsen@tempeunion.org
• Assistant Principal Snyder (Academics) - tjsnyder@tempeunion.org
• Assistant Principal Walther (Activities) - jwalther@tempeunion.org
• Assistant Principal Padmanabahn (Athletics) - bpadmanabahn@tempeunion.org

Mission: Desert Vista inspires a community of learning by demonstrating excellence in academics, arts and extra-curricular activities.

Vision: We strive to inspire growth, empower our learning community, and prepare students for success

Motto: Excellence Through Performance

Website: http://www.tempeunion.org/desertvista

School starts at 8:35am and releases at 3:35pm. Class periods are 60 minutes in length.

Advisory Hour is held every Wednesday for 30 minutes following period 2.

Wednesday's will continue to be an Early Release Day dismissing at 2:23pm so that the teachers are able to collaborate and plan high quality instruction for students.

24-25 DV BELL SCHEDULE

Our bus routes run accordingly. ID's are required to ride the bus starting Monday, July 29th.

24-25 BUS ROUTE SCHEDULE

Traffic is heavy around Desert Vista in the morning and after school. Plan accordingly if being dropped off. The student parking lot is off of Frye Road. When turning into the lot;

• follow the traffic flow,
• do not park and get out of a vehicle,
• eyes up watching for students on foot,
• drive slow,
• refrain from using a cell phone,
• follow the DV Security Guards instructions
• exit the vehicle in designated areas only

Student drivers can only park in the student lot or the church lot if a parking permit has been purchased. With a parking pass, only park in a designated numbered spot that matches exactly to the permit. Permits must be visible in the front window at all times.

**Permits that were purchased were mailed out at the beginning of July. Check your mail for it.

Student Pick-Up at the end of the day

When picking up your student: Park in an empty parking spot while waiting for your student. If not occupying a parking spot, continue to move with the flow of traffic exiting and reentering the lot until your student is ready to get into the vehicle. Do not block traffic by stopping and waiting for your student.

When parking in the community, be mindful of NO PARKING areas and be sure to show our community respect by not blocking or parking in driveways.

As a reminder, it is important to adhere to all no parking signs and to only drop off in designated areas. Dropping off and/or picking up on Liberty Lane, Fry Road, 32nd Street are prohibited. Student safety is our number one priority and dropping off or picking up in these areas can put walkers, bikers, and drivers in danger.

Leading up to the start of school. The bookstore is open to families during regular business hours. Anyone going to the Bookstore will need to follow regular campus procedures by entering onto campus by checking in at the front office.

***Exception: Tuesday, July 23- open from 10:30a-6:30p.

Normal Business Hours: M-F from 8:00am-1:30pm and 2:00pm-4:00pm

You can also pay online using the Bookstore portal.

Bookstore Online Payment Portal How-to-Videos

As we prepare to return to school on July 24th, for our returning students and families, Tempe Union is now pushing out updates on all student computers. Please take the time to turn on your school issued computer so all updates are installed prior to the first day of school. It is essential that this is done before the first day. The updates will take a few hours.

Class schedules for the 2024-2025 school year will be available for viewing starting on July 23rd in Student/ParentVUE after 1:00pm. Students who do not have the technology to view their schedule on the first day of school can get one printed in the Library on Wednesday morning.

All schedule change requests need to be submitted to an assigned counselor. Schedule changes requests that will take priority:

1. A failure in a core course that necessitates repeating
2. A course on your schedule that was taken during summer school
3. A graduation or college admission requirement is missing from your schedule
4. A schedule that is incomplete (i.e., less than six classes, 4 for Seniors)
5. No schedule in system
6. Missing a lunch hour

**Please note that schedules could change (class period/teacher) up into the first day of school based on staffing changes. Class schedules will be released on Student/ParentVUE on Tuesday, July 23rd after 1:00pm. This is the schedule used on the first day of school, not the schedule received at Distribution.

**All students will report to their classes on their schedule on the first day. No schedule changes can be completed by counselors on the first day of school.

**Counselors will be available to families starting July 24th.

If you are having difficulty getting into your StudentVUE account, below are some helpful links to assist you with the troubleshooting.

https://www.tempeunion.org/Page/2035

Direct link to the doc: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10YJmJpfFkclg56sdVTsS5J1z_y6w9fDo/view

Click for a list of available resources.

For those that preordered, Senior Jersey's are available now in the Activities Office.

The Tempe Union High School District has an Dress Code Policy that all schools adhere to. Dress policies can be found under JICA and JICA-R for further details. Board Policy-Regulation.

A TOP priority at DV is safety. This is referred to as Safety First. We encourage our students and families to say something if they know or see something that may cause probable harm.

Throughout the school year we will conduct planned practice drills of Fire, Evacuation, and Lockdown. Families will be notified when these occur.

In order to receive any and all communication from the school, it is vital that you keep your data in our Student Information System up to date. Personal information can be updated by contacting the front office or changing it within your ParentVUE account.

In the case of an event:

Stay At Home

• First Instinct is to go to the school. In doing so, you can endanger yourself and/or others like your child and staff at the school. We are working hard for the safety of your child. Having to take time out to care for parents and phone calls can be distracting. Please DO NOT come to the school or call until directed to do so.

Stay Informed

• During an emergency we will communicate as soon as we are able by website, voice message, text message, email, directed text from your student, social media and/or local media. Updates will be sent as often as we are able. Understand that sometimes it takes time to verify and confirm information so this may take time. Be patient and understanding.

Be Ready

• You will be told when and where to go. Only send one adult. You will be required to show a Gov’t issued ID for an accountable exchange of students. Be patient as this process can take time.

ID’s are a set standard for all on the DV campus. Everyone needs to have their ID around their neck or on their person at all times. All visitors must check in with the front office to receive a visitor badge to be on campus. Security and all Staff on campus are required to stop non-ID’d individuals.
The importance of school ID's:

• Useful for teachers and students.

• Identifies who belongs on campus.

• Assists everyone in the case of emergency, hurt, or harm in identification.

• Used in the cafeteria, library, bookstore, and for computer access to print on campus.

Thank you for your support to ensure that our campus remains a safe and secure educational environment for all.

Students receive a free ID at the beginning of the school year. ID's each year are unique specific to the school year. Lost ID's can be purchased in the bookstore for $5.00.

Students will show their ID upon entering onto campus each day at any one of the three secured entrance points. Students without an ID will need to sign in. First, Second, and Third offenses are warnings. Four and all after will result in assigned detention.

To ensure the safety of all students on campus during the school day, DV remains a closed campus. Therefore, lunch deliveries from outside vendors can't be accepted. With a population of over 3,000 students, it is very difficult to manage deliveries to the front office without knowing who is delivering or visiting our campus as well as holding and keeping track of a large amount of deliveries.

Being a closed campus also means that students remain on campus during the lunch hours. Staying on campus without leaving or being called off campus to go to lunch, pick up lunch, or go get a lunch.

Students who bring their lunch have access to several microwave ovens within the cafeteria.

DV continues to offer regular school lunch options as well as concessions at the Cafe Sol area and vending machines during both lunches.

Attendance questions, concerns and/or help can be directed to Ms. Obryan at eobryan@tempeunion.org

Off Campus Passes and/or Early Student Pick Up

The off campus phone line is answered from 7:30am-3:00pm. If you plan on calling your student out or picking your student up early, please do so before 3:00pm.

When requesting an off campus pass for your student or requesting to pick your student up early from school, the office needs at least an hours notice to process the call and get the pass out to the student.

Absences add up. District policy allows for students to miss a total of 11 absences per semester. A benchmark to stay on track is to follow the practice of not more than 6 absent days during quarter 1 and 5 absent days during quarter 2.

Our first period student tardies have been on the rise the last couple of years. We are in need of assistance in getting students to school by 8:30am giving a 5 min window to get to the classroom on time for class. Essential information and class instruction begins directly when the bell rings so we want to make sure that all students are in their classrooms on time and ready to learn.

Calling to excuse absences is vital and helps our front office staff out. Doing so within 24 hours is essential to their work.

In order for students to focus on learning, Tempe Union High School District tries to minimize distractions and interruptions to all instructional time. Based on the importance of this instructional time, phones and electronic signaling devices will not be allowed to be visible or used. All students are required to adhere to the following guidelines regarding cell phones and other electronic signaling devices.

Cell phones and electronic signaling devices may be used

• on or off campus before or after school.

• during lunch

• following a school state of emergency, the school principal or designee may allow contact with parents for a designated time period.

• if a teacher approves the use for educational activities conducted in his/her own classroom.

• if a teacher/coach approves the use during extended trips and sporting events

Cell phones and electronic signaling devices may NOT be used

• during instructional classroom time, including assemblies or other activities, which take place during the regularly scheduled classroom periods

• to take pictures at any time that violate personal privacy

• for cheating

• on field trips or excursions, which are conducted during the normal school day and during regular classroom instructional hours

Students who violate the above guidelines shall be deemed to have created a disruption in the educational environment and are subject to disciplinary action. The severity of the disruption and whether other policies were also violated will determine the appropriate discipline.

A lot of information is shared and pushed out via social media. Take the time to follow:

• Twitter: @DV_Principal, @DVHS_TUHSD, @dvactathletics

• Instagram: @dvhsthunder

• Facebook: Desert Vista High School — Like us!!!

• TiKTok: @dvhs_tuhsd

• Desert Vista Guidance Department on FaceBook and Twitter

• All sports are on Twitter

• Tempe Union High School District on Twitter: @TUHSD_News

Welcome to the 2024-2025 school year. Please take a moment to read the start of the new school year food and nutrition reminders so that you are prepared for the first day of school.

Accounts Balances. If your student had money left in their account at the end of the 2023-2024 school year it has automatically been transferred over to the new school year. If your student has graduated and had funds left in their account, that balance can be transferred to a sibling, refunded or donated. Call the Food and Nutrition office at (480) 345-3745 for assistance

Pre-Payments. We do not extend credit to students for food/beverages. Please make a pre-payment prior to the first day of school on-line at www.linqconnect.com . We also accept cash or checks at the point of sale.

Free/Reduced Meal Applications. Meal applications for the new school year (2024-2025) are available now. Families must submit a new meal application for meal benefits every school year unless otherwise notified. Each school district requires an application. Applications do not transfer from other districts.

Meal Benefits. Free/Reduced price meal benefits can only be used for school meals. These benefits cannot be used towards a la carte entrees, snacks and beverages.

If you have questions or need additional information, contact the Food and Nutrition office at (480) 345-3755.

Tempe Union High School District Food and Nutrition Website

ALL INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND ON OUR WEBSITE www.tempeunion.org

We have been provided an opportunity with the AZ Cards to participate in a fundraiser with them. On September 15th, the Arizona Cardinals will host a special "Back to School" event during their home opening game against the LA Rams.

• Tickets will run $62 dollars and seats will be throughout the stadium.
• When tickets are purchased, the buyer will need to add the sport or activity that they are supporting so that the money/credit can go to the correct group.
• Groups are encouraged to Spread the Word by distributing our link among our school community to maximize ticket sales and fundraising potential.
• Here is our DV specific link: https://pa.exchange/marketplace/86240728-3311-11ef-922d-07fedd7fe1aa/storefront/862408b8-3311-11ef-88e0-c354177e8952
  

Tryouts and Register My Athlete

Visit the DV Activities page for information on:

• Clubs

• Dances

• Fine Arts events

• Parking

• Performing Arts events

• Student council

• Trip Reduction Program

Time to grab that DV Swag for the 2024-25 school year! For a LIMITED TIME, the online Spirit Store will be accepting orders.

Home of the Thunder https://www.tempeunion.org/desertvista

16440 South 32nd Street

Phoenix, AZ. 85048

480-706-7900