The Weekly Update #4

Happy Friday Jags!

I hope you and your family have had a fun and safe two week break. Our first 9 weeks went by so fast, we look forward to seeing your student/s on Monday, October 14th when school resumes. In the mean time, enjoy your time away Jaguar Country!

Important dates that are coming up:

PSAT Testing day is October 24th for 10th graders. Juniors if you would like to take the exam it is $25.00 and register at https://user.totalregistration.net/PSAT/030424 See schedule below

Homecoming Game vs Westwood October 25th

Homecoming October October 26th 7pm-10pm

We appreciate you choosing Desert Ridge High School and are grateful to be with your students daily. Thanks for an amazing first quarter of the 2024-2025 school year.

Scott Smith

Principal

Families,

We have been working at DRHS to ensure our grading practices align across the building and communicate as clearly as possible what your students know related to the AZ State Standards. During Quarter 1 we have had multiple conversations as a staff and with various students and parents to discuss ways to make our grading practices and gradebook even more clear to everyone.

The adjustments to our Desert Ridge Grading Practices as well as the development and fine tuning of the document below came from these extensive discussions. Thank you to those of you that participated and contributed to these conversations.

Grading Practices Document

• The document below was designed to make clear and transparent our grading practices at DRHS. We want to partner with parents for student success, and we believe parents and students should be able to easily understand the gradebook.
• The assignment category is for smaller assignments early in the learning process, with a smaller value. We realize students may not understand all concepts early in their learning and therefore assignments have a smaller value/weight. Assignments are due on their due dates to give quick feedback to students, teachers and parents. Teachers use this information to adjust instruction as needed.
• Items in the assessment category are later in the learning process and assess student knowledge. If needed, assessments will be able to be retaken after a student has worked with the teacher to increase their understanding. There are a few exceptions to the retake option - see the document for specifics.

What changes are happening from Quarter 1 to Quarter 2?

• In Quarter 1 departments chose their category percentages. Though this was a step in the right direction, we have concluded that we can do even better! To be even more clear for everyone, all teachers will have the same category names and weights across the campus. Many of our departments already have the chosen weighted categories listed. Those that don't will shift to those on the grading practices form below for Quarter 2.
• All assessments will be eligible for a retake. See some exceptions listed in the document.

Next Steps

• We will be transitioning to common categories during the first week after Fall Break. This should be finalized by Wednesday, October 15th, by 4pm. Please allow the time these first few days of Quarter 2 for these adjustments to be made.

Dear Parents and Families,

Thank you for all of your efforts to ensure your student wears their student ID badge. We appreciate your support with this important safety and security initiative.

As we communicated at the beginning of this school year all of our students who ride a bus must have their Student ID Badges to ride the bus to and from school every day.

To support our students in remembering this at the beginning of this school year we have been actively reminding our students and families. Once students return from Fall Break, if a student does not have their Student ID Badge when getting on the bus to return home from campus at the end of the day they will not be able to ride the bus. They will instead need to be picked up from the school office by an approved parent or guardian.

Thank you in advance for your support of our efforts. Please continue to work with your students to ensure they bring their ID badge with them to school every day.

Here Comes the Bus App

We are also excited to remind you of ‘Here Comes the Bus’, a service for our families whose students ride the school bus.

With ‘Here Comes the Bus’ parents can:

• View the real-time location of their student’s school bus

• Ensure their student gets to the bus stop at the right time, every time

• Know when and where their child boards or exits the bus - Students ID badges are scanned when they board and exit the school bus.

New ‘Cancel a Ride’ Feature on Here Comes the Bus

Please check out the new Skip Ride feature on the Here Comes the Bus App that allows parents to cancel a bus rIde with the click of a button.

Parents can easily download the ‘Here Comes the Bus’ app. Once downloaded select whether you would like email, push notifications or both, regarding your student’s school bus. You can also select what you would like to be notified of.

Thank you in advance for your support of these important safety initiatives in our schools.

On behalf of ABODA, the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association, we want to offer a big congratulations to the Desert Ridge HS Band Program, Stephanie Campbell - Director, for earning the high distinction of the William E. Richardson "Program of Distinction" Award.

The William E. Richardson Award recognizes High School Band and Orchestra programs in our state that have a high level of achievement in ALL areas for a given school year. This is an annual award presented at the school, recognizing the school’s program for their achievement during the previous year.

Election November 5 - GPS Budget Override Continuation Information

Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board approved that in November 2024, voters living within Gilbert Public School boundaries will decide on a proposed 15% budget override continuation. This would be a continuation of the existing budget override approved by voters in November 2019 and in place since the 2020/21 school year. The existing override generates approximately $36 million annually to:

• ensure competitive salaries to recruit and retain high-quality teachers and staff in classrooms,

• maintain programmatic choices for students creating future ready graduates,

• maintain campus safety and security personnel and,

• maintain class sizes with allocation to class size reduction.

For more information please visit our website - www.gilbertschools.net/election