November School Boards Wrap Up

Many school districts opted to condense their two monthly meetings into a single, packed night this month due to November break.  

School letter grades are out, and as always, it was an eventful month for AZ school boards! 

Now here’s your quick November wrap-up for Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Paradise Valley, Scottsdale, Peoria, Tucson AND, for this special edition, Amphitheater school districts: 

School Board Members: Courtney Davis, Lacy Chaffee, Sharon Benson, Marcie Hutchinson, and Rachel Walden  

• Mesa Public Schools received an overall B letter grade as a district with over 24 schools receiving As and 37 schools receiving Bs.  

• Mesa School Board Members voted 5-0 to approve a lease agreement for a portion of the property at Smith Junior High School to be utilized by Polaris Academy LLC, a specialized school for autistic and neurodivergent children. 

School Board Members: Patti Serrano, Barb Mozdzen, Claudia Mendoza, Kurt Rhors, and Ryan Heap 

• The Board approved a contract with Norcon Industries, Inc. for new outdoor aluminum bleachers for the baseball and softball fields at Perry High School and to repair the bleachers at Arizona College Prep High School.  

• They also approved a contract with Progressive Roofing to replace the roof at Bogle Junior High School with grant dollars approved and administered through the AZ Department of Administration. 

• School Board Members heard recommendations for new K-5 Math and AP World History curriculums. Requests for Information and more information can be found here on the district website.  

P.S. We wanted to share the wonderful news that BOTH the Chandler Unified School District Bond and Override passed this November. Thank you to all the parents, community members, alumni, and leaders who supported these measures! 

School Board Members: Jessie Brainard, Chad Thompson, Dr. Blake Robison, Jill Humpherys, Shana Murray 

• Gilbert School Board Members voted to approve inflationary increases to school meal prices for Fiscal Year 2027. 

• They also voted to approve changes to the 2026/27 school course catalog with some new additions to available courses, internships, and EVIT/CTE programs. 

School Board Members: Sandra Christensen, Anne Greenberg, Dr. Amanda Lim, Jessica Wani, and Tony Pantera 

• The PVUSD Governing Board approved a contract with Pueblo Mechanical to replace outdated heating and cooling chillers at Horizon High School. 

• The board had a second read of the revised PVUSD course catalog for the 2026/27 school year.  

School Board Members: Carine Werner, Mike Sharkey, Dr. Matt Pittinsky, Dr. Donna Lewis, and Amy Carney 

• The SUSD Governing Board approved additions to the High School Planning Guide for the 2026/27 school year. A few new course offerings include Construction Management Tech I & II, Education Professions I & II, AP-CTE Cybersecurity I & II, and IB French, Mandarin, Spanish, and Math Applications. 

• They also approved a new curriculum for the Introduction to Statistics course for the 2025/26 school year.  

• Lastly, a discussion was held on the option of repurposing Echo Canyon Elementary School into Scottsdale Arts Academy, an arts-focused magnet school designed to elevate Scottsdale’s long-standing identity as an arts-centered community. 

School Board Members: Melissa Ewing, Becky Proudfit, Heather Rooks, Jeff Tobey, Janelle Bowles 

• Peoria Unified updated its Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with West-MEC to include the addition of two additional attachments to the already existing agreement that clarify funding and support for district staff. 

• They approved a contract with SAVE IFB for art class ceramic supplies to replace the expiring contract with another business.  

• The board also approved an emergency measure, so the district can quickly buy the grocery items needed for classes and programs while long-term contracts are still being finalized. This approval lets the district temporarily skip the normal bidding process to keep culinary, science, and other programs stocked with essential grocery items. 

School Board Members: Jennifer Eckstrom, Dr. Ravi Shah, Natalie Luna Rose, Val Romero, and Sadie Shaw 

• TUSD voted to approve a delegating authority to individual school councils to hold the required public meetings for D-rated schools (Hudlow Elementary School, Grijalva Elementary School, Manzo Elementary School, and Vesey Elementary School) due to short, required timeline windows. 

• They also approved a contract with ASPIRE to provide curriculum around substance abuse beginning in Spring 2026. This is in line with the implementation plan to address both prevention and intervention, K-12 districtwide passed in May 2025.  

School Board Members: Susan Zibrat, Deanna M. Day, Vicki Cox Golder, Michael Gemma, and Matthew A. Kopec 

Our team wanted to highlight Amphitheater Unified School District in this wrap-up due to the recent news of plans to close four schools across the district. The district spans 112 miles and covers parts of Catalina, Oro Valley, and Tucson, and has been serving students for 132 years. 

This month: 

• Amphi teacher Michaela Rodrigues, a third-grade teacher at Innovation Academy, was honored at the governing board meeting as the Arizona Science Teachers Association’s Elementary Science Teacher of the Year. 

• Mandi Cordell and Ashlee Manley Watson from Innovation Academy were named finalists for the Raytheon Leaders in Education Awards, and their dedication and commitment to Amphi students were celebrated at the meeting.  

• 11 of the district’s 21 schools achieved an A rating by the state A-F letter grade system for 2025. No schools received D or F ratings. 

• Supplemental texts were approved for the district CTE Culinary (9-12), REACH Honors English 11 (11^th), and ELA courses (K-2). 

If you are an Amphi parent, student, or community member who would like to provide feedback on the news of school closures, you can complete the district feedback survey here.  

Thanks for reading this month’s update! 

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