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Staff, Students Say ‘Collective Commitment’ Drives Success at Copper Canyon Elementary
Summary
During a brief school visit, principal, staff, a teacher and a fourth-grade student described a collaborative culture at Copper Canyon Elementary in the Tooele County School District, highlighting long staff tenure, cross-grade support and student engagement in math.
Copper Canyon Elementary in the Tooele County School District draws on long staff tenure and cross-grade collaboration, school leaders, a teacher and a student said during a brief visit.
“There's so many great things that I could talk about about Copper Canyon Elementary, but one thing that I feel is probably the greatest is the collective commitment that our staff, students, parents, everybody has in making sure that students are building a solid foundation in their education,” said Terry Shonoff, principal at Copper Canyon Elementary.
Shonoff said she has been principal for about a year. Julie Bezanes, the school secretary, told the visitor she has worked at Copper Canyon for 21 years and said the staff “feel like a family.”
“The teachers come together, they help each other, they're very community oriented, they care about each other,” Bezanes said.
Ally Mickelson, a first-grade teacher, described the buildingwide collaboration that supports students across grade levels. “We work together so great to help these kids get where they need to go,” Mickelson said, adding that teachers coordinate from kindergarten through sixth grade to support student progress.
A fourth-grade student, identified as Maddox, said teachers keep lessons engaging and praised his math teacher. “The teachers are nice and fun. They try to keep the students entertained and stuff,” Maddox said. He said his favorite subject is math because “our teacher ... knows how to explain it and keeps it fun,” and that next year he is looking forward to “maybe harder math” in fifth grade.
The visit focused on school culture and classroom support; no administrative actions or policy decisions were recorded during the exchange. The speakers emphasized staff collaboration, long-term personnel at the school and positive classroom experiences as central features of Copper Canyon’s approach.
“As you can see, Copper Canyon Elementary is a great school,” the interviewer concluded at the end of the visit.
